Interview Done To Bolster Couric's Self-Esteem: Palin

Ah, the joys of people reading early releases of upcoming books, and the joys of Sarah Palin's somewhat strange comments. As the release of her new memoir, "Going Rogue," approaches, we now know that Palin agreed to her famous interview with Katie Couric out of pity.

The interview with Couric became the stuff of legends, exposing Palin as someone totally unprepared for national office. The fact that some of her comments were able to be used, almost word-for-word by SNL to spoof her idiocy speaks for itself.

According to her new book, Sarah Palin was told by a top McCain aide that Couric had low self-esteem, prompting Palin to take pity on the CBS anchor and agree to an interview. Couric may have low ratings, but low self-esteem?

At any rate, a McCain adviser has adamantly denied the claim. As hard, as it is to believe anyone associated with politics on either side of the aisle, it's not hard to believe this one.

In fact, the adviser admitted what already known: that the McCain campaign tried to shield her from the media to hide her incompetence:

“She lacked the knowledge base to stand in front of the press corps that was traveling with her and answer questions.Because of the success of the convention speech, the feeling was that she should be exposed to as many people as possible directly, not through a media filter. The way to do that was to do interviews with the anchors.

“The truth is, she refused to prepare for the Katie Couric interview. She refused to engage in any preparation. And it was a disaster.”

A disaster for one campaign, and a gold mine for another. However, truthfully, would you rather that a prepared Palin would have been able to hide her faults, or would you prefer to see her as she truly was? I vote for the latter.

After Election Results Announced, McCain Voters Saw Testosterone Drop: Study

A study published in the Public Library of Science (PLOS One) examined the results of the 2008 Presidential Election. In this case, however, the results were examined using a different metric than most: testosterone level.

The study, "Dominance, Politics, and Physiology: Voters' Testosterone Changes on the Night of the 2008 United States Presidential Election" examined the testosterone levels of 183 voters, who provided multiple saliva samples before and after the winner was announced on Election Night. The study noted:

Political elections are dominance competitions. When men win a dominance competition, their testosterone levels rise or remain stable to resist a circadian decline; and when they lose, their testosterone levels fall.

Voters for both candidates, McCain and Obama, had similar testosterone levels when polling stations closed on the East coast. Once Obama as declared the winner, however, the levels in McCain backers fell.

Since, as the study noted, men's testosterone levels follow a circadian cycle, and drop at night, since the levels among men who voted for Obama remained stable, the study said their level was actually equivalent to a rise.

McCain Campaign Manager: Palin In 2012 Would Be Catastrophe

At The Atlantic's First Draft of History Conference on Friday, longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain's 2008 campaign, offered his assessment of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's political aspirations. It was not good.

"I think that she has talent, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result."

Schmidt added:

"In the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond the base ... The independent vote is going to be up for grabs in 2012. That middle of the electorate is going to be determinative of the outcome of the elections. I just don't see that if you look at the things she has done over the year ... that she is going to expand that base in the middle."

The moderator noted that he, himself, would therefore endorse Sarah Palin for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012.

Watch the video:

Beck: McCain Would Have Been Worse for the Country Than Obama

Considering how Glenn Beck feels about Barack Obama, this must mean he loathes John McCain. In the opening episode of Katie Couric's new website, @katiecouric, Beck is clear that he feels John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama.

When asked to play a name game, Beck first alluded to preferring Hillary Clinton to John McCain, adding that he might have even voted for her. He went further, saying "I think John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama."

Why? Beck said that he thought McCain was "this weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt was."

Watch the video preview. The full episode will air at CBSNews.com Tuesday at 7 PM ET.

McCain: Torture Ineffective, Helped Terrorists Recruit

Just hours after former VP Dick Cheney defended the use of torture during an interview with Fox News Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appearing on CBS' Face the Nation insisted that the use of torture on terrorism suspects violated international law, didn't work, and actually helped al Qaeda recruit additional members.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you-- do you agree with the vice president when he says this has kept the country safe all this time since this attack and it is because these interrogations worked and we found out information that helped us keep the country safe.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I think the interrogations were in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the convention against torture that we ratified under President Reagan. I think that these interrogations once publicized helped al Qaeda recruit. I got that from an al Qaeda operative in a prison camp in Iraq who told-- who told me that.

I think that the ability of us to work with our allies was harmed and so-- and I believe that information, according to the FBI and others, could have been gained through other methods.

BOB SCHIEFFER: When you say an al Qaeda operative told you it helped them. What-- what do you mean?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I was in-- Senator Lindsey Graham and I were in-- in Camp Bucca, the twenty-thousand-prisoner camp. We met with a former high-ranking member of al Qaeda. I said, "How did you succeed so well in Iraq after the initial invasions?" He said two things. One, the chaos that existed after the initial invasion, there was no order of any kind. Two, he said, Abu Ghraib pictures allowed me and helped me to recruit thousands of young men to our cause. Now that's al Qaeda.

And the second thing about it is, if you inflict enough pain on anyone, they'll tell you anything that to make the pain stop. So you not only get, perhaps, right information but you also get a lot of wrong information.

But the damage that it did to America's image in the world is something we're still on the way to repairing. This is an ideological struggle as well as a-- as a physical one, so.

McCain did add that he felt opening an investigation, as Attorney General Eric Holder is doing, into the past misdeeds was the wrong approach, that, as President Barack Obama said, we should move forward. However, as McCain said, "Well, the attorney general has a unique position in the cabinet, obviously. He can't be told what to do by the President of the United States."

Just in case anyone wants to blame Obama, he can't stop it, and has made it clear in the past he would prefer not to have these hearings Holder is planning.

Watch the video:

John McCain Booed for Stating That Obama "Respects the Constitution of the United States"

On Tuesday, John McCain held a town hall forum in Arizona, an elderly woman asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) whether President Obama knows "that we still live under a Constitution."

Perhaps this silver-haired maven needs to know that President Barack Obama was a Constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

At any rate, McCain said, thankfully, “I’m sure that he does.” When he further added that Barack Obama “respects the Constitution of the United States,” the crowd broke out in loud boos. McCain went further, stating that there’s just a “fundamental difference in philosophy and about the role of government” and that “I am convinced the president is absolutely sincere in his beliefs." He closed by saying “He is the president of the United States and let’s be respectful.” Watch it: