The supermarket checkout tabloid election continues...

For one brief and fleeting moment I find myself actually agreeing with at least one thing Maximus Pantload has to say:

The biggest “prize” so far in the quest to destroy Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential candidacy is the “news” that her unmarried daughter is pregnant. I have little to say about that because I don’t think the press should be saying much more about it.

If, (and that's a big IF), that was all that people were pointing at, Goldberg would have a point. However, coming from someone whose career was launched bartering information in an attempt to generate an international incident out of a blow-job, it reeks of Goldbergesque conservative hypocrisy. Then...

But what is remarkable is how little that or other revelations matter to the GOP rank and file. Simply put: They love Sarah.

It is quite remarkable, isn't it? Especially since there isn't a substantive thing any of them can actually identify as being a factor which would actually make her presidential material. Let's be right up front here. The Goldberg-identified GOP rank and file, if they truly "love Sarah", aren't looking past the illusion any more than the press Goldberg chastizes. Substance? Who needs it?

While Goldberg attempts to dismiss efforts to dig into the personal and family affairs of Sarah Palin, he might be reminded that that is all Palin has brought to the GOP. The first one-third of her speech was all about her, her family, the PTA and the fact that she's a hockey-mom. If that's what she's selling then you can expect people to check out that aspect of the product. And you can expect the tabloids to go through gallons of midnight oil looking for dirt.

That's something with which Goldberg should be intimately familiar. Given that his mother, masquerading as a reporter on the McGovern campaign in 1972, turned out to be a spy working for Nixon campaign dirt-merchant Murray Chotiner, earning $1000 a week to report back to the Nixon campaign, in her own words, "... really dirty stuff. Who was sleeping with who, what the Secret Service men were doing with the stewardesses, who was smoking pot on the plane--that sort of thing."

The media scrutiny of Palin pales in comparison to the sewer diving exploits of the Goldberg clan.

Palin's speech, beyond all the gooey family references, was a rolling barrage of lies and exaggerations. Easily picked apart, it will send the tabloids searching for more. And they're going to go for the titillating stuff that sells at the checkout. The Goldbergs helped create that environment. It was and is their stock in trade.

Perhaps though, it's worth looking at something in the speech prepared for Palin. The writer tried to make a connection.

Long ago, a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri, he followed an unlikely path -- (cheers) -- he followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency.

She compared herself to Harry S. Truman, and described his ascendency to the vice presidency and (through allusion) the presidency as unlikely. As unlikely as the position she finds herself in but, hey, look at what Truman did.

Not so unlikely. At least not on Truman's part.

By the time Truman had been selected as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944 he had been a US senator for 10 years. In the middle of the 2nd World War, Truman chaired the US Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, also known as the Truman Committee. Essentially aimed at creating greater efficiency in military procurement, it was best known for slamming war-profiteers and saving the United States no less than $15 billion while they were engaged in total war and industrial output was on a full war footing. By 1943, Truman's face had appeared on the cover of Time magazine. American's knew who he was and his committee was lauded as a major success.

When Truman was selected as Roosevelt's running mate he had the endorsement of all the key players in the Democratic National Committee including that of the outgoing and incoming chairmen. Further, the DNC was fully aware that Franklin Roosevelt was in ill-health and that Roosevelt's vice presidential pick would probably finish his term as president. In fact, Roosevelt dumped Henry Wallace, the incumbent vice president, to put Truman on the ticket, a clear message that he was seriously concerned about the qualifications and political symmetry of his successor while the country was still in the depths of a world war.

McCain can hardly say the same for his pick.

Truman was honest, diligent, a known quantity and selected specifically for his abilities. Palin, by comparison is a campaign stunt intended to put a Hollywood paint job on a crumbling Republican movie set. As Jezebel puts it, she's viagra for an RNC limp dick.

By the time a person is selected as the possible successor for the prospective holder of the nuclear launch codes, offering one's membership on an elementary school PTA simply does not cut it as a valid credential and certainly doesn't compare to the route taken by a much more substantial and skilled politician.