What Roger64 said.

Why would the GOP do anything different from what has worked for the past 8 years? Americans knew George W. Bush was an incurious slacker but that didn't prevent half of the voters from selecting him in 2000. He proved his lack of exceptionalism with the bungling after 9/11, the horrific invasion of Iraq and the subsequent squandering of $billions - yet a majority still re-elected him in 2004.

Countless federal officials were selected for positions they had little qualification for - Brownie, Miers, Goodling - and many crucial departments are now larded with bottom-of-the-barrel ideologues.

Bush and his gang of pirates have plundered the Treasury, alienated our allies, created new enemies and are now leaving our nation and much of the global economy tottering into depression.

Yet, a majority of voters, both GOP and Dem continue to be turned off or suspicious of candidates who think before blurting out nonsensical answers, or who seem exceptionally smart and accomplished.

Well, McCain’s selection of Palin was just giving the people what they've been buying for the past 8 years. The issue confronting us all now is we can't return the defective merchandise we already bought.

Hopefully, the Asian woman got the Countess into a kung-fu chokehold while her girlfriend slapped some sense into this brainless pile of trash.

I agree with luckycat.

As long as Palin doesn't take a dump on the stage or call Gwen Ifill the N-word, she'll win.

The format was changed to accommodate her level of expertise (8th grade history/civics) and play to her strengths (memorizing and not blinking).

Unfortunately for her (and McCain), most of the voting public has seen enough of the real Sarah Palin via stories in mainstream media like ABC, CBS, National Enquirer that she is rightly seen as a brainless, incurious sock puppet and not fit to be VP.

Sure, Palin is telegenic and can deliver a prepared speech - so give her a talk show and she can take on Oprah.

Nothing I have seen, heard, or read about Gov Palin gives me a shred of assurance that she can handle the job of VP, much less step in as president if necessary.

Sarah Palin may be fine as governor of Alaska (I know she couldn't even get elected mayor of any major city in the lower 48), but she would be eaten alive on the international stage.

If I want folksy and down-home, I'll watch a Reba rerun. If I want to hear a well read political speech, I'll watch C-Span. Sen Biden came out of the debate looking like a statesman. Gov Palin came off like the head of the Wasilla PTA.

We suffered through 9/11 with our doofus president; he bumbled into Iraq, crushed our economy and is leaving the US Treasury completely empty.

To paraphrase Palin, "never again, never again."

I echo what LeeNYC112 said. Get yourself a thorough vision and hearing exam to assure that your eyesight and/or hearing may not be the cause of your problems.

The key issue for any candidate is going to be her ability to raise huge sums of money and get really capable (not the usual suspects) campaign staffers.

That means she will need to inspire excitement and passion among potential supporters - some of the women mentioned may not meet that standard.

Correction - Carly Fiorina, not Meg Whitman said none of the Pres or VP candidates could run a business.

I'm with buckethead Wendy on this one. I was on the pill for years primarily as a method of period control. I would assume the Clark-Flory has never been one to suffer the monthly adventure associated with 3-4 days of severe cramps, going through more than a dozen superplus tampons per day, etc.

Having a short, light period with minimal cramping made business travel and career activities in general alot more manageable.

Like many other GOP governors, Todd-Whitman outsourced public services to incompetent cronies, cut income taxes while increasing spending, blah, blah.

The only repubs to get elected to statewide office in NJ have been pro-choice, the state GOP has run several wingnut candidates in the past, only to see them go down in flames.

McCain needs to get the polls back within the margin of error in a couple of "battleground" states. That will make it a little less obvious when the "Diebold factor" kicks in.

Are we in an alternate universe? The McCain campaign and the bloviating GOP bobbleheads are just throwing random stuff out there in every direction. I thought GW Bush was an idiot, but Karl Rove's campaign made him look like a Rhodes Scholar compared to how McCain's handlers are working him.

Why spend months/years on "research"? The answers are right in front of our faces:

1)Clinton, Swaggart cheated on wives with an adult woman - bad, but men have needs - you're forgiven.

2)Bakker - cheated on wife with adult woman & stole church money - bad & worse - don't mess with the cash.

3) Ted Kennedy - cheated on wife with adult woman who ends up dead - very bad - only got out of being indicted because of connections.

4) Haggard, Foley - had sex with men - very bad!!

As someone put it long ago (very crudely) - don't get caught with a dead woman, a live boy or your hand in the till.

The GOP leadership will have a big decision to make post election about the direction for their party. If they continue with the racists, anti-intellectual appeals to religious fundamentalists and small-minded people they will end up being the party of a group declining in size, wealth and power - purely due to broad economic and social trends.

They already have lost the upcoming generation of young voters, African American and Latino voters, as well as many Asian Americans.