"The people in Alaska, closest to ANWR, want to explore for oil. The people who oppose ANWR exploration are the liberals from California and Connecticut."

We have a similar situation here in northern Arizona. Today's rising uranium prices are causing interest in mining several deposits near the Grand Canyon park boundary that have gone unexploited for years because of low uranium prices. In some cases, mines into these deposits were started during the Fifties uranium rush, and the old mines are now slowly leaching radioactive water into Horn Creek, which drains into the Canyon.

Up to now, environmentalists have been very proud to prevent renewed mining of any of these deposits. I don't think they're thinking this through. Wouldn't we be better off if the uranium were dug up and burned in Phoenix, rather than sitting in the ground seeping radiation into the Canyon forever?

In the same way, ANWR was set up to protect what is on the land, not what is under the land. Why would drilling in ANWR be any tougher on the environment than the years of drilling next door on the North Slope? The Prudhoe caribou still thrive, apparently being made of much tougher stuff than environmentalists. We need to lift that oil, just as we have an equal need for the uranium in Arizona. If we do this, I will one day be able to hike Horn Creek again.

"This could be the single dumbest move in the history of presidential elections"

If that were true, then leftists, as presumed Obama supporters, should be overjoyed. So why are you chewing the carpet?

"WTF? Is there an entirely different reality out there? Where do people come up with this stuff?"

Yes, there is an entirely different reality out there. You're on Salon. A reality in which Hiroshima is an uninhabitable wasteland, rather than being the place where all your Mitsubishi stuff comes from. A reality in which every Republican candidate presses the Big Red Button as soon as he or she is elected.

"Should the news about Bristol Palin really be mentioned at the the same level as Gustav?"

You're in Leftyfantasyland, so yes of course. They're hopping mad because Gustav was a bust and failed to embarrass the Republican ticket, so they're making up this stupid baby story, hoping that someone will listen to it, No chance.

"with continued global warming, heat waves and heavy downpours are very likely to further increase in frequency and intensity. Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity. Hurricane wind speeds, rainfall intensity, and storm surge levels are likely to increase."

I think I'm getting it! Anthopogenic warming will cause ongoing drought, heavier rainfall, windy days, and winter blizzards. I also predict months-long periods of darkness and light at those traditionally bellwether high latitudes.

So the educated, non-Wasilla, cosmopolitan take on Palin's speech is: "Waaaaaah! Sarah hit me! I'm telling!"

I'm afraid y'all gonna have to turn in your MacBooks right now.

@Palantir

"Sarah Palin is dangerous because she brings out the two worst traits in many of Obama's supporters"

Which makes her exactly the kind of person America needs at a time like this.

"I'm glad she came out swinging tonight and damaged the victim narrative. Joe Biden needn't worry about harming a self-proclaimed pit bull, and he's free now to have at it."

Yes, let's hear Joe Biden's ringing defense of the DMCA and the War on Drugs. I'm sure that will shame the American people out of their newfound Palinmania. I'm certain that Democrats and Republicans alike would much rather rally round an old fascist with hairplugs.

@kufir77

"EVERYTHING depends on OIL, and the President only has very limited direct control on the price of oil."

If the Democrats want to start winning again, they need to become the pro-energy party, not the anti-energy party. That means drilling for oil in the short run, going nuclear in the long run, and being the party that promotes inventors, not trial lawyers.

...with a $1,000 tax on people who misspell the word LOSE online.

...but I wouldn't shop in a place where every store is a shoe outlet.

"Hurricane "Beware the Military-Industrial Complex" IKE!!!"

Do you mean Hurricane "Landslide victory over the darling of coffeehouse intellectuals" Ike?

@Gratefule Live

"...where do the liberals go after election day if their man loses? "

Every time they lose, they promise to move to Cuba, or Nicaragua, or - I guess last time, it was the south of France. Sadly, on every occasion these are still more promises broken.

@Zoobee

"I'm having a hard time squaring "extremely smart" with creationist. Can someone tell me how that works? I can't believe the country is this close to putting someone who doesn't "believe in" evolution a sneeze away from the top executive's chair. "

As a science guy I'm a confirmed Darwinist myself, but I like Palin because she gets it on the subject of energy. Believing in creation has no effect on the economy whatever. But when you leftists prevented us from building nuclear plants over the last generation, you committed us to war for oil in the Middle East, endless trade deficits, and belching all that carbon that you now claim to be so concerned about. If that's being "extremely smart," I'll take an energy-promoting creationist any day.

@Trainman

"I'm pretty sure that US gasoline consumption is a major factor in our use of energy.To date, nuclear power has been rejected as a viable alternative to gasoline for use in our vehicles."

Battery-powered cars have been around since the Seventies, a decade which I spent in Japan riding its electric, hence nuclear, trains. If we had a Palin around to send the flat-earth lobby's lawyers to Guantanamo, we could have been offloading a substantial part of our urban gasoline consumption to short-range electric vehicles and to electric trains of our own.