The White House took...

...another swipe at Sarah Palin yesterday. From Politico:

Asked about Palin's comments that the Obama administration is too cozy with oil companies because of their campaign contributions to him, Gibbs said, "Sarah Palin was involved in that election but apparently wasn't paying a whole lot of attention."

"My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed," Gibbs said.

This came after President Obama said this last month:

"I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues," he said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

Now Chris Matthews doesn't approve of this. On "Hardball" he said:

Pat Buchanan, at his peak, and Pat's rule, the Nixon rule in the old days—and it's a darn good rule—attack up. Don‘t attack down. Attack up.

And there's the president attacking Sarah Palin, which is attacking down, which gives her a direct shaft of opportunity to go right at him.

Matthews thinks it's unwise of the White House to elevate Palin. But I think that's exactly their strategy: make the weakest candidate possible (Palin) the 2012 Republican nominee. (It's also why the president compared ObamaCare to RomneyCare; it hurts Romney among the GOP.)

Expect to see more of this, not less, in the future.