Sarah Palin was talking with Chris Wallace today on Fox News Sunday, defending Rand Paul against the media. She calls it "gotcha journalism", and all the Democrats call her crazy for making that complaint.

Democrats, on the other hand, complain of "swiftboating". Republicans generally poo-poo that complaint, pointing out that they are only asking the public to remember facts which occurred more than twelve seconds ago. Joe Sestak, for instance, screamed of "swiftboating" when Arlen Specter pointed out that Sestak, a three-star admiral, had retired as only a two-star admiral because of deficient performance. Sestak refused to release his service record, and refused to deny the allegation, and acted as if this was some sort of malicious attack which proved that Specter was really still a Republican.

Taking Sides

Now, I'll fess up here. I call myself an "independent that votes in the GOP primary" but over the last half century, I've mostly voted for Republican presidential candidates rather than Democrats. Consequently, it's understandable that I'm on the side of taking personal responsibility.

What Sarah Palin calls "gotcha journalism" is what I would call "good journalism" in that it's demanding that politicians (and others) answer for their words and deeds. Giving someone a pass isn't being a journalist, it's being a publicity agent. That being said, it's unfair to ambush someone with absurd allegations they are unprepared to address - but in this case, Rachel Maddow wasn't making any allegations at all. She was asking for a clarification of Dr. Paul's political philosophy.

And Furthermore

Because it went into areas that Dr. Paul wasn't expecting to cover, he wasn't prepared to dodge questions with glib bumper-sticker responses as Mrs. Palin prefers to do. On the other hand, Paul chose to address those questions, and he did so in a fairly clumsy manner.

You know what the definition of "gaffe" is in the District of Columbia, don't you? It's "accidentally telling the truth."

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
Arlen Specter - Chris Wallace - gotcha journalism - Joe Sestak - personal responsibility - Sarah Palin - swiftboating