Comparisons of Coverage of Politician's Families

In response to Sister Toldjah's post about Sarah Palin's resignation:

Had McCain/Palin won, she wouldn’t be having to deal with the backstabbing McCain campaign officials because they wouldn’t be having to try and make excuses for why their candidate lost. Had they won, the “ethics complaints” filed against Governor Palin wouldn’t have happened, because she would no longer be Governor. Had they won, I believe you would have seen less scrutiny on Palin’s children, because the WH press corp has an unwritten rule about the children of presidents and vice presidents: hands off.

But they didn’t win, so it became open season part 2 not on McCain, but on Sarah Palin and her family from mostly the same crowd who would go ballistic if the types of attacks waged against both her and her children were made on Michelle Obama or any other female Democrat.

I can't agree. I think the coverage of Sarah's family wouldn't be affected even if she HAD won the election. Let's compare some similar situations:

Relative	Palin	Democrat	Search Terms	# of Hits
Daughter	Bristol		Bristol Palin slut	4,250,000
Daughter		Ashley Biden	Ashley Biden cocaine	1,970,000
Husband	Todd		Todd Palin drunk	13,100,000
Self		Joe Biden	Joe Biden plagiarism	95,500
Self		Ted Kennedy	Ted Kennedy drunk	146,000
Self		Bill Clinton	Bill Clinton sex	4,360,000

In every case, it's a matter of a scandalous situation - involving morality, and in some cases, a crime. Are we to believe that Bristol's pregnancy (which DIDN'T involve a crime) is somehow more newsworthy than Bill Clinton's escapades (Which involved not only a crime, but impeachment of a sitting President)?

Look, her family was only related to the head of a governor of a state. I really can't believe that they would leave them all alone just because she won an election.

Politics has changed - no longer are politicians (and their families) exempt from relentless, intrusive, and unfair coverage. PARTICULARLY when they are Republicans.

Look what's happened in just the last few weeks.

• Republican Senator John Ensign blackmailed and forced to reveal sexual indiscretions to blunt the threat
• Republican Mark Sanford has marital problems, and is the subject of a firestorm of news attention (mind you, he deserved some of it)
• Republican Sarah Palin's family made the butt of sexual jokes on national TV - even though she was no longer officially running for anything

Obama Democrats play for keeps. NOTHING is too low for them.