“President John McCain is pledging to move quickly to fill the vacancy left by Sarah Palin’s stunning announcement last week that she would not complete her term as vice president of the United States. Denying widespread reports that she and the president are no longer on speaking terms, Vice President Palin, who communicates with the press only through Twitter, tweeted that the overwhelming press scrutiny “from the lamestream media” and actress Tina Fey were making it “darn tootin’ impossible to do this here job.” Already reports are surfacing that Mrs. Palin has signed with a Washington super-agent for a two-part book deal. She is also making preliminary steps to seek a job that she feels will have less press scrutiny: the presidency of the United States…

“In other White House news, McCain aides are working feverishly to explain the president’s latest reversal, this time on support for an extension of Bush-era tax cuts. McCain, who earlier this month said that the tax cuts he opposed in 2000 were essential for a struggling economy, puzzled reporters yesterday by saying he would not support their extension after all and in fact had never supported it. The tax cut issue is but the latest McCain flip-flop. Last year the Arizonan, whose approval rating has had a slight uptick, to 23 percent, denied that he had ever supported Democratic legislation on health-care reform, global warming, and immigration, calling photographic evidence of his collaborations with leading Senate Democrats “an obvious and easily proven smear job by the far right, far left, or both.”