Happy Halloween! **Open Thread**

I don’t usually read Parade, but I’m not surprised by the stupid question regarding Palin. People on the right have to be extremely carefull with statements of fact. If Palin ever were to claim something (like graduating college) that later turned out to be false, her career would be over. You can be certain that she would never put in print something that could so easily be disproven. Perhaps we need to identify and name a new group of conspiracy nitwits “Palin truthers”.

The recent controversy with Rush is a good example of the double standard. Five years ago Rush made the comment that many sports journalists inflated Donovan McNabb’s acomplishments because they wanted a black quarterback to be successful. That’s a debateable statement and worthy of consideration. I didn’t see it as racist, the way it was trumped up to be. It became a huge controversy that got him fired from MNF. Just recently, a very prominent figure on the left (I forget who right now) made the rather common knowledge type statement that the media were understandably pulling for Obama because he was the first black President. Not an eyebrow was raised. How is that statement ANY different from Rush’s observation? Because Rush was unfairly pilloried back then, it set the board for even greater character assassination this time around when he was part of a group attempting to buy the Rams. Intentional defamitory misinformation of fictional racist statements that Rush never made was the form of this latest distortion campaign. But unlike Rush, Palin doesn’t have vast monetary reserves to fight similar devious and maliciously false attacks. So, without the ability of an effective counter attack, Palin will remain the favorite target for such spurious assaults, unless or until a large block of her supporters help her fight back. Creeps like Letterman and Olbermann need to be hammered EVERY TIME they take cheap shots at her. When it finally becomes unpopular lie about, or unfairly ridicule Palin, the attacks will stop from all but the most rabid detractors. Support for and faith in Palin’s future, is not misplaced.