I see you took my advice. Wow, that didn't take long. You went straight from regurgitated fictional talking points to a fever-pitched, Clinton hating, racist diatribe. Nice work!! I hope the McCain campaign pays you well for this stuff. You gotta pace yourself though... There are still 31 days till Obama is elected President of the United States. You don't want to unload all of your hate on just one thread!

I'm probably going to get rotten tomatoes thrown at me, but I like populism. I have no intention of voting for McCain, and I think Palin is a sad joke. And I like Obama, I'm not just voting against someone for a change.

But, as an independent, I would vote for a heart-centered candidate that had brains in a SECOND. Think Kucinich but less flaky. Take Palin, lose the concrete mindset, add intellectual curiosity, and even with not much experience, to me, you have a WINNER. And I mean winner as in a good candidate, not ONLY winning the election.

I think there are a lot of people like me out there, and, more importantly, a lot of Republicans in rural areas who would respond to such a candidate. Heart-centered, simple people really get pounded on, and that's wrong. They may not have the most important jobs, but they do them competently and with integrity (many, not all). That's more than you can say for most in Congress. We need to understand that simple is not the same as stupid.

We will never have the wisdom to navigate the many challenges before us if we don't start valuing the ability to think with HEART AND head.

We may never know if my theory is correct, because it appears doubtful that McCain will win the presidency, but here goes: Palin is being used as the rock star to draw crowds and convince many of our dumber citizens that being loud, pretty and somewhat goofy is good enough to become Vice President and by extension, President.

But does McCain intend to keep her around? I doubt it. His history of comments about women in general and his wife in particular indicate that he views women as good for sex and nothing else. If elected President, McCain will relegate Palin to an office far removed from his own. She will not be invited to meetings. White House staff will be instructed not to respond to her requests or calls or to the requests of her staff. She will be left to preside over the Senate with a goal of annoying and obstructing the Democratic majority.

After a few months, a committee of McCain henchmen will strongly “suggest” to Palin that she resign. Shady actions from her tenure as Mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska will be dug up (or invented) and released to the press. She will be made an “offer she can’t refuse” and she will be gone.

In order to stay in power the GOP nominates people for president and vice president who are deemed "electable" because of an appealing charm and appearance package instead of qualifications for the job.

The GOP starts early and elects them to some other office, sometimes over a better qualified but not as charming GOP candidate, as a means of grooming these folks for higher office. It's like a farm of Stepford candidates where GOP handlers help the candidates grow a resume, and help to shape their opinions.

A keen intellect is not a requirement since the more willing and malleable the candidate the better their chance for advancement. The ability to think and speak coherently is also not a requirement as long as the candidate can memorize and deliver party line when told to do so. They can always be protected from press conferences and interviews once in office.

The GOP's success with their smoke and mirrors tactics has made them arrogant and they are convinced that the American electorate can be herded like sheep. This time around, in desperation to make the best of a bad choice and in the ongoing belief that just saying something makes it true, the McCain campaign and supporters are saying that Sarah Palin is smart. They say that she could not only handle the office of the Vice President but she could also be a fine president if the need arose. They hide her from the press and blame her many gaffs on the press.

John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as a running mate and some of his recent actions and behavior put his intelligence in question. There is a team of people in his campaign whose job seems to be to explain what John meant to say and to make his erratic actions more palatable. They also attempt to repackaged his arrogance and anger as a strength.

Ultimately it is the fault of the American electorate that these tactics have succeeded in the past. They allowed the GOP to keep them narrowly focused on pinpoint topics so that they didn't see the larger picture and didn't question the herd mentality.

There are some signs that the American electorate is becoming better educated, better informed, able to exchange information in nanoseconds, and more likely to question what they see and what they are told. Unlike previous generations who were largely influenced by opinions at home, younger voters are being influenced by what they see and hear coming from outside of the home through TV and internet. Older voters who have adopted emerging technologies are also better informed.

This electorate is involved. They watch the debates, check facts online, and interact in online forums. They have a broader perspective of life and the world that transcends traditional regional poltical thinking.

Hopefully, this electorate will force the GOP to offer better candidates in 2012.

It's funny, I was thinking about Palin's winking.

If she worked for me and was a sales rep, I'd love her. I'd send her out to mainly "work" my male clients who would feel flattered by her attention.

Some of the reps that come by the office I work fit that category and my boss eats it up, the good ones change their style when talking to me (or even rolling their eyes at me behind my boss's back to let me in on the joke when he's acting like he's in love...). They are salespeople, they know their job.

I think Palin is being dumbed down on purpose. When she's talking about energy and she isn't as scripted, all of a sudden she isn't as folksy. The similarities to Bush are striking and it's just part of the game.