Sarah Palin on the First Amendment:

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Is it too much to ask that a person running for a Constitutional office know something about the Constitution?

Sarah Palin, meet the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Note to Sarah: The First Amendment protects the citizen and the press from the government, not the other way around. Also, it does not protect you from criticism when you say stupid things. Further, the kind of protection you appear to be seeking, that is, protection of a government official from criticism by the press is pretty much the norm in fascist regimes.

Of course, the freedom of the press is kind of an alien concept to Sarah Palin. At the beginning of October she said this about the press:

"As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we’ve really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance."

Note to Sarah: Freedom of the press is not a "privilege", it is a right guaranteed under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

Sarah Palin’s views on the First Amendment and the freedom of the press are, to say the least, troubling - especially so because she is running to become the vice president of the United States.