My underlying goal is to keep from thinking we are in good shape come November. I don't want optimism, I especially don't want complacency. I want to run up the damned score.

Keep pressing, keep pushing, keep hitting hard. Make sure the margin is too wide for them to steal the election.

Resign ourselves to the fact that Palin is almost certain to "win" the debate. Not in spite of, but because of her ineptitude. Plan for that. If somehow Biden "wins," that's a bonus. (Not that it is likely to make a difference, see Bentson-Quayle.) But keep the pressure on, fight with a sense of anxiety and urgency.

Having the opposition relax and start running out the clock is one of the key parts of the Republican's Palin Strategy. Let's not permit them to use it against the interests of the country.

The Republicans never failed to use their majority to ram through bill after bill that was shamelessly partisan and biased.

The Democrats have constantly failed to do likewise.

Even after the Democrats regained control of Congress with a specific mandate to do exactly that, they continued to capitulate to the Republicans.

Yeah, they are suddenly going to find a spine now. If you buy that, lemme show you this bridge to Ketchikan I am holding an option on.

She helps his chances.

He will get more votes with her on the ticket than with any other running mate.

She is an asset to his campaign.

Stop underestimating the stupidity of the average voter. Good grief. No wonder Bush won twice.

Every day that a team from New York, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles loses, it's a good day for sports.

Let's say she would have aborted her baby... Let's say she was "agnostic."

If either of those things were true, Palin wouldn't be a pander to the Christofacist Zealots. And she wouldn't have gotten even a nanosecond of consideration.

So your little rant is off topic and irrelevant.

Come back when you get a clue.

Who can doubt that she will "win" the debate?

Expectations are so low, she doesn't even have to avoid drooling. She just has to avoid drooling too much.

She cannot be as stupid as she appears in this interview. I refuse to believe that. This is Jujutsu, the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

Palin is hopelessly out of her league in general here, much less when pitted against Biden. So the plan is to make Biden look mean, look like a bully, look abusive (look like a Republican?), and declare Palin the winner.

And for millions of US Americans, this will work.

I hope you are wrong about the Cubs losing to the Rays in the World Series.

I hope the Cubs are eliminated before the World Series.

Using logic and reason to analyze and parse Palin's incoherent ramblings.

Hasn't it become clear to you that logic and reason have only the most minor of roles to play in presidential politics? Can any of you remember the last election where logic and reason dictated the choice for president? It hasn't happened in my memory, and I can remember Nixon's first victory.

Unless the election is decided through blame to McCain for the economic collapse, Palin will be our 45th president.

Of course she doesn't speak clearly, or answer questions cogently, or say anything specific. That's the strategy.

The way to beat McCain is to ignore Palin. As long as you are focusing on Palin, you are handing the victory to the Republicans. This is what they want. The is the result they were hoping for when McCain was instructed to pick her.

Ignore Palin. Ignore her utterly. Concentrate on McCain. Make it all about McCain. McCain McCain McCain.

I don't what my niece coming of age under a Caribou Barbie administration. And the way to prevent that is to ignore the irrelevant, and concentrate on McCain.

That is, unless you want him to win.

I really think very few Americans are willing to give up the birth control pill or the morning after pill or reasonable access to abortion should contraception fail.

The people you are referring to aren't going to support McCain anyway, so this doesn't matter.

We can hardly ignore Palin when she is going to be debating Biden.

Why not? She is almost certain to be declared the "winner," no matter what happens. She has proven very adept at ignoring questions, and talking about marginally related topics that make her and her positions look much better. She has created such low expectations, set the bar so very low, she can hardly fail to come off looking better than expected. And if Biden eviscerates her the way he is capable of doing, he will end up looking bad, not her.

Are you suggesting that when the media weighs in we should all be silent.

That is exactly what I am saying.

Especially we should avoid pretending like logic and reason are relevant. This just pushes Palin's target audience further towards McCain. It certainly isn't going to change anyone's mind.

Making Palin an issue is playing right into the Republican game plan. Why would we want to do that?

The pronunciation of a name is at the sole discretion of the owner of the name.

If he wants to pronounce it "Shawn," it is correct. If he want' to pronounce it "Stephen," it is correct.

If he want's to pronounce it "David," or "Alexander," or "Throat-Warbler Mangrove," it is correct.

Excise the embarrassing extraneous apostrophes from the previous epistle.