Mark Steyn comments:

Howie [Kurtz] feels the press is being “manipulated” by the McCain campaign.

Maybe it is. A conventional launch strategy for a little-known vice-presidential nominee might have involved “manipulating” the media into running umpteen front-pagers on Sarah Palin’s amazing primary challenge of a sitting governor and getting the sob-sisters to slough off a ton of heartwarming stories about her son shipping out to Iraq.

But, if you were really savvy, you’d “manipulate” the media into a stampede of lurid drivel deriding her as a Stepford wife and a dominatrix, comparing her to Islamic fundamentalists, Pontius Pilate and porn stars, and dismissing her as a dysfunctional brood mare who can’t possibly be the biological mother of the kid she was too dumb to abort. Who knows? It’s a long shot, but if you could pull it off, a really cunning media manipulator might succeed in manipulating Howie’s buddies into spending the month after Labor Day outbidding each other in some insane Who Wants To Be An Effete Condescending Media Snob? death-match. You’d not only make the press look like bozos, but that in turn might tarnish just a little the fellow these geniuses have chosen to anoint.

I suspect that it’s just going to get worse for them, particularly when they see the generic poll for Congress.

[Update a few minutes later]

John Hinderaker has more on Howie’s anger:

I’m not sure what Obama had in mind, but I find it odd that in pages of outrage devoted to the supposed excesses of the McCain campaign, Kurtz finds no room to mention the fact that prominent Democrats (not anonymous emailers, who are much worse) have said that Governor Palin is Pontius Pilate and that her primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.

The truth is that Sarah Palin has been the object of the most vicious and concerted smear campaign in modern American history. But that fact doesn’t cause the media (or Howard Kurtz) to get mad.

It’s not too hard to diagnose why, as Kurtz correctly says, “the media are getting mad.” They’re getting mad because their candidate is losing. They’ve spent years building him up and covering for his mistakes and shortcomings, and he is such a stiff that he can’t coast across the finish line. I’d be mad too, I guess, but I think I’d have the decency not to take it out on Sarah Palin.

Not just the decency. Also the intelligence, given how badly it continues to backfire on them.

Ann Althouse writes that Bill O’Reilly “spouts right-wing economic theories.”

What does that mean?

I’ve heard Bill O’Reilly rant against free trade, complain about “fat cats,” whine about “obscene” profits from oil companies, price gougers, etc., but in that, he seems to be more attuned to Democrats than “right wingers.” Say what you want about O’Reilly, but he’s no “right winger” (at least if, by that, one means a classical liberal who believes in free markets). He’s a populist, who is just “looking out for the folks” (at least to hear him tell it–never mind the actual effects of his anti-market nostrums). Just another example of the meaninglessness (and uselessness) of the labels (e.g., “neocon,” “conservative,” “fascist”) that get pointlessly thrown around the arena.

Charlie Martin sorts through all the Palin rumors.

I should state up front that I’m not easily influenced by speechifying. I never got what people thought was so great about Bill Clinton’s speeches–I had trouble stomaching them myself, because they always seemed so fake and disingenuous. And I never understood why Reagan was called “the Great Communicator.” Most of his speeches left me pretty cold as well. I mean, I was fine with the content, but I just never got the all the adulation.

Same thing with Governor Palin. She gave a good speech, had a lot of nice swipes at The One, and I liked most of what she said, as far as it goes. It’s probably too much to expect a lot of policy, given that she’d just come through several days of one of the most vicious media assaults in history, and had to just get the audience to know her. Her voice doesn’t seem as strong as I’d like, but I think that for most people, it must increase her likability factor. It’s also impressive that she managed to give it with teleprompter problems, with no obvious flubs. She either had good notes as a backup, or she really knew that speech. Had Obama been in a similar situation it could have been disastrous (which makes one think of the potential for a very dirty campaign trick if one could breach the security and get control of his prompter during a big speech).

I think that she’s going to be a very good debater, and show people that she’s much more knowledgable than the stereotype so far.

The latest from the fever swamps:

If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness – and hopelessness!

The frightening thing is that these people probably really believe this stuff.

[Update a while later]

The ends justify the means:

If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained at the price of destroying one teenage girl, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect I see that as a cheap trade.

And to think that these creatures consider themselves our moral betters.

That’s how the McCain campaign describes stories about their not properly vetting Governor Palin. Surely the media, with all its vaunted layers of fact checkers and editors, would never do such a thing?

I want to say that I appreciate both Senators Obama and Biden strongly declaring that candidates’ children should be off limits. Of course, they know that this stuff is poison, and can severely damage their campaigns with the non-nutroots.

I hope that their campaign staff (and surrogates) are listening. They can’t be held responsible for what Kos and TalkLeft and their ilk (including, sadly, Andrew Sullivan) do (and I expect the vile behavior from those quarters to continue, and I also expect a big backlash against it from McCain supporters, both current and future). But I also hope that if evidence does come to light that a staffer has been feeding this stuff to the bottom feeders that Senator Obama follows through on his pledge and has him or her (or them) shown the door.

No, she’s not going to step down. This is only going to make her and her supporters more determined to stay in and defeat these digital brownshirts (and their enablers in the press).

When will Barack Obama drop out?