If I were an adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, I’d give him the following advice:

Cut Sarah Palin loose, and do it now.

As the old political adage goes, if a situation can’t end well, the best thing to do is end it fast.

Palin already has spent the first four days of her GOP vice presidential candidacy dogged by allegations that she pressured the Alaska state police commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law (who had been married to Palin’s sister and was involved in a bitter custody dispute with the woman), and now we learn Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

The high school-age daughter of the pro-abstinence, anti-sex education Republican vice presidential candidate is pregnant. Lovely.

This can’t end well for John McCain. But it can end fast.

The best thing that Mr. Straight Talk can do at this point is admit he made an error in judgment in adding Palin to his ticket – he apparently knew about the pregnancy ahead of time – beg the forgiveness of his party and the voters, and move on.

Palin had one strike against her – an almost laughable lack of experience – from the git-go. The trooper scandal was strike two. The pregnancy is strike three.

She’s out.