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THE REPUBLICANS have a prob-
Let's be fair. Cheap shots have been taken at Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Some of those barbs have come from ideologues who seem to think that "real women" have to subscribe to the NOW agenda. Perhaps there has been a trace of sexism in the way some have examined Mrs. Palin's credentials.
But none of that justifies the stage-managed, sealed-off shepherding of a nominee who could be, yes, a heartbeat from the presidency in four months. Nor does her appealing personal story render moot a thin resume that has made her fitness for national office a legitimate concern for voters, including some Republicans.
Tonight's vice-presidential debate may help pull back the curtain on how Mrs. Palin views the country and the world. But one debate is no substitute for sustained, substantive questioning of a candidate whose early, infrequent interviews have done little to calm the waters.
That "view of Russia" point, in answer to questions about her foreign-policy expertise, is beginning to sound like more than naivete. Nor does being Generalissima of the Alaska National Guard much enhance one's geomilitary gravitas. No wonder that more than half the voters doubt her qualifications to take over the presidency.
While the three other national candidates banter with the press regularly, between visits to the Sunday-morning TV talk shows, Mrs. Palin parcels out Q&A sessions as if they were rare coins. A photo opportunity at the United Nations with a flirtatious president of Pakistan doesn't cut it. Three TV interviews and a couple of minutes with reporters on the campaign trail are infinitesimal next to the dozens of question sessions handled by the three other candidates.
The GOP campaign has used a toxic brew of political correctness and media bashing to justify its sequestration of Sarah Palin. Operatives not known for their sensitivity to sexism suddenly are the high apostles of the politics of gender.
But the continued sheltering of Mrs. Palin itself constitutes a form of sexism. It's ironic that the first female VP nominee in GOP history, portrayed as a straight-talking, gun-shooting "barracuda," needs to be protected from the big, bad media. Is Keith Olbermann more fearsome than an enraged moose?
No male nominee would be treated so gingerly. Not even Dan Quayle was this barricaded.
POSTSCRIPT
"The closest she [Sarah Palin] has come to the Fourth Estate? Last week's trip to Media--Pennsylvania, that is."--Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist.
