Hey Sarah, Could you imagine the ruckus if Barack Obama had been seen glancing down at his hand?

BuzzFlash Guest Commentary

By Dee Evans

So, Sarah Palin using crib notes in the palm of her hand during a Question and Answer segment on live television is no big deal.  When did that happen???
 
I was completely astonished to hear Chuck Todd of MSNBC tell Andrea Mitchell this morning, “well, we’ve all used notes.”  Well Chuck, I have news for you. We have not all been elected as Governor of a state, we have not all been one step away from being Vice President of the United States and we have not all been considered a serious candidate for the leader of the free world.  THAT’S the difference!
 
Had John McCain won the election, can you imagine what a joy it would have been for the foreign media to see ‘Vice President Palin’ reading notes from her hand during a press conference (not a speech—a press conference) in France or China or Russia?  You think they made fun of George Bush?
 
And for those who keep harping on, “well she had notes in her hand for a speech, so what?”  WRONG!  She had note cards in her hands for her speech…she had crib notes written in her hand for a Q&A with ‘pre-screened’ questions from tea partiers.  Excuse me, but that’s akin to cheating on an open book test given by your family!
 
I grew up always believing that we set higher expectations and standards for the proposed leaders of our country, not lower them.  So why is Sarah Palin getting a free pass on this one?  Could you imagine the ruckus if Barack Obama had been seen glancing down at his hand to answer questions on live TV back during the Presidential campaign or if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was caught reading notes from her hand for a Q&A session overseas?  The Right would sing 52 rounds of the Hallelujah Chorus, the media would have a 6-week long field day and the news viewing public would never recover.  But for some reason, Sarah Palin is untouchable.  Oh well, so much for ready on day one.
 
This story seems to be getting the old gloss over treatment in the media, much like another major story a few years ago where the media asked very few questions before and can’t seem to stop asking questions after.  Oh yeah, the Iraq War!  How’d that little scenario work out? 
 
We were all so stunned after 9/11 that basically anything the Bush Administration said and did went pretty much unchallenged--and we now seem to be so stunned as a nation over Palinmania that it’s happening all over again.
 
Yes, the media’s love affair with Ms. Palin has all the feel of the Iraq War vetting process—the new and improved Presidential edition!