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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell came out of hiding long enough to do an interview on



CNN’s The Situation Room, and things got interesting when O’Donnell was asked whether she thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be president, and answered, “Is she running for president?… Well, again, a hypothetical. I don’t know if she…”

Here is the video:

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The transcript documents Christine O’Donnell running away from the Mama Grizzly as fast as she could while talking to Jim Acosta:

ACOSTA: Is Sarah Palin qualified for president?

O’DONNELL: Is she running for president?

ACOSTA: I don’t know. You tell me.

O’DONNELL: Again, hypotheticals. I mean, I don’t know…

ACOSTA: I’ve heard you talk on the phone with her. Does she advise your campaign?

O’DONNELL: She does not advise our campaign.

ACOSTA: Does she give you advice?

O’DONNELL: She gives me “You go, girl” advice. “Don’t listen to them.” If anyone knows…

ACOSTA: Does she really tell you to speak through FOX News?

O’DONNELL: Well, I heard that — she didn’t tell me personally, but I heard her say something like that on O’Reilly, you know, because, you know, if anyone knows about the politics of personal destruction, it’s women candidates, women politicians like Sarah Palin.

Even Christine O’Donnell knows Sarah Palin is the kiss of death for Republican candidates in a general election. After the primary O’Donnell said that without Sarah Palin her victory would have been impossible. Fast forward a few weeks and she no longer has any ties to Palin. In fact, she barely acknowledges that she even knows who she is. I think Todd and Sarah Palin are getting a hard lesson in national politics this year.

Sarah Palin endorsed all of these candidates in an attempt to play kingmaker, so that when 2012 rolled around she would have a ready list of high profile endorsements. However, things are not going according to plan. Scott Brown demonstrated that there is very little consequence for a candidate who uses Palin and the Tea Party to win an election then distances themselves from the far right. Joe Miller and Christine O’Donnell are simply following the path that Brown laid out.

Christine O’Donnell knows that associating herself with Sarah Palin would turn a race that she is likely to lose into a certain defeat. As you can see from the video, O’Donnell has been worked over hard by the GOP spin doctors. She is now a talking points machine. Every single one of her answers in the CNN interview was short on details, but heavy on talking points. She has even adopted the mainstream GOP strategy for dealing with Palin questions, duck and dodge. By the way, Palin’s qualifications are not a hypothetical. She either is or isn’t qualified. It is a yes or no question. O’Donnell’s answer was nonsense.

Republican candidates all around the country are treating Sarah Palin like a liability. Their behavior is acknowledgment of a fact that has been proven by polling. Palin’s appeal is limited strictly to Republicans. Now matter how many of her endorsed candidates win in 2010, the whole operation will be a failure, if Palin can’t build a network of support and endorsements for her own run in 2012. Only the truly naïve could possibly believe that Palin cared about getting Republicans elected in 2010. For her this was all about 2012, but it looks like the Mama Grizzly has been outsmarted by her cubs.