From
NYT: Near-flawless run from start to finish - The New York Times :
"For more than a week, Ms. Palins star rose, along with Mr. McCains poll numbers, as Mr. Obamas campaign seemed uncertain how to respond. Seeking to avoid the appearance of coming on too strong, the campaign stood by as she accused Mr. Obama of palling around with terrorists. Democrats on Capitol Hill were as nervous as they had been all year.
Mr. Margolis, the advertising strategist, got an earful when he was dispatched to give a briefing at the weekly caucus of Senate Democratic leaders.
I said, Im just asking everybody to be patient for a couple of weeks, and there was a groan that went through part of the room, and it was, Dont sit back and allow this race to get away from you guys, Mr. Margolis said.
As had been their way so often, Mr. Obamas aides did not change course because of the second-guessing. They were confident that with the selection of Ms. Palin, who had little national or international experience, Mr. McCain would ultimately confuse voters who for months had heard his argument that experience mattered most.
I was trying to communicate pretty clearly that nobody was sitting back, but we believed that we had a strategy that was sound, that there was now real dissonance between the McCain message of August and the McCain message of September, Mr. Margolis said.
Indeed, as Ms. Palin began to suffer a variety of wounds poor interview performances with Charlie Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, a brutal impersonation by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live they kept their distance and let it play out."
To summarize: you're wrong. The Democratic Politicians didn't go after Palin; movie stars, news anchors, and other Republicans criticized Palin. And, the questions Gibson and Couric asked her weren't at all "Gotcha Journalism" either.