Sarah Palin's Reporter Experience Gives Mainstream Media the Jitters

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Sarah Palin's Reporter Experience Gives Mainstream Media the Jitters
2. Liberal Bill Maher: 'Media Gushing' Over Obama
3. Michael Moore Posts Vicious Palin Rumor
4. 'Commander in Chief' Creator Rod Lurie Seeks Veep Candidate Credit
5. Hollywood Film Critic Gives Review of GOP Pick for VP
 

1. Sarah Palin's Reporter Experience Gives Mainstream Media the Jitters

Prior to serving in elective office, Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick for his running mate, was a sports reporter.

Known by her maiden name, Sarah Heath, she worked for KTUU, an affiliate of NBC in Anchorage, Alaska.

Having been a point guard in high school basketball, Palin was able to handle play-by-play analysis of college basketball games. She also reported on other sports including the Iditarod dog sled race.

According to People magazine, she once admonished former L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda to relax more.

Palin's experience as a journalist should really come in handy when the mainstream press start brandishing their long knives, hoping for the Alaska governor to make a geographic error or mispronounce the name of an obscure world leader.

Meanwhile, the Republican base is energized to a level not seen since Reagan warmed our hearts and stirred our souls.

A posting on the Free Republic Web site from Renfield creatively captures conservative sentiment regarding Palin.

It reads: "Obama wants to raise taxes and kill babies," while "Palin wants to raise babies and kill taxes."

2. Liberal Bill Maher: 'Media Gushing' Over Obama

In recent years, Bill Maher has had all things conservative on his political dartboard.

Now he's set to launch an attack on organized faith via his upcoming film called "Religulous."

Apparently, even Maher felt compelled to comment on the media's excessive fawning over Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

On his HBO show, "Real Time," Maher said, "I think there is a problem, though, with the media gushing over him too much. I don't think he thinks that he's all that, but the media does."

He then joked about MSNBC's coverage and the appearance that media types wanted to have intimate relations with Obama, saying, "I mean, the coverage after, that I was watching, from MSNBC, I mean these guys were ready to . . ."

The Maher line was tossed out when the guest panel was engaged in some gushy behavior of its own.

CBS "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and NPR's Michel Martin were practically falling over each other, trying to heap unwarranted praise on Obama's highly produced Hollywood extravaganza of an acceptance speech.

3. Michael Moore Posts Vicious Palin Rumor

The reaction to Sarah Palin by far-left bloggers hit a new low when the unfounded rumor was posted that Palin's recent pregnancy was feigned as part of a supposed coverup for her expectant daughter.

This would have meant that the Alaska governor was actually the grandmother of baby Trig.

As a result of the rumors, the Palins made the decision to reveal that their oldest daughter is currently pregnant.

Prior to the Palins' acknowledgement, Michael Moore jumped on the unfounded rumor and posted the following headline: "Show Us the DNA!; Claim: Palin is the grandmother of her 'daughter'."

In addition to being reckless in putting the rumor up, Moore got the gender of the child wrong as well.

The filmmaker has since removed the story from his site.

In their fight for political power you'd think that lefty bloggers could come up with something a little more respectable than a pilfered plotline from "Desperate Housewives."

4. 'Commander in Chief' Creator Rod Lurie Seeks Veep Candidate Credit

Rod Lurie, creator of ABC's 2005 television series, "Commander in Chief," attended the Democratic National Convention and cheered for his candidate of choice, Barack Obama.

The producer then gave his assessment of John McCain's pick for vice president.

"People who understand politics know anything is possible," Lurie told the Hollywood Reporter.

"Picking a woman is an absolute strategic idea from McCain's point of view. He's not talking about governing right now. The idea of this woman [Palin] actually facing down Putin and negotiating with Medvedev is idiotic," he added.

In the pilot for Lurie's cancelled TV show, an experienced GOP presidential candidate chose a young unknown woman to be his running mate.

"It's unbelievable isn't it?" Lurie asked. "I think that Geena [Davis] and I need to be paid royalties by the Republicans."

After Davis' character succeeded to the White House, she was criticized for lack of experience. But the TV prez proved her detractors wrong.

The dismissal of Palin's experience by the Democrats and many in the mainstream media is unseemly, especially in the light of Obama's thin resume and the media's lack of perusal.

Palin definitely has defenders such as America's mayor Rudy Giuliani, who while appearing on "Face the Nation" praised the former two-term mayor, conservation commission chair and current governor of Alaska, and pointed out that when talking about the readiness issue, Obama is the one who has "never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis."

Giuliani also noted that Obama "had to put all that emphasis on somebody [Biden] helping him because he's never had a record of executive experience."

5. Hollywood Film Critic Gives Review of GOP Pick for VP

Richard Roeper took a break from film commentary to try his hand at political commentary about John McCain's running mate.

Roeper wrote of Sarah Palin's "Suzanne Pleshette-circa-1975 attractiveness."

The film critic noted that Palin's biography makes her sound "more like a Hollywood star than a GOP poster figure."

One of the things he focused on was Palin and her husband's choice of names for their family of five.

"She has given her children names straight out of the Demi Moore-Tom Cruise-Bob Geldof playbook: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig," he wrote.

About the Alaska governor's leisure activities of hunting and fishing, Roeper wrote, "Palin sounds like Ted Nugent with a uterus."

He also found it "hard to believe that one female voter in this country would switch from the Obama ticket to the McCain camp just because of the Palin factor."

Yep, and if you believe that one you believe that there's no such thing as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuit.