Running scared...

McCain pulls out of Larry King interview tonight.

This is a disaster of epic proportions. My sense is that there is little chance that Palin will be dumped from the ticket as that would consume the narrative and media coverage for the rest of the campaign. Instead though McCain is going to face a steady drip of stories for at least a few weeks, crushing any chance he has at mounting a sustained attack on Obama.

This is the time where the American public has just begun to pay close attention to the presidential race. The Democrats had a hugely succesful convention followed by a tremendously recieved speech from Obama. Since that speech ended the news has been consumed with Palin coverage and the vast majority of that coverage has been negative for McCain.

The RNC has been scaled back due to weather stomping out the GOP's best opportunity to change escape this news cycle today and possibly even tomorrow as Palin will be speaking at the convention. Their best hope is a tremendous speech from McCain on Thursday but even McCain's best will pale in comparison to Obama's speech.

Basically the GOP is looking at a solid week of very bad media coverage at the exact time that they should be enjoying their best week of coverage. Obama is bouncing post-convention and post-Palin, finally breaking 50% in several national polls. The GOP desperately needs a solid rebuttal to the DNC and a good bounce to keep this race close and it doesn't look like they will get either.