The Republicans won't let Sarah Palin speak to the media? Oh, wait, they'll let her speak, but only to someone they designate and that will be a while from now? Oh, and the guy they select might be a lapdog? Shocking.

Why is it that Rovian politics can devote flyspecking media outrage to "issues" as earthshattering as whether Obama is a bad bowler or Hillary is not "sincere" enough for a shot and a beer, but the Dems instantly agonize over whether they will be chastized if they question the background of Sarah Palin when she is sprung from nowhere at the convention and prevented from answering even the most obvious questions by her Rovian handlers?

Why is it that Meet the Press leads today's interview with Joe Biden by playing a clip of Sarah Palin's smarmy convention soundbite about her mayoral experience as involving "real responsibilities", and Joe Biden is not prepped to observe that this VP candidate's first act once given "real responsibilities" in an American town was to try to have books banned from the town library? What does that one action tell the American public about this woman, and doesn't that also itself provide a pretty clear explanation for why the Republican Party won't let her be interviewed? Why should the Democrats let the Republicans have a week or so to prepare this shill to give a hand-picked shill interview, when the Democrats could be nailing this person for demonstrating exactly the very lack of judgment and outright disdain for fundamental principles of the United States that every American, in every town large and small, should recognize almost instinctively?

We don't ban books here. It's a Kevin Costner baseball movie, Field of Dreams: "Who's with Eva Braun here? Who wants to spit on the Constitution of the United States of America? Who wants to stand up for the kind of censorship that they had under Stalin?" Let the Republicans explain what part of Civics 101 Sarah Palin missed that caused her to start her elected career by attempting to ban books, don't watch her belittle community activism and tout her valuable elected responsibilities and say nothing more than "that was a good line", which is what Biden did on national television.

Or maybe the Dems will just keep wringing their hands and waiting for the media to grow a spine. Maybe it's a different Costner baseball movie, Bull Durham, where Costner says to the rookie pitcher (here, the Democrats): "You couldn't hit water if you fell out of a f*cking boat."

Palin is able to read a teleprompter on TV, including in front of a huge audience (at least a huge adoring audience). She has proven that, but only that, and her background as a behind-the-anchor-desk TV reporter makes that neither surprising nor suggestive of greater abilities.

But it also suggests that the GOP is shielding her now to control the soundbites. And to prime her for mouthing zingers, not substantive analyses. Any bets on whether they're trying to come up with something to be compared to Reagan's "there you go again"? Of course they are. And as Glenn points out, it will work for them and the Democrats should understand they're going to go that route, not the route of "reasoned argument".

Can Biden respond in a debate with "at least I'm not a book burner, you Nazi cow" right out of Field of Dreams? Not unless the reality of that little incident of power corrupting New Mayor Palin is established in people's minds first. What other obvious points of reference in Americana can be brought to bear?

Speaking of creating backdrops, who is winning that media soundbite fest right now? Palin's "when they take the styrofoam columns back to the movie lot" reference to Obama's speech backdrops, or the McCain campaign getting allowed a "no comment" for the astonishingly inept use of a photo of "Walter Reed Middle School" in McCain's speech? Come on, Dems, don't waste gimmees.

Who else has been wondering what the scene was like when Sarah Palin "gave in to public outcry" and rescinded her firing of the librarian who balked when asked to remove books Palin didn't approve of from the library shelves?

Do you suppose there was some kind of town meeting in the high school gym, and Kevin Costner's fiesty wife told her off with "Who's with Eva Braun here?....At least I'm not a book burner, you Nazi cow!"

Nah, it probably didn't happen quite that way. But that would have been cool, huh?

In fact, as the Rethugs' Big Guns expectorated in Obama's general direction at their convention, the word "Consitution" was notably absent from their stated reasons why they want to retain control of the presidency. Bush didn't mention the word. Palin didn't mention the word. Thompson didn't mention the word. Giuliani didn't mention the word. Romney referred to the Constitution as a basis for attacking a "liberal" Supreme Court.

Obama went on record at the DNC in his speech, accepting the challenge of the Oath of Office to "protect and defend the Constitituion." The Rethugs have completely ignored that one, singular, constitutionally-mandated cornerstone of the President's oath to the nation. Seems marginally relevant to me.

And it isn't accidental. The Rethugs hate the Constitution, consider it inconvenient, quaint and irrelevant, and they are asking us to agree with them.