One of these things is exactly like the other

Via Andrew Sullivan, I stumbled upon Dana McCourt making a very weak argument. After acknowledging that it "strikes me as completely plausible that Palin exaggerated the extent to which she was in labor during the plane flight", McCourt then compares it to other politicians:

I have heard that male politicians have sometimes exaggerated their influence in important legislation or their status as a war hero.

What bothers me is the epistemic leap from Palin probably isn’t wholly truthful big friggin’ shocker to Therefore, we have a right to demand the birth certificate of her child to prove that she’s the mother. [Italics in original]

I don't know if we have a right to demand a birth certificate, but we do have a right to demand to know whether or not she lied about the plane flight. After all, could you imagine the press ignoring a story about a male politician exaggerating their status as a war hero? I can't. In fact, Talking Points Memo has an entire page devoted to politicians whose lies about war service hurt their careers.