Sarah Palin. And McCain's lack of class!

John McCain was always ready to decry any untoward criticism of Barack Obama and he should have been. It is the right thing to do when valid. But now, when Sarah Palin is under attack from his disloyal political hacks, he is completely silent. It is sad in a way because it shows that he is now done with conservatives and is more than happy to put them back under the bus where he feels they belong. But his crew still needs to get past the "facts". This is from the Corner on National Review:

Palin and Africa, Etc. [Rich Lowry]


I talked to Steve Biegun, the former Bush NSC aid who briefed Sarah Palin on foreign policy, and he considers the leaks against her on the international stuff "absurd."

He says there's no way she didn't know Africa was a continent, and whoever is saying she didn't must be distorting "a fumble of words." He talked to her about all manner of issues relating to Africa, from failed states to the Sudan. She was aware from the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, which is followed closely in evangelical churches, and was aware of Clinton's AIDS initiative. That basically makes it impossible that she thought all of Africa was a country.

On not knowing what countries are in NAFTA, Biegun was part of the conversation that led to that accusation and it convinces him "somebody is acting with a high degree of maliciousness." He was briefing Palin before a Univision interview, and talking to her about trade issues. He rolled through NAFTA, CAFTA, and the Colombia FTA. As he talked, people were coming in and out of the room, handing Palin things, etc. She was distracted from what Biegun was saying, and said, roughly, "Ok, who's in NAFTA, what's the deal with CAFTA, what's up the FTA?"—her way, Biegun says, of saying "rack them and stack them," begin again from the start. "Somebody is taking a conversation and twisting it maliciously," he says.

In general, according to Beigun, Palin had a steep learning curve on foreign issues, about what you would expect from a governor. But she has "great instincts and great core values," and is "an instinctive internationalist." The stories against her are being "fed by an unnamed source who is allowed by the press to make ad hominem attacks on background." Biegun, who spent dozens and dozens of hours briefing Palin on these issues, is happy to defend her, on the record, under his own name.

The entire article is here.

Mr McCain. Will you finally disavow the comments of your hacks? Or will you just let silence make your case. This situation has made me realized that Barack Obama and his organization has far outclassed the McCain organization and how wrong these people are both for Sarah Palin and for our country.

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Now they are after McCain's wife

So let me get these rules straight. Michelle Obama tells the audience at a POLITICAL RALLY that this was the first time she was proud to be American. Barack Obama and the media blasted anyone who criticized her and called this out of bounds. I will not even begin to get into the logic of crying foul when a political spouse decides to make political speeches and says something stupid. What was more interesting was the reaction of Mr. Obama and his severe indignation. Obama was very adamant that spouses were out of bounds.

Now, the New York Times has published a hit piece in Cindy McCain. Let's ignore for a moment how sick the mindset is that would create that kind of article. Remember, this is the same NY Times that created an affair scandal about McCain from whole cloth. Below was the NY Times in June helping remake Michelle Obama after she said she spent her life "not proud to be American".

Then came some rhetorical stumbles. In Madison, Wis., in February, she told voters that hope was sweeping America, adding, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” Cable news programs replayed those 15 words in an endless loop of outrage.

Barack Obama often blurs identity lines; much of his candidacy has seemed almost post-racial. Mrs. Obama’s identity is less mutable. She is a descendant of slaves and a product of Chicago’s historically black South Side. She burns hot where he banks cool, and that too can make her an inviting proxy for attack.

The tone here is that these attacks are unfair and she is just misunderstood. Shortly after this article, they tipped their hand when the wrote a puff piece on Michelle Obama. Just read this passage below. Michelle Obama is "too authentic" while Cindy McCain is "too fake".

The amount of scrutiny the two spouses face is not commensurate — Mrs. Obama has endured far more virulent attacks by her critics — but it is somehow symmetrical. Mrs. Obama went on a popular television talk show to combat the notion that she is a little too authentic to be a first lady, while Mrs. McCain did it to undercut the image that she is too fake.

So now they create a hit piece about Cindy McCain. They can write about Cindy McCain's drug use but they can't seem to lift a finger to investigate Obama's. We have said this before at this site that the media has been absolutely incompetent this election cycle. They will go through Joe the Plumbers trash but they won't investigate the public record of Obama. And McCain is fighting back:

The campaign's outrage comes on the heels of a letter Cindy McCain's attorney, John Dowd, wrote earlier this month to New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller accusing him of biased coverage for not pursuing more information about Obama's personal life.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama," Dowd wrote in the letter, which the campaign has made public now in response to the latest report by the Times.

"You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, 'Dreams of My Father,'" he continued. "Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus there is a terrific lack of balance here."

The McCain camp provided the letter to FOX News on Saturday, the same day the piece was published. In addition to the missive, the McCain released a scathing critique of the story, calling it "gutter journalism at its worst -- an unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate's spouse."

Here is hoping that John McCain keeps fighting back. This election cycle has been unfathomably unfair. First to Hillary Clinton and now to McCain. American's as a whole believe in fairness. I hope Obama pays a terrible price for his quiet approval of this continued trash.

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