Another suitable moment for carving into a media bat came after John McCain showed his metal bracelet worn in memory of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, who was killed in Iraq. Obama noted that he, too, wore a bracelet for a fallen soldier. Then he forgot the name of Sgt. Ryan David Jopek and had to look down and read it.

It’s not awful, and could happen to anyone, but can anyone honestly imagine that the media would have ignored this had McCain been the forgetful one? Another wrinkle: Jopek’s mother, an Obama supporter who had given him the bracelet, had e-mailed the Obama campaign and asked Obama not to use her son’s name in either speeches or debates. As Newsbusters’ Warner Todd Huston reported, the AP said Sunday that she had, indeed, asked him not to do this, but had been okay with how Obama presented it during the televised debate. Again, imagine what the media would have done had McCain been asked by a parent not to invoke a deceased son’s name and then done so?

CMI just released a new special report, ‘Character’ the Most Important Issue in the Presidential Primary Debates. One striking finding was that the media asked the Democrats nearly twice as many “softball” questions as they asked Republicans. Republicans got 25 percent softballs, Democrats 48 percent.

Being a liberal in a political campaign is a bit like being a cornerback in a fixed football game. He can take cheap shots at receivers all day, knowing the referees will never call him on it. On the other side of the ball, the quarterback can throw all bombs he wants, knowing that if one is picked off, the refs will find a way to nullify the play.

Keep in mind that the moderator for Thursday’s debate is PBS’s Gwen Ifill, who has just written a pro-Obama book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. As Michelle Malkin notes on her Website, the book’s promo says Ifill is “introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.”

Meanwhile the scribes are sharpening their poison pens and polishing their gun sights, otherwise known as cameras. They’ll be ready to draw more blood from Mrs. Palin than a bite from an Alaskan mosquito.

As for Joe, he can take comfort in the knowledge that his next gaffe won’t have a long shelf life, and that he can sit back, Biden his time.