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December 2, 2008 8:21:58 PM CST

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Ditch the Double Standard for Palin, McCain

Posted Sep 11, 08 7:19 AM CDT in Opinion,  Politics 

(Newser) – The McCain camp's insistence that Sarah Palin not submit to questioning until the media shows "respect and deference" is a brazen double standard bound to raise voter eyebrows, Tim Rutten writes in the Los Angeles Times. She is certainly due respect, Rutten writes, but it is hard to justify the media showing more deference to the governor of Alaska than to the president.

The double standard is clearest in GOP calls to keep Palin's religious affiliations off limits, argues Rutten. Barack Obama's church has been put under the microscope, Rutten notes, and Palin's church's links to Jews for Jesus and the "pray the gay away" movement deserve similar scrutiny. "Palin, apparently, operates in a parallel political universe—or at least McCain's handlers would like to see that she does," Ruten writes.

Source Los Angeles Times

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John McCain pays for four bottles of salsa at El Pinto restaurant for himself and running mate Sarah Palin in Albuquerque, N.M.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)
John McCain addressed the crowd with his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, during a campaign rally in Lancaster, Pa., this week.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Sarah Palin walks down the steps of John McCain's campaign plane upon their arrival in Lancaster, Pa., earlier this week.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
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One suspects that sooner rather than later, some will begin to wonder why the GOP is insisting that Palin is entitled to be treated according to a double standard. - Tim Rutten

The McCain campaign's insistence on imposing a double standard for Palin is nowhere clearer than in the demand...that her religious affiliations and their implications be placed off-limits. - Tim Rutten

It's hard to imagine the Palin double standard enduring into the fall. Politics isn't a sport, though it has at least one thing in common with the boxing ring—you can run, but you can't hide. - Tim Rutten

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