Because, after all, McCain picked her for VP and so all they’re really doing is dumping on their boss’s judgment. A fine spin, but the longer this goes on without a condemnatory statement from Maverick, the more it smells like it’s being done with his tacit approval. Then again, people are going to assume it’s being done with his tacit approval anyway, so why even get involved?

The important stuff comes at the end, when he points the finger directly at — ta da — Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace. As for the cryptic bit about the campaign searching through people’s e-mails for evidence of leaks, that’s almost certainly a reference to Randy Scheunemann being fired/suspended/quarantined. Per today’s NYT piece, he and Kristol are pals and certain unnamed McCain advisors allege that he’s been leaking to him steadily.

Exit question: Would someone married to a commercial fisherman, who governs a state that trades with Canada, really not know which countries belong to NAFTA? Click the image to watch.

Update: In Schmidt’s defense, according to the big NYT magazine piece that dropped a few weeks ago, he was the one who first mentioned Palin as a potential VP in meetings. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t soured on her since, but he clearly wasn’t anti-‘Cuda from the get go.