Salon hits a new low. Why not just publish the photoshopped pic of Palin in a flag bikini holding a gun? Or the one of her in the leather miniskirt, the one photoshopped from a Playboy cover/

Every time the left takes the low road against Palin, it makes people wonder if they have any actual arguments. Are smear and innuendo all you've got?

And once again, you are missing the chance to go after McCain. You are making the same mistake the left did in 1968 with Agnew, and in 1988 with Quayle. In the voting booth, nobody votes for VP. Every time you indulge your Palin hysteria, you give McCain a pass. When you make the race Obama versus Palin, you diminish Obama.

Any by the way, this is San Francisco. What have you got against dominatrices?

And the NFL cracks down on player behavior because they don't want the players to get control the way they have in the NBA. And of course, any expression of spontaneity and joy is verboten in the new American mindset. Submit to authority. It's for you own safety.

Am I making too much of this? I think not.

I've been struggling to express my disgust at the left's recent behavior, and my admiration and appreciation for Sarah Palin -- even though I oppose the neocon thugs who run McCain, and would never cast a vote for him.

This essay just nailed my feelings and thoughts.

Thank you Camille Paglia.

A woman who lives in a small town, who goes to church, who shoots a gun and knows how to kill a moose, who has five children, who joins the PTA, runs for city council, runs for mayor, becomes governor; who give a great speech, who is a gifted natural politician; who is pro-life, who holds different opinions than you -- she TERRIFIES you?

Why?

Are small town, religious people TERRIFYING to you? This explains so much of the liberal mentality these days.

Can you not hold these two thoughts in your mind at once:

a) She is an amazing, interesting woman who has burst upon the political scene like a breath of very much needed fresh air; and

b) I will not vote for her, because she holds political views opposite to mine.

Can you not hold those two thoughts? Must you instead simply be TERRIFIED?

Like a child?

Wouldn't that be the football-related joke? Like, um, let's see ... Alex Smith is a bust, but hey, the Niners have ... J.T. O'Sullivan. Now that's putting lipstick on a pigskin!

"So does a widespread lack of respect for government itself, and ignorance about what it is and what it requires. "

Oh please. It requires ignorance to be disrespectful about government? The fact is that the more closely you follow politics, the worse our politicians look.

And as far as this issue of qualifications, wasn't it some cynical politican who recently observed that the only qualifications for president are to be over 35 and a natural born citizen? Oh right, that was Bill Clinton.

" to staunch the bleeding"

John McCain is a staunch supporter of Sarah Palin. We hope to stanch the bleeding.

After Enron, the Sarbanes-Oxley law was supposed to regulated business financial reporting and clean things up. It's done that; but it's so instrusive and costly for business to implement, that it's hurt the global competitiveness of U.S. companies. This is well known.

The problem with Obama is that he is at heart an economic leftist. He and Pelosi will destroy the American stock and credit markets by overregulating.

Today's takeover of AIG is a bad thing. An enterprise such as the Federal goverrnment that's run up a nine trillion dollar debt; and which is running annual deficits of half a trillion dollars; is going to take over and regulate the nation's credit and investment markets? I don't see how this can end well.

Needless to say, McCain' clueless too. But on economic issues, at least McCain at heart believes in free enterprise. I don't know if Obama does.

For the record, I don't support McCain; not for economic reasons, but because he's turned his foreign policy over to the neocon maniacs. Compared to that, I'd rather let Obama and Pelosi send us all to socialist reeducation camps. I'm just afraid they will.

Salon just doesn't get it. Palin's imploding on her own. She had a great two week run. She has no second act. The novelty's warn off. The polls bear this out.

Major portions of the economy were just nationalized. American capitalism as we knew it, is gone. Neither candidate has a clue. Nancy Pelosi's congress is going on vacation. Just as well. Has anyone noticed that congress is no longer a branch of government lately? And that it's the Democrats who did that?

And you guys are still going on about Palin.

I am telling you, the left's hysteria about Palin just pushes people toward Palin; and says more about the left than it does about Palin.