Palin - well, she knows Roe v. Wade

And good for her! After all, Joe Six-Pack knows about Roe v. Wade, right?

Katie Couric then asked her what other Supreme Court decisions she disagrees with. Unfortunately, she couldn't name a single one. Not even Plessy v. Ferguson (upheld "separate but equal" laws). Not the Dred Scott case (saying slaves and their decendants could never be American citizens, but instead, would always be considered the personal property of whites.) Not the Korematsu case, which upheld the right of the government to imprision its citizens in concentration camps without due process.

She couldn't name Exxon v. Baker, which was decided this year. The Court cut punitive damages from the Exxon oil spill from $2.5 billion to $500 million. This decision was very unpopular with Alaskans and Alaskan politicians. Well, apparently some Alaskan politicians....

Not even Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (said Bush's military commissions were insufficient) or the ruling this year that the prisoners at Guantanamo should have some teeny bit of due process. You know....one of the rulings where McCain backed up Bush's "disappointment" in the outcome, just like a true maverick would. She could have said she disagreed that flag burning was protected speech. She could have said that she disagreed that child rapists should not be eligible for the death penalty. These are all easy, meat-and-potato, stock conservative positions. No one would have expected her to know the actual name of any court case - she would have gotten kudos for appearing even remotely informed about the Supreme Court.

When Couric asked Joe Biden the same question....surprise! He actually could name a specific decision, and provide context behind his reasoning.


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Funny....even though Couric asked them the same questions, somehow, Republicans are claiming that it's Couric's fault that Palin couldn't answer the questions in an intelligent and informed manner.

And now the Republicans are out in droves, crying that the debate tonight cannot possibly be fair because Gwen Ifill has published a book about African-American politicians. Of course, the debate moderators were chosen well after the announcement about Ifill's book. Oh, but the McCain campaign couldn't possibly be expected to know that....I mean, they're not professionals or anything, right?

Let's just pretend for a moment that there is a vast, organized, EVIL conspiracy in the media against conservatives. (Cue fairy tale music here.) Couric and Ifill don't like Palin. Here's my question:

SO WHAT?

Seriously. The best argument that the Palin apologists can come up with is that it is unfair for Palin to be expected to have an intelligent, coherent, and consistent answer for any question unless it is asked by someone that likes Sarah Palin, and preferably, given to Palin before-hand so that someone else can write up the answer for her and she can read it off of a teleprompter.