The people in the media aren’t stupid. However, if it suits their purposes, they can play the part well.

For example on the ABC News 20/20 special, ABC showed a series of clips of her delivering the same line repeatedly at stop after stop.

I’m shocked that a candidate for national office has a speech that they deliver over and over again. When delivering 2-3 speeches a day, why don’t they write 2 or 3 different speeches every single day?

The reason that most canidates (not just Palin) have standard stump speeches is one of pure practicality. They don’t have time to write several new speeches a day and they don’t have a whole lot new to say from day to day during the same campaign.

The repetitiveness of the speeches bores political junkies who would like to watch every speech on television, but for your average American who doesn’t watch a thousand rallies, it’s new to them, so it’s okay.

Then CNN discovers *shock of all shocks* that Palin’s speech varies from one location to another.

*Gasp!* Really?

You mean she doesn’t highlight her differnces with the audience she’s speaking to. How…polite of her. Do other politicians go out of their way to antagonize their audience by highlighting areas of disagreement such as Palin would do by bringing up nuclear power in Nevada?

I’m sure Obama would. I remember when Obama was asked about abortion at the Saddleback Forum that he told the audience there, the same thing he did at NARAL. He said, “The first thing I’ll do in office is sign a bill removing all restrictions from abortion, so that your daughters can get abortions without your permission and you’ll have to pay for abortions for any reason whatsoever.” Actually, I think he said something about it being above his pay grade to know when unborn children get rights.

Finally, we all have all the phony scandal stories coming out of Alaska. It seems that while Governor Palin has made solid ethics reforms, and is earning atmospheric approval ratings that some people don’t like here and are upset like:

• The mayor she defeated for re-election.
• Bureaucrats she fired.
• Other political opponents.

I’m dumbstruck by the media’s shock. Apparently, the only acceptable way to reform government is in a way in which you leave all government personnel on staff and don’t ruffle any feathers.

If you’re going to reform government, guess what? You’re more likely that not going to show some bureaucrats the door.  And some powerful people you defeated (like her 2006 Independent opponent for Governor who brought the troopergate allegations) are going to have axes to grind. The same thing goes for powerful interests who will undermine you every step of the way.

Good governors will do their best to do what’s right for the people. Along the way, they’ll make enemies. Now, in the Internet age, some of these enemies will take to blog attacks. I’ve had at least one bitter Alaskan show up in the comments of the blog to compare Governor Palin to Hugo Chavez. I’ve had quite a few Arkansans show up to attack Mike Huckabee. In both cases, neither contingent represented the majority of their state.

However, the media is not only breathlessly reporting every half-baked rumor and allegation about Sarah Palin to come across their desk but treating it as if it’s 100% gospel truth. Media people who are famously skeptical about sources seem to treat uncritically claims of people who have obvious grudges against the Governor, never even considering, “Well, duh, this guy doesn’t like her, she took away his mayor job and then defeated him by an earth-shakingly embarrassing margin when he tried to make a comeback.”

Instead, Christmas has come early for some bitter malcontents in Alaska who never dreamed they’d be able to get payback to Sarah Palin for smashing their political machines like a still uncovered on the Andy Griffith Show. The media is willing to act as their tools, starring in the role of “Stupid” and hoping that you and I will play along.