There appears to be some suggestion in the posts that Palin is not smart enough for the job. Before making that assertion, however, her opponents may want to revisit recent history.

Remember the SNL parodies back in 2000, showing a silly George Bush and a super-techy-super-smart Al Gore? I do. But I also remember the revelation that Bush had better grades in college than Gore, and that Gore flunked out of both divinity school and law school, failing to complete both (unlike Bush's MBA).

Then there was 2004, with another supposedly deep thinker on the Democratic ticket, John Kerry. Kerry too had weaker grades than Bush, although he fought hard against disclosing it.

In 2008, we have McCain, an admittedly very poor student; Joe Biden, who finished near the bottom and lied about his grades during his plagarism-thon back in 88; Palin, who apparently did not have a distinguished academic career; and Obama, the self-described honor student who refuses to release any transcripts.

My only point here is that one ought to be careful before casting stones. If I had to take a wild, intuitive guess, I would imagine Palin studied harder and learned more during her undergraduate years than the other three, if only because she had no buffers (e.g., an admiral father, affirmative action) to protect her.

I understand what you and others are saying: the stakes are too high to make a calculated vote for McCain/Palin. I would respectfully challenge your assumption, on three different bases.

1. First, we are often told the stakes are very high. Remember John Kerry's assertion in 2004 we had the worst economy since Herbert Hoover? Pretty darn grim, if true. Humorously, Kerry was on the other day explaining why he lost that race, and said in part it was because Bush had the benefit of running on a pretty good economy. Doh!

2. Honestly, the candidates are not that far apart on many of the so-called big picture issues. We can see already that the "housing/sub-prime" mess will be cured with a gigantic, bipartisan, deferred spending, government pork out plan. No reason to think principle will play any part in it.

Iraq and Afghanistan are similar. Once elected, neither candidate will be looking back at 2002 and asking why are we here. Rather, they will be looking at 2012 and asking: how do we get out with the least casualties and smallest risk of a debacle? The band width of choices will be narrower than the current campaign rhetoric might suggest.

3. Third, let's not forget that while McCain is being pictured (not only by Obama, but to some extent his own campaign) as a right wing conservative, he has made a career over the last decade of sticking it to his own party. I firmly believe he would like to govern as a bull moose Teddy Roosevelt centrist, and we will see plenty of flexibility on taxes, entitlements, immigration and so forth should he be elected. Quick prediction: many of his conservative supporters will be disappointed in him.

In sum, both intellectual and lunch-pail Democrats -- especially Hillary supporters -- have good reason to consider McCain/Palin.