Given all the handwringing I'm seeing on this site today, I think it's a good idea for everyone to take a deep breath and realize there's plenty of time for voters to learn the woeful truth about McCain's Folly between now and November 4.

For instance, below is the link to a front-page story from the Sunday Los Angeles Times, September 7, datelined Uniontown, PA. The headline--"The Palin charm is a tough sell here"--and the subhead--"Small-town working women say economic fears trump gender"--are heartening news for those who see McCain and Palin trying to lie their way into the White House.

Here's a short excerpt:

Republican delegates and activists in the convention hall delighted in Palin's jabs at the Illinois senator, such as when she poked fun at the columned backdrop for Obama's stadium acceptance speech or mocked him as intent on "turning back the waters and healing the planet."

For many women here [in Uniontown] watching closely, though, that portion of Palin's speech was all they needed to hear.

When Palin belittled Obama's history as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side--suggesting he was a do-little activist while she, as the former mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, had "actual responsiblities"--Sandy Ryan, 59, clicked the remote.

"That's enough of that. I switched over to 'House Hunters,'" she said with some disgust over dessert with a group of women from the senior housing complex she manages.

At the end of the article, one 23-year-old EMT, Jennifer Glisan, says, "I think Palin is a fake. She will run the economy into the ground.... I have to kill myself every day at work to earn enough to pay for gas to get there. I think Obama is sincere. I think we need a change."

Take heart then. I'm originally from Pittsburgh and now live in Los Angeles. I find it encouraging that folks in my formative neck of Penn's Woods still have the ability to call B.S. when they see it.

Here's the link. The reporters are Faye Fiore and Peter Wallsten.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-women7-2008sep07,0,2211156.story?track=rss

Remember Mencken's aphorism about never going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public?

Yeah, that one.

It appears he's right.

For proving my point.

I just want to know: when Palin supposedly killed the Bridge to Nowhere, did she shoot it from a helicopter?

I hope Obama's camp doesn't fall for this ploy.

I bet the Deregulator, Screamin' Steve Schmidt, and Runnin' Rick Davis took stock of of the campaign's scary internal polls and figured they'd try this chicken*@#! idea. You mean McCain can't handle this long-awaited first debate on foreign policy and this economic crisis at the same time? How presidential....

What a crock.

McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, need another week to wipe their fingerprints off the financial policies that led to this mess. The delay will also give Steve Schmidt time to work himself into another state of high dudgeon because the press dares to print the truth.

I'm willing to bet that the Deregulator, Screamin' Steve, and Rick the Lobbyist took stock of the campaign's internal polls and decided that now was no time for McCain to appear on a national stage with Obama. How presidential....

McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, need another week to wipe their fingerprints off the financial policies they pimped that led to this mess. The delay will also give Steve Schmidt time to work himself into another state of high dudgeon because the press dares to print the truth.

I'm willing to bet that the Deregulator, Screamin' Steve, and Rick the Lobbyist took stock of the campaign's internal polls and decided that now was no time for McCain to appear on a national stage with Obama.

How presidential....

McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, need another week to wipe their fingerprints off the financial policies they pimped that led to this mess. The delay will also give Steve Schmidt time to work himself into another state of high dudgeon because the press dares to print the truth.

I'm willing to bet that the Deregulator, Screamin' Steve, and Rick the Lobbyist took stock of the campaign's internal polls and decided that now was no time for McCain to appear on a national stage with Obama, even though foreign policy is supposed to be McCain's strong suit.

How presidential....

McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, need another week to wipe their fingerprints off the financial policies they pimped that led to this mess. The delay will also give Steve Schmidt time to work himself into another state of high dudgeon because the press dares to print the truth.

I'm willing to bet that the Deregulator, Screamin' Steve, and Rick the Lobbyist took stock of the campaign's internal polls and decided that now was no time for McCain to appear on a national stage with Obama, even though foreign policy is supposed to be McCain's strong suit.

How presidential....

But the shit you're peddling here is starting to stink to high heaven.

The Deregulator has no credibility on the economy; even he has admitted it. His poll numbers are trending down, his campaign manager was just caught in yet another lie, and no one but Lindsey Graham wants to see McCain's doughy mug show up to take credit for a package that Congress and the Bush White House are close to finishing after working on it all week, while McCain was chatting up the anti-elitist likes of Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

We'd like to engage with you further, but at least bring some intellectual honesty to the table. If your eyes aren't brown, I'd be surprised, because you're so full of it.

If McCain pilots the economy the way he flies jets, we're in a for a world of pain.