Biden Muzzled While Palin Speaks Out

Both the old and the new media prefer attacking women candidates and following Hillary Clinton’s prolonged battering, Gov. Sarah Palin has become the target of the unceasing stream of sewage – more formally known as misogyny - spewed out by the press.

In comparison to its treatment of Palin, the media has given Sen. Joe Biden, her Democratic counterpart, a free pass. So it’s kind of surprising to read Dana Millbank’s post today in the Washington Sketch (Washington Post) about the recent “muzzling” of the garrulous, gaffe-prone Biden by the Obama camp.

Millbank reports:

“The muzzling of Biden seems unnatural and inhumane, like taking a proud lion into captivity. Biden, who once scolded Sarah Palin for ducking reporters, hasn't given a news conference since Sept. 7. The king of the rhetorical jungle hasn't taken questions from voters in a town hall forum since Sept. 10, when he famously said that Hillary Clinton is "more qualified than I am to be vice president" and "might have been a better pick than me." He doesn't even do much chitchat with supporters at events since he was caught on tape on one such occasion contradicting Obama's energy policy.

“Now even Palin takes questions from reporters on her campaign plane. But the wordiest man in Washington has to make his remarks short, sweet and canned.”

Read more.

Obama, the Democrats’ Presumptuous Presumptive Nominee

Many of us out here in the blogosphere have previously pointed out that the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee is more than a little presumptuous. In today’s Washington Sketch, Wapo columnist Dana Milbank has finally got the picture:

“Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee.

“Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally.

“Along the way, he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president's. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or “more to have photos taken with him. His schedule for the day, announced Monday night, would have made Dick Cheney envious:

“11:00 a.m.: En route TBA.

12:05 p.m.: En route TBA.

1:45 p.m.: En route TBA.

2:55 p.m.: En route TBA.

5:20 p.m.: En route TBA.”

Read more:

Obama Struck by Heavy Piece of Porcelain (Clinton's Kitchen Sink)

Photo credits: Associated Press

If the “undecideds” in the Democratic primaries need any help today in choosing between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, I recommend reading Dana Milbank in this morning’s Washington Post. Milbank offers coverage of Obama’s news conference yesterday at a veterans’ facility in San Antonio as evidence the media has finally gotten around to asking him tough questions:

“It took many months and the mockery of "Saturday Night Live" to make it happen, but the lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl.

“The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him, a smiling Obama strode out to a news conference at a veterans facility here. But the grin was quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog.”

After providing details of media questions to Obama about the Rezko trial that began Monday, his campaign’s secret meeting with a Canadian official, and his losing the Jewish vote, Milbank reports:

“Obama responded with the classic phrases of a politician in trouble. ‘That was the information that I had at the time. . . . Those charges are completely unrelated to me. . . . I have said that that was a mistake. . . . The fact pattern remains unchanged.’

“When those failed, Obama tried another approach. ‘We're running late,’ the candidate said, and then he disappeared behind a curtain.

“Before he beat his hasty retreat, however, Obama found time to assign blame for the tough questions suddenly coming his way. 'The Clinton campaign has been true to its word in employing a 'kitchen sink' strategy,’ he protested. ‘There are, what, three or four things a day?’

“Spoken like a man who had just been hit on the head with a heavy piece of porcelain.”

To read Milbank’s column in its entirety, go here.