But this show lost me as a viewer in the first show when Mackey murdered another cop. Murder, to me, is not one of those gray area things. I don't care to explore the "ever increasing layers of complexity," or however they were going to try and spin it. Mackey is a murderer; that's pretty much end of story for me.

That was the same reason I never watched The Sopranos. (Gasp! What?) No, really, I didn't. Tony kills people... but he has to see a shrink because he has problems. Good. Tony should have problems. Whatever the problems were, they should be a million times worse. Fuck you, Tony. Killer.

But I still watch Buffy in reruns whenever I can. That should count for something on my side, right?

Oh, THAT Bush Doctrine. I knew what it meant, but I just wanted to see if YOU knew what it meant. I was just testing you, see. All I can say is that I am a reformer. I reform things. That's just what I do. Reform. Things that need reforming, I see them, and then I reform them. Why, back on my ranch in Wasilla, I was reforming the natural order of things by killing wolves from a helicopter, when I got the call that I'm pregnant again and we are going to bless the world with another mouth to feed.

Anyway, if someone poses no threat to us, and has done nothing to us, but we even THINK that they will do us harm, I say that as President -- oops, I'm jumping the gun there -- I'll make those people wish they had thought twice before hatching no plans against us. I'll drop 'em like I drop wolves from the sky.

I think you did a great job with this summary. I heard her convention speech on the radio and I wrote at the time that it was clear even then that she didn't fully understand all of what she was saying. Tonight's interview made that point perfectly clear. She's been cramming and cramming, but she's still nowhere near conversant. The scariest moment for me was when she claimed that when McCain asked her to run she didn't even think twice. To be President of the United States? To have no doubts about one's readiness? That's fucking insane; sheer delusion. Barack and Hillary thought about it for years, and built their lives toward that end, being ready for that awesome responsibility. Palin? "Hmmm," she said, "We'll I've been a hockey mom, so that's a good long ways toward the goal right there. Sure, I'll be your Vice President, John."

To all those accusing Gibson of being cold and aloof, you are wrong. I was so fearful before the interview that he was going to let her control the agenda. He struck the exact right note. He put his questions out there, and Palin's body language told an amazing story in itself. Instead of hearing the question and engaging it honestly, she was nervous and defensive, trying to figure out if the question was designed to trap her. "Let me see, now. If the question of Israel comes up I'm supposed to say..." and then she'd say it. The mechanism was so obvious. It was clear she didn't have any ideas of her own, that she was coughing up canned responses like a cat hurking up hairballs.

I'm also relieved that so many people here weren't buying it for a second. Her performance was horrible, an embarrassment, and she is in no way, shape or form entitled to be in the position that she is now in.

And again, to all those people thinking that her poor performance was Charlie Gibson's fault, look at it this way. I tried to imagine the Sarah Palin in that interview sitting down across the table from Putin in a game of brinkmanship over Georgia. The wink isn't going to work on Putin either, Sarah. You're not running for a high school popularity contest.

Yes. She will continue to lie. Of course she will. That is, of course, unless they just put her in a box until election day.

I saw Obama speak in May, and he brought up McCain's policy proposals and used the lipstick on a pig joke back then. IN MAY! Way back when Sarah Palin was still Sarah Who?

How else do you think the rethugs were able to respond so fast? They knew it was a standard part of Obama's stump speech, so they prepared a response and waited for him to use it again, then foisted it out there lickity split.

Anyone who thinks Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig is a lying sack of shit. If McCain defends the ad as such, that makes him a lying sack of shit. I don't see any reason to couch the phraseology. If you say something, and you know it is not true, there's a word for that. That word is liar.

From this post, it's not like he actually apologized or anything. McCain chose his words carefully and said "I completely and deliberately misquoted Obama in order to create a noxious cloud for no reason... But Obama brought it on himself by being a victim of a ridiculous attack. If he would shut up entirely, I couldn't misquote him now, could I?"

To think I once had a fair amount of respect for McCain; like he really was someone you could reach a fair compromise with. But it's more than evident now that his version of change really is more of the same. I mean, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it will still be a pig. The trouble is, the Republican base, apparently, really loves them some pigs.