Continuing the double standard

This morning, AP has a story about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's statement that the media and the bloggers need to leave her kids alone. In it, they say that political observers say she can't have it both ways, bringing them out to showcase her family values and then saying that they're off limits. Once again, the liberal media and bloggers illustrate the double standard that they hold for liberals and conservatives.
They come at conservative candidates from any direction possible. Even if it means making up stories. Palin's son Trigg is the perfect example. During the campaign, the bloggers decided that he was not actually her son, but rather Bristol's son from a secret pregnancy. So much of the media bought into that story, citing that the blogosphere reported this in a number of stories. It's not true, but that doesn't seem to matter. They go at Bristol Palin for her pregnancy.
In their defense, they cite Palin's family values platform, and say that if she takes her family on the campaign trail, they are fair game.
Obama and Biden both took family members on the campaign trail, and in one speech that I am aware of, the children having a sleepover together was cited by Biden in order to make themselves look more middle class. Then, as observations were made about Obama's wife and some of the things that she was saying on behalf of the campaign while on the trail, the message came down, "Back off my family."
Did the media and the bloggers note that the family is in play because they were out on the campaign trail and, in the case of Michelle making statements on behalf of the campaign? No, they simply fell in line and stopped with the stories.
When Chelsea Clinton was making independent campaign appearances and speeches on behalf of her mother and less than flattering things were said about her in the media, Hillary sent out the word, "Back off my daughter." If ever there was a time to say that a family member was in play, this was the one, and yet the message came back, "Yes, ma'am."
When Joe the Plumber asked Obama a question that caused him to cite his socialist tendencies out loud, the media went after Joe with a vengeance that the most stringent of IRS audits wouldn't have been able to achieve. Child support was investigated, the fact that he didn't have a plumbing license was checked, his tax records were pulled, the list goes on and on. Yet, when stories started to surface about the tax records of the head of Obama's economic advisers, that was deemed off limits.
In an interview recently, Brokaw said that we don't really know who Barack Obama is, we don't really know the universe of his beliefs. That's because such things as his associations over the years with people like Wright and Ayers have been declared off limits. We now have a President who has entire sections of his life and the structure of his beliefs off limits - the the media honor that. However, when Sarah Palin tries to declare her children off limits, the media say she can't have it both ways. Seems that they want it both ways. Why shouldn't Palin?