A reader writes:
I completely agree with your larger point, but your reference to the Couric interview is off. Couric was later – she interviewed Palin the same day McCain suspended, which was well after the Lehman collapse. But you’re right about the turn coming before Lehman, and about much of it having to do with the growing awareness that Palin was a fraud.
What fed it was several things: (1) Couric’s interview with Charlie Gibson ("In what respect, Charlie?"); (2) the press beginning to call the McCain camp on its blatant falsehoods — particularly the purported "thanks but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere and McCain’s sex-ed ad; (3) the derisive reaction to the Republicans’ faux outrage over Obama’s lipstick on a pig comment; and (4) McCain’s appearance on The View on September 12, where he was called out for lying, and lied some more.
I’ve corrected the original post.