but the last guy to be elected president, you know the one everybody wanted to have a beer with. The guy who turned out to be the WORST president in modern history, George W. Bush? Yeah that guy. Can't we please have someone who doesn't embarrass the bulk of the populace? Of course the GOP is already with the lies and smear for Barak. I'm sure they have a plan after Barak is elected. Country before party for Gramppy McCain ha ha ha ha Hell I'v never seen a Republican who is anything but PARTY before country. That's why they'll do ANYTHING to hold power as power at this level is worth Billions. Just ask some of W's buddies? One can only wonder how much the crooks have scimmed out of the U.S. Treasury. Hell nine billion went missing out of Iraq. Can you say President Palin? My God isn't that a frightening thought? Anyone who has a part in setting that up certainly isn't thinking country before party now are they?

apparently they “know not” what they stand for, anymore.

Deuter-onomy 1~101.

any decent conservative simply must abhor the bloated deficit; the unnecessary formation of something called “Homeland Dept. of Security” (it's kinda redundant). Honorable mention goes to the unreasonable Trillion Dollars worth of (soon to be worthless) US Dollars thrown out as a life preserver to ...who? You fill in the blank.

Where are the conservatives? Why don’t they demand more thinking from their base?

one answer may be that "they" count on the unthinking, to get them where they need to go !

“I’m a uniter, not a divider”

Has there ever been any phrase uttered that has been so thoroughly disproven ? Point it out to me, I'm daring you. I speak to you honestly, I have never in my life been so divided as I am now.

I laugh in the face of these self-professed conservatives everywhere. can they spell ~ disconnect.?

I pray for Obama, in that once he is elected, he moves as surely as he has run this election. We're gonna need his class and his style, and his Second in Command, Senator Joe Biden.

Urgent times call for ....urgent measures. Let it be so.

The MEN who would actually run the country under another GOP administration would be the same ones that run it now.

Stuffed with church teachings, anti-choice philosophy, Bushisms, and business matters pertaining to the oil industry in Alaska.

The first three are designed to stop thinking. Dogmatic thinking means every interesting avenue that makes thinking actually fun cannot be explored. If it is outside her box, she doesn't want to go there.

That is why in interviews and debates she actually responded stubbornly in ways that are more supportive of Bush policy than McCain's. Palin is actually far more conservative than McCain. Which is a damned good reason why this intellectual lightweight should never be in a position to actually become president.

To truly open her mind, she would have to disgard too many cherished notions. She would have to make a whole lot more over other than her voice, which obviously she has been working on. Probably her handlers thought that that was easier to change than her mind.

"The ultimate irony of Palin's rise is that it has occurred at a moment when Americans may finally have grown weary of pseudo-populism -- when intelligence, judgment, diligence and seriousness are once again valued, simply because we are in such deep trouble."

27% of the American people still think Dumbass Bush is doing a credible job, and more than 10% of the independent voters can't make-up their minds, even after 7.9 years of Dumbass and Republican self-enriching fantasy. What does this tell us? I'd like to believe that Conason's observation (noted above) had some basis in fact, but the truth is that "facts" no longer matter to many Americans. They'd just as soon the President and Vice-president be chosen in a reality TV setting, the source of so much of the 27-percenters' and undecideds' entertainment. Better that Caribou Barbie look and act like one who would not be voted off the island than to be someone who actually understood complex problems and had some grounding in the context in which those problems arose. Don't blame McCain; he just provided the "product" that many in his party wanted to buy. In other words, he went with the marketer's mantra: "The customer is always right." God help us if he wins.

If you got into an airplane would you find it elitist if the pilot worked hard on his/her education and training? Hell no! You'd be happy that someone worked hard to to protect the people he/she serves. Time to send the hockey mom back to the hockey ring. Haven't these past 8 years taught us enough hard lessons? How much worse will it have to get?

I have only read Mr. Conason a few times and I have only heard commentary from him on one occasion. This article goes to the core of the problem with politics today in general, and Republicanism in particular. I remember the days of Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley when conservatives actually knew the meaning of the word "conservatism." It was a combination of spirit and intellect. That movement was hijacked by Ronald Reagan and has been gutted of all that was good about the movement. The Conservatives that we see in government as well as in media outlets have no idea of what Conservatism is. They have ruined the Republican Party. Sarah Palin, and I am afraid John McCain, have become the poster children for its demise. They are what is wrong with their party. What scares me the most is that the American public has taken their faux Republicanism as their gospel. Somehow, middle class has been defined as anti-intellectual fervor. That is too bad. The middle class deserves better.

Actually many conservatives are unhappy with Gov. Palin, but Sen. McCain deemed she was needed to hold onto the religious right voters, who have always mistrusted him to one extent or another.

But the Palin phenomenon is just a part of the larger dumbing-down of lazy, anti-intellectual America. Adults go on TV talk shows wearing t-shirts and sandals. Millions of grown-ups really care about reality shows. Black teenagers criticize as "acting white" their classmates who study and do well on tests. People buy houses they can't afford because they think they might be making more money in a few years.

I have met a few people with real jobs who are proud that they haven't read a book since college. Nobody under 30 seems to know anything that happened before they were born. And they vote for candidates they'd like to have a beer with.

And yes, I voted for Bush Sr. and Quayle back in 1988. But Vice Pres. Bush was very smart, experienced, knew how the world worked - and was younger and healthier than McCain is now. Quayle - serving his eighth year in the senate at the time - was not a big factor in my decision.

This year is different.