The Miami Herald’s Carl Hiaasen asks whether the press would follow The Sarah Rules and defer on every issue if Palin were a man.

Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain’s campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don’t treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you’ll be accused of character assassination…

…the same right-wing gasbags who’ve trashed Hillary Clinton for 16 years have morphed into sensitive souls when it comes to their own hockey-mom candidate. Each unsettling news revelation about Palin is automatically decried as a sexist smear.

But if the gender issue were removed? Think about it, Hiaasen says.

• If Palin were a male candidate, Democrat or Republican, she’d be taking heat for ducking reporters when the election is only five weeks away.
• If Palin were a male candidate, she might also be encouraged to discuss why she chose a high-school pal to head Alaska’s Division of Agriculture at a $95,000 salary. Among her flimsy qualifications, the woman, a former real-estate agent, claimed an affection of cows.
If Palin were a male candidate…
• If Palin were a male candidate, she’d be asked why she put another childhood friend in charge of a money-losing, state-subsidized creamery that was supposed to shut down until Palin reversed the decision. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the doomed dairy cost Alaskans more than $800,000 in additional losses before it was finally closed.
• [I]f she were a male candidate, she’d be pressed to explain why she billed the state more than $17,000 as ”per diem” expenses — for 312 nights she spent at her own home.
• Imagine if her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, had been videotaped while being solemnly blessed against ”every form of witchcraft.” The Republicans would jump on it, running blistering ads to portray Biden as a whack job unfit for the vice presidency.

It’s hard to perform this same mental exercise with, “If Obama were white…” and come up with examples of how Obama has been given similar passes by the press. Lord knows, we discussed his pastor’s much less bizarre sermons ad nauseum. When you consider Hiaasen’s key Sarah Rule, there is no comparison.

…the Sarah Rules allow everyone to explain Palin’s words and past actions except Palin herself.