Poor little Palin

By Capt. Fogg

The Republicans have so far been successful with several of their propaganda gambits. and it seems to show in the polls. The foremost of these relies on the decades-old myth of the Liberal Press. Although the press has all but ignored Palin's "misstatements" and has continued to put her inexperience in good light and has stayed away from discussing her extremist religious views, any suggestion that the "liberal press" is picking on her finds instant acceptance. I saw it myself during a luncheon yesterday; hearing people complaining about how sad it was that "people" were harping on her daughter's plight - an idea they got all gift-wrapped in red paper from the media, of course.

There's a germ of truth there, but it had largely blown over already, and to say Sarah Palin is a victim of malicious press seems as woefully far from the truth as her assertion that the Pledge of Allegiance in it's 1954 edition was "good enough for the Founding Fathers." None the less, they have managed to draw attention away from the legitimate and serious concerns by stressing a non-issue about her daughter and dressing her up as a victim. It works.

The results of a Rasmussen poll were released today, showing that half of US voters "think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage." Of those, 24% say it will influence them to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. We have to remember that half the country has an IQ in the two digit range and the few that actually do read respectable news sources don't remember what they read by the following day, if they had the reading comprehension to understand it in the first place. They will remember what Wolf and Sean and all the other twinkle-toed cheerleaders tell them they remember. They will forget that the job of the press is to investigate and not to flatter.

Obama, on the other hand, has suffered from the other edge of that rusty sword. By inventing the "Fact" that his supporters think he's a victim of racism, his status as a candidate who can transcend racialist nonsense is diminished.

I'm sure however, that we can expect the press and the media whores in general to keep telling us what a good mother she is, how she represents what's good in America, how charismatic and fresh and exciting she is as a "game changing" choice and a bold move by the wise Saint John McCain -- even while we believe they aren't saying it. Rasmussen itself mentioned "her highly successful debut" last night and how people were likely to agree about her superior experience.

Obviously un-intimidated by either the savage onslaught to which the left-leaning media had subjected her, or the incredible challenge she faced — and oozing with confidence — she strode defiantly to the podium and proved she was everything and even more than John McCain told us,

says Michael Reagan, who tells us she is the reincarnation of his father. What savage assault? Why, the one they set up, stuffed with straw so they could make the dogs bark and the idiots howl. It works.

How can there be any hope for sanity, much less for democracy when we're in a world where every fact immediately generates an equal and opposite anti-fact which usually is more fun to believe?

(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)