Sun-Times: Palin on Ticket to Engage in 'Mean-Spirited Personal Attacks'

Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times appears to be having a hard time accepting the nomination of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential candidate for the United States. On Tuesday she called Republican acceptance of the "bombshell" news that Bristol Palin was pregnant "malarkey" before ranting about the failure of abstinence only messages. 

This morning Mitchell is heaping a new sort of praise onto Sarah Palin, implying that her speech was a mean spirited attack, labeling her as backwoods and stating that discussing her record of experience is a "Republican ploy", i.e. - a trick to highlight Barack Obama's lack of experience.

Sarah Palin may come from the backwoods of Alaska, but she has the heart of a street fighter.

So Democrats shouldn't get entangled in the Republicans' "experience" ploy.

Palin isn't on the Republican ticket because she has been the governor of Alaska for two years.

The people who cooked up this scheme don't care whether Palin will be a heartbeat away from the presidency if something happens to the 72-year-old McCain.

Palin's on the ticket because she's a woman and she isn't afraid to engage in the Republicans' mean-spirited personal attacks.

I am sure that backwoods has a positive connotation in many circles but I am having trouble believing that Mitchell is using it to highlight Palin's strengths. So when Mitchell says backwoods in this context I hear backwards, small town, insignificant, white, Deliverance. But that's just me and perhaps I am overly sensitive in the wake of the sharp knives that the media has whipped out in a frenzy to belittle Governor Palin.

On that point perhaps Mary Mitchell has some valid insights. It's not like identity politics has anything to do with the nomination of Barack Obama. Sarah Palin really is from Alaska and has lived in many small towns in places as foreign to most Americans as Hawaii or Indonesia. Oops.

The "mean-spirited personal attacks" meme is another one of those tactics that the media has been throwing around recently to browbeat people into not discussing the record of Barack Obama. It is a one way ticket for the most part, being labeled as "analysis" when done by the left and a breathtaking statement on how Barack Obama contrasts himself with his republican opponents when practiced by him or his campaign. Not so for candidates on the right.

Mary Mitchell exemplifies what many in the media are doing in lieu of being able to counter the actual specifics of Sarah Palin's speech; they attack her with labels, call her names and characterize her nomination as a ploy, a Republican scheme, a dirty trick. But in doing so they undermine their own message. 

Rather than act as a reflection of Sarah Palin these sort of attacks highlight the truly mean spirited manner in which the mainstream media has treated a person with a resume they would have hoisted upon a pedestal if only she was a Democrat.That is a sad commentary in and of itself.

Terry Trippany is the publisher of Webloggin and holds the post as The Watcher at Watcher of Weasels.