"It matters little about the mother's credibility."
I'm sorry, I think you are wrong. She's a major witness in this trial, her credibility matters a lot. It seems like they've made a major error in putting this easily impeachable woman on the stand, and it seems like the step-father wasn't too much better.
Now, the Peterson trial seemed to be going very badly for the prosecution also, and they got a conviction (total conviction actually) at the end, so the prosecution may ultimately be successful in this trial. But I don't think you can say that it doesn't matter what this woman says, if that were the case she wouldn't be on the stand to begin with.
Jackson is smart enough to find really sick people with kids to molest
Right you are! In point of fact, credible or not, the prosecution has so far backed up most of her claims with solid evidence--documents, surveillance videos, and more. It IS a wild story, but Jackson is not a sane person. (I started to type "man" but obviously that would have been an error!)
You are absolutely right, SolidRedState. Predators and pedophiles very seldom prey on the children of upstanding, law-abiding, Ivy league-educated, white-collar job working, perfect parents of the year. Just because the parent of an abuse victim might be the lowest of the low and the scum of the earth ( i.e. liar, welfare cheat, drug-addict etc) does not mean the molest/abuse did not occur. In fact, it is usually a prevailing factor in allowing it to occur in the first place. How many normal parents would allow their child to sleep with Michael Jackson? Not only has the victim been abused by the molestor, but the parent has usually been negligent and failed to protect the child from harm. It is up to the People of the State of California to protect those children from the pedophiles as well as their loser parents.