To all those women who are so excited about Sarah Palin and furious with those pesky reporters who want to question her, I have to ask:

Where's your outrage?

We keep hearing about how groundbreaking her candidacy is, how she's shattering the glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton only managed to crack. Lots of chatter over her moose hunting and wolf shooting, too.

We hear a lot of complaints, as well, about how sexist the coverage of her has been. How dare those reporters ask her about, well, anything ?

But if fairness and equal treatment are what you want, why aren't you demanding that Palin be treated just as the guys in the race are being treated? Why aren't you insisting that she, too, grant the interviews and take the live questions? He may be prone to gaffes, but that hasn't stopped Joe Biden from giving nearly 90 interviews so far. As of last week, Palin had granted exactly three.

How fair is that? I don't understand.

Or maybe I do.

In a sit-down with Katie Couric — interview No. 3 since Palin's candidacy was announced four weeks ago — Palin was asked to offer evidence to support her argument that John McCain is the guy to bring reform to Wall Street.

Couric: "But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more."

Palin: "He's also known as the maverick, though, taking shots from his own party and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about — the need to reform government."

Couric: "I'm just going to ask you one more time — not to belabor the point — specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation."

Palin: "I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring them to you."

Hmm. Maybe there's good reason for Palin's fans' eerie silence.

Interviews with women in crowds, which are as close as reporters can get to a female interview at a Palin event, include proud assertions that Palin is just like them. In most cases, she really isn't, but these comments reflect a deep desire of so many American women who long to see themselves reflected in the leadership of this country. We look at who holds most seats in Congress and state legislatures, who sits behind most governors' desks, and it's easy to understand some women's initial excitement over Sarah Who.

The problem is since her candidacy was announced, we still don't know much about the who in Sarah. The little we do know may explain why Palin's numbers are starting to dip in the polls.

Increasingly, she's asking to be the exception. Rules for her debate are stricter than for the presidential debates. Unlike Biden, she won't reveal her finances until after the debate. And we know virtually nothing about her first-ever, closed-to-the-press discussions with world leaders over two days in New York last week.

The campaign refused to allow coverage of Palin's crash course in world diplomacy and offered no details of her talks. Media access was limited to photo ops, which were less than presidential, to say the least.

As cameras rolled, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told Palin she was even more gorgeous in person, gushing, "Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you."

When she said an aide wanted them to pose together, Zardari beamed. "If he's insisting, I might hug."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Palin answered only two of dozens of questions that reporters shouted at her during the two days. Both times, she gave her reaction to the meetings.

"It was great," she said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, she was even more effusive.

"It's going great," she said. "The meetings are very informative and helpful. A lot of good people share an appreciation for America."

That is all we get from the woman who wants to be president-in-waiting?

Now that's an outrage.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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