Image of the Week: Palingate

Not all of us follow politics closely. Not all of us watch the news, read the paper or read political blogs.

From ABC:

"Let’s say you don’t read The New York Times or The Washington Post (or The Note, for that matter). Let’s say you don’t follow the big political blogs and you’re not obsessed with every turn of the screw of this fascinating presidential race.

Let’s say, instead, like millions of working-class Americans, you get your “news” on the political race from the supermarket aisle. Let’s say you’re -- I don’t know, a “hockey mom” -- and you’re intrigued by this Sarah Palin person you’ve been hearing so much about since Friday.

So you’re shopping this week -- and what do you see on the cover of US Weekly? That esteemed journalistic institution is taking it right to John McCain’s running mate -- with a hard-hitting piece that details the “scandal” involving her daughter’s pregnancy.

“BABIES, LIES & SCANDAL,” screams the headline on the cover, with a picture of a smiling Palin holding her fifth child, 4-month-old Trig.

Inside is a collection of Palin lowlights -- from her daughter’s now well-known pregnancy; to Internet rumors that the governor pretended to be pregnant to cover for her daughter; to “troopergate”; to her onetime support for the “bridge to nowhere”; to a radio appearance where she giggled while shock jocks called a political rival a “bitch” and a “cancer.”

“Within hours of McCain’s surprise introduction of the little-known, charismatic mother of five as his running mate, the scandals began to emerge as quickly as flies at a Labor Day picnic,” Mara Reinstein writes for the magazine."

This is another clear example of the horrid judgement that McCain has. The US Weekly voters were what McCain needed and this is not going to help.

Question: As much as it makes sense (common sense is not a GOP strong point), McCain will not withdraw her name for VP. And while I found this little gaffe interesting...



...it doesn't mean much besides being a huge (Freudian) slip of the tongue. Back to it, the GOP has been pushing the idea that if Palin even "holds her own" against Biden, then it should be deemed a success. Besides the glaring problems with statements and strategies like that and given the new climate of Palin and all of her baggage, do you think that the Media will give her a pass when she blows it?