Is the media being too hard on Palin? Or being less hard on McCain?

Certainly, this debate is going to be heavily scrutinized and spun in ten different directions for the next few days, if not the next month. Setting aside any worthless speculation on that issue, I think I have figured out at least one underlying reason why Gov. Palin has been such a draw to the media (other than the sheer novelty of her selection). Notwithstanding who may have started the phrase, the idea that Gov. Palin is "one heartbeat away" from being president distinguishes her from every other vice presidential candidate. But is it that her selection draws unnecessary emphasis on McCain's age or does it take attention away from McCain himself? I suggest that it's the latter. Whether this strategy is good or bad remains to be seen.

On the one hand, there is all this nonsense talk about the need for experience to be vice president and everybody (that is, everybody except those who have actually been president or v.p.) thinks they know what it takes to be president (or vice president). I say forget about this actual experience question all together. Experience is important, for sure, but as I've said all along, success lies in the decision making process. We need to stop being so results-oriented, particularly since economic change takes at least a decade, if not two. I'm not sure how to begin to tackle that nationwide mentality, though, and it is being exacerbated by the media, so what can any one person really do?

My point to all of this is that it seems that Gov. Palin has shifted everyone's focus from the actual presidential race, or she has minimally changed it to be a referendum on Palin's experience v. Obama's experience. This change is silly: the race isn't Palin v. Obama; however, it's McCain v. Obama. I have stopped being amazed at how everyone on the news seems to have forgotten that. Maybe another thousand point drop on the market will do so. Of course, with both McCain and Obama in favor of big government, maybe the focus should be on the vice presidents, just not to the snippy degree at which they are currently.

A good example of the unfocused attention Gov. Palin is getting is with the Supreme Court case question that Katie Couric threw out at her the other day. While a lawyer is probably aware of any of a dozen or more headliner United States Supreme Court cases in the last century or two (including the most recent second amendment case), the lack of being able to answer this jeopardy question should not be held against Gov. Palin.

To the best of my knowledge, she has had no legal education. If you were to ask someone running for some state office the same question, I'm sure Roe v. Wade would be in the top 3 or 5 cases that would be answered. McCain, who is actually running for president, certainly would have been able to rattle off a couple of cases and nobody would have stirred at the question. Which brings me back to my point.

Is the media being less critical of McCain as a result of Palin? And more importantly, is this shift in focus good or bad for the country? I'll have to give this some thought as the two vice presidential candidates spar it out. Maybe the candidates will be asked something important, such as how their candidate plans on preventing the next banking collapse, or why exactly this affects "joe six pack," who probably has no idea about how those mavericks on Wall Street are impacting their retirement lifestyle.

Tags: palin v. biden