Andrew Sullivan quotes Michael Goldfarb:
Governor Palin has never supported Pat Buchanan and every responsible magazine or blog that made the charge has since corrected the record, leaving only the Obama campaign peddling this smear. How is it that the media, so committed to fighting the smears against the Obama campaign, is more than happy to allow this one to fester?
Now, I’ve not heard anything actually from the Obama campaign talking about any history Palin has as supporting Pat Buchanan, being a member of the Alaska Separatist Party, or the uncertainty around the birth of Palin’s newborn son. Yet according to the right-wingers, sources as disparate as DailyKos count as “the Obama campaign.” I don’t necessarily find the “proof” that she didn’t support Buchanan or fringe Alaskan parties convincing at this point, but the differing definitions of a campaign is noticeable.
So, according to the right, Obama’s campaign includes anyone who says anything that the McCain campaign finds to be damaging (allowing them to assert that Obama is not practicing new, clean politics, even though he has had a shockingly respectful campaign). On the other hand, even McCain does not speak for the McCain campaign. Thus, any lies or smears, even the multitude that come directly from his campaign, are not McCain’s responsibility, much less the outright racism of some on the far right. This is but one of the many double standards that the McCain campaign expects to take hold in the media narrative of the campaign, and too often it has.
