My blog, Heartless and Brainless, features contributors across the entire political spectrum. One of our resident conservatives conducted a fallacious straw man argument why people don't like Sarah Palin. My reason is because she won't allow reporters to accompany her to get ice cream, let alone answer questions in a press conference. Witness my proof below the fold...
Walker across Worlds constructed a straw man in his argument why Brits don't "get Sarah Palin". He conjectures that it is because the Brits against Palin think
"tell us at dinner parties that 9/11 wouldn't have happened if the Jews hadn't been so ghastly to the Arabs."
I can't speak for the Brits that WaW hangs out with but I can speak for some Americans. Do you want to know why people stopped taking Palin seriously? She's afraid of running into the press when she stops in an ice cream shop!
Matthew Berger at NBC News has an excellent article about the lengths that the McCain campaign is still hiding Sarah Palin from the press. She has conducted two interviews in the month since her nomination: Charles Gibson of ABC News and Sean Hannity of Fox News. Charles Gibson is an actual journalist but Hannity is a buffoon farther to the right than Dick Cheney.
The NBC article has tons of nuggets about Palin's visit to the United Nations today. Reporters were supposed to accompany her as she met world leaders. The McCain campaign relented at the last minute and
informed the press corps that only cameras – without reporters or producers accompanying them – would be permitted.
The five television networks protested, threatening not to shoot video of the meeting at all unless an editorial presence was allowed into the meeting
for 29 seconds. 29 seconds!
Sarah Palin needed two weeks in hiding (perhaps in Dick Cheney's secret bunker) to study foreign policy after McCain picked her for the VP slot. She was the first vice-presidential nominee that was unprepared to meet the press. That was ridiculous then, as I wrote then. McCain locked up the Republican nomination on March 4th. Palin was selected on August 29th, almost 5 months later. John McCain clearly didn't vet her before choosing her. How can I tell? Because he apparently didn't tell her to start studying in the previous five months! She said she didn't know what a vice president does... at the end of July! Don't take my word for it. Let's go to the tape!
http://www.youtube.com/...
Why don't I leave the poor moose hunter alone? Because shielding her from the press is an affront to democracy. People had questions about Obama's lack of experience. He conducted hundreds of interviews to prove his mettle. He participated in 26 debates for a year during the Democratic primaries. That's almost one for every second that Palin will allow.
Our government is based on its citizens making an informed decision. The naked cynicism of McCain's selection is shameful, even after the 7+ years of Constitutional groin punches. What does Sarah Palin think about NATO? You don't know and neither do I. What will she do about global warming? Does she believe in global warming? Does she believe that Jesus rode dinosaurs?
It's clear that McCain is trying to hide Palin until Election Day. It's an affront to democracy and an insult to the intelligence of the American public.