The Sarah I knew.

So, after a passable interview with Charles Gibson which was blown completely out of proportion by the MSM, Sarah Palin had a legitimately awful interview with Katie Couric.

Now, as a McCain/Palin supporter who argued passionately in favour of Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice-President, it makes me feel all the more unnecessarily guilty for Sarah's lacklustre performance as of late. Let me just say:

This is not the Sarah I knew.

The Sarah I knew was a blunt, funny, off-the-cuff, down-to-earth country girl with a record of reform and a quick wit. Now, Sarah has been reduced to a blithering idiot, a set of legs leading up to a vacuum where a human brain should be, a scripted automaton with lipstick.

The McCain campaign has allowed the media to define Sarah instead of defining her themselves. Look what they have done. They have cloistered her off from the media as if she is some sort of delicate flower - and not just the liberal media. Sarah has been unavailable to friendly sources, such as conservative talk show hosts. Imagine what would have happened had they done that: Palin would be getting pitched soft-ball interviews which would then be quoted and disseminated, all whilst she was being briefed on key issues so that when she finally spoke to decidedly less fawning interviewers, such as Gibson and Couric, she would have the confidence and knowledge to give answers which don't sound like a grade-school student giving an oral presentation with the wrong flash cards.

Because let me reiterate: Sarah Palin is not stupid. If she were, I would have argued against her candidacy. Don't believe me? Watch this and this.

Cool, confident, cutting. That is the Sarah I knew. Before she was McCain's VP pick, Palin could eviscerate her opponents, make a coherent argument and be cute as a button through it all.

Now, the fault of the public relations disaster that is the Palin candidacy is two-fold. I have already explained the McCain half, but the MSM half is disturbing.

False Palin rumours have become established fact. My friends won't even acknowledge they are wrong when I send them links debunking lies about Sarah, such as that she is anti-Semitic or that she tried to go on some sort of mad book-banning binge as Mayor of Wasilla. It's not just an Internet phenomenon; I have even read mainstream media sources alleging that she supports abstinence-only education, a claim I have known to be false since I first supported her.

Now, let me be clear: I do not think that Sarah Palin should expect the media to go easy on her because she is new to the national scene. Sarah Palin may have only been in the spotlight for a month, but whoever is elected in November will be Vice-President for four years, and there is no such thing as an Easy button for that job - or any job for that matter.

However, it is frightening how blatant the media's animosity towards Palin - or rather, their apple-polishing of Barack Obama - has been. Compare the questions Charlie Gibson asked of Obama as opposed to Sarah Palin. Worse still, look at the key portions edited out of the Palin interview; I could literally see the edits as I watched the original broadcast.

We must ask, why is it that Joe Biden can say that paying taxes is patriotic or that when the stock market crashed in 1929, FDR got on television to address the situation, and no-one bats an eye? Why isn't Barack Obama's judgement being held to the same scrutiny? Joe Biden has been in office longer than anyone on either ticket - including John McCain - and he has "gravitas". Sarah Palin's flubs now define her. Barack Obama is utterly scripted, and when he's caught without a teleprompter, he sounds like a buffoon. Sarah Palin brings down the house at the Republican National Convention, and people dismiss her as a good speech reader.

Now, the McCain campaign finally appears to get it. Sarah Palin's next and last major audience with the American people will be this Thursday. If she fares poorly, it will likely not be a death knell for the McCain ticket, but it will add gasoline to an already furious fire of lies, unfair attacks and outright hate.

Of course Sarah isn't a "perfect" candidate, with her admittedly limited experience - which still consists of more executive experience than anyone else on either ticket - I'll admit. But no candidate is perfect. No human being is perfect.

But there are human beings who are good. All of them are flawed, but they are good. I see that in Sarah Palin I knew.

The Sarah Palin I knew defended her State when the Federal Government sought to meddle in its affairs. The Sarah Palin I knew fought to give America energy independence. The Sarah Palin I knew overturned the Alaska establishment. And she did all of these things without compromising her sacred duty as a wife to an equally dedicated husband and a mother of five beautiful, healthy children.

That is the Sarah Palin I knew, and it is the Sarah Palin America should know. It is the Sarah Palin America must know.