VINDICATION FOR SARAH? – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:  No political figure has been more maligned in our time than Sarah Palin.  She has been subjected to attacks that, had they been made on a liberal, would be labeled McCarthyism.  Now, though, some in the lamestream media are coming to her defense.  The reason?  Some recent attacks are beyond the pale, and even liberals realize the wrongness.  From The Politico:

They kicked her around, victimized her, tried to destroy her. But all of a sudden, the lamestream media is coming to Sarah Palin’s defense.

Faced with a barrage of negative portrayals — a much-hyped investigative book, a Levi Johnston memoir and a new movie — Palin is finding support in the unlikeliest of places.

Film reviewers have slammed the British documentary “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” Newspapers have refused to run comic-strip excerpts of Joe McGinniss’s rumor-mongering tome “The Rogue.” Johnston’s accusations have been consigned to the gossip pages. And none other than The New York Times has angrily taken Palin’s side in a brutal takedown of the McGinniss book.

Reviewer Janet Maslin called “The Rogue” a work of “caustic, unsubstantiated gossip,” accusing its author, who rented a house next door to the Palins for a time, of sloppiness, attention seeking and a lack of neighborliness.

“‘The Rogue’ is too busy being nasty to be lucid,” Maslin concludes, describing its many accusations as “indefensibly reckless.”

In a statement issued through a PR representative, Todd Palin trumpeted the Times review, pointing to it as proof that the book was so reprehensible that “even The New York Times” disdained it.

But it wasn’t the first time in recent weeks the Palins have found the Times — the print voice of East Coast intellectualism — in their corner. The Gray Lady also recently published an op-ed praising Palin as a person of ideas and calling for her to be taken seriously.

COMMENT:  That Times op-ed lauding Palin has gotten a great deal of publicity across the internet.  We have to wonder whether all this sudden sympathy will influence Palin's decision on whether to enter the GOP race, or whether she will rebuild her reputation for a future run. 

Her resignation as governor of Alaska still hangs over Palin as a serious, perhaps fatal political blunder.  It robbed her of her credibility as an ongoing officeholder of high rank.  It made her appear a quitter, or someone seeking fortune and celebrity.  And it deprived her of the ability to demonstrate her capability at governing.  Can this major mistake be overcome?  Maybe it can, but Palin would have to be very persuasive.  She made a move in that direction with a fine, serious speech in Iowa last week.

Now we await her decision on running.  Whichever way she goes, the camera will always be on her.

September 16, 2011