While I'm with those who want to "move back to the real issues", I think progressives have to first decide on how to deal with the media's interest in newcomer Sarah Palin, rather than just ignore it.
To me, she is nothing more or less than John McCain's jump-the-shark moment. While it's debatable what integrity McCain had after he ditched any & all 'principled' stances to gain the nomination, the transparency of pandering in his VP pick was startling.
Yet something about it struck me as familiar.
"When McCain added Sarah Palin as his VP pick, I thought it was a classic Cousin Oliver move – adding a new kid to the show in order to bring in viewers. Palin is Scrappy-Doo, no doubt about it, the annoying, peppy sidekick drawn in next to a confused old dog who can’t dig up any new tricks."- Chad Fifer at The Simon
(Cousin Oliver was the young, precocious kid introduced in the last years of the Brady Bunch to boost interest. That green alien from the future inexplicably introduced on the Flintstones or the "new Rudy" on The Cosby Show are other glaring examples. Simpsons fans will think of Poochie/Roy lampooning these Hail-Mary attempts at a remedy for declining popularity.)
Originally, Ms. Palin brought to my mind the sassy, thoroughly-annoying youngest Seaver sister brought in on the waning years of Growing Pains, but props to Fifer for an astute call. The young, smack-talking Scrappy-Doo is a spot on match for Palin, defined by others as "scrappy" and self-identified as canine.
As progressives struggle to get a handle on what Palin signifies, the Cousin Oliver trope fits her all too well. McCain's tired message force-fitted with a blatant marketability tool.
Ignoring Governor Palin altogether isn't the answer. John Kerry & Al Gore both ignored attacks in an attempt to stick to the important issues, and they failed (though Gore actually won by a little bit). However, making the focus of our attacks only serves to inflate her significance. When she comes up, the best tack IMO is to
#1) destroy her position on the issue itself (be it earmarks, taxes, creationism, holy war, the reality of drilling benefits, or the question of choice, here the facts are squarely on our side, as are the polls (with the exception of a national overestimation of the impact of drilling on gas prices))
#2) acknowledge her addition to the ticket as a transparent ploy
#3) move on to McCain and how Obama's plans are more comprehensive and reality-based.
Now when I hear Sarah Palin's spurious attacks, I think of Scrappy-Doo's uninspired, catchphrase-ready fighting words "Puppy POWER!" and move on to more important matters...