In my previous letter I wrote: Have you SEEN how far from Alaska it is?

That should have read: Have you seen how far from Russia it is?

I can't argue with your logic. The job is yours. Although with your beer run experience, you obviously understand international transactions and shit like that. Maybe you could be Secretary of Commerce as well? Or possibly Secretary of Transportation?

Dude! Your potential resume is so impressive!

Wow. Such brilliant points. Hey, you know who has even more executive experience than Sarah Palin? George W. Bush! I think you should write him in on your ballot; he's clearly the most qualified.

Hey, also, I'm wondering if you can think of another presidential candidate who has no executive experience. I'll give you a second. Who else, beside Obama, is running for president but has no executive experience? I'll give you a hint: he's not Obama... kinda old now... just accepted the nomination... John McCain! That's right, good for you! John McCain has no executive experience, and by your own clearly reasoned logic you have no business voting for him either.

So what are you going to do this November? There's no one with executive experience to vote for, so logically I think you're just going to have to sit this one out, man. Oh well, there's always 2012.

First, Tom Servo. John McCain IS full of shit. He used to be more admirable, but he has sold out every principle he ever had to get this nomination. Last night, on another letters thread, I said he was full of shit, so it is nice to see this might be gaining some traction.

Second, Obama is full of old ideas? As opposed to, what? All the new ideas coming out of the Republicans? "We used to run everything on oil, that's the old way. From now on, were going to drill a lot more for oil!"

If some of Obama's ideas are old, it's only in that some of them were advanced 20 to 30 years ago by visionary people who were way ahead of what was coming over the horizon. Those ideas — renewable energy, addressing the health care crisis — have continually been pushed aside in favor of the status quo. For McCain now to try and make himself over as the bringer of new ideas, and not getting struck down by lightning, is just more proof that there is no God.

McCain is NOT a fucking maverick. He IS full of shit, however.

I've seen Barack speak in person, and watched many other speeches online. The thing that made me a supporter was how his presentation was so remarkably lacking in rancor and bile. The day that I heard him, he spoke for over and hour, speech and Q&A combined, and in all that time the meanest thing he said about McCain was approximately: "I honor his record of service in the military and the senate, but he's simply heading in the wrong direction that will take us to where we need to be if we are to remain a strong nation in the future." Other than that, I don't even think he mentioned McCain, (I'm not sure he even mentioned Hillary either) keeping the conversation on what he'd like to achieve. When a questioner tried to get Obama to go on the attack, Obama demurred and said he'd rather focus on what he intends to do.

Bottom line: in my opinion only the most fanatical of Republicans could have found offense with anything going on that room. Obama was entirely about laying out his ideas. The snark factor was non-existent. If they wanted to join the discussion, I felt that Obama would have been more than happy to hear from them.

Now look at the spectacle the other night. The entire evening consisted of self-satisfied sarcasm that soon became intolerable considering how monumentally they've fucked things up. It was especially galling hearing it coming from Palin. Having established no credentials whatsoever, she stood there with such scorn and derision for the liberals, who she seems to imagine have been in control of the White House all these years. Her points were banal and weak; no better than the standard Mallard Fillmore cartoon. You know how those go; they're all the same. Over the course of three panels, Mr. Cranky McDuck, wanders around muttering things like "You used to be able to get a cup of coffee for five cents in this country. Now, gay people are getting married. Thanks, liberals!"

But I digress. The point is, as a progressive liberal who holds the constitution as practically sacred, I try to imagine going to a McCain rally or especially a Palin rally and feeling anything from the crowd but mob rule, the determination to stomp down all outsiders. That's what I got from the convention the other night: Fuck democracy. It's their country, and they have no intention of sharing. And what do you need to know anything for anyway when, by definition, whatever they believe is the only truth anyone could possibly need.

The fact that the Republicans can have screwed up so badly, abused the constitution so badly, been so nakedly contemptuous of the electorate for all these years and still be getting as much play as they do is really all the proof I need to conclude that this country is basically a failed experiment. There is just no freaking way the polls should be as close as they are unless we as a nation truly are the mean-spirited, smug, self-important assholes that were paraded before us the other night.