"If you lost your job selling your brain tomorrow and could find no other work, would you be willing to start selling sex to men in order to avoid burdening the taxpayers with supporting via AFDC and food stamps?"

And if she did, what's it to you? How is that any of your business? Do you have any respect at all for that choice?

Because that's exactly what it is - her choice.

P.S.: Your notion of a dichotomy between brain work and sex work is overly simplistic, and disrespectful of sex workers.

See the post from "The Girl Next Door" in the attached link to another Salon letters thread from a few months ago. She, apparently, is an actual prostitute who has worked both illegally and legally in Nevada. I think you'll see that her portrait of the legal Nevada brothels, and the women who work there, is a bit at odds with the portrait that you paint.

http://letters.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/05/call_girls/view/index18.html?show=all

Also, I fail to see how legalizing prostitution would make it harder to identify forced prostitution. If anything, it would make it easier, as (a) the women would no longer be afraid to seek police protection; (b) their employers would be subject to the same workplace safety regulations as everyone else; and (c) forced and voluntary prostitutes would no longer be conflated in the eyes of prosecutors and law enforcement agents.

...and I thought this season was great. I had a hard time getting into it in years past, but now that I am hooked, I will be Netflixing the early seasons to see what I missed.

As I have stated in other posts on this site, the Palin phenomenon is really unprecedented. I have never before seen an unknown running mate make such a good first impression that she eclipses the top half of the ticket - with less than two months to go until the election. Neither have you. And neither has Barack Obama.

And that, in essence, is what he is dealing with - a very good first impression that will probably last until the election. If he didn't see it coming, that's not his fault, because it has never happened like this before. Which begs the question, how does one deal with the unprecedented?

Generally speaking, the smart response to an unprecedented situation is to just observe. Take notes for future reference. Look for areas of familiarity to respond to and respond accordingly. Other than that, just keep doing what you've been doing, and have faith that that will be enough. Frankly, there's not much else to be done.

If this article is to be believed, it appears that Team Obama is pursuing a pretty wise response to this phenomenon. Other than identifying and pointing out the many lies that she has told about her record, just waiting for her to fade is all that they can do. The first impression that she has made can't be unmade, and two months is not a lot of time to work with in reframing her. Anxious Democrats should just accept this response as well - and stop trying to tell Obama what he should be doing. Those suggestions are all over the map and unhelpful, and each one carries an implicit critique of Obama that is not helpful to his metanarrative.

One more thing to keep in mind, though: as I have also previously pointed out in other posts on this site, how one responds to the unprecedented and unexpected can say a lot about what kind of a leader a person will be. In fact, it could make a person look Presidential.

...other than simply calling Palin on her lies and not letting her mischaracterize him, is just keep doing what he's been doing. There's really nothing else that he can do. All of us anxious Democrats need to take a step back and realize that, in the Palin phenomenon, we are dealing with something that is beyond our control. She gave her speech. Apparently, a lot of people liked it. An incredibly good first impression was made - with less than two months to go until the election. Other than pointing out the numerous lies present in her speech, there's nothing else we can do about that. The toothpaste is out of the tube, and we shouldn't waste our time frantically trying to put it back in.

As I stated in an earlier post on this thread, how someone responds to the unprecedented, the unexpected, and that which is beyond our control can say a lot about what kind of a leader that person would be. Obama should keep that in mind, and just keep doing what he's been doing.