The group which by definition cannot leave others to their own devices, will shortly either begin to demand to be cultivated or will begin to drop off entirely, rather like bloated ticks, and likely not vote at all.

If the McCain/Palin trainwreck does decide to pay lip service to this group (which is only consequential, historically, to neocons over the past quarter century), it risks losing other, more independent-minded voters (I'll pass on using the "M" word). Since Mrs. Palin has already made her convictions clear, there's gotta be some tension inside that not-so-cozy tent anyway. Hard to make friends with someone you just met while stuck in a foxhole.

I think the much-anticipated Republican debacle is well on its way to losing its wheels. It's hard to stay on the edge of one's seat during such an alternately boring and surreal campaign, but then, there's plenty of work to be done to help it toward the abyss.

It's like, you know, even when she is mean to you, it's cool because she is, like, noticing you.

I wish she didn't have to take her dad with her everywhere she goes, though.

But at least we don't have to care about Obama and Biden! Nerd! Dork!

Go, Westerberg High!

I regard Christian fundamentalists as idiots and from that viewpoint I am not surprised at anything the Republicans do.

Eight years of Republican mismanagement and criminal activity says it all. Nothing Robertson does will change that.

McCain, if elected, will not make any difference. The Republican party is the party of Rove and lunatics like Robertson.

I can't get this square in my head...do Evangelicals really want Roe overturned, or are they happy with the nibbling that's occurring? Are they willing to wait for a hollowing out of abortion rights, or will they eventually demand a full scale reversal in return for their votes?

I really have no sense of this, based on all the winking that goes on - seems very sophisticated that this block understands they can't really talk about it in front of the MSM...and that they realize it would ultimately put them in a worse position if Roe was overturned (driving support on the other side finally way up).

Word is that younger evangelicals take the compassion part of the New Testament a little more seriously and are worried about this whole destroying-the-planet thing -- something the Drill Now! crowd mocks, if they even know it's an issue at all.

Some older types have also figured out that they are being propped up every four years and are, you know, a little fed up.

I think it's an insult to our canine cousins to compare McCain and Palin to dogs, but let's just say that our ignorant fellow citizens elect (or allow by theft) these two creeps into office. Then what? McCain and Palin will be like the proverbial dog who chases after the speeding car, actually bites onto the tire, and gets his neck broken.

In this case, the speeding car is a rapidly deteriorating country. Our economy is falling apart. Poverty and despair are everywhere. The world hates us. Nature is grandly indifferent as she wreaks well-deserved havoc on the puny humans. In the face of all this, McCain and Palin bring the exact same policies and wordviews that caused all these disasters in the first place.

(Maybe we Democrats should let the Repugs take over the sinking Titanic that is our nation. Let them take the blame).

I feel sorry for the polar bears and spotted owls and Florida cougars and all the other species which will go extinct in a Repug-led America, but then, even if Obama wins, they'll only hang on a little while longer before disappearing. The elite of America have won -- they've eaten the world.

Where is Salon's coverage of Obama and Biden?

If you look at the re-write of the abortion ballot initiative in South Dakota, which now includes provisions rape and incest, when originally it only had life of the mother (still nothing for health of the mother, life of the mother is obviously still in there), they are looking for an over-turn, and expect it to hit the SC sometime around 2011-2012. Otherwise, I believe the it defines life as beginning at conception, but I'd have check.

You have to understand, it may not take any replacement of justices to oveturn Roe. It depends on whether Anthony Kennedy's opinion in the late-term abortion case means he was just deciding on that case, or whether his opinion that women don't make good decisions when deciding to get an abortion and that the procedure is harmful to them, mentally, means he has changed his mind. In that case, the court could be unchanged between now and then and if this law passes in SD this year and gets to the SC, I doubt Roe will stand.

So nice to see Palin out and about. Based on her fear of being interviewed I was worried she might just shut herself up until after the election.

NEWSFLASH! THIS JUST IN:

McCAIN IS ACCUSED OF THEFT!

Apparently still reeling from being caught steeling no less than 12,000 US flags from the Democrats in an overnight raid recently, now authorities are revealing more theft complaints involving McCain and his personal entourage.

As if steeling 12,000 flags and blaming it on local Boy Scouts wasn’t enough, McCain now stands accused of steeling a copy of Gideon's bible from a hotel in Minneapolis during his stay there for the convention earlier this week.

Hotel employees gave a list of several items missing from the Hotel after McCain stayed there, including the Bible. Other missing items included three cocktail glasses, an ice bucket, several bars of soap, three rolls of toilet paper and those tiny little ketchup and mustard bottles.

Boy Scouts den mothers also expressed their dismay given the recent circumstances surround the wild accusations that somehow Boy Scouts were wandering the Invesco Arena area during the late hours after the DNC Convention and had stumbled upon 12,000 US flags, which they were then alleged to have stolen and having fenced in Minneapolis to the RNC. “I am shocked” said one mother. “Little Jimmy is in by sunset and tucked in by 8:30 every night, including weekends”.

"These Bibles are no longer free to steal” said the Hotel manager anonymously for fear of scurrilous reprisals by Republican fanatics. “It clearly states on the inside cover that you have to send away now for a free copy of the Gideon’s Bible” exclaimed the Hotel manager.

“You can’t just go willy-nilly taking things as if you own the world” the manager added. “I hear he was illegally downloading music off the internet last month to use in his TV commercials to bash the Democrats.”

Apparently McCain has long suffered from a rare disorder called “Hotel Kleptomania” stemming all the way back to his days in the Hanoi Hilton, where staff still insist he would take spoons, which have not been accounted for to this day. McCain still holds a grudge against the Hiltons, recently implicating young Paris Hilton in one of his regular tirades about Barack Obama, his staunch Democratic rival for the presidency.

The Hiltons were not available for comment, but a spokesperson for the Hotel chain said that McCain has been blacklisted from staying at their hotels since the early 70s due to missing items whenever he would stay at one of their hotels.

This is just one more blow to the McCain camp, still reeling from theft accusations including stealing Barack Obama’s political campaign theme and message as well, a message of change and reform. “We knew he had taken the message”, as did several witnesses who spotted McCain, Washington insider and veteran politician for a quarter century, spouting the term change and reform where several members of the American public were gathered.

One witness said he knew McCain had stolen Obama’s message when he heard McCain having tremendous difficulty pronouncing the word “change”. “It sounded so strange coming from Mr. McCain that you could readily see he was unfamiliar with the concept or how to pronounce the word” said one eye witness. A local panhandler handed McCain a dollar, thinking McCain was begging for a hand out. “I just felt sorry for the guy” said the homeless man, he kept saying “change”.

Mr. Obama stated that “This is a sad day for all Americans” and lamented that McCain really had no message or content of his own to use for his campaign. Mr. Obama volunteered to donate his political message and theme to McCain just as soon as he was finished with them, after November 6th.

Democratic supporters feeling bad for poor McCain have started a campaign and are mailing McCain their loose change.