Palin (It Never Ends, Does It?)

One thing that fascinates me about Sarah Palin is she seems incapable of completing a sentence without bashing the media. I'm sorry - the "mainstream media." It's like she has a verbal tic and can't stop talking until she has reminded us that the media can't do their job without being some sort of biased, out-to-get-her devil.

Now, whether or not the press really is a pack of devils who hate her (and ONLY her, she'd want you to think) or not, what does she think repeatedly bashing the media is going to accomplish? If she is really serious about running for president in 2012, does she really think she can do it without the media's help? I'm sorry, but if you take on the press, you will lose. I don't care who you are; it's called Meet the Press, not Beat the Press. You can not win. It will not happen. She's got the press following her around begging to put her on the air in a way that any candidate would kill for - is she really stupid enough to squander this asset?

Even MORE absurd to me is you'd think she would've learned this from, of all people, John McCain, her "mentor:"

"The Keating affair also taught McCain a vital lesson about handling the media. When the scandal first broke, he went ballistic on reporters who questioned his wife's financial ties to Keating — calling them "liars" and "idiots." Predictably, the press coverage was merciless. So McCain dialed back the anger and turned up the charm. "I talked to the press constantly, ad infinitum, until their appetite for information from me was completely satisfied," he later wrote. "It is a public relations strategy that I have followed to this day." Mr. Straight Talk was born."

I mean, it's not like she has to dig real deep in the history books to find an example of how to treat the media so it works in your favor. Oh, wait - is a maverick supposed to then turn on his/her mentor, thereby doing the truly mavericky thing? What's the protocol on this? Should she keep some POW's in her office too?