Keeping Palin hush hush

The McCain-Palin camp has gone into hiding. Sen. John McCain sought refuge behind the veil of the nation's financial crisis, while Gov. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has been given the sock-in-the-mouth treatment from her running mate.

Tuesday, Palin met with world leaders at the United Nation General Assembly in New York City. What was supposed to be a credential boosting photo op for the republican vice presidential candidate turned into a media shutout when the McCain-Palin camp suddenly banned reporters from accessing the meetings.

Campaign officials later relented, allowing a CNN pool producer into the meeting between Palin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a mere 29 seconds. Imagine the reporting possibilities!

Print and wire reporters later accompanied the CNN producer in Palin's meetings with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

According to Fox News producer Shushannah Walshe who blogged on site, this type of event is typically a photo opportunity. However, Walshe says that a media blackout of this degree is unprecedented. See video on Fox News blog for more.

Perhaps the McCain-Palin camp feared probing questions from pesky reporters would expose Palin's foreign policy inexperience. (The first-term Alaska Governor has been outside North American only once.)

The McCain-Palin camp has successfully sheltered Palin from the press for the past four weeks. Few interviews have been conducted since her post-VP nomination press conference, and reporters traveling with the campaign have been barred form asking questions. Local interviews characteristic of presidential campaigns have also been sparse. See NBC's Matthew Berger "Shielding Palin from the press" for more.

Having been exposed, the McCain campaign tried to ameliorate the situation by granted CBS reporter Katie Couric an interview with Palin last Wednesday. Palin also held her first press conference since being named McCain's running mate on Thursday. Despite these measures, Howard Kurtz, a Washington Post and CNN media critic, told CNN that he'd never seen such an inaccessible VP candidate. Read more: "Palin mingles with media in rare Q&A."

CNN anchor Campbell Brown's fulmination on the McCain-Palin camp's sexist treatment of Palin underscores the campaign's lack of confidence in its VP candidate and sheds an interesting light on Palin's inaccessibility.

The McCain camp shouldn't have chosen someone they're embarrassed by; shielding Palin from the press will only hurt the campaign by exposing its disbelief in Palin's ability to lead.