Palin is doing exactly what she needs to do and is capaeble of doing. Her interview with Katie Couric showed us that she can be a disaster. But her quote that she wasn’t going to necessarily answer the questions of the moderator shows the boldness of it.

So, yeah, she needs more signal…to people like you (and frankly me). But she’s not speaking to you and me. She’s speaking to those people out there that have learned to sometimes legitimately not trust the media. These are the same people Obama described as “clinging to their guns and religion”. Dave Winer, in a HuffPo piece calls them “flyover people:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-winer/i-dont-care-if-red-stater_b_130051.html?show_comment_id=16210404#comment_16210404

They don’t really require more signal…at least at this point. They may see the financial issues as a DC problem and can relate to her as a mom/parent. They may not care about foreign policy nuances, they just want someone who may convey a love for this country (and not Obama’s sometimes professorial tone).

The problem here, for her, matches your point. As this drags on, it will start to wear thin. But we’ve got only four weeks to go. Her team may be able to fully get away with her being the perky down home attack dog – the mom defending her country – and she’ll be excused for not knowing the details because “why, she’s not a Washington insider”.

So I think her greatest threat is time frame with no signal, as opposed to having no signal by itself.

Politics is about finding the parade and getting in front of it. However when the parade changes route, all the old banners become painful memories. The current financial crisis is a great example: six years ago Congress approved aggressive loan-making, in the name of “making the American dream of owning a home available to everyone”. They leaned on Fannie Mae to take on even riskier mortgages.

I think Palin would find a blog to be the last thing she would want.