GOP Begins Palin Pushback

It's Palin pushback day here at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Republican operatives are hopping mad over what they characterize as a spate of false, misleading, and baseless attacks in the mainstream press aimed at GOP Vice-Presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Palin will deliver her acceptance speech to the convention in prime time tonight.

A full day of activities is planned by the McCain campaign to make the case that the media treatment of the first female nominee on a Republican ticket has been over the top in its negativity. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will make the rounds of the cable networks to defend Palin, and Sen. Joe Lieberman will hold a press conference in which Republicans say that he will call on Sen. Barack Obama to denounce some of the charges being leveled at Palin by Democratic operatives. The McCain campaign will also release a television commercial today that compares Gov. Palin's experience in government to Sen. Obama's

A GOP operative tells Political Machine that the treatment Gov. Palin has received in the mainstream media has led to a virtual state of war between the party and the press.

"The liberal media is engaged in a disturbing sexist double standard against Gov. Palin. This is a clear effort to smear a conservative female star because she does not adhere to the liberal ideology of the elites who run the media. And this is one of the reasons why the American public has lost faith in the media. We predict a backlash."

At a press conference held today at the Xcel Arena, Republican women made the case that Gov. Palin is actually more qualified to be president than Sen. Obama.

Former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift said that the focus needs to be placed on Gov. Palin's accomplishments in comparison to Sen. Obama's.

"Gov. Plain has a record of accomplishment. She has taken on the corrupt special interest in Washington and in Alaska. And she has a record of achievement. In fact, she is more prepared to be president than Sen. Obama. Palin ran a state, Obama ran a campaign."

Carly Fiorina, former head of HP and Chairman of the GOP Victory 2008 Campaign, said that Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign in the Democratic primaries has some similarities to the current campaign. "There has been a great deal of sexism exhibited against both Sen. Clinton and Gov. Plain. American women's ears are highly tuned to sexist attacks, and they aren't going to stand for it."

The reporting on Palin has clearly gotten under the skin of the GOP and the party is making every effort to turn the tables back on the Democrats and the press. Gov. Palin's speech to the convention tonight will go a long way toward determining how successful those efforts ultimately will be.