Cary,

Happy belated birthday and thank you for thinking of all of us, even those who do not recognize themselves in your list.

Sarah

I sent this article as a link to most of the people in my email address book who may or may not be voting this time around and I think it says it all about the importance of this article.

Thank you Salon for printing something of value and importance.

Virtually no one cares about this any more and this is considered "yesterday's news", except on the anniversary of September 11 and as a soundbite for the candidates to bandy about, but I care and apparently so does Michael Smerconish. I have listened to Michael since he was a fill-in host on 1210 AM radio's _The Big Talker_ and through his years as evening drive time host until his show was switched to morning drive time and I stopped listening to talk radio. He was never the bombastic type of host such as Rush Limbaugh and others of that ilk, but he has always been squarely conservative and fully Republican in his viewpoint. For him to write such an article is amazing on its face, but it says much about the destruction done by the Republican Party in this country these past 7 years and the supreme lack of leadership of the Bush administration and the potential McCain administration should that abomination happen.

I ask that you read the enclosed article and decide for yourself. At this stage of the election, I'm no longer encouraging people to vote for Obama, rather, I'm attempting to point out just how wrong John McCain and Sarah Palin would be for this country. You can hate Obama for right or wrong reasons and that is your right as an American, but someone has to point out just how bad a McCain/Palin administration will be. You all have to ask yourselves before you go into the voting booth, "Just what kind of country do I want to live in? How many constitutional rights do I feel comfortable giving up over this fake "War on Terror"? Do I really trust John McCain and Sarah Palin to lead us for the next four years and will they really help all the things that are currently ailing us as a nation?"

Whichever candidate you select, we will all have to live with his administration over the next four years and it is up to all of us to think very hard about what that means. Who is truly the better man to help this nation unite and heal itself both at home and abroad. As Ronald Reagan asked in 1980, "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?" Substitute 8 years for the 4 when you answer this question. There may never have been a more important election than this one for most of our lifetimes and it is vitally important that we answer Reagan's question today and with real information, not rumor and speculation.

Thank you for reading and listening.

I can honestly say that I am not surprised that Joan Walsh let this article pass through her scrutiny. Complaining in the letters section about this article will do nothing to stop future crap like this to be printed.

She has and always will be an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter and blamed every misstep Clinton took on Obama. She let her hatred of Obama be felt and heard throughout the primary season and still uses every chance to push for Hillary Clinton that she can get. It took her almost a month to write a positive blog entry for Obama that didn't screech out some blame for him for Hillary losing.

Now she has allowed this picture to hit the cover page, because there is no way she wants Obama to be president. She may feign being a Democrat and a Liberal, but in her heart of hearts, she knows that should McCain win, her candidate, the ONLY candidate to her, Hillary Clinton would have a chance in the 2012 election.

Ever since I stopped being a paying customer, I no longer feel the need to come here very often, and on the rare occasions I do, I am usually suckered in by a tempting headline with a weak, boring story to go with it. As long as Joan Walsh is editor-in-chief, this online blog that was once a great online magazine will continue to go down hill, until finally, no one will pretend to take it seriously. It has lost so much credibility up until now, that showing Sarah Palin as a Dominatrix, should only have been expected. The only surprising part is that there was a modicum of humor to the picture and article, that is usually missing from Salon articles of the past couple years.

The only way to try to bring this place back to it's previous greatness is to stop writing letters and stop being lured in by interesting sounding articles that prove to be less than advertised. Write to the publisher and CEO Chris Neimeth at chris@salon.com to complain. Only by letting your voice be heard and by not clicking on every story and ad will you be able to get rid of Joan Walsh and hopefully allow someone of vision edit this once great magazine.

Don't be shocked by future articles such as this one, do something about it.

Paying customer from 2002 to 2008.