Politico: McCain staffers starting to rally to Palin’s defense Nothing yet from Steve Schmidt, but foreign policy guru Steve Biegun and spokesman Tracy Schmitt — among others — are on the case. That she remains a player and may be the party’s nominee in four years would make it smart politics for Republican staffers to praise her in print. But those who went on the record suggest that they were doing so out of genuine affection for Palin and a sense that the image of her coming out of the election – that of a self-absorbed conniver — was not...