Last week conservative pundit David Brooks threw in the towel on Sarah Palin as a serious vice presidential pick. Now Kathleen Parker, who first applauded Palin’s selection, is suggesting she do the Republican ticket a favor and announce she’s decided to spend more time her family.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted…

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Parker acknowledges that McCain can’t admit his monumentally bad judgment without making his campaign suspension permanent. Which sounds like a great idea to me, but not to Republicans. Instead, she calls on Palin’s sense of patriotism.

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Nice try, Parker. But Palin isn’t all that committed to this country anyway, having participated in those Alaska secessionist conferences with her husband, a member of their party. And Lord knows, she can’t have that much maternal instinct if she’s pushing off on her five-months’ pregnant 17-year-old a 4-month-old with Down syndrome, as every photo shows. Experts say what happens in the critical early stages of development is crucial to the Down infant’s lifetime potential, yet Palin seems unconcerned.

As much as conservatives might wish, I don’t look for Palin to pull a Harriett Miers and go quietly.

Obama/Biden 49%
McCain/Palin 42%
Undec 7%

– Obama’s 7-pt lead is his largest since Diageo/Hotline tracking began on 9/2.

– On the economy, Obama has a 48-34% advantage over McCain.

– When asked how the financial news/events will affect their vote in Nov., 48% said it would not. Among those who said it would, 29% said it would make them more likely to support Obama, 16% said they’d be more likely to support McCain. Among those who say the economy is their number one issue, 34% say they’re more likely to support Obama, 16% pick McCain.

– Voters are also split on whether they want to see more or less gov’t involvement in the financial markets. 46% – including 35% of GOPers – say they’d like more gov’t involvement. 31% say they’d like to see less involvement.

Comedian Sarah Silverman is the foul-mouthed spokeswoman for a grass-roots movement to have Jews travel to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama for president. Named “The Great Schlep,” the “movement” gets started with a funny, irreverent four-minute video hosted by Silverman. (Note: some profanity — you’ve been warned)

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

John McCain might be wishing he hadn’t stood up David Letterman as the first visible act of his “campaign suspension.”

After establishing in detail McCain’s history as a war hero and his lack of animosity toward him, Dave asks, “What happened to that guy?” From there, it just gets better and better, with Letterman filling the time he would have spent interviewing McCain instead wondering what’s going on inside McCain headquarters. He even gets a little help toward the end from Keith Olbermann.

Letterman: It makes me believe something’s going haywire with the campaign…Here’s what you do when you’re running, ah, for campaign in the middle of an economic crisis and it’s about to crater…Here’s what you do. You’re a senator. You handle what you need to handle. Don’t suspend your campaign. You let your campaign go on, shouldered by your vice presidential nominee. That’s what you do. You don’t quit. Or is that really, is that really a good thing to do?

Paul Schaeffer: We don’t know.

Letterman: See what I’m saying? This is a guy who doesn’t have an ounce of quit in him. So all of a sudden we’re suspending the campaign? …You say I gotta get back to Washington to save this country — good for you — and while I’m gone, campaigning in my stead is my great running mate from the state of Alaska, Sarah Palin. And she comes out and campaigns. What happened there? What’s the problem? Where is she? Why isn’t she doing that?

Paul Schaeffer: She is a good looking babe. You gotta admit that.

Letterman: (laughing) Exactly! That’s the point I’m trying to make. So I don’t know, but you heard it here first: this just doesn’t smell right. This is not the way a tested hero behaves.

Left: African Witch Hunter Rev. Muthee prays over Palin; Right: “Countdown” reports on Palin’s claim that Muthee’s blessing helped her become governor

Transcript from the Sept. 19 edition of “Countdown” on MSNBC:

[…]

Earlier, we speculated that John McCain had suspended his campaign in order to postpone, perhaps indefinitely, the debate between his vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, and the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, because Palin was not ready.

Another possibility is that the McCain campaign is trying to deflect attention from a new report in the National Enquirer that appears to confirm that Palin had an affair 12 years ago with her husband’s business partner:

No less than three members of the man’s family including one by sworn affidavit have claimed that Sarah Palin engaged in an extramarital affair with hus­band Todd’s former business partner, Brad Hanson.

These sources have named Hanson as Palin’s secret love, and say their affair nearly wrecked both their marriages.

Hanson owned a snowmobile dealership with Palin’s husband Todd, who immediately dissolved the partnership after he heard stories about the affair, which occurred around 1996, according to the sources. At the time, Palin was mayor of Wasilla.

Palin has vehemently de­nied cheating on her hus­band, and Hanson insisted to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER that he was never romantically in­volved with the 44-year-old Republican vice presiden­tial candidate.

However, Hanson family insider, Jim Burdett, has gone on the record and passed a rigorous polygraph test, revealing de­tails of the affair to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER in a world exclusive interview.

Burdett is a former brother-in-law of Hanson’s estranged wife Carolyn’s brother, Craig Batton, and still speaks with many family members.

Of course, no one takes the the Enquirer seriously, but their recent track record does include a report that John Edwards had an affair that appeared dubious at first but then proved to be accurate.

H/t: Commenter JS

Diageo/Hotline tracking poll:

Obama/Biden 47%
McCain/Palin 43%
Undec 8%

– Obama’s closed the gap among white women. The candidates are now tied 45-45%; one week ago (in the survey completed 9/17), McCain led this group by 10 points (49-39%).

– The enthusiasm gap has grown in Obama’s favor: 59% of Obama supporters are enthusiastic about their ticket, while just 47% of McCain supporters say the same. Yesterday, the poll showed a 10% Obama lead.

– McCain captures 23% of RVs who disapprove of Pres. Bush.