By contrast, the MSM should be ashamed of themselves

So, Barack Obama laid down the law to the media, forcefully, absolutely correctly and in no uncertain terms: “I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as governor, or her potential performance as a VP. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.” Are they listening? No. It’s not an unreasonable request, that they treat Gov. Palin and her family the same way they treated Al Gore and his son, or John Edwards and his wife and mistress; but as the Anchoress points out here, here, and here, they just can’t bring themselves to follow it. Forget feminism—we have a bunch of folks here who aren’t afraid to drag out every sexist trope in the book if it will help them beat up on Gov. Palin; forget fairness and logical consistency; forget Sen. Obama, even. Whatever crowbar they can find to hand, they clearly intend to use.But there is a cost to this behavior. For one thing, it makes Sen. Obama’s message of change, and of bringing a new spirit to American politics, ring ever more hollow with every slander; the more people feel this campaign is ugly and hateful, the more they’re going to pull back—and given the nature of Sen. Obama’s appeal and campaign, predicated on raising turnout and getting out new voters, that’s going to hurt him more than it does his opponent. For another, this kind of behavior feeds distrust and dislike of the media, and further erodes their credibility. For a third, it only works in the short term if they can in fact destroy Sarah Palin; if she refuses to crack, keeps her cool, rises above the mud, and handles it all with grace and strength, she’ll come out of it looking—well, positively presidential. Tonight is her first chance to go over the heads of the media who have abused her to the American people; if she does her usual thing, the whole attack will start to backfire on the media in a big way. If Gov. Palin can get through this, no one’s going to wonder what Joe Biden will do to her, because there’s no way anything he could do could top what’s already been done.And fourth, all of this makes Sen. Obama look very, very bad. We rightly applauded him for showing leadership in response to the Palin attacks—but leadership doesn’t exist without followership, and nobody’s following him.

This is the test of Barack Obama’s lifetime. It’s not whether or not he can be President. He’s tied in the polls, so the possibility is is clearly there. However, the question of him actually being able to lead people (to be a leader) remains to be seen. He’s never had to lead. Now he does, and those who are his strongest supporters . . . are not following his instructions on even a simple, logical, common sense, clearly honorable request: leave Bristol alone.If they can’t do that, then how can he lead them to war in Iraq for another 16+months min., or Iran, or Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or elsewhere?

This is not, by the way, a criticism of Sen. Obama, who’s doing what he can do; it is, rather, a serious question about those who purport to be his followers. I’ve wondered before whether the leaders of his party are actually following him, or just using him to get what they want. Others have wondered whether he’s actually running the campaign machine, or if he’s really it’s creation. To see his leadership ignored in this way just reinforces the idea that it’s the latter, not the former, and that makes me worry—for our country, and for Sen. Obama.Update: when one of his own senior volunteers isn’t following his lead either, that only increases the worry. Either that or it suggests that he’s saying one thing and doing another. Whichever it is, it isn’t good.