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The McCain campaign is playing the media.
The right wing base has a slight inferiority complex and their politicians exploit it. Why shouldn't they? They often claim that the media is liberally biased, and now they can say the ubiquitous media is attacking a 17-year-old girl. Damn liberals!
Of course, this so-called-attacking comes from fringe postings on a (often times more than slightly unhinged) left-wing blog; hardly part of the media establishment, but no matter. The campaign can play it that way and paint broad strokes of umbrage all over the "real" media talking-head-a-thons 'til the bias meme sticks nice and snug all over again. I've yet to hear any respectable media outlet attack and rough up Palin over this. In fact, they've been quite subdued about it, as they should be. The actual issue of her daughter doesn't really matter.
Perception matters though.
The thing that stinks is that it doesn't cut both ways. Lefty ranters are somehow part and parcel to Obama, but connecting someone like Bush to someone like Coulter? Doesn't matter to 'em. But for a lot of the right's base, it seems to me it's more black and white and I think they really put these rantings under the same umbrella and constantly infer that Obama is holding it.
I wouldn't put it past them (Rove's protege is part of the campaign) that they manufactured some of the goofier user posts over at Kos to whip this stuff up. A ranting lefty is not a welcome entity here in the heartland and it's a good way to create an "us vs. them" story-line. Take a visit to some right wing blogs/forums and you'll get the jist.
Even if the whole response to the "vicious attack rumors" on Palin are not by design, it plays right into the right's pocket.
"You godless hippie libs, you think you're so smarter than us, go stick it!"
That stuff works. I have friends in those circles. It really works.
