After the Palin "hail Mary" pass was revealed, the media actually started doing their job - actually vetting this relatively unknown person. And, of all things, pointing out that McCain had made a hasty, politically motivated decision, and that his campaign had not really vetted her. Everyone here was heartened that the press was finally doing its job.
Then, McCain's Rovian strategists suckered them again. Follow me below the fold.
The strategy:
On Tuesday (really the first day of the convention - Monday being wiped out by Gustav), have every surrogate and convention speaker go after the "media elites" and the Obama campaign as being unfair (i.e., sexist) to poor Sarah Palin. Prior to her speech on Wednesday night of the convention, the consistency of this message was astounding (classic Republican message discipline).
At this point, the stage was set. If Palin was able to just read the script provided to her by the Rovians without throwing up, the media would be predisposed to say she did a great job. Without exception (I was watching MSNBC), every Republican surrogate on the convention floor and in the punditocracy said she hit a "homerun". And, sure enough, it worked. The only MSNBC pundit that called it as I saw it - as a mean and nasty political hit job on Obama and Biden, was Rachel Maddow. Everyone else succumbed to the general euphoria. And voila, the narrative, which continues to survive, was that a "star was born". I'm sure that a similar reaction took place, in spades, on all of the other networks.
So, what should be the Democrats' response? I think that talking about the unfairnes of the Republicans' smears and lies would be characterized as whining. Therefore, the coordinated, disciplined Democratic response should be (in so many words):
You, the media, got suckered again? And now, they won't even allow you to ask Palin any questions. This was a "hit and run" job on you, the media.