Sarah Surfing

"Oh, really? Eight-month-old Trig knows? Seven-year-old Piper, who was yanked from school and her friends for two months, knows? I'm unwilling to believe that Palin is an uncaring mother, so this blithe statement of unreflective parenting reflects and reinforces what working women with children seem obliged to tell themselves."

To which I'd reply: Why do male politicians never get asked these questions?

Andrew Sullivan is still steamed that Palin was tapped to run for the second-highest office in the land:

"Some readers think my continuing attempt to expose all the lies and flim-flam and bizarre behavior of Sarah Palin is now moot. She's history -- they argue. Move on. I think she probably is history. Even Bill Kristol and his minions in the McCain-Palin campaign may not be able to resuscitate her political viability now. But even if she is history, she is history that matters.

"Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months -- and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish -- is a sign of their total loss of nerve."

A number of conservative bloggers are furious at McCain's operatives, and after his Jay Leno appearance Tuesday, at the Arizonan himself. Michelle Malkin leads the charge:

"From the man whose best-sellers include 'Why Courage Matters' and 'Character Is Destiny' comes this underwhelming reaction to the cowardly smearing of Sarah Palin by his own unnamed staffers:

" 'These things happen.'

"Not: 'Shame on the leakers. I denounce and renounce them.'

"Not: 'I'm going to get to the bottom of this and make sure those blabbermouths never work in a major campaign again.'

"Just: 'These things happen.'

"Yup. Business as usual from The Maverick's not-so-maverick campaign."