MMFA has a point to the extent that the elitist msm's patronizing coverage of Palin is endemic. Time and again the msm has dismissed her accomplishments, polluting the airwaves with bs skepticism regarding her competency to be vp. The lowering of the bar is due singularly to the media's biased coverage against the McCain campaign in general, and Palin in particular

Accomplishments? Competency to by VP?  Surely you jest.

I propose we change the MMFA charter from:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

TO

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, political advocacy and secular progressive research tool for the far left dedicated to the justification and active promotion of a liberal philosophy and comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and manipulating conservative information in the U.S. media.

PS. There is no conservative misinformation being presented here, it's just MMFA pushing their political adgenda.

What accomplishments? She hasn't had any, aside from being elected Governor. Sportscaster? She was once part of the media. Taking 8 years to get her bachelor's degree? What do we call someone who went to school for 8 years? Doctor... Not in Palin's case.

What BS skepticism? It's not BS, it's actual, you know, real world skepticism. Why? She's dumb as a rock, and is an extreme right wing relgious fundamentalist. Maybe if the McCain campaign allowed her to be questioned, and had her do events where she would, you know, answer questions, maybe said skepticism would be eliminated? Although, the times she has been interviewed, she has not done well at all, and looked to be, well, not very bright. She and McCain are doing this to Palin. It's not as if the media are making this stuff up about here.

What accomplishment's you ask?  Why she can see Russia out her window by gum!  Where do you think Putin goes when he rears his head?  Alaska.  That's where.

Oh and also, it seems she can field dress a moose, which can come in mighty handy in the Whitehouse.  You know who else could probably field dress a moose? How about Teddy Roosevelt!  There you go now.

Magnolialover:  I agree with everything you posted except for one thing:  Palin is NOT dumb as a rock.  She knows how to get power and keep it by littering the snowy landscape with the bodies of her opponents. Don't let that cute air-head pose fool you.  She is fully prepared to destroy Biden tomorrow night.  Karl Rove and god knows who else have given her expert coaching.  That, combined with her highly professional "dumb bunny" act will surprise us all.  She was playing with Couric and Gibson.  They fell for it, big time.  Obviously, so have we.  (Well...not me.) 

Well, we'll find out tonight whether all the left wing smears and dismissiveness are unfounded. 

I think you don't understand your own claims.  "Smears" implies untruths; pointing out reality, even when you don't like it, is not "smearing" anybody.  You are already defending claims that are so weak that a simple google search disproves them, and claiming "smears" weakens your argument even more. 

I'm sure with all the left wing smears out there, you should be able to show us where and who in the media have been smearing Palin. Please, be specific and use links to educate the rest of us. I mean, if there are so many out there, this should be easy right?

And for the record, the definition of "smear" is:
• Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

The lowering of the bar is due singularly to the media's biased coverage against the McCain campaign in general, and Palin in particular

On what planet have you been...?  Sarah Palin has herself revealed how uninformed she is on national and international matters...and when she tried to fake it she got busted.  I'll bet even I know more about foreign affairs than she does...or at least did until the neocons started giving her a crash course in spreading freedom through military world domination.

No one has pointed out, either, that in these Alaska debates she's said to do so well in, she's using written notes in front of her-- CHEAT SHEETS. She's constantly rifling through them.

That makes it about 10,000 times easier for her. So how come nobody in the MSM has mentioned this? -- there's a photo of her using them, in the NYT today.

I never thought I'd see it...... but looking at Charlie Gibson's (Define the Bush doctrine) and Katie Couric's (name a Supreme Court ruling other than Roe v Wade) faces upon Sarah's 'deer in headlight look'! Yeah....she's worthy, my ass!

Using just these two clips alone should be enough to rally the crazy rightwing base to try and come to her rescue.....

"How dare Charlie and Katie be so mean to Sarah.... I'd love to have a beer with her while shooting lib.......er moose, so that's good enough for me!"

All the more reason for those of us that live in reality to get up, get active (in getting everyone to vote) ..... and as Thom Hartmann always says.... Tag, Your it!

Yes, but Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric are just shameless 'gotcha' journalists who practice their evil 'gotcha' style tactics throughout the liberal elite MSM because they are beholden to Hollywood pinko socialist commies and gay mexican immigrants.

Duh!

Oh, cut the media bias crap. Anytime any ineptitude is pointed out by the media you guys scream "liberal bias". It's old. This is a candidate that can't get through a simple interview without it turning into a Beckett play and somehow it's the medias fault. 

You have a point, though not exactly what you claim. It's equally true that the mccain camp really hopes that the general populace is underestimating Palin. The lower the bar, the better she'll star...

"Time and again the msm has dismissed her accomplishments,"

Ok thomp.steve9098, since you brought it up..........

Why don't ya list them and show the 'msm' how to do their job!

It's common knowledge that most reasonable people expect Palin to do poorly in comparison to Biden. The people of this country have set the bar low for her based on what she has done so far in the campaign. This is a very weak point by MMFA because the fact is that the public expectations for Palin ARE LOW.

They should both be held to the same standard and not measured against some silly set of expectations IMO.  This is what has failed in the politics of our country.  People spend much time driving down expectations just to make anything look like a victory.

I think Palin is going to surprise everyone by actually sounding like she knows what she is talking about.  She has had a week or so to prepare.  It really isn't that difficult to avoid sounding like you are a moron.

Palin was also a journalist in Alaska.  She has had experience in front of cameras.  People are going to be too focused on her not making an arse of herself to even pay attention to the answers.  Palin is going to win this one hands down and never be seen much until after the election in an unscripted situation.

"It really isn't that difficult to avoid sounding like you are a moron"

Not to nitpick, but didn't you just drive down Palin's expectations? :) 

In any event, I agree with you, she will be prepared and there is probably more hype than will ever materialize.  What we need is for her to give a press conference, let her defend her views and positions like every other politician running for office does.  But she won't, you are right, they will keep the bubble around her and hope she rallies enough of the right's base to eek out a victory for McCain.  Pretty sad, isn't it?

No tommy, I hold that record. It's mine, and mine alone! Bwaa-haa-haa-haaaaah!

"But she won't, you are right, they will keep the bubble around her and hope she rallies enough of the right's base to eek out a victory for McCain.  Pretty sad, isn't it?"

If only you were as aware of this kind of manipulation in 2000 and 2004.

The right is trying to keep the bar low so any performance will be considered a success. That and they get to attack "snooty elitist" Biden.

So the ' No Child Left Behind " program is shelved ??????

Off topic, but I love this, only on Fox...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkqosRiyYo

flame-out

THursday night is comedy night.

Here are a few suggested drinking games. Chug a beer each time Sarah Palin says... (Choose one)

Freedom...

The terrorists...

Eye-Rack...

Proud...

Russia...

Any word ending in the letter "G" which she pronounces with the  "G" silent...

Chug a

Irony,

You forgot:

In what respect... (as in, her answer to Gibson asking her to define the Bush doctrine)

or

Canada

Also..... remember.... this will be Sarah Palin tonight...... not Tina Fey! Although.... we might not be able to tell?

I hope Sarah will not be able to resist going into her adorable act...animated facial expressions, girlish voice inflections, etc. That alone pegs her as a lightweight...a conniving one who uses her gender to charm people, to hide her shortcomings and to pass off bullshet as truth.

In focusing on her shallow depth of knowledge, one thing people have forgotten is how Palin lied about her own record to make herself look good. The Bridge to Nowhere...and how she tried to paint herself as being against earmarks when in reality she was the earmark queen? I hope she goes that route tonight. Sarah Palin's lack of honesty is just as important as her cluelessness.

Irony wrote:

>>I hope Sarah will not be able to resist going into her adorable act...animated facial expressions, girlish voice inflections, etc. That alone pegs her as a lightweight...a conniving one who uses her gender to charm people, to hide her shortcomings and to pass off bullshet as truth.

You got your wish. She actually winked at the audience at one point. Tina Fey is going to have some material to work with. Apparently, the people in the snap polls thought she came across as authentic; but the same polls show Biden winning the debate handily.

this would be funny if Palin was on the the game show "Who's Smarter Than a 5th Grader"...but this is for the VP of the United States of America...YIKES!!!!

Yes, let's have low expecations here. After all, we're only talking about Vice President of the United States, and the possible leader of the free world if something happens to John McCain, who has already had cancer 4 times.

Let's vote for "Ms. Joe Six-Pack" because she's the candidate I'd rather have a beer with. That worked out so well with George W. Bush, didn't it?

If you dare point out Palin is unintelligent, you're just being "elitist". In other words, Palin should just get a free pass. If you hold the female candidate to the same exact standards as every other candidate, that is being "sexist" apparently.

What Palin will likely do is follow the techniqes "W" used against Anne Richards. Stick to a handful of points, regardless of what the questions are, needle and attack the opponent and get Biden to attack her, and then play the victim of an elitist attack against mainstreet America

Hot Off The Press:just In.Palins spokesperson just said that the reason she didn't answer Courics questions was,in regards to the reading part"she felt that If she had left out any newspaper that she reads that paper would have gotten offended".And in regards to the Supreme court she would have mentioned"Exxon/Valdes" decision by the Supremes,but she didn't want to bring that up.Even though that affected her state Big Time.The spokesperson said that the governor is always"thinking ahead to the next question" that is why she didn't have an answer.Makes sense to me.

What a joke. Why didn't she just say she didn't want to offend any paper by leaving them out as the reason for not answering the question? Why not mention one of the many Supreme Court decisions we all learned about in school? Was the Exxon-Valdes decision the ONLY other court decision she could possibly mention or something? Why not just throw out Brown vs. the Board of Education, or Plessy vs. Ferguson, or the Dred Scott decision, or even recent cases like Hamdan or Bush vs. Gore.

Nice attempt at damage control by the McCain-Palin camp. It might work for people completely biased towards their side.

Nice try at spin right there of course. Normal intelligent people can see right through that BS.