Yeah, that'll work. Cuz that's why she supports women controlling their own bodies, and being paid equally for equal work, and having access to information about birth control. That's why she supports affordable day care and health care. That's why she funded teen-pregnancy support centers.

Oh, wait....

What's he think is coming? Why, the End Of Times, silly. Palin's church talks about it all the time. Like victory in Iraq, it's right around the corner.

then I feel better about this election.

you have to ask, "don't you mean 'uppity'?" That's what it really means. And "celebrity" means, "has good rhythm."

...like, the need to cull a herd, the fact that she ENJOYS shooting wolves from airplanes and slaughtering dozens of caribou at a time (which she has bragged about getting a kick out of), is completely disgusting.

I doubt any pro-choice person would do anything but abhor a physician who gets pleasure from performing an abortion. The question for me isn't whether or not wolf-culling should be illegal. I'm sure there are occasional needs for it, as there can be for women to end their pregnancies. But that doesn't mean anyone should ENJOY it. That's what disgusts many people here about Palin.

I'm getting my talking points confused. Half the PUMAs are saying he represents the "far left" of the party and we should have gone with the centrist Clinton, and the other half are saying he's a republican in sheep's clothing and we should have gone for the real progressive, Clinton. Could someone straighten me out here so I know which is the real PUMA platform?

Ron Paul needs to campaign really hard to get republicans to vote for him or Barr in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and New Hampshire.

Yes, most Americans don't care about details (Americans just aren't, well, rocket scientists). However, the details support a developing conception of McCain/Palin as liars, or at best exaggeraters/flipfloppers. Such fuzzy conceptions do worm their way into people's minds - which worked against Gore and Kerry and seem to be currently working against Obama. You get this information out there and it finds its way into talk show jokes and water-cooler conversations, and then without knowing the details more and more people associate McCain with lying/exagerrating, and they're not even sure why. It's kind of a sick process, but it's how republicans keep winning elections.

Has Clinton broken her silence on Palin yet? I know she's been strongly stumping for the ticket for the past weeks, but I haven't seen any mention of her taking on Palin. Isn't that kind of weird?

You know how when a neighbor's tree falls over into your yard and makes a mess you really want the neighbor to come over and clean things up? That's me. I'm the neighbor who's responsible and I promise I will clean things up. Every bad thing in your life (the economy, the war, your health care plan) is the result of republican policies that I've supported. It only seems fair that you elect me president, so I can clean it up. My friends, that's a promise.

The wolf-killing line was the funniest bit in the whole essay.

The Professor, AKA Whomp Eagle

Almost no examples have ever been found. What DOES exist is "registration fraud," yes, sometimes by groups like ACORN, because they sometimes pay workers based on how many registration forms they turn in. However, fake people on registration rolls are exactly that - fake. Dead people might have their names on registration lists, but they have trouble making it to the polls. So, registration fraud is a bureaucratic problem that does need attention, but it has no effect on elections. On the other hand, the activities of the republican party in Michigan DO affect whether people vote or not.

He might give the semi-mythical "Anti-Obama Democrats" someone else to vote for other than John McCain. If someone already isn't going to vote for Obama, I'd rather they vote for Nader than McCain.

so she can pretend to faint whenever someone asks her a hard question.

They sometimes turn out to be effective. Obviously, both McCain and Obama can suspend campaigns, and work full-time in DC for a bit, and have a couple hours Friday night to debate. That leads me to think that's what it's all about. Has McCain's debate prep been going poorly?

News reports seem to be saying this all happened this morning on Obama's initiative. He called McCain up and suggested they work together on a plan. Then McCain gets off the phone and runs to reporters and takes credit for it, inviting Obama to 'join him.' jeebus-christ-on-a-stick the guy can't tell the truth even when he's pretending to be a saint.

I agree there are many problems with the bill, but unfortunately the changes that will be made to persuade the republicans to vote for it will make it even worse. They sense blood in the water, and will force capital gains tax cuts, estate tax cuts, etc., whatever the hell they want (no matter how irrelevant it is to the problems at hand) because some bill has to pass. The bill is bad, but it's going to get worse. Even though it would be bad for the global economy, I would almost like to see the democratic leadership give up on it, because when the shit hits the fan the republicans in congress should get the blame.

I would be happy if I thought this meant there would be no bailout, or that the bill's true problems were going to be fixed now. But neither of those is true. All the current problems will remain, plus a host of new give-aways to the far right in congress in order to get their votes. The entire republican economic wish-list of the past few decades will be thrown in to sweeten the pot. Hell, even throw in ANWAR drilling.