Those of you obsessed with somehow destroying Palin, and folishly thinking that hysterically trying to tear down the other side helps Obama, need to give up on Troopergate as a weapon. It's going to be dead soon as a factor in this election.

From the AP:

"In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he may convene the committee that is conducting the investigation into whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner when he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister."

"Some Republican members of the committee have asked for such a meeting, to consider delaying the probe or replacing Democratic state Sen. Hollis French as its manager."

So it seems both the Democratics (particularly French) and a bunch of Republicans have now politicized this investigation to the point it will almost surely be delayed or killed. And if not, it's likely been discredited to the point that undecided voters are just going to disregard it.

And good riddance to it. The violation she's accused of will not bother most voters anyway. There's no candidate in the pile that couldn't be found doing something stupid or unethical on the same level. Unless its something really serious, the undecided voters will let it rest.

This type of "gotcha " politics has been going on too long from both sides, and part of what many voters are sick of and want changed. If you want your candidate to win, stop these constant attacks and use your efforts to sell your candidate to the undecided voters positively. Show them what he/she's going to do to help the country to face the major and scary crises we're facing right now. If you think the other side is wrong, use rational arguements to persuade instead of juvenile namecalling.

Of course if your real purpose is just to feel good about yourself by being derogatory, insulting, calling people trolls, etc., and by crass attacks on political candidates who have a real life that maybe you can only dream about, go ahead. Have fun.

At best you'll be irrelevant, at worst you'll help your candidate lose.

If I read corectly, the Attorney General of Alaska (the head law enforcement official) stated by letter that Palin (and other State employees) would not be responding to the subpoenas, and gave the legal justifications for not doing so. Just because a Salon columnist says ignoring the subpoena is a crime doesn't make it so.

And "undecided" voters doesn't mean stupid. It actually means "deciders" - As in the people who will decide this election. You don't believe me, you'd better check the polls.

And I certainly know the difference between Salon columnists, bloggers and the Obama campaign. But as the saying goes - "By the company they keep you will know them."

Too bad - Obama deserves better.

Hey you might want to get new screen names too. Funny how that happens when I try to type your names.

And thanks for the new AP update. But I don't think that French is controlling what happens with the investigation any longer, no matter what claims he may make to the AP. He may intend to put out a report with no witnesses and no evidence for political reasons, but I don't believe its going to go too far. We'll see.

Didn't she work for Obama's campaign too? What did that work consist of? Did she do something similiar for Obama's people too? Please, Salon, don't translate and publish only half the story. Be fair and give us all the facts.

I can't believe the reactions to McCain's move on this board. Didn't you learn anything with the Palin choice? His polls show he's starting to slip, so McCain makes another radical move that grabs all the headlines. He throws the Obama campaign and its supporters (including much of the MSM and apparently David Letterman) for a loop once again and they're unsure how to react.

With all the advantages Obama and the Democrats have in this election, he's basically been fighting them to a standoff. Amazing. Obama's supporters better get used to this sort of thing, and stop underestimating McCain.

If the liberal MSM and so many bloggers had just left Palin alone, knowing she'd be unlikely to pull her weight in the debate, and on so many other aspects of the campaign, she might have gotten a fair hearing by voters and found lacking, and that would have surely helped Obama.

But due to the overwhelming and sometimes rediculous smears and attacks she's experienced, even real evidence of questionable competence and fair criticism by the MSM is now automatically thought suspect by a lot of voters. And anyway, I doubt there are many voters left by now without a firm opinion of Palin, even though they still may remain undecided on whether they'll go with Obama or McCain because of other issues. Remember that most voters are not political junkies (like so many here) and just pay attention in short spurts while going about their lives.

So short of the unlikely event of Palin making a fool of herself by some memorable goof(something like Biden almost did talking about FDR on TV during the Depressions), or conversely handling the press like Ronald Reagan in a skirt, I think her effect on the election is already pretty much over at this point.