Oy

A little of what I was talking about earlier today:

From the pool report account of what happened after McCain and Palin's meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko:

McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin ("Governor, what have you learned from your meetings?") but McCain aide Brooke Buchanan intervened and shepherded everybody out of the room.

Palin looked surprised, leaned over to McCain and asked him a question, to which your pooler thinks he shook his head as if to say "No."

That's not a gotcha question—it's basic; it's a softball. She could have given the vaguest of typical nothing-answers to a question like that, like "There are no easy political answers for the region," or something even less parsable that that, like "I've been encouraged by how much support the United States continues to enjoy around the world."

Honestly, I couldn't stand to be in her position. After that, I'd be all: "Look, McCain—you've got to let me answer questions, because you're making me look like a fucking idiot. Let me play ball, or I'm taking mine and going home and good luck to ya without me."

Actually, I would have said that from the beginning, but I'm just an asshole that way.