The blame game has begun within the ranks of the Republican Party, and Palin is their chosen scapegoat.  Campaign leaders are saying she lacked a basic understanding of civics and the structure of government, thought Africa was a country, refused preparation before the Couric interview, threw temper tantrums when she got bad press, and had lower level campaign workers purchase her things on their personal credit cards. 

Now, if all of this is true, then they knew she was seriously, dangerously unqualified pretty quickly.  They didn't drop her, and they didn't criticize her.  Why? 

Because Palin was never taken seriously by her own campaign or McCain's.  Because that was not her purpose.  McCain, veteran of Washington politics, does not need advice or direction from Sarah Palin.  Her only purpose was to engage a socially conservative base who lacked enthusiasm for McCain.  And when she began talking and taking policy stances that differed from McCain's, well, that just wouldn't do.  The Republicans pulled her out of Alaska to trot her out in front of crowds, not to give her a leading position in the party.  She was a prop, and she was supposed to know that.  But because she is demanding she gets a seat at the table, it's all who does she think she is?  Uppity bitch, and the party publicly eviscerates her. 

Republicans tried to claim the feminist label early this campaign with the angle that Obama is a sexist because he didn't choose Hillary.  They keep using this word, sexism, but I do not think it means what they think it means.  Sexism is not choosing a man over a woman for reasons unrelated to gender (namely, it's hard to run a campaign about change if your running mate is a Clinton).  Sexism is choosing a running mate because and only because she is a woman, and then refusing to take her seriously as a colleague, and then publicly stabbing her in the back with her own ambitions.

Kudos to you, Republicans.  You have made me want to defend Sarah Palin, and that is not a simple task.