I am a Canadian working in the American oil and gas industry. I travel in the States from California in the west to Texas in the southeast to North Dakota and many places in between. Most of my customers and friends live in small towns and cities. And they love Sarah Palin.

Why? Because she is one of them. Especially the fact that she is an evangelical Christian. I am continually amazed at the role that religion plays in American politics. My friends will forgive anything - any liability, any intellectual defect, her shady past - because she is a true believer. These are people who never read a newspaper. They don't follow political issues and frequently have no idea what their governments are up to...unless it is one of their pet issues, like the Second Amendment. They get their news from right wing talk radio show bigots.

They are not equipped to be fully functioning citizens in a complex and sophisticated democracy. But they have a vote. And there a lot of them. Many, many, many of them.

Why is the GOP being dumbed down? Because it has to. Sarah Palin is the perfect candidate for far too many American citizens today.

I think Sarah Palin was a brilliant choice for the GOP. A manipulative, shallow, cynical choice, but brilliant nevertheless. The GOP knows its customers and they gave those customers what they wanted.

And it must be what they wanted. Until McCain's gaffes over the financial bailout and Palin's Katy Couric interview, the GOP and the Dems were neck and neck. Does anybody think the GOP can't pull back within striking range within the next month? One mis-step by Obama and the GOP will surge again.

Until Americans address the decline in their civic society, future elections will offer up more Sarah Palins. Get used to it America.

Palin is the new face of your political landscape.

I was wondering why this country was getting Dumber, and Dumber, and not educated. Now I think I know.

There are now over 10 million homes involved in home Brain-washing, I mean Schooling? No wonder, why Johnny Can't read, or even write, but they can talk on a cell phone with at least a 200 word vocabulary, it will be interesting how they will school their own children.

It seems people don't think any more, just react, to what Madison Ave. feeds them. Alot of people have "Light-switch brains, it is either black or white, right or wrong, good or evil, but no shades of grey exist.

To bad our Bankers now react that way! They print money, that isn't worth the paper it is printed on, or mint coins that are 10 times worth more when melted down.

Well you can thank another good Republican for this mess, "Tricky Dick Nixon, Who really made money worthless in reality, by destruction of the Gold standard, when all of our money use to be backed by Gold, now the only thing that really backs the dollar, is the other side of it.

Save your Coins, they could be a good investment!

I'd say "Let me count the reasons" for you, but you don't have any. Why? Because you're living in a alternate reality where Fox "News" propaganda is the truth, no matter how outrageous the lie is. It warms my heart to know that your vote of stupidity does not matter. So go ahead and memorize your hate filled talking points from Rush Limbaugh, your vitriol from every right wing website you read. Go ahead and be a troll on websites like Salon. Forward those ridiculous, debunked, anti-Obama chain emails to your dim-witted, gullible friends and family.

It won't matter.

The votes that are really going to matter are the undecided voters, who are smarter than you and are all starting to lean towards Obama. Of course you'll get more and more desperate as the election comes closer, but the morons you appeal to are not swing voters: The type of person you appeal to are already as dumb and misinformed as you are. Thankfully, you are all becoming a minority in the political process of America.

My god, that was brilliant! I stand in awe. Thanks for showing up here. "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" does, indeed, illustrate why we are so fortunate (if ignorant about it) that we are who we are, and that it is "merely a few crazies who from the crazy place have outbroken."

That it took a Brit to point this out is incredibly telling. Thank you, bless you, and from somewhere over in Azalea City, Blind Joe's alter ego thanks you too, I am certain of it.

Dumbing down? Biden said among other questionable statements that the US and France had kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon and that he and Barack had asked for more NATO troops to fill the vacuum. Since no one has ever kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon this is not true. Is he lying? Is he stupid? Or does he think I am stupid? I have heard Barack say many times that even though he was in a church for 20 years and the minister was his spiritual advisor, he did not know that the man made controversial anti-American statements and tirades. Is he lying? Is he stupid? Or does he think I am stupid? Honesty and credibility are essential to good leadership. Barack and Biden have neither. How can you trust them?

As a voter who finds BOTH parties thoroughly corrupt, I do see one slight difference between Democrats and Republicans. While Republicans seek to discedit Democrats, Democrats rabidly seek nothing but the total destruction of their opponents.

In 1992, the Democrats put white trash in the White House. After countless scandals, bj's outside the oval office, disingenuous interpretation of what the word 'is' is and abject failure to effectively address terrorism; they stole the silverware and who knows what else from the White House they trashed over 8 years upon their departure.

And, I'm sad to say, I went with the Democrats.

This election Democrats want to put black trash in the White House. Who knows how they will trash the house if elected.

This time I'm going with the Republicans. At least they have a shred of decency left.