Maybe the purpose of picking Palin was to make Romney look like a brilliant Plan B when she is inevitably chased from the ticket for being a mouth-breathing, corrupt and spectacularly unqualified joke.

By God, it's brilliant. Anyone who could make a stiff like Mitt look palatable is a genius.

Let's see...

Palin is a country girl who has a reputation for plain talkin'. Bush is a faux country lad who likes to clear brush.

Palin is a Christian who bans books and thinks human activity had nothing to do with climate change. Bush is a Christian who shreds e-mails and thinks human activity had nothing to do with climate change.

Palin is carefully protected from the press. Ditto for Bush.

Palin has little experience other than mayor of a two-bit Arctic town. Bush ruined everything he touched, from the state of Texas to the Texas Rangers.

Both Palin's and Bush's main appeal appears to be their willingness to be figureheads for the Wacko Religious Wrong while being people with whom mouth breathers would like to go moose hunting/have a beer.

That settles it. I'm going to call Sarah Palin "Georgia Bush" from this point on. She's the Resident reincarnated as a nonqualified Alaska cheerleader.

The oft-quoted 20% figure with regard to the religious right is a misnomer and has been shown to be so on many occasions. It's based on a lot of presumptions, namely, that the self-professed "Christians" in the southern states are all rabid, full-time churchgoers. But more recent research and surveys have shown that as many as 50% of them are not. They're not a vocal group, so they don't get the attention. But recent estimates suggest that hardcore, politically active religious conservatives--the kind who care only about Sarah Palin's anti-abortion, anti-sex education, pro-Iraq-as-holy-crusade bona fides and not her startling lack of experience--only make up about 10% of the electorate. So they're not as monolithic or powerful as many trembling progressives make them sound.

This is emblematic of the real agenda behind the Novaks, Noonans and other hacks who bloviate in and on the right-wing media. In private, they know the people for whom they pimp are incompetent, power-crazed, delusional and dangerous. They KNOW this, and they despise these people. But in public, in one ghastly act of hypocrisy after another, they slash and attack on behalf of these same Cheneys, Palins, Bushes and Roves for one reason: their income, status and fame depend on them doing so. I cannot think of a more disgusting betrayal of one's duty as a journalist or one's own personal principles.

...will read, "My VP is saner than your VP."

You make a great point: Republicans/Conservatives (I include some more hardcore Libertarians here as well as some deeply conservative Democrats) seem to be all about self-imposed fear. Fear of taxes. Fear of bin Laden. Fear of having their guns taken away by Big Guv'mint. Fear of socialism. Fear of economic change. Fear of The Other (blacks, gays, liberals, Arabs, etc.)

But I also noticed something: they are also motivated by deep selfishness. I have several clients I know well who are deeply conservative, primarily old-line fiscal conservatives who are socially moderate. All they talk about is how Obama's going to raise THEIR taxes, threaten THEIR towns by letting in all the illegals, force THEM into government-run healthcare, and so on. Never a word about other people who are less fortunate (and all these clients are very successful), and never a word about what's right for the country as a whole. It's all about them.

That's what we're up against, and that's why it's hard and necessary to be progressive, because we try to think about and act on behalf of others out of a sense of hope. You NEVER, EVER set a sense of hope from Republicans. Only fear, rage, resentment, and greed.

Keep it up, Crypt Keeper. All you have are slams, innuendo and character assassination. Obama and his people know that if this election becomes about the issues--the economy, Iraq, the economy, healthcare, the economy, energy, the economy--you're going to get creamed.

And what has Obama been doing the past few days? Speaking in Ohio and Pennsylvania on specifics related to fixing the economic meltdown and getting people back to work while giving them healthcare. Issues. Remember those, Crypt Keeper?

I'm very sorry that the Crypt Keeper was tortured in Vietnam, and I'm sure he's an admirable man. But he's part of the Republican system that has gang-raped this nation since 1994 and he is not fit to govern it.

Touche. I remember the "McCain fathered a secret black love child" whisper campaign before the South Carolina primary; it was one of the most disgusting political hatchet jobs I had ever seen but a fitting introduction to Rovian tactics.

McCain is the worst kind of of politician: one who professes ethics and independence while getting into bed with whoever and whatever will win him the election. Witness his prior nose-thumbing to the Religious Wrong, followed by his desperate smooching of their anal sphincters once it became clear he was the primary frontrunner. Talk about flip-floppers; the man makes the GOP portrayal of John Kerry look amateurish.

Get a grip, those of you who are hand wringing about big, bad Sarah Palin. Neither she or Biden are of any real consequence in November. Dan Quayle didn't keep Bush I from beating the pants of Mike Dukakis, and snarling, charisma-free old Dick Cheney didn't keep Bush II from winning twice. Why should this election be different? It won't be. It will be settled based on the presidential candidates.

That doesn't mean GOP character assassination won't work; it might. But I don't lose any sleep that the electorate will give one squishy shit about Sarah Palin, except for the fundamentalist Xtian whack jobs, who would vote for her even if she did a greased-up pole dance at the VP debate while stomping on vials of embryos.