'Republican elites'

Jonathan Martin on Sarah Palin:

[T]he response I've gotten from Republican activists coast-to-coast has been one of almost joy. My e-mail in-box is bursting with enthusiasm from loyal GOPers who've been either glum, skeptical or downright unhappy for the past two years.
This zeal is emphatically not matched by some Republican elites, who are casting a more pragmatic eye on the potential pitfalls of McCain tapping a running mate that neither he nor many other political types know. (Emphasis added.

The negativity coming from inside the GOP -- remember the "veteran communications operative" who said, "We're doomed"? -- has been one of the major obstacles for Team Maverick. It's not merely their disdain for John McCain that causes this reaction from Republicans inside the Beltway, it's also (a) the dim prospects for congressional Republicans, and (b) extreme Bush fatigue.

Martin says he's " never seen a crowd with the energy that I witnessed yesterday at the Erwin Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio." What he may not know -- I haven't seen it reported anywhere -- is that some people were turned away from Friday's event. My Ohio in-laws had tickets but were told that the crowd was big enough to cause a fire-code violation.

UPDATE: Peter Baker in the New York Times:

One former Bush aide who spends his days publicly bashing Barack Obama sat down for lunch with me recently and before the appetizers even arrived lamented that the Democrat will probably crush McCain.

With friends like that, etc.

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)