Kamala Harris Won't Get The Sarah Palin Treatment

I was in Denver that day in 2008, riding in the back of a van full of high-spirited political reporters. We were covering the national political conventions when news broke that John McCain had picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

The reaction in that little bus offered a glimpse of what was to come.

There were hoots of laughter. Jokes about a female moose-hunter from a sparsely populated state. Wisecracks about her looks. Observations about her obvious lack of intelligence.

Not one person took her seriously. 

They were all in the tank for Barack Obama, of course. Still, it surprised me to see the scorn they showered on the little-known governor in the moments after her selection. Especially the female reporters. I mean, we were finishing up a week in Colorado with Democrats, where everyone had pretended to be so woke. But once Palin was on the McCain ticket, the ladies of the press were every bit as mean as the men.

No, I’m not naming names. Couldn’t remember them if I tried.

A few nights later, in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Sarah Palin delivered a barnburner of a speech. It was the first time most of us heard her joke about the hockey mom and a pit bull. 

Later, Palin claimed the teleprompter kept scrolling through the applause and she’d lost her place. If that was true, she recovered nicely.

While the man on the top of the ticket dithered and almost canceled a debate because of the poor economy, Palin stumped relentlessly for the Vietnam war hero. She kept smiling as the press scrutinized her son with Down Syndrome, as they examined her wardrobe bill, her religious beliefs and jested about the unusual names of her kids.

If you have a moment, please read this column that I wrote from Minnesota about the treatment of her pregnant teenaged daughter. The press had no boundaries when it came to savaging Sarah Palin.  

I’ve been thinking about Palin a lot this week. Especially after Wednesday night when I saw a montage of scolds on MSNBC and CNN calling out Fox’s Tucker Carlson because he had mispronounced Joe Biden’s running mate’s name as Cam-a-la instead of Comma-la.

How dare he! Carlson was disrespectful and stupid, they all agreed.

Carlson retaliated on his own show by airing a clip of Biden mispronouncing Harris’ name in the exact same manner he had.

But that swift condemnation was a warning shot. The left is ready to fight to protect Kamala Harris in a way the right never did for Sarah Palin.

They even have a hashtag: #WeHaveHerBack.

Anyone daring to chide Ms. Harris or ask her tough questions - or accidentally mispronounce her name - is going to be besieged by angry, sensitive celebrities.

Kamala Harris certainly has a far more impressive resume than Palin. But news reports say Harris campaigned behind the scenes for her job, while Palin was reportedly as surprised as the rest of us when McCain plucked her out of obscurity to be his running mate.

Pay attention to how generously the mainstream media treats Ms. Harris. Shoot, The New York Times immediately dubbed her a “pragmatic moderate.” That’s hilarious. Harris is a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal. She wants free health care for illegals. She’s willing to “have a conversation” about convicted felons voting from prison and in June she urged people to contribute to a fund to help get the Minneapolis rioters out of jail.

That’s not a moderate. That’s a leftist.

Look for the press to treat Harris with the respect they didn’t show the last woman running to be vice president. Sarah Palin was just a mother, a folksy governor and a pro-life Republican. 

In other words, a perfect object for ridicule.