KEY POINTS:
Senator John McCain was last night engaged in a desperate effort to rehabilitate Governor Sarah Palin after much pilloried prime-time interviews left her open to accusations that she is now a liability for the Republican White House campaign.
The McCain fightback began with a first joint interview for the candidates with CBS News anchorwoman Katie Couric.
McCain hoped that his forceful presence alongside his inexperienced running-mate will blot out the memory of a TV interview Palin did with Couric last week when she offered excruciatingly poor answers on foreign policy and her understanding of the US$700 billion economic rescue plan.
Palin exacerbated the situation at the weekend by indicating that she supported unilateral strikes against terror suspects on Pakistani territory, an issue on which McCain and Senator Barack Obama had clashed during last Saturday's presidential debate in Mississippi.
Yesterday she told Couric: "This is all about 'gotcha' journalism."
But the worst may be yet to come for Palin who faces the Democrat vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joe Biden, in a debate on Friday in St Louis. CBS is reported to have two more un-aired responses on tape from last week that are just as embarrassing.
One of McCain's problems is that commentators are now attacking him for choosing an inexperienced running-mate who has not grown into the job.
The best that the New York Times's conservative columnist David Brooks could offer is that she brings something "fresh and telegenic" to the ticket. He has defended her as "smart" and said that if she improves in the debate she might rise to the level of "mediocre".
The Washington Post's Carl Bernstein wrote: "No presidential nominee of either party in the last century has seemed so willing to endanger the country's security as McCain in his reckless choice of a running-mate."
And Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, urged Palin to quit. "Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be Vice-President."
To try to rescue the situation, the McCain campaign has already enlisted top officials to coach Palin for the debate.
Meanwhile, the debate last week between McCain and Obama drew 52.4 million US viewers - one of the first events of the campaign that was not a huge TV hit. It was not even one of the 10 most-watched presidential debates.
Two factors may have held the audience down: It was not clear until quite late that the debate was even taking place; it was on a Friday night and that traditionally has fewer viewers than any other night but Saturday because more people are going out.
- INDEPENDENT, AP
