We're coming up now on my penultimate messages. The election will be here soon.

Briefly, I see where you are going with the Nazi comparison, but that was not my intention. I have been to Dachau, and Nurnberg, and Berlin, and studied that era in great detail. I would never make a knowing allusion to it with anything other than condemnation. It never occurred to me that anyone would read my description of "thin" or "healthy" people at a Sarah Palin rally (as opposed to smoker/tubbies at the nearest casino down the highway) and think of the NSDAP.

As for refusing to listen, that's not quite right. One poster, deloresflower, encouraged me to look at the rape kit story in detail. I have done so. It gives me pause. If Palin did, in fact, knowingly author the budget cut, and did so based on concern for the morning after pill - in turn, causing a victim to have to shell out money for her own evidence, I would regard that as wrong, and it would cause some impact in my opinion of her. But, we still do not know if that is the case: Palin has said otherwise, and no live witness exists to contradict her. Having said that, it would not change my vote (I already voted), and it would not cause me to stop having high admiration for her. But it is something which, as I said, gives me at least a moment of pause. I would want to understand her thinking on it.

As far as my *reality,* I laid it out in my very first post. I said I think Palin is a good, solid Republican VP pick, and should be judged by the issues like Mitt Romney, not on overwrought reactions to her womanhood, or minutae in Alaska. That hasn't happened. The Democratic party, and then the media, and then grass roots Democrats (including Salon posters) have taken her to task on *everything* much more so than they would have Romney (or the Republicans have Biden). And, in a way, it's a backhanded compliment (though you may not see it) to the power of her appeal. And I, along the way, have developed greater than expected admiration for her -- as have, evidently, many other supporters at the grass roots level. I can't think of a public figure for whom I felt a greater personal connection, or esteem.

Finally, with respect to racism, I don't think so. I would have no problem with Clarence Thomas for president, and to make the hypothetical less galling, let's assume he would adopt a pro-affirmative action plank so he would not be running as a token anti-affirmative action black. I read his opinions - they are solid. With some tweaks, I would have felt the same way about Colin Powell (though his recent lame apostasy makes me see him differently). Or Condi Rice. My objections to Obama are not based on race, but policy. If there is a racial basis to my thought, it is a reaction to Obama's own overtly racialist politics and politico-religious ties in Chicago. Some of that stuff offends me. Anyone can judge for themselves whether that makes me racist. I prefer *candid.* And I certainly don't hate or depricate anyone on the basis of race.

I'll finish where I started, with a kind word about Sarah Palin. Win or lose, I wish her and her family well. They are the best our country has to offer.

I said earlier that barring a miracle, McCain and Palin have no chance to win. That's true. The same thing was said of Abraham Lincoln in October of 1864. Sometimes the unexpected happens.

Best wishes to you all.