As if you needed more evidence that this woman is terrifyingly stupid and unqualified to even be mayor of Wasilla, let alone Vice President (to say nothing for what happens if McCain dies in office — a 1 in 6 chance).
Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by “attacks” from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.
Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama’s associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate’s free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.
“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.” (source)
The First Amendment protects the people and the press from the government, not the other way around. The central purpose of the First Amendment, a purpose that even Robert Bork and Cass Sunstein agree with, is the right to speak on matters of political importance. This is positively Bushian in its stupidity, but also in how terrifying it truly is.
When you have a candidate for office suggesting that the media doing its job is a threat to the First Amendment, anyone who votes for that candidate should really have their head examined.
