Not that anyone expects US Weekly to uphold anything even faintly resembling standards, but this cover (hat tip John Batchelor) is a caricature of calumny. It's also nothing outside the journalistic norm of the past 48 hours. As such, it stands as the definitive statement by the Fourth Estate on the Palin nomination.  

Of course, in one way, it's sort of nice  to see the media working for a change--as opposed to the fatcat-lazy public relations campaign they've been orchestrating for  Barack Obama since he emerged as Their One.

But this Babygate feeding-frenzy spotlights the disturbingly infantile turn of mind that marks the mainstream media, and mars their attempts to keep the public informed. 

John Batchelor comments thus:      

A significant media mogul of the Obama/Biden attack legion, Jann Wenner, has lost control of the narrative after just a few days of Sarah Palin's startling candidacy and plunged into obsession with the Palin family.  At first I did not believe Jann Wenner's US Weekly cover was genuine, so I checked the US website to confirm that this is a genuine magazine cover.  Have the Obamas lost their minds?  Yes.  Does anyone see the electoral map?  No.  Sarah Palin is a magnificent choice by John McCain just because she appeals to the working class family vote that Mrs. Clinton commanded in Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania.  But she is much better than that, because Sarah Palin's politics ignite the affection and cash and volunteerism of the conservative base of the GOP that delivered Ohio and Florida to President Bush twice and may very well deliver the same to John McCain, a candidate the conservatives disdain, because of Sarah Palin.  Sarah Palin is the perfect Republican weapon.  Money, class, guns, religion and looks.  And that was before the Obama/Biden Team decided, in a panic that may be felt by the candidate, to attack her because of her children and family.