This is hilarious. Jon Stewart is so clever.  

Rudy just finished. His speech was one low blow after the next. I think that pretty much sums up why I’ll never vote Republican. Being a POW doesn’t qualify anyone to be president. And, I think it’s stupid to attack Obama for being a community organizer. No, it’s not your typical road to the White House, but at least he understands the challenges that people face and how to get people to mobilize to fight for their rights. That’s a clear difference between the parties. Dems want to reward people who volunteer in their communities. Republicans? They mock the concept.

Sarah Palin’s up. Here we go …I don’t like what she stands for, but you have to admit the crowd in the hall is loving her. Uggh. Wonder how she’s playing in the rest of America? Do people buy this, or will they see right through it? Hopefully, they’ll remember that she loved pork-barrel $$ as mayor … she wants to control how science is taught in the classroom … she doesn’t support big government (unless it has to do with controlling reproductive rights and who you can marry) … she supports abstinence-only education … she thinks the war has something to do with a directive from God … the list goes on and on. She may be a good speaker and appealing to soccer (or hockey) moms everywhere — but she and John McCain are not the right leaders to get America back on the right track.

Any smart PR person will tell you that if you have a story that needs to be “buried” there are two ways to go — pick an incredibly busy news day so it gets lost amongst the clutter, or aim for a holiday when people aren’t paying attention.

Well, it so happens that today is a holiday and an extremely busy day — courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. This combination of factors makes it the ideal time to try to hide Sarah Palin’s controversial news. Her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Maybe one of these days, abstinence-only supporters will realize that approach isn’t exactly working.

From a PR standpoint, I guess it was kind of brilliant. Limit the damage by getting the story out there on a day when the media has shifted from politics to constant hurricane coverage.

For his part, Obama took the high road, asking the media to lay off these kinds of stories. As he pointed out, his mother had him when she was just 18. He believes families — and especially children — shouldn’t be subjected to the political scrutiny that comes with running for office.

We can only hope the media lay off the tabloid aspects of this story and let this 17-year-old girl deal with this challenge in private, but I hope the media uses this as an opportunity to closely examine Palin’s positions on associated issues like birth control and sex education.