After discussing with a friend, the horrid hit-piece from Michael Joseph Gross in this week's Vanity Fair, he reminded me of an old article published by a different magazine, from a different time. Back in February 2008, Vogue featured a much different sort of article about Governor Palin. The piece was titled "Altered State" and it highlighted many different elements of the governor's life, both personal and professional. The beginning of the piece says a lot about who exactly Sarah Palin is as a person, and how the media has changed in regards to their treatment of her since then. The piece starts: The editor of Alaska magazine had a problem. State governor Sarah Palin, with her historically high approval rating and natural good looks (one blogger called her Tina Fey's sexier sister), seemed a natural choice for the cover of his magazine. Problem was, the picture they had shot in her Juneau office showed Palin smiling. The official governor's portrait of her? Smiling. The pictures...