Don’t you see that you are making my point for me? Of course it was manufactured - given that we gave them some hot stuff to run with - On the Dems’ side, the kids can be criminals. On our side, not. That’s the way it is because they own the media.
Now imagine the McCain/Palin campaign if her daughter had been an ordinary, nice girl studying architecture at MIT, or at Yale studying English literature. Or in medical school. Or had started her own cookie business and was doing well with it. Imagine it. Whole different picture, isn’t it? No cheesy headlines, no ugly jokes, not one drop of anything to distract from the message.
Because that story made a lot of noise for a long time.
I would have died before I put my family in a position to be a target of that kind of ridicule and abuse, and I would never have chosen a candidate with that kind of situation - it was a public relations disaster and had a big negative effect on the campaign.