I've heard this one a lot as of late. It goes more or less like this: "How can we be asked to stop smearing Palin and her children if they were all invited to the convention, the cameras zoomed in on them a lot, and Sarah spoke about them?
Do I even have to bother explaining why this makes no sense?
Having your relatives be part of the biggest moment of your career is not an invitation to make stuff up against them.
Collins today:
The speech was very well done. The Palin family — who we’re supposed to ignore, but they did sort of seem to be pretty much front and center — were adorable.
Collins says they were adorable. Can she claim with a straight face that Republicans will take offense at the compliment?
This line of argument is called the "black and white" fallacy, whereby the speaker pretends there are only two extreme choices, in this case: Either speak about the children and their mother, or ignore them at all.
No one has suggested that Palin's close relatives be ignored. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The attacks on her teenage daughter and the lies about Palin (See Daily Kos) have been specifically mentioned by Republicans as the problem in question.
Collins' piece is otherwise good --mocking Peggy Noonan's open-mic hypocrisy-- specially in those paragraphs where she placated her anger caused by being part of a group Palin singled out for criticism: The media.