Andrew Sullivan is rightfully indignant that this is unacceptable in an advanced democracy, and a super power at that. Read his post here.

Could you imagine if Obama, or Biden, or McCain hid out in their homes for a couple weeks? With less than two months until the election? No way, no how.

The same wouldn't be acceptable either for Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius, Diane Feinstein, Mary Landrieu or any of the other leading female Democrats.

It wouldn't even be acceptable for the big name female Republican politicians like Hutchinson, Snowe, Dole, Collins, or even Lisa Murkowski for goodness sake. And you know Carly Fiorina would be out there talking to the press (and defending herself from having been fired as CEO of HP).

So what makes Palin so special that she can hide?

But if you have zero foreign policy experience, then one would need to spend some quality time with Joe Lieberman learning about the fine nuances of international diplomacy.

Will there be a Palin Cowardice Clock, counting the number of days that she won't be available to the press? Somehow, and depressingly, I doubt it.