...what, specifically, has Palin set out to accomplish as a public servant, and then succeeded at?...

Try a quick trip to Wikipedia - the outlines are there, and they are not that of a "tool". Why the patronizing assumption that Palin has no political will of her own? For such a decorative nincompoop, especially one with little prior exposure on a national stage, she held up pretty darned well to what amounted to a public scourging.

I'm not interested in rehashing things that were put to bed last year...

Then why the renewed trashing of Palin on this thread, in which you have participated? ReaderReader took the time to write a careful, intelligent post explaining why he believes Palin got short shrift, to say the least. His comment deserved a response, not a breezy dismissal.

I can never ever forgive Ralph Nader for his spoiler role in the 2000 election. Upon Bush's win(...), I sent Nader the most blistering e-mail I could compose. I seriously doubt he read it. I seriously doubt he cared. By that time, Nader had been consumed by ego. All those lives saved because of seatbelts? Nader managed to cancel them out, one by one by one.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/5/28/14399/3914

This is the work of your "popular" president, Mr. Madden. Lovely man, just lovely.

Here's hoping Sotomayor gets on the Supreme Court and turns into one of those presidential "surprises" we've all heard about.

How can anyone of you continue to support Obama? How???

There, I've said it.

And so are the Austin and San Antonio papers, which I'm about to cancel. Not a word in either about Taguba's statements. Not a word about photos of torture. Maybe three words (buried on inside pages) about prosecution of those responsible for torture being off the table. These day, both papers are suitable for little more than covering Obama's butt, as can be said of the great majority of today's "news" media.

Read James Levy's post again, because you didn't get it: he is indicting Obama, along with Geithner et al. My take is that Obama is not pissing off the right, not the part that loves the status quo and power of money above all. All that rumbling you hear is actually muffled laughter up so many sleeves. So no, Obama is not doing okay, he's doing tremendous damage, aided and abetted every step of the way by the, in turns and sometimes simultaneously, lazy, lapdog, lying MSM. And by those on the left who simply refuse to see Obama for what he is - and isn't.

How 'bout we just shove retired auto workers over a cliff? It would appear that Obama wouldn't mind a bit. THIS stinks, really stinks:

http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/1984

The majority of reader comments on this thread would be funny if they weren't so, well, pathetic. It's only been (one/two/three/four) five months!!! The other guy (Bush/McCain/Clinton/Palin/Stalin) was worse!!! He had to make all those dumb promises, you know - they made him!!! He means well, and that's all that counts!!! He's done a great job (of something)!!! He knows things now that we can't know!!! I'm so sick of people being mean to Obama!!!

Gee. Suz.

My entirely dysfunctional birth family could look pretty damned perfect too, given a foot thick coating of MSM/online treacle such as that currently glossing the Obama family portrait. Just like all those divinely happy, picture perfect celebrity marriages. You know, the ones that end in snarling divorce as soon as the cameras turn away.

He who must not be criticized, even tangentially.

And so the cult of personality lives on. Scary stuff, that.

Americans have little standing re judgments on foreign elections, seeing as how the Democratic nomination for president of this country was rigged, hijacked, bought, and basically stolen in 2008. Just sayin'.

And yes, this is germane to the present discussion. How could it not be?

From the word go, Obama was more than content to be portrayed as the perfect answer to all mankind's thorniest problems. Elect me and you shall be saved, no question about it! So yeah, any flak he's getting now is well deserved.

I mean, isn't this the guy who described himself, rather smugly, as a blank slate upon which lesser beings projected whatever they wanted to see? Turns out there's a downside to this dynamic.

You're pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction. I'm hardly an opportunist. Just a real liberal who despises Obama for wrecking the traditional Democratic party once and for all. And all for the sake of opportunism. Obama's not even a centrist, not in Democratic terms. In fact, he's basically a party of one, eternally out for his own ends.

The hatred for and fear of Sarah Palin on the left is nothing short of scary. It's not much of a stretch to imagine the pack of you burning her at the stake. What is it about this woman that scares the pants off so many of you? Besides the fact that she's a woman, that is.

I may not agree with Palin's politics, but this doesn't mean I have an urge to boil her in oil.

I swear, the New Left has become more loathsome than the far right ever managed. What a bunch of flaming hypocrites you are. You aren't liberals. You're some strange breed of haters.

You are dead wrong about the (much dreaded, derided, and despised) PUMAs having anything at all to do with the figurative stoning of Sarah Palin. Though not in tune with her political ideololgy, we've been standing up for her from the get go, something which you would know if you had spent any time at all on PUMA websites over the past months. If anyone can be blamed for the alarming hatred aimed at Palin, it's the Obama-loving, woman-hating New Left, whose hallmark is unreasoned, extreme vitriol.