Did You Hear Palin (The "Bell-Jar" Candidate) Said She's Ready to be President?

No? I wish I hadn't. And since she has not responded to questions that would "fill in for the voting public the gaping blanks about her record and qualifications to be vice president," I'm guessing that asking for her credentials (and who did the vetting of her for McCain again?) for the even more serious position of President of the United States would be just as foolish a request. Of course, if she's really the "tough" reform politician (and not just a "celebrity") as billed, why wouldn't she be as available for interviews as the other candidates (or are we trying to put "lipstick* on a wingnut?")? In fact, the "reformers" should want to be much more available, don't you think? Both McCain (who says he's going to reform D.C. after voting with Bush over 90% of the time and having over 130 lobbyists on his campaign) and Palin (who brags she has already reformed Alaska) should want to be pretty much "in our face" until Election Day with their detailed proposals for the "change" initiatives that they have in mind to reform the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld (whoops! I meant Condi!) policies that are clearly in need of "changing." (Have I said the word "change" enough? It's hard to keep up with the campaigns these days.) And, then, of course, there's also the "call for higher ideals in politics." In this "Olympics of Hypocrisy," these Republi-Cons already have more gold medals than all of the athletes competing in China - hear that Michael Phelps? But you be the judge. - - - - - - - - * Earlier this year, this is how John McCain described Hillary Clinton's health care proposal: "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." I don't recall any Republicans crying foul at the time nor do I recall the media making an issue of it. I doubt Senator Clinton's campaign gave it a second thought. But apparently, deep down in his heart, John McCain was outraged by his own comment. Mike Farrell Los Angeles - - - - - - - - There is nothing new in the media's pretend equal treatment of the Obama and McCain candidacies as my hero Eric Alterman in Media Matters reports:

When I saw this headline in Time, I thought they might actually be analyzing coverage of the two major candidates. Too much to hope for actual data from them, rather than mentioning the few actual studies of the topic (e.g. here) they resort to such superficialities as: "Complicating the debate is the metastasis of informal, and unreliable, information sources online. As soon as the Palin pick was announced, liberal-leaning websites and blogs swirled with rumors about Palin's personal life ..." If these rumors are really a "complication," they surely apply to both candidates (Obama's a Muslim, gay, not a US citizen, and many more on snopes.com). I guess that such in-depth reporting, or even looking for independent analysis of media bias, is not necessary to make the grade at this prestigious journal.

Suzan