Chaning The Game

No clearer picture is given as to what matters in the eyes on conservatives than when they refuse to answer a very simple question and their fanbase rallies around them. Alternately, those same conservatives are often seen with their metaphorical torches and pitchforks shouting that any and every Democrat be held to a different standard when it comes to accountability.

Case in point, once again revolving around the dubious claims in the new book Game Change, we see John McCain being asked by Matt Lauer about some of the claims in the book regarding his campaign and Sarah Palin. It appears that John isn't knows what he's going to be asked and then suddenly....

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As McCain hits Lauer with a double dose of "why you bringing up old shit" coupled with "but what about the troops", one gets the sense that hit other statement - that he simply doesn't care - has more weight to it than one might first realize. And that weight surely is being carried by folks in the conservative blogging realm.

This clip got some buzz this morning because he appears to say at one point that he didn’t know how well Palin had been vetted. I don’t think that’s what he meant, though; he’s simply issuing blanket I-don’t-knows in response to questions about dirt in “Game Change,” but the testiness shines through when Lauer presses him. Is he just bored with the subject, or is there … something more?

That's Allahpundit over at HotAir, who seems to be confusing the word "apparent" with "actually". The spin from that site alone shows the double standard quite clearly, but it also begs the quesiton - are conservatives the ones that are truly afraid of Sarah Palin?

The reason that I ask this is because of the power that she weilds within the modern conservative movement. It's power that she doesn't know how to control. She quite literally, at this point at least, can open her mouth and tell someone that John McCain doesn't belong in the party anymore and suddenly his place in the Senate is in peril. It doesn't work the other way, and it's likely that McCain knows that. Could that have influenced the way he did/didn't answers this question?

Rachel Maddow took on the Palin/McCain allegations in Game Change on her MSNBC program:

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Most of us realize that Palin was, and likely still is, unqualified to be VP of the United States. Her true calling, at least until she quits, is that of easily guided mouthpiece at Fox"News". John McCain is doing his best to distance himself from her selection as VP because he knows this as well, but he still needs to keep her at arms length for the sole purpose of tapping her on the shoulder and saying to people, "hey, I know her, isn't she awesome".

The book Game Change, however, is likely to be riddled with many falsehoods, as the authors aren't exactly open to talking about who they interviewed. The credibility of the quotes in the book are most certainly in question, so once again - why no real push-back from Palin and McCain? O'Reilly was literally feeding Palin her responses in regards to the book and McCain had the opportunity to simply say "it's all a lie" but he chose to say he didn't know and that frankly he didn't care.

This book has, and will be, a thorn in the sides of many until some real fact-checking is done. Conservatives and Fox"News" aren't going to do it, there simply going to run with the, as yet, unsourced quotes about Hillary, Bill, and Obama in order to get some face time on the TV. The double standard remains in play.