Choosing a junk VP candidate is a perfect fit with Bush's equally junk War, the Iraq War, based on junk political science and junk intelligence. I believe I detect a pattern. :) I found myself wanting your readers to get a peek at the best (and funniest) video satire ever done on Bush's crazy Iraq war fiasco. It's called "The Plumbers: with George W. Bush and D. Cheney" and it is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbnbT0-MzGk

I do find that hard to believe because she fails to demonstrate that she has even thought about any subject beyond drilling for oil. I do not think she cares about anything but people fawning over her and thinking she is swell. She hired a city manager when she was mayor and though she has been Gov. less than 2 years she spent most of her time in her home town. So I don't think she has all the experience you say she does.

Her performance at the debate was just odd, it was like she was channeling Kyra Sedgewick's character from The Closer. You could see her working to find ways to work in some folksy sayings because they did not even fit into what she was trying to talk about. I have expected her to end the debate with a "Thank YOOOOU."

The Republicans have shamelessly exploited the ignorance of the American voter since they adopted the "Southern Strategy." As they've morphed into a Christianist/plutocratic party, they've only gotten worse.

For all their efforts they've now succeeded in literally dragging America to the brink of failure both as a democracy and as a great power.

So... Obama is qualified to win an election because he won a primary? By that logic, then McCain is far more qualified to be President than Obama - he's won lots of elections, including a very competitive Republican primary. I'm just pointing out that Palin has more actual experience that qualified her to be President than Obama has. Why don't you just stick to actual issues? Back to lurking ... I don't want to get too deep into the idiocy around here. It seems to be contagious.

As a political movement, you have to admit the Republicans hav e been pretty good at pulling together portions of the population who normally wouldnt identify with each other.

Think about it, the party of wealthy CEO's (and it really is!) has widespread support from some of the poorest, least educated (often rural) places in the country! (at least here in ohio..)

Anti-intellectualism has been around for over two hundred years in the United States and it will never go away. So you just need to figure out how to play it. This is what the republicans do.

As a party, they have strayed far, far from the Republican ideals (individual freedom, economically conservative , etc.) but they sure know how to play the game of politics well.

And that's how they maintain support....even if Palin does some day become president, fully 50% of the country will think she's just great - - because she will continue the ultra-partisan approach of Bush/Rove. (she's already in that mode...which is funny, since she calls herself awashington outsider!)

So no, I don't think Repubs. are disgusted to get some low-information voters to vote for them. I don't think Democrats would object to getting some of theose votes either, they just need to continue getting smarter as a political organization.

Just like them.

The GOP has a policy that does not support education. McCain has voted to reduce teacher's salaries. The reward for teacher's should be in a paycheck and not "in heaven". No child left behind is a farce. Every child has been left behind. Sarah Palin is an example of the failure of American public schools to instill a lifelong passion of learning. It is embarrassingly obvious that she knows nothing about foreign cultures, domestic issues, economics, or that she has a passion for reading. In fact, she is not interested in any of these things.

Many foreign countries systematically dumb down the peasant population. If a population thinks critically, thinks individually inevitably there will protesters against reigning dictators or systems of government. I have to wonder if the GOP would rather have a population that ingests hours of Fox News propaganda and can be more easily brainwashed to actually believe that their candidate, Sarah Palin is actually qualified to be VP of the United States, or inevitably President of the United States of America. For as much as McCain and Palin reference Reagan, he is probably rolling over in his grave.

Sure, Palin is telegenic and can deliver a prepared speech - so give her a talk show and she can take on Oprah.

Nothing I have seen, heard, or read about Gov Palin gives me a shred of assurance that she can handle the job of VP, much less step in as president if necessary.

Sarah Palin may be fine as governor of Alaska (I know she couldn't even get elected mayor of any major city in the lower 48), but she would be eaten alive on the international stage.

If I want folksy and down-home, I'll watch a Reba rerun. If I want to hear a well read political speech, I'll watch C-Span. Sen Biden came out of the debate looking like a statesman. Gov Palin came off like the head of the Wasilla PTA.

We suffered through 9/11 with our doofus president; he bumbled into Iraq, crushed our economy and is leaving the US Treasury completely empty.

To paraphrase Palin, "never again, never again."

This is the culmination of a strategy the Republicans cynically put into place with the Reagan candidacy, i.e., make poor, uneducated white people believe that the source of their problems is the government handing out welfare to lazy minorities, thereby allowing corporate donors to fleece them without really being seen.

It's an amazing feat. The $30,000 a year secretary and her assistant manager husband earning $30,000 per year cannot possibly make ends meet with almost $1000 a month coming out of their net pay for health insurance, and gasoline at $4.00 per gallon. However, they will bristle with indignation at the idea of "socialized" medicine or capping CEO salaries, insisting that all of their financial dilemmas could be solved by cutting everybody off welfare. They believe that all taxes are bad and NEVER connect the fact that they have roads, police, airports, etc.because of taxes. The only tax dollars they want to pay are those that go to "DEFENSE" without the slightest idea where or how that money is spent.

Selling this nonsense is difficult for the educated and intelligent, so over time, Quayle, "W", and now Palin, became the public face of this charade, embracing and echoing the Reagan Legacy-"Making America Ignorant and Proud of It."