No R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The reviews of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric are overwhelmingly ugly. Is it really her fault, though? Christopher Orr at the New Republic surmises that she's been broken by an overly tough coach:

I'm reminded of the situation you see every now and then in sports, when a talented athlete--which, conveniently enough, Palin was--gets a taste of heavy duty coaching and, rather than being built up, is broken down, losing confidence in his game, becoming tentative, second-guessing himself even to the point of paralysis. I don't know whether that's what's happened to Sarah Palin. But from where I sit, it sure looks like it.

Orr stops short of saying why the campaign would treat its top draft pick this way. Once again, I have to ask: Does McCain respect his VP pick?