How will the media portray Sarah Palin?

For the answer, just take a look at the front page of today's Oregonian (at left) -- specifically, the caption under her photo. Not corruption reformer Sarah Palin. Not mother of five Sarah Palin. Not former small-city politician Sarah Palin. Not even one-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin. But socially conservative Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Because, you know, it's all about abortion.

Didja hear she not only wants to force rape victims to carry their babies to term, but she also thinks the women deserved to be raped and shouldn't have dressed so provocatively? (Disclaimer: No, she never said anything of the kind, but I'm certain that someone in the left-wing fever swamp has already leveled this charge at her.)

And, by the looks of things in the online world, they plan to make issue of her experience. While her experience is a bit thin, I think it's too early to make the call on that (not that the Obama campaign will wait for more clarification), and that Jonah Goldberg hit it on the head:

If she does a good job at the convention and survives about three weeks of serious media scrutiny — no horrible gaffes, no unforgivable I-don't-knows to gotchya questions (fair and unfair), no botched hostile interviews — she will emerge as the single most inspired VP pick in modern memory and she will give the Democrats migraines for a long time to come, assuming there are no terrible skeletons we don't know about. But, if she screws up in the next three weeks, gives the press and the late night comedians sufficient fodder to Quayelize her, she'll be seen as anything from a liability to an outright horrible pick. That's it.

And along those lines, they're constantly harping on the "no foreign policy experience" theme. I think (or at least, I hope) that over the next few weeks, we'll learn that this woman has given foreign policy a fair amount of thoughtful examination. And that should put her in the same league with Barack Obama's foreign policy experience.

One final thought: the venom coming from liberals over this pick tells me they're scared. In Sarah Palin, they see a strong woman who is likeable and comes across as appealing to voters. This combines one of the best qualities of Hilary Clinton (strength) with one of the best qualities of Barack Obama (likability). They're praying that Palin has some serious skeleton in her closet or that she makes some horrible gaffe, because otherwise their messiah may be un-deified.