The light you are running towards is not the end of the tunnel. It is an oncoming train.

Primum non nocere: The Latin words for medical slogan "First do no harm," a fundamental medical precept of Hippocrates (ca. 460-ca.377 B.C.).

It seems like only yesterday that I pointed out that John McCain was well on his way to becoming the Pity Fuck Candidate. That was well before the GILF that keeps on giving known as Sarah Palin. So what has she bestowed upon the campaign? You know, stuff:

* The news that Palin once backed the Bridge to Nowhere went national.

* It emerged that Palin has links to the bizarro Alaska Independence Party, which harbors the goal of seceding from the union that McCain and Palin seek to lead.

* The news broke that as governor, Palin relied on an earmark system she now opposes. Taken along with the Bridge to Nowhere stuff, this threatens to undercut her reformist image, something that was key to her selection as McCain’s Veep candidate.

* The news broke that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter became pregnant out of wedlock at a time when the conservative base had finally started rallying behind McCain’s candidacy.

* Barely moments after McCain advisers put out word that McCain had known of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, the Anchorage Daily News revealed that Palin’s own spokesperson hadn’t known about it only two days ago.

* A senior McCain adviser at the Republican convention was forced into the rather embarrassing position of arguing that McCain had known about the pregnancy "last week" — without saying what day last week he knew about it.

* It came out that Republican lawyers are up in Alaska vetting Palin — now, more than 72 hours after it was announced that she’d been picked.

* Palin lawyered up in relation to the trooper-gate probe in Alaska — a move that ensures far more serious attention to the story from the major news orgs.

For public consumption, the first rule of picking a running mate is selecting someone who can step into the Big Guy’s shoes should he slip on a banana or be found dangling from an overhead beam while wearing two wetsuits and sporting a dildo sticking out of his ass.

But let’s not talk about Lindsey Graham.

On the vetting side, the rule of thumb is: first do no harm. So let’s give a big old EPIC FAIL to Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr.

Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., the lawyer who conducted the review, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Palin underwent a "full and complete" examination before McCain chose her. Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review already has been made public, Culvahouse said: "I think so. Yeah, I think so. Correct."

I can’t say that this is very surprising.

The whole Palin thing has all the earmarks of "making it up as we go along". I found it extremely curious that the perky Governor from Alaska wasn’t doing any interviews or making any appearances on the Sunday gasbag shows including any of the GOP oral-fests on Fox. That just screams "not ready for prime time". The vetting hadn’t been done and there was the risk that someone  might have inadvertently done some real journalism-ing and asked a question that would have resulted in a Miss South Carolina moment.

But, again,  let’s not talk about Lindsey Graham…

You have  to wonder exactly when they’re going to pull the plug on Palin whose story is drip drip dripping all over former prisoner of war John McCain’s coming out party. This week before the nomination? Or after the convention causing McCain/Palin memorabilia to become  hot properties on eBay? And who gets to be sloppy seconds to McCain in place of Palin? Mitt? Holy Joe? Hockey Hair Tim Pawlenty?

Not likely.

And let’s not even talk about Lindsey Grah–. Well, you get the idea.