My buddy David Freddoso has a great article today unmasking the out-and-out journalistic fraud being committed against Gov. Sarah Palin.

She is not perfect, and I still say she's a hand grenade who could blow up the entire McCain campaign.  But this is ridiculous:

In the Washington Post, a respected reporter noted disapprovingly that Palin had “slashed” funds for a program benefiting pregnant teens. He failed to mention the relevant fact that she was using her line-item veto power to quadruple funds for the program instead of quintupling them.

In 2000, Palin endorsed and campaigned for Steve Forbes for president. This week, Obama’s campaign spokesman and Obama’s surrogate, Rep. Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), falsely stated that Palin had supported Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. Wexler then smeared her and Buchanan by calling her a “Nazi sympathizer” on those grounds. The Nation and MSNBC reported the Obama campaigners’ false statements as fact. CNN posted a picture of Palin at the rostrum in this pose.

Here's the mainstream media's record thus far covering Hurricane Sarah: Sexist, elitist and factually incorrect. 

Well, the longest, lamest night of the RNC is finally over (isn't it? Please, God, tell me Tom Ridge isn't still talking...) and where are we?

The new CBS poll says that Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain are tied, but this is a poll of adults--not even registered voters, much less likely voters--so it's of dubious value.

However, Gov. Palin had 40 million viewers Wednesday night, far more than Sen. Biden, and almost as many as Sen. Obama. That despite the fact that BET, Univision and two other major cable networks that carried Obama's speech didn't carry hers.

The media has taken yet another beating.  I wrote about it in the Boston Herald, and the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz asked me about it, too.  Perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious moment was when Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews concluded three days of "She oughtta stay home with them babies!" talk by actually claiming on the air that they never criticized Palin as a mom.  Amazing.

But the only thing that really matters is how this week has set up John McCain for the coming battle.  Answer: Pretty well.  A presidential race that was becoming unwinnable for the GOP is competitive.  The base is energized. The ratings were great.  And the one message that people tuning in likely took away is "McCain and Palin are rocking the boat."

Which brings us to the best news of the week for those of us who love talking politics: The next two months will be anything but boring.

I've been swept up by Hurricane Palin, too! Read all about it in the Boston Herald today.

Now THAT'S a nickname!  (Though "Sarah Barracuda" isn't bad, either.)

I've been surprised by the relatively muted response from the mainstream press to the Palin pick.  Quite frankly, I expected more pundits to go full-Olbermann on her.  But the attitude I've gotten from folks I've spoken to here at the RNC--like Susan Page at USA Today and Michael Barone at US News And World Report--is "So far, so good.  Who knows--it might actually work!

"Meanwhile, Palin's having precisely the effect I expected to see from the Loony Left.  Sen. John Kerry blew a gasket on ABC This Week, accusing Gov. Palin of being a member of the Flat Earth Society. (He also got her position on global warming wrong, too); one Democratic activists was quoted as saying McCain isn't the first old man to fall for a showgirl; and Andrew Sullivan erroneously claimed she was a Buchananite because she welcomed Pat to her town when she was mayor.  Other angry Democrats keep falsely accusing Gov. Palin of pushing for the teaching of Creationism in science class, too. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

And Alan "I'm Only On Fox To Make Conservatives Look Smarter" Colmes had a repugnant posting on his web page accusing Gov. Palin of denying her youngest son Trig proper prenatal care.  If you think that's bad, some Daily Kos nuts are claiming that Gov. Palin was never pregnant at all, that Trig is her oldest daughter's illegitimate baby and Palin's "pregnancy" was just a cover-up.  After all, how did Gov. Palin have time to get pregnant when she was so busy planning the "controlled demolition" of the World Trade Center?

Monday morning, from 9am-noon, I will be explaining exactly how choosing Palin can work--how it might be a stroke of political genius, in fact--assuming, that is, that she doesn't turn into Dan Quayle.

But this article comparing Palin vs. Obama on the experience question shows the potential benefits of going with the Governor.

And for those of you still looking for Palin-related bumper stickers, don't miss this one.

(h/t to Ladyblog and, of course, Wayne's World) 

Sarah Palin:

The Experience of Barack Obama,

The Electoral College Votes of Joe Biden

And maybe the best ever. David Brooks (one of my guests this morning from Denver) nails the DNC show hilariously.

Ladies and gentleman, I never expected to be speaking before you today. Like so many of our speakers at this convention, I come from a hard-working, middle-class family. I was leading a miserable little life, but, nevertheless, overcame great odds to live the American Dream. My great-grandfather fought in Patton’s Army, along with Barack Obama’s great-grand uncles’ fourth cousin once removed.

As a child, I was abandoned by my parents and lived with a colony of ants. We didn’t have much in the way of material possession, but we did have each other and the ability to carry far more than our own body weights. When I was young, I was temporarily paralyzed in a horrible anteater accident, but I never gave up my dream: the dream of speaking at a national political convention so my speech could be talked over by Wolf Blitzer and a gang of pundits.

Read the whole thing.

Wednesday night was the Democrats best night of the convention by far...and that's very good news for Republicans.

He closed with the stronger one, namely that the GOP doesn't deserve to be rewarded for the past 8 years.  That argument works because it's fundamentally true in many ways.

But he began with a speech endorsing Barack Obama, and that was, well, embarrassing. 

What made his speech smart was that Joe Biden made a case, an argument, and did so while making a connection to Reagan Democrats. And the strategy of attacking McCain's judgment on foreign policy is smart, too.  Going point by point arguing that Sen. Obama was right and McCain wrong on security issues could help close Obama's "Commander-In-Chief" gap.  But notice that Sen. Biden didn't--and couldn't--mention the biggest foreign policy decision since Obama's been in the US Senate: the surge.

I hope the McCain VP picks up this fight, and takes it apart example by example. The idea that agreeing to a withdrawal date from Iraq WHILE YOU'RE LOSING is the same as winning the war and then picking a date to leave is absurd.

Biden's trying to defend the Defeat Party. He's given McCain the chance to point out he's leading the Victory Party.