Fair's fair. I've made a point of flagging up some of Sarah Palin's most cringe-making remarks, and some of the parodies. But...
The truly awful Joe Biden hasn't exacty been error-free (just imagine the jeers if it was Gov Palin who had spoken about FDR speaking on TV when dealing with the Wall Street Crash) and has been consistently wrong on some of the bigger issues of our times (see the estimable Gerard Baker's piece here).
And some of the attacks on Sarah Palin are downright unfair. Roy Greenslade joins the pack in mocking her response to Katie Couric's question about her reading matter:
Sarah Palin may know a lot about moose but her grasp of news appears to be shaky. In her latest CBS interview with Katie Couric, the Alaska governor was asked what newspapers and magazines she reads. She couldn't name a single publication.
Instead, she said: "I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media." Couric asked: "What, specifically?"
Palin: "Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."
Couric: "Can you name a few?"
Palin: "I have a vast variety of source where we get our news. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, it seems like 'wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington DC may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?'"
For the record, Palin's university major was in journalism. I saw the interview, and it seemed clear to me not that she couldn't name a single publication but that she wouldn't. She answered the question as she saw fit. If Roy Greenslade really thinks that Sarah Palin is incapable of recalling the name of a single newspaper or magazine then I think it says a lot more about his own prejudices than it does about Sarah Palin.
There are enough substantial reasons to worry about Gov Palin. Let's not make others up.