It was a bad week for John McCain in large part because it was a bad week for Sarah Palin.

“Terrible,” said My Mother the Winger, who doesn’t even try to defend Palin anymore.

The Katie Couric interview is probably going to go down as one of the greatest crash-and-burns in political history. And as I’ve written before - it is probably unfair to expect Sarah Palin to ace this stuff, at this point. She’s Alaska’s governor. Think about county commissioner Scott Martin - who governs roughly the same number of people as Palin. What if he suddenly was running for the vice-presidency? Martin’s a capable guy - but how detailed would his answers on national economic policy or defense be?

The McCain campaign is using Sarah Palin as a political prop, happy to throw her right into the deep end because she’s of strategic use. It’s not particularly fair to Palin. This is a politician who - had she been running for this position a few years down the road - might be formidable.

But she’s been brought up to the majors and after two seasons in Double A. No, she’s not going to hit a lot of curveballs.

McCain needed the base so he specifically selected someone who appealed to them. Whether or not he knows anything about her, or however capable she is or isn’t, it doesn’t matter. She fit the profile. Get her in there!

Now she’s in the position of having to hit a grand slam on Thursday. Biden may be a gaffe machine, but he’s a vet. He can’t speak down to Sarah Palin. But he most certainly will fire it right down the pike, daring her to hit it.

Do you think she will?

A few years from now Sarah Palin’s political cunning and - yes - jes’folks common sense might count for a whole lot more.

And maybe she’ll surprise us all Thursday night.

But it doesn’t change the fact she’s just out of her league.