As of this moment, the conventional wisdom is that this isn't a vulnerability for Palin because Wooten isn't a sympathetic character. Obviously, I think this is a lot bigger than Wooten. This is about the arbitrary exercise of executive power.
On the politics, I don't think you can get past the fact that she has publicly lied about the extent of her involvement. This is not even in doubt, by the way, since she was forced to issue a retraction after the DPS produced a tape proving that the governor's office had exerted pressure.
But none of it matters if nobody notices, and if the conventional wisdom rules, then nobody will notice. And maybe nobody will notice most days. But there is an independent commission investigating the firing of Monegan, and the investigator's report is due right before the election.
Regardless of what the report says, the press is going to notice the investigation and they're going to focus attention on the process of the investigation. Palin herself is going to be deposed. Monegan purportedly has emails from the governor, which nobody else has yet seen. I'm telling you, it's a circus.
Maybe that's McCain's idea. Maybe Palin convinced him, in their hours together, that the investigation is a dead end. If it is a circus, and if McCain is standing next to an exonerated Palin on November 4, that could be enough to put his candidacy over the top. Might work. Might be better odds than he'd get in a fair fight.
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