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As the 2012 presidential election moves closer, it’s fascinating to watch the main stream media as they circle the wagons to promote and protect their chosen candidate. They are largely unwilling to present in-depth analysis of the President’s dismal record on the economy, on unemployment, on federal spending, and on the deficit. Sure, they report the basic facts, but they assiduously avoid delving deeper.

Can you just imagine the media coverage if a Republican President had failed as badly in resurrecting a moribund economy. The focus would be relentless. After all, that hypothetical administration would have presided over the distribution of almost a trillion dollars of borrowed taxpayer money to “stimulate the economy.” All to no effect. Human interest stories on the unemployed would be daily fare, with subtle condemnation of the phantom administration’s ineffective policies.

Today, four million people have been out of work for more than a year. Worse, half of the private jobs that were created last month (54,000—a paltry number indeed) were created by McDonalds—one of the companies that was exempted from Obamacare, thereby allowing them to hire without the negative mandates imposed on other large employers. One wonders how many large companies that were not exempted are holding back on hiring because the provisions of the President’s ill-conceived healthcare program are onerous. We’ll never know.

So if the MSM is not covering the President’s failures, what are they doing? Two of the flagship newspapers in the country (The NYT and WaPo) seem to be obsessed with Sarah Palin and her 25,000 emails. So obsessed, in fact, that both papers have enlisted hundred of readers to pour through the emails looking for juicy tidbits that can be used to further denigrate the former governor. But why? Sarah Palin is not a presidential candidate nor is she likely to become one.

The answer is really pretty simple. By spending thousands of column inches or minutes of airtime on Palin (or another non-candidate, Donald Trump), the MSM can avoid presenting the ideas of other serious candidates who might challenge their guy. After all, if they can make Palin look bad (that’s not hard to do!), they hope that the stink will rub off on other serious Republican candidates. For example, if they focus on Palin, they can keep the public from learning about people like Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, and a serious contender for the Republican nomination.

Unlike the President, who has studiously avoided presenting a detailed plan for federal spending and the economy, Pawlenty (and Congressman Paul Ryan) had the courage to propose a detailed plan. But rather than present Pawlenty's plan and discuss its impact, the MSM would rather look at Sarah Palin’s emails.

I suppose you could argue that the MSM paid as little attention the the President’s economic plan. But there was a different reason—they wanted to avoid embarrassing him. President Obama’s budget proposal in April was so bad that it was voted down in the Democratically-controlled Senate 97 – 0!

Did the MSM spend meaningful time dissecting the President's proposal or the overwhelming vote against it. Did they ask whether the President was less than serious about the economic catastrophe that has befallen our country? Did they ask why every Democratic Senator voted against the President’s plan? Every single one? Did they ask why the Presdient isn't leading on this critical issue?

Nah, they’d rather obsess about Sarah Palin.