Setting Priorities

It has been almost embarrassing, the effort which the media has expended in seeking the dirt on Sarah Palin. Hosting reporters and investigators in Wasilla has become an economic mainstay of the community. We’ve heard that her hubby went fishing without a license, that she keeps her baby up too late, that she asked the town librarian about book banning policy, that she sought to fire a state trooper who beat his wife and Tasered his ten-year-old, and we’ve learned that her church sings hymns and offers sermons. Great coverage gang.

Then, of course, there is the review of John McCain. Unfortunately for the media there are simply too many former POWs and military folks who know John for the muck-rakers to build a Swift Boat sort of campaign. Had they only been able to uncover a few hours of Tim Russert interviews or Senate anti-war testimony starring McCain they might have painted him like John Kerry. Nothing showed up similar to that treason. Yep, his wife runs a successful beer distributorship. That’s not damning, it’s a community service!

But, we don’t get similar depth or even curiosity about Sen. Obama. We did see his pastor do some of his finest preaching. The alibi is that the good Senator didn’t make it to church on those weeks and never read the bulletins or heard any feedback from his co-worshippers for twenty years.

What is more interesting to me is the Ayers/Obama connection. We keep hearing about it, but we really don’t get any depth. Read this scathing piece regarding the sort of coverage the NYT offers:

Link at the Hip Unrecognized

Got all that?

Some things I would like to know:

• How many board meetings of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge did both men attend?
• How many meetings of the Wood Fund had both present?
• What sort of documents bear both men’s signatures?
• How much money did each get from those organizations?
• How much campaign money can be traced back to Ayers and his affiliates?

And maybe the biggest question of all, for this humble observer:

What would it take in someone’s background for the University of Illinois to disqualify a candidate for a professorship? If bombing public buildings and advocating violent overthrow of the United States government don’t do it, what would? Just doesn’t seem like what I would look for in an expert on elementary education. Of course that depends on what you want to teach the little tots, doesn’t it?

Inquiring minds and all that…