Double standards to come

The always astute Joe Conason says Charlie Gibson and Geoege Snuffleupagus' performance Wednesday is just the start.

Playing gotcha with Democrats and patty-cake with Republicans will remain basic operating procedure for the mainstream media this year, no different from the past half-dozen presidential campaigns -- except that the additional bias in favor of John McCain may make a bad situation worse

And as Barack Obama should have learned during the debate’s first 45 minutes, if not before, the same fuzzy but obsessive focus on "character" that plagues Bill and Hillary Clinton will be turned on him with equal or greater ferocity by those who once claimed to admire him. He is now subject to the "Clinton rules," which have long permitted pundits, editorialists and reporters to indict the former president and first lady for sins that other politicians, mostly Republican, may commit with impunity (see Gingrich, Newt, first, second and especially third marriage).

The rest is here:

There you have it. That's why Saint McCain will never face hard questions over his association with radical televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley or be grilled over his gaming the system regarding public financing rules ... while retaining his image as a Maverick ReformerTM.

And forget about a little scandal called the Keating Five. That's down the memory hole.