Do they think we're stupid?

McCain and Palin did their first joint interview with People Magazine. A tabloid. I'm sorry, but that's unacceptable. If you want to lead the country, you talk to serious journalists and do tough interviews. If you've already spoken to the serious journalists on all the relavent issues, then you can talk to People about your sleep habits. McCain withdrew from Larry King because Campbell Brown asked his spokesman for a specific example of Palin making a foreign policy decision. He lied and said she was involved in National Guard troop deployments in Iraq. Not true. Governors don't do that. They have nothing to do with national security. After the fact, they said it was an unfair question.

Here's why I'm really annoyed. They're still attacking Obama on experience. Obama and Palin have the same amount of time in office - 12 years. The differences is small-town city council for four years, where she was mayor for six years and small state governor for 20 months, versus state assembly in a large state for eight years, and four years in the US Senate (and a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), representing a large state. It's the same amount of time. Experience is off the table. Ideas matter. But here's the thing: the McCain - Palin campaign is claiming that she has 16 years of elected office under her belt. Four of those are as a member of the PTA. Are they fucking serious?

Read it here.

It's possible that Philip Gourevitch's "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families," an account of the Rwandan genocide, is my favorite book. He's written an article for the New Yorker called "Palin on Obama." She made some comments about him very recently. It can be read here.

*Note: Obama and Biden did an interview with People as well. The difference is they haven't ducked other media.