Prometheus 6

I was going to say "gut her like a fish" but I felt that ol' Alaska frontier spirit...

Hiaasen: Ifill better be nice to poor Palin during debate
Carl Hiaasen | Miami Herald
September 30, 2008 08:20:25 AM

The vice presidential debate is set for Thursday, and millions of voters will be watching to see if moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS behaves herself.

Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain's campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don't treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you'll be accused of character assassination.

Maybe this is why McCain has kept Palin sequestered from the press -- not because he's terrified she'll pull a Dan Quayle and say something goofy (as she did to Katie Couric), but because he gallantly wants to protect her from all the chauvinist meanies who would ask impertinent questions.

Likewise, the same right-wing gasbags who've trashed Hillary Clinton for 16 years have morphed into sensitive souls when it comes to their own hockey-mom candidate. Each unsettling news revelation about Palin is automatically decried as a sexist smear.

If Palin were a male candidate, Democrat or Republican, she'd be taking heat for ducking reporters when the election is only five weeks away. Yet, except for a few grumps, the media have reluctantly accepted the Sarah snub as the new order of things.

In the big debate it will be interesting to see if the rules are followed, or broken.