Tidal wave of scandals in Palin feeding frenzy

Is it just me or did anyone else get this impression? The night Sarah Palin spoke at the convention looked like it was a scene stolen from the back lot of a Disney production.

I am losing track of all the "scandals" swirling around Sarah Palin. The longer she is shielded from the press and the public the more these stories grow. The campaign's choice to only allow her to address the public through speeches written by professional writers only reinforces the public suspicions and the rumors.

In a recent article on the Right Side of the News, The Media Plan to Destroy Palin , written by Cliff Kincaid and posted on September 7, belies the confidence so publicly showered on Sarah Palin by those that support her. Kincaid states that Sarah Palin accepting televised interviews with the press would be a "trap and politically suicidal." Kincaid says about the recently announced interview with ABC's Charles Gibson that "Democrats will be counting on Gibson to to spring a trap" on Sarah Palin and "make her look like an ignorant buffoon on some issue or another." He goes on to say that Palin should not be underestimated since she has worked as a journalist and understands how the media works.

All that I could find about her journalistic career was that she worked as a sports announcer and assisted in her husband's fishing business before she began her political career as president of the Wasilla high school PTA. I suppose that gave her some understandings of the workings of a small news operation in Wasilla. But the greater message that is communicated in Kincaid's article is the fear that Sarah Palin really will fall on her face. He says, "There is no doubt there is a plan underway to get her."

All this couching in fear that there is a plan to make Palin look like a fool is merely creating an expectation that she will fail if she goes before the public media without a scripted speech. This does two things for Palin. First it makes her look inexperienced before she has a chance to prove otherwise. Secondly, it sets the stage for her to actually be weak in her public appearances but the bar is set so low that if she merely mucks through the interview she comes out a winner. Neither is a good long-term outcome for the career of Sarah Palin. The conservatives are reinforcing a growing thought that Palin is McCain's Dan Quail.

Then instead of elevating the campaign rhetoric, Kincaid dips back to the 1980's to dredge up "dirt" on Joe Biden in regards to a paper he wrote in law school in which he did not adequately cite a paragraph in a paper which resulted in Joe getting an "F" in the class. Joe Biden completely disclosed this incident and opened the records for public view. Is this the worst dirt on Joe they can find is an gaff on an a school paper that happened over 30 years ago?

If we want an honest campaign that is focused about the issues that matters to American citizens than the McCain campaign and it's adherents need to keep it clean on their side. The ads designed to do nothing but generate unfounded fear about Senator Obama but provide no content about McCain's plan for governing the country are a waste of air time and have created this backlash by the blogging world. The Obama campaign is attempting to keep the campaign on the issues. Unfortunately the American public reacts to negative campaigning and fear tactics so the McCain campaign is choosing the low road. It may result in a boost in poll numbers but is this the way to run with integrity? Is this the heroic approach to leadership?

Kincaid mentions the Daily Koz as the progenitor of the Palin scandal rumors. What he fails to mention is that the very same rumors were already being circulated around the Alaska state capital by people that know and work with Sarah Palin. The rumors were not fabricated by the Daily Kos. If the McCain campaign had done its homework and properly vetted Governor Palin, they would have discovered the rumors before reading them on the blogs with the rest of us. And as I have stated before, the story of the Palin family was owned by Sarah Palin. If she had properly handled the story (and I say this not knowing how the campaign may have forced her to handle it) then the blogging community would have never started digging through the internet to find the answers that should have been provided in her family bio.

The obvious lack of confidence given to Sarah Palin is unfair and rather sexist in my opinion. We all saw the incredible delivery of the speech she gave at the RNC. I believe that she can better handle an interview more than John McCain appears to believe in his own candidate.

This is either sexism or McCain has determined after getting to know her better that Palin is honestly not up to the challenge.

First the McCain campaign issued a statement that Sarah Palin will not be engaging in interviews with the press. Huffington Post

Now they have granted a single interview to ABC. Charles Gibson had genteelly handled a McCain interview earlier so they feel this is a safe place to start with Governor Palin. It is understandable that anyone so new to the national scene might need a softball interview to get her confidence up and some practice in. How confident is anyone that this carefully chosen interview will reveal anything? Not much. The goal is to put her before the media in a safe venue so that she can gain some confidence and prove herself to the McCain campaign as much as to anyone. I believe she has the self confidence to go before the media and hit a home run.

Remember the difference between a bulldog and a hockey mom? Sarah Palin has the lipstick and the internal fortitude to go on any talk show and hold her own. The sooner they put her out there and take the training wheels off the better it will be for Governor Palin and for the campaign.

John McCain picked the fruit off the tree before it was ripe. We have a green untested person running for Republican Vice President of the United States. And now they are shielding this candidate from the press until they feel she will be treated with "deference" and "respect."

If she is intending to serve at the executive level of our government, she had better at least be able to handle the American press corp. Deference is granted out of respect. If the McCain campaign hopes to have any respect for McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, they better quit shielding her and let her stand on her own two feet. They cannot continue to cry "foul" and "sexism" when the press does it job asking the questions that America wants to know about this candidate. If "big daddy McCain" keeps shielding Sarah, it will continue to grow the perception that she cannot stand on her own and also that maybe there is something to hide.

I for one, think this is a grand ploy to captivate the media and the public. If you say that Sarah Palin will not address the press in an interview you peak the public's interest for the day you unveil her. The past two weeks have felt like a staged grab for higher Nielsen ratings. You know how smarmy T.V. gets from situation comedies to the reporting of the news when the media knows Nielsen is polling the public about what shows they watch. Well, right now the show is Palin, 24/7, around the clock.

This scenario is as ripe with dangers as Sarah Palin is green for national office. Dangers for McCain's campaign that the public will reject his choice. Dangers that the public will simply get bored with all this. Dangers for the Obama campaign that Palin is so hot, hot, hot, that they cannot address anything in regards to her without getting burned. Dangers for Sarah Palin that John McCain will so undermine her confidence and the confidence of the public in her that her political career will end as quickly as it started.

As defined by *Webster's unabridged dictionary:

Def"er*ence\, n. [F. d['e]f['e]rence. See 3d Defer.] A yielding of judgment or preference from respect to the wishes or opinion of another; submission in opinion; regard; respect; complaisance.

Deference to the authority of thoughtful and sagacious men. --Whewell.
Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. --Shenstone.

Syn: Deference, Reverence, Respect.

Usage: Deference marks an inclination to yield one's opinion, and to acquiesce in the sentiments of another in preference to one's own. Respect marks the estimation that we have for another, which makes us look to him as worthy of high confidence for the qualities of his mind and heart. Reverence denotes a mingling of fear with a high degree of respect and esteem. Age, rank, dignity, and personal merit call for deference; respect should be paid to the wise and good; reverence is due to God, to the authors of our being, and to the sanctity of the laws.

*deference. (n.d.). Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved September 07, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deference
I confirm that I am a private citizen and in no way officially connected to the Barack Obama campaign other than personally being in support of the Obama candidacy.


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