The Press and Palin And Trig

A reader writes:

You wrote in response to a journalist reader who said that the McCain-Palin campaign simply refused to answer questions:

This is a democracy?

I'd say sure.

I'd argue that the McCain/Palin campaign lost a lot of potential votes because of decisions like their flat refusal to respond to reasonable questions or their announcement that Palin wouldn't do interviews unless the campaign was assured of "proper deference" (in a time of outrages, that one really got me). Proper behavior by candidates isn't what characterizes democracy. The ability of the electorate to hold those candidates accountable for their behavior and policies, as McCain and Palin were in 2008, is.