I was star­tled to hear on the radio this morn­ing the voice of the unpop­u­lar for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts gov­er­nor Jane Swift. She is now the head of a “truth squad” tasked with coun­ter­ing “vile rumors and smears” sur­round­ing Repub­li­can VP can­di­date Sarah Palin. Dur­ing her inter­view with NPR, Swift blamed the “elite media” for their troubles.

First, I object to the tired impli­ca­tion that the media’s crit­i­cism is part of a hid­den polit­i­cal agenda. If the McCain cam­paign is so cer­tain that she is a capa­ble can­di­date, they would let her prove it to the world. But so far Palin’s han­dlers have not allowed her to speak to the media. Says the Asso­ci­ated Press:

So far, Palin has barely spo­ken with vot­ers either. Since the con­ven­tion, she and McCain have breezed through a Wis­con­sin ice cream shop, a New Mex­ico restau­rant and a Mis­souri bar­be­cue place, shak­ing hands with din­ers but not tak­ing any ques­tions. Pho­tog­ra­phers and tele­vi­sion cam­eras have been allowed full view while reporters are typ­i­cally kept too far away to ask ques­tions or hear most of the conversations.

I could under­stand why they’re scared. Palin had a chance to speak her mind prior to being selected as the VP can­di­date, and she said this: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that ques­tion until some­body answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day.” Yikes.

Finally, a com­ment for the McCain cam­paign. Could you have cho­sen a creepier, more Orwellian name than “truth squad?”