A Silence that Speaks Volumes

Unbelievably, and without being called on this sorry sack of garbage by anybody in the mainstream media, the Republican Party has declared that nobody from the media can interview its Vice President candidate for two weeks.

Can you imagine what would happen if Obama declared that he would be off-limits to reporters' questions for two weeks a mere six weeks before election day?

Or Hillary? The din from the howls on the Right--that is, from CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and of course Faux would be paralyzing and without end.

Unless she's back in Alaska scrubbing human bloodstains out of the RV, or buying off everybody she's ever known, or having a baby, the only reason the Republicans don't want Palin to meet reporters for two whole weeks is that she doesn't know squat about anything that might reach the level of national policy.

But how can this be? Weren't we assured that she's been thoroughly vetted, that she's ready to be Veep right now and to be Leader of the Free World on Day 1 should anything happen to McSame? Haven't we been told that she's even more qualified than Obama and Biden?

They weren't sequestered to cram for two weeks. They've run the (hostile) media gauntlet for years. Obama just took on that rabid ignoramus O'Reilly, yet.

This reminds me of Bush, who wouldn't allow members of the Senate to interview him without Unca Dick by his side. What's with these people? Don't they know this kind of thing screams "I was a teen-age flunkout"?

We're told repeatedly that campaigning at the national level is its own vetting, its own essential part of preparation for high office. But if there's no need for her to endure a full term of campaigning, then obviously either she's fully prepared or there's something to hide.

What's being hidden is her phenomenal unreadiness. The decision, then, is part of a continuing fraud on the American people perpetrated by Karl Rove and John McCain in service of a Republican victory at any cost. In these two weeks, senior GOP handlers and advisors will attempt to pour into this empty vessel all the substance, judgment, insight, and wisdom of a George Bush. Who else? That's where th advisors come from, after all. For some reason, even if she's a talented empty vessel, a willing sponge, I'm not reassured.

Beyond that, Andrew Sullivan put this well. It's creepy. It's eery. It's frightening. It's shades of The Manchurian Candidate, where Palin is the candidate and phalanxes of Christianists, Neocons, Bushmen, and Rove are the brainwashers.

Come to think of it, this is fitting for a woman of the Christianist Far Right. After all, she's supposed to be a willing receptacle. She's not meant to teach or lead persons of the male gender. She's only supposed to do as she's told.

Is there a worse example for America's girls?

Since W was "elected," has there been a more transparent travesty of truth?