The Right have been yearning for an affable nitwit armed with sharp folksy barbs and wooly feel-good homilies about "UHMERICA" since Reagan. He was the first Sarah Palin, although at his core the GIPPER actually had some misplaced beliefs that moved him, (along with an attachment to Hollywood notions of patriotism ). Remember that he often spoke of his military wartime experience when in fact he was employed at a Hollywood studio making American wartime propaganda films. He too, was stuffed with the self-same notions of "cut taxes, expand the military" that were/are the cornerstone of Dubya's Presidency. The only time George Bush sounded confident was when he spoke of cutting taxes and going to war, so barren was his intellectual grasp of the role of the executive branch. Palin seems motivated by base ambition as if simply wanting to be there and look nice is enough which is why her garbled rhetoric is such a amalgam of phrases which tangentially relate to any topic, (and ultimately why her performance is so galling to anyone else). She actually doesn't believe any of it in the sense that these are not actually concepts that she has thought about, perused on any level as intellectual constructs.

But ultimately what's quite scary is that it's pretty obvious that the GOP no longer has any more belief in elections than as a means to an end and they actually see them as no more than a cynical but necessary pantomine in order to achieve their goals of removing impediments to industry. And what's more, they are not even interested in well-run industry, only in profit. It's not hard to see how such a bankrupt "philosophy" could turn evrything it touches into shit so fast. Without constraints, the market, (like any phenomena), flails under the weight of it's own inertia especially when cut from the moorings of such notions as supply and demand. The common good is akin to socialism and threfore bad. Greed is by it's very nature is good. It's alarming to see how quickly those ideas have taken root under the rubric of "patriotism" and bantered about so cavalierly (and carelessly). I honestly believe that left to their own devices, the Right would discontinue elections altogether.

Is it truly the case that no possible basis for voting Republican exists or could exist besides stupidity, ignorance, greed, gullibility &etc.?

-- Teleologicus

There is much to admire in the traditional axioms of the conservative creed. Fiscal responsibility and leaner more efficient government are indeed wonderful notions. But it takes more than simply parroting slogans about reform and accountability to exact real change and unfortunately Ms Palin has proven herself to be not much more than an attractive cheerleader without much real understanding about nor appreciation for not only history but the realities of globalization amidst a crumbling economy that we are facing (amongst many problems).

Anyone who listens to her knows that 1. she's seriously out of her depth and 2. She doesn't even believe the half-digested ideas that she's spouting. McCain although at one time a respectable politician with it seems some integrity has shown himself to have the lamentable tendency to careen from crisis to crisis with all the acumen of a bull in a china shop with again no ability to asses how we got here.

We've let the Republican Revolution run it's course and we now are seeing the end result of the Free Market Utopian wet dream and the Neocon notions of spreading democracy which when all is said and done are no more than wishful thinking and platitudes masquerading as cogent well-considered political theory. The results in Iraq have been an abject failure on a monumental scale rife with so much maleficence, graft and corruption, the full extent of which will take decades to asses. And yet we are told that the meager results and a tenoous political situation is a "SUCCESS". Yes, we've let the young republicans with their bravado and phony blind patriotism have their day. Talk about yer "Children's Crusade"! Sadly we must now clean up the mess.