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Sean (heart) Sarah

Just watched Hannity’s lovefest with Sarah Palin, and lost a $5 bet that Sean would drop the Bill Ayres bomb in the first installment.

It was billed as an exclusive interview with Hannity and Colmes, (credit to Al Franken for font selection) but milquetoast Alan was not even permitted to ask a question or two as time is running out, the usual protocol.  No it was all Sean, and he proved his love for Sarah by denouncing left wing smears and unspecified attacks from the Obama campaign, and setting her up to parrot GOP talking points.  No mention of troopers, bridges to nowhere, or anything remotely critical of the Palin package.

First Sean teed up McCain’s repeated remarks that the economy is “fundamentally sound” and Palin dropped her prefab soundbite, that this was an unfair attack on McCain’s verbiage, and that he was talking about the American workforce being sound.  No challenge from Hannity on a lie so obvious it drew a rebuke from the NY Times editorial page.  Palin slid into disingenuous calls to fight the “abuse” and “toxic waste” of Wall Street, and that John McCain will fix it with “stringent oversight”.  No mention from either lover of McCain’s intractable support of deregulation of every kind, and that his Senate Commerce Committee failed to provide ANY oversight as Wall Street ran wild.  And when she talks about the “old boys” in Washington, doesn’t that include her Johnny?

Then Hannity accused Obama of exploiting the problems for political gain, and Palin decried “obsessive partisanship”–perhaps she meant “excessive”.  As Hannity blamed Obama for the bailout of Freddie and Fannie, Palin fingered lobbyists (but not the dozens on the McCain campaign), cronyism (3 times) and that her brand of reform will put government regulatory agencies “back on the side of the people”.  Hannity didn’t bother to ask about her own patterns of cronyism as mayor and governor, or raise an eyebrow that a fellow republican would embrace government as a solution.  And isn’t the troopergate investigation that she formerly welcomed an effort to expose cronyism that needs reform?

Next, Hannity got really tough and asked her why low taxes are good.  Another prefab bite;  “Barack Obama had 94 opportunities to be on the side of the people”, but voted against tax cuts.  No mention that McCain had opposed some of the Bush tax cuts, too.

And Hannity, oblivious to all of the fact checking that shows Palin deserves the scrutiny she’s gotten (and much more), talked about the heated campaign and that she has been the focus of “attacks”.  Palin said the American people are getting down to the facts and “seein’ through the rhetoric and cheap shots”
I hope she’s right, guys and gals!