Palin: damsel in distress--updated!

Apparently Sarah Palin is officially off limits to the press. ABC's Jake Tapper writes:

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

There's a remarkable double standard at work here. As I wrote last week, the McCain camp desperately wants to cast Palin as the victim of sexism. But this is the ultimate patronizing attitude to take toward a female politician. If she's capable of being president, she's capable of taking a tough question or two, no?

Via Blue Mass. Group. 

UPDATE: A DQM reader notes that Politico is reporting Palin will talk to ABC's Charlie Gibson later this week. It'll be interesting to see whether he sexism drumbeat and sequestering of Palin leads Gibson to be extra tough--or, conversely, whether he's extra gentle thanks to his exclusive.