Sarah Palin's approval rating in Alaska last month was 81.6 percent. That means for every person who doesn't like Ms. Palin, there are four who do. But reporters seem only to quote her political enemies, without identifying them as such.

Media honchos say they're just doing due diligence.

"Intense, independent scrutiny by the Times and the rest of the news media of Palin's background, character and record was inevitable and right," declared Clark Hoyt, the "public editor" of the New York Times.

But their hypocrisy is so pronounced the hicks from the sticks have noticed. Among other things, the media moguls expect us to believe:

* That inexperience in foreign policy is a fatal defect in the Republican candidate for vice president, but unimportant in the Democratic candidate for president.

* That a DUI 22 years ago by the husband of the Republican candidate for vice president is scandalous, but the Democratic candidate for president's admission that he was snorting cocaine at about the same time is too insignificant to mention.

* That the pregnancy of the teenage daughter of the Republican candidate for vice president is fair game, but the fact that a Democratic candidate for president (John Edwards) was conducting an extramarital affair while his wife was suffering from incurable cancer should not be reported out of respect for their privacy.

* That it is scandalous that Sarah Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, sought earmarks for her town, but unworthy of mention that Barack Obama has steered earmarks to the hospital where his wife works, and to his major contributors.

* That the pastors of the churches Sarah Palin attends in Wasilla and Juneau are worthy subjects of investigation, but that the pastor of the racist church Barack Obama attended in Chicago for more than 20 years should be off limits.

A news media which is probing every aspect of Sarah Palin's life has been remarkably incurious about Barack Obama's relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20080909/cm_rcp/the_medias_due_dilligence

who would have guessed???

NEW YORK - House Republican leaders demanded Tuesday that embattled Rep. Charles Rangel be removed from his post as chairman of a tax-writing committee while an ethics panel reviews his personal finances.

The GOP's latest thrust against Rangel came as his advisers acknowledged he will pay back federal, state, and city taxes for unreported rent collected on a vacation home. The episode is particuarly embarassing for a legislator with oversight of the nation's tax code, and one who has been in Congress for nearly four decades.

Rangel's lawyer has already acknowledged he had not reported some $75,000 in rental income on the property over two decades, and that for more than a decade he paid no interest on his mortgage for the property. His lawyer insists that any tax mistakes were minor and accidental.

The congressman will soon file amended tax returns paying "modest" back taxes owed for the last several years, said Davis. Initially, the lawyer said the amount could be thousands of dollars in each category but hours later backed off those figures, saying it was unclear what the amounts of taxes owed would be.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_go_co/rangel_vacation_villa_3

And he's chairman of a tax writing committee???

After months of record-breaking fundraising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon them.

Pushing a fundraiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of Obama’s national finance committee, calling their recent efforts “extremely anemic".

The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fundraising totals have suggested Obama’s decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Sen. John McCain that many had originally predicted.

Presidential candidates in a general election have typically relied on two main sources of money —public financing, along with additional money that their parties raise. In choosing to accept the public money, the McCain campaign now gets an $84 million cash infusion from the U.S. Treasury.

But the campaign is struggling to meet ambitious fundraising goals it set for the campaign and the party. It collected in June and July far less from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s donors than originally projected. Moreover, McCain, unlike Obama, will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Obama must do.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N37/long3.html

Guess Obama shouldn't have smeared Hillary and Bill quite so much!

than Bush.