In their never-ending crusade to destroy traditional conservatives, we expect the corrupt media to lie. It’s what they do and what they’ve done for decades. What we don’t expect, though, is to have our presumptive nominee fuel those lies and allow those lies to affect his crucially important vice presidential pick. This is why this morning’s report in the left-wing Politico is so troubling: [emphasis added]

Mitt Romney and his top aides are building a strategy, partly by design and partly because of circumstance, around what they consider John McCain’s disastrously run campaign in 2008.

The strategy: whatever McCain did, do the opposite.

Many of the current strategy discussions are centered on not falling into the traps McCain did: looking wobbly as a leader and weak on the economy in the final weeks of the campaign. The private discussions include ruling out any vice presidential possibilities who could be seen as even remotely risky or unprepared[.] …

But a Republican official familiar with the Romney campaign’s thinking says the vice-presidential search will be more rigorous, and likely produce a candidate a lot less flashy than McCain’s running mate, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.  …

Other names will be floated but, under the campaign’s current theory of the case, are long shots: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is said by insiders to want it the most and also to annoy some aides with his aggressiveness; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is not being as seriously considered as popularly believed because aides don’t see him as experienced enough or appropriately vetted. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez are also seen as too untested and lacking the national experience that would assure officials at Romney headquarters in Boston that they weren’t walking into another Palin problem.

First off, let’s remember that this is Politico and that Politico is deeply invested in not only winning Obama a second term but also in  justifying its years-long jihad of lies against the former Alaskan Governor. Politico’s attacks against Palin have extended from the distracting pettiness over the possibility she might own a tanning bed, to her family, and then to any private citizen who might have helped make her Vice President. Therefore, it’s not at all outside the realm of possibility that this corrupt outlet is merely making these sources up or confining their sources to those willing to tell them what they want to hear.

With respect to full disclosure, I’m a proud Palinista. When it came to Sarah Palin, it was love at first sight of her record and I very much wanted and want her to run for President. I do, however, like and support Mitt Romney. Thus far he’s run a good campaign and has the potential to not only beat Barack Obama but to be a very good president who will get the economy running again. But if these Politico reports are true, it means Romney’s people are indeed falling into the exact same trap and making the same mistakes the McCain campaign did.

It was obvious that through his reluctance to capitalize on Obama’s creepy relationships and shadowy background, that McCain allowed the media to get into his head and psyche him out. Regardless of party, a candidate for president’s past needs to be thoroughly scrutinized and if the media won’t do it, it’s the patriotic duty of the opposing party to do it. According to all kinds of sources, McCain refused to vet Obama for fear the media would call him racist.

When the media’s opinion of you matters, you’ve already lost because the only way a Republican can win the good opinion of the media is through that which damages the right and/or aids the left.

Flash-forward to 2012,  the primary battle is barely over, and already we have reports of the Romney camp falling for the exact same media tricks. Fearing the media will whip out the Palin Playbook against their VP choice, they’re allowing the media to psyche them out in the vitally important decision-making process of who they will and won’t choose.  

Most unforgivably, this kind of message and reaction from the Romney camp also aids and abets the media lies now being told about Palin. The crusade of historical revisionism to blame Palin for McCain’s 2008 loss is now in full bloom, thanks in large part to a discredited book called “Game Change” and the even more discredited HBO film that followed.

It is simply a cold hard fact that one of the very few smart decisions McCain made was to put Sarah Palin on the ticket. Polls and exit polls conclusively prove this. Secondly, Palin was thoroughly vetted. Finally, and of the utmost importance, is the fact that Palin’s political experience (which started in 1992) as a member of the Wasilla City Council, Wasilla Mayor, her tenure as Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and finally the state’s Governor, made and makes her infinitely more qualified than many VP choices and most certainly more qualified than the media’s candidate, Barack Obama.

As of now, Romney has done a pretty solid job of consolidating the base. But to be seen as toadying up to the corrupt media by validating a dishonest mythology about someone as important to and respected by the base as Governor Palin, could harm that effort.

Nothing, however, is more disturbing about this report than the idea that Romney would allow the media to in any way tamper with who he might choose to share the ticket with him.

That’s not avoiding McCain’s mistakes, that’s repeating them.