I've seen some pre-debate comments by Palin which tell me that they've forgone attempting to stuff her full of actual facts and are simply filling her with attack lines in order to put Biden in the position of having to respond angrily.

Thank God. Rebecca Traister nailed it. The heretofore smothered outrage some of us have felt at this cheap stunt masquerading as a Republican attempt at advancing the cause of women in politics. I admit for 2 seconds there I was embarrassed for her, until I remembered the callow dismissiveness and contempt that she displays for Barack Obama and the cavalier way that she traipsed into this opportunity as if it was just one more rung on her ladder toward success. Some people study. They understand finance, geography, history, politics and the Law. Some people are motivated to move into the political sphere by notions of wanting to do good(Obama). Some of them actually have some sense of ethics left after years in Washington (Biden). And then there are some who are simply ambitious without a core set of beleifs that have been tempered by education and real world experience.

I think Obama needs to continue the meme that Supply-side-Trickle-Down-deregulation economics is a massive failure and hang it around McCains' neck. The facts are there and he should not be shy about implicating McCain in the current fiasco. McCain's got a very prickly demeanor and Obama should exploit it. Again "the Republican Experiment has been a failure" and Free Market economics is a feel-good notion but not a science. I also think that there was a real cringe-worthy moment where McCain trumpeted his self-proclaimed "maverick" status and mentioned his running mate (she who he dare not name), as a maverick as well. It may serve Barack to bring up Mccain's maverick status and match it against his actual record. I think McCain's hair-trigger temper is waiting just beneath the surface.

...and I'm starting to feel bad for her even though it showed really dumb judgment on her part to think that she could just fake her way through this. But really, at this point anyone who thinks this dog can hunt is delusional. And you are right. John McCain should be ashamed of himself...on many levels. all of this looks good for Obama overall, but a new kind of weariness is setting in with me as I am beginning to realize what a sack of woe is awaiting the next administration.

Although I've got to question the ethics of the letter-writer, I question more the integrity of the "editors" who print this doggerel.

Apparently her understanding of "energy" is similar to her foreign policy experience in that living in a state that has oil makes her an expert.

It's nice to see how the merest bit of fact-checking obliterates any claim to authenticity she has as a candidate. Nice but scary.

In saner times this would be proof enough that McCain has lost all perspective by her nomination, and still we are treated to articles decrying her, (mostly fictitious), elitist treatment in the press. Her candidacy is a fraud and anyone who says otherwise is a charlatan or an out and out fool.

The Free Market Utopians are a strange bunch. You know, we've experienced 20 some odd years of the "republican revolution" including the last 8 with majority rule in both houses of congress and we've seen the results of their ideology in both our foreign policy and our financial markets and still they cry that the problems are government regulation! Strange what a bunch of crybabies the tough-as-nails, every-man-for-himself, pull-yourself-up-by-yer-own-bootstraps, greed-is-good, "UhmeriKa First" nutbags really are. I don't know what's more depressing, having to pretend to have an honest dialogue in a political enviroment that is so debased or watching them twist themselves into veritable pretzel shapes attempting to defend their cartoonish worldview. We are seeing what's behind the mask and it ain't pretty.

I know people want to take the high road here by pretending that the palin coverage should go away, but even as I find her a big distraction, (or the "Rodeo Clown as I've heard her referred to), I still find the whole phenomena worthy of a discussion because it points to the absolute desperation and cynicism of the republican party, and I for one would like to see lain to waste this phony notion of dewey-eyed populism that masks such craven ambition and greed, and any report that helps in that regard, I heartily salute. Big Box stores indeed. ...and a dead lake. Why would we not welcome such stewardship into the White House?