The McCain Campaign has been classless out of the gate especially in how they used Palin who started day one as an attack dog (not a great way to endear yourself to the public at large) and she is now the flash point around which the flailing campaign focuses it's blame.You made a statement a several weeks ago that McCain was hiding behind her skirt and that certainly seems to be the case now.As much as I despise Ms. Palin (let's face it, she willing sought the spotlight and took on the role with gusto), McCain shows his true colors by how the campaign has mismanaged her and bungled their message about her. The vaunted war hero seems to be a bit of a weenie when it comes to personal accountability because despite all of the issues with the campaign, the guy at the top gives the go ahead. So they hid her from the evil press while singing her praises which totally undermined her. What's kind of galling about the whole fiasco is that it seriously calls into question the GOP's sincerity regarding the role of woman within their ranks. If they were serious about a woman candidate their were others with more credibility (Olympia Snowe for one), but if they really truly believed in their pick then Sarah Palin was not served well by their behavior regarding her. Still, I want her to go away.

I keep saying this but it gets no traction; Mrs. Palin's followers do NOT want an informed, well-spoken, knowledgeable candidate. They want a flamethrower in a tight black skirt and pumps, throwing red meat to the crowds. They WANT someone talking down to them with big, bright easy to understand concepts like "wealth distribution" populated by caricatures of everyday people like Joe the Plumsmuggler. Her one big "policy speech" about "special needs kids" was met with a collective yawn by the media at large because it was Sarah trying to be taken serious. Now, fast forward 8 year. Her amber highilights will be there to cover the grey. She'll probably be botoxed to death, and she will have to have learned a thing or two about "The WORLD" and it's geopolitical makeup. Perhaps she'll be able to talk at length about healthcare reform. In detail. Does anyone think that those huge crowds will be queuing up to listen to lengthy policy speeches on clean coal and alternative fuels? Unless you're Carl Rove you can't build a career on knee-jerk wedge issues. So the only place her incendiary personality will be of any use might be sitting on that couch between Gretchen Carlson and Steve Dooky and reading this weeks RNC talking points..

on two fronts it seems both in terms of women and black Americans there has been a sudden needed appearance of both as regular commentators in order to lend creedence to the usual cabal of male prognosticators in dealing with issues of sexism and race. The Bradley Effect seem almost like a seriously dated construct when one considers the place African Americans have taken within our culture over the last decade and a half in terms of television, movies, and of course sports. The ascendency of hip hop has made black performers/celebrity a simple accepted unquestioned part of the average american teenager's life. It seems almost absurd that it took a serious and viable black Presidential candidate to make everyone realize that we needed to hear and see black faces on all of the news shows discussing the election. Suddenly we have regular discussions about race that are robust and honest instead of meekly intoning the dreaded Bradley effect as a safe buzzword for racism. Also questions about sexism are suddenly front and center with women like Campbell Brown not hiding their outrage over the closeted chauvinism of the McCain campaign's handling of their otherwise independant and strong female candidate. It was interesting to hear women call out the media for it's double standard for it's different ways of talking about Hillary and Sarah Palin. Yes, Hillary WAS treated really abysmally during the primaries.

Yes and Katie Couric, whose chirpy demeanor always kind of belied her seriousness as a journalist may in fact be remembered as a savior if Obama wins. These are strange times. The real stories might in fact be the ones happening in spite of the BIG one.

but Americans are so unused to giving themselves permission to think outside the accepted framework (i.e. voting for a socialist terrorist dark-skinned person), we'll still probably have a close election...

in time her understanding of the constitution could come to be quite.. ohh... adequate.

They should all just relax and understand that if Obama is elected, God meant it to happen, right? I don't see the problem here.