Thanks Bill! After reading your rant, I feel sane again! Truly, the GOP convention--most particularly the Barracuda's charmingly vicious "speech" and McCain's lugubrious paen to his prison cell--made me feel quite crazy! Really, I guess it was more the yelling, frenzied supporters in the audience--who loved every minute of it that got me to that place. I wondered what planet they were from, then started thinking maybe I really was a hopeless, unapologetic elitist! My thoughts turned nasty! I started guessing the IQ level of audience members: you don't want to know my conclusion, but I'll give you a hint--it was well under 100. Also, I began to wonder if any of them had ever taken a course in logic, since critical thinking was non-existent in all the presentations and audience reactions! Geez, it was just overblown, dumbed down, icky SENTIMENTALITY!!! Especially that awful 9/11 "tribute"! And I used to think of myself as appreciating sentiment. No more!

But, as I said, thank you, Bill! I am once more back to my cheerful, though cynical, reality!!!! Can't wait to see you back on TV tonight!!!!!

Really now, how can we expect this young woman to come out on the national stage without briefing books and handlers to choreograph her every move? Good news: she is a quick study! Bad news: her briefers are nitwits! Anyway, I do not think we will hear much different from what we have already heard, with perhaps a few specific programs thrown it to make folks think she knows what she is doing!

Even sadder: we will not have a fair press accounting of the most brilliant candidate we have had to run for President since Adlai Stevenson! The pundits seem to think it their responsibility to trivialize Obama's intellect and try to get him to pronounce his ideas in "soundbites!" What a shame. We are wasting a thoughtful, and curious intellect on pissing contests with not-very-bright or thoughtful pundits who are going for the HYPE!!!!

I think Bill Maher got it right! There is something about this man that makes people profoundly uncomfortable. And that is: HE IS SMARTER THAN WE ARE! Yeeks! What a thought. We have been so used to doofuses snd paranoids that we simply do not know what to do with the real deal. Shame on us! If we miss this opportunity, and allow the media to dumb down this election to the level of mooseburgers and the horror of POW prison cells, we shall once more have screwed the American electorate, and pandered to the lowest common denominator!

An apartment in Paris or a yurt in New Zealand are beginning to look appealing. And, actually, I should worry the least, since I live in Oregon--the most radical state in our union! Can't we learn some respect in our media and perhaps LEAD the PEOPLE, rather than being pitiful little poodles trailing along after the throng????

P.S. I exempt Keith Olbermann from all of this, but I think his days are numbered. Rachel Maddow too. Let us see how long she lasts!

I hope Charles Gibson asks Ms. Palin: Although you have chosen to carry and deliver all 5 of your children, what is your opinion about a 13 year old girl who has been impregnated by her father and does not wish to carry the baby? Do you think she should be forced to carry the child, or would you make an early (first trimester) abortion available to her?

This practice literally makes me sick!!! I would like to see Sarah Palin have to get down on the ground and minister to the wounded woves as they are in their death throes--since they rarely die immediately, and suffer terribly. Furthermore, I would like reqired of her a mandatory course about wolves, taught by a wildlife expert who opposes the ariel slaughter--so she can study up close their intelligence, mating habits and history. She must complete the entire course, and will be given a test at the end! Then, after the course is over, she will be put out in the wild (wearing a wolf suit) with the roving wolves, and get to run with them as the planes shoot them down. If she gets shot in the process......oh well!!!!!! Her leg can be donated for posterity!

I am 69 years old, and I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden! Sarah Palin is a street smart, articulate woman who speaks well from a script or a tight agenda. I do not think she will do well speaking spontaneously. Furthermore, she stands against all that I as an early feminist fought for: the right to choose, free libraries and centers to help pregnant teens! And most importantly, we were the anti-war generation! Her glorification of war absolutely scares me. I hope she does not have to lose a son in Iraq to see the futility of that pursuit! And her disrespect for animals sickens me!

There are many naive, sentimental and ignorant voters who have drunk lots of Kool Aid who will vote for McCain/Palin. I urge them to consider that Sarah Palin would be just one metastastasis away from the Presidency--a horrifying thought! And the idea of Joe Lieberman filling in for her scares me even more!

It is time to pass the torch to the next generation! Let us do it with dignity!

Kate Madison

Obama Mama

Depoe Bay, Oregon