I don't know enough about your local situation to make an informed response. I can only speak for myself, in saying I look forward to voting again for Sarah Palin from here in Indiana. If she isn't on the ballot the next time around in the presidential primary, I will write her name in anyway - unless she does a Shermanesque renunciation and endorses someone else.

As far as Reagen is concerned, that's a mixed bag. I thought he was semi-senile throughout his second term. On the other hand, he was more formidable in his prime than either of the Bushes, or other nominees such as Dole. I don't think he had much of a common touch, either, after decades in Hollywood.

I happen to like Palin's down to earth style, and not because it reflects some awful "dumbing down" process. When I drive the rural roads and small towns of my region, and think to myself who ought to be governing it, I like the idea of having someone "of" the people in charge. And, as Jon Stewart would say, big cities are just small towns crowded together. We could use someone with the hockey mom's (and now a soldier's mom's) perspective.

When I see all the "professional" borrowing, spending, and warmaking that comes to us from Washington, I'm not alarmed by the prospect of having a leader who is "of" the people. It's the alternative which depresses me.

Are you still hoping to sleep with Sarah Palin, because when I read this article it is clearly about Barack Obama, and clearly about what he can do to mobilize the nation to make the changes they seem to want to make. No where is Sarah Palin mentioned. But if Sarah Palin is the savior of the Republican Party, great! Democrats can expect more victories in the future. Because your libido aside, she is a train wreck and I presume Alaskans will be firing her on the next go round for Governor.

The Lobby has controlled US foreign policy bringing about the disastrous consequences we have lived through over the past few years (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html).

Obama needs to shake off the Lobby's control if there is to be any hope in a real change in America's relationship with the rest of the world. Unfortunately the likely appointment of "Mr. Lobby" Dennis Ross to be in charge of Israel/Palestine and the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff don't bode well for the future.

I felt Obama was a wrong number from the jump. Made a speech against the war--big woo, I was against the war screaming at the TV (when I still watched Tweety et al) from my family room in Arizona. Now--what? He has a Scapegoat of State and a holdover SecDef to blame when he doesn't leave when he said he would. And Afghanistan? Is it really in American interests to beef that up--it's not a given. This guy, with his snooty nose in the air and pointy finger and uh-uh-uhs, never takes a stand--always leaves an ocean of wiggle. We are getting some news now--but I predict the Top Rahmen will soon lock the operation down and start data mining to find the skeptics. I notice a few on this list (FINALLY, where have you guys been?). Dum-de-dum-dum. PS? Newsweek, I mean, Obamaweek? Cancelled it after four decades. Just could not take it anymore--the crude burlesque of news gathering and sycophantic BS.

SO far I feel Obama has made the right choices...this is no time to bring in people that have no idea how Washington works...Hello?...The country is in a real crisis....8 years of Bush, remember?...As a people we do not have the luxury of giving an administration time to settle in, learn how things work and make mistakes while learning...This admin has to hit the ground running and Obama having people around him who know how the game is played is crucial...I feel comfortable that Obama knows what he wants to do, and has picked seasoned experienced people who can implement it....I do not think this guy will let ANYTHING get away from him....

I voted for a direction, not an ideology...

I voted for Brains, not dogma...

I voted for someone I feel can think on his feet and change as circumstances change..not a rigid adherence to campaign slogans...

I also voted for someone who doesn't take office 'til January 20, 2009...let's dump the moron first and give Obama a shot before we start tearing him down...

Though many Obama supporters feel strongly about particular issues, and though polling shows the country moving left, the Obama movement undeniably revolves around the president-elect's individual stardom -- and specifically, the faith that he will make good decisions, whatever those decisions are

I don't really get why this is such a revelation and why so few know about it. It appears that there is a certain segment of those who voted Obama who now feel "betrayed". This is totally ridiculous. During the primaries I noted again and again how Obama wasn't the "liberal" his worshipful and more naive followers portrayed him as. He was at heart a centrist but who had found the magic of his innate charisma and novelty to work a "change" paradigm to get ahead.

In the end, I pointed out the Obama election dynmamic rested on a personality-charisma theme, and consolidated change around that theme. In other words, the "change" we believe in is really the change Obama believes in. But why must so many be caterwauling when it is highly likely - owing to the pressures of the time- that the change Obama enacts WILL be also the change we believe in.

Good grief, I mean the guy hasn't even been inaugurated yet, at least give him some breathing space.

It is also instructive here, for the benefit of the Nervous Nellies, to go back 48 years to JFK's presidency. It was surely true that he entered the presidency as a saber-rattling cold warrior (indeed one of the themes often addressed during the 1960 primary was the "missile gap")

However, two years after his inauguration that began to change and Kennedy evolved. Look at his 'Pax Americana" speech given at American University in DC for a clue. Look also at many of his other iniatives including signing the Nuclear Test Ban Trreaty with Nikita Khruschev in August, 1963 - a move that drove the Right bonkers.

Before that (Oct. 1962) look at his response to the Joint Chiefs who pressured him to invade and bomb Cuba. Then there was his signing of National Security Action Memorandum 263 which authorized the pullout of all U.S. personnel from VietNam by the end of calendar year 1965. Again, another move that didn't earn him any encomiums from the Right or its military leaders (e.g. Gen. John Singlaub, later to lead the ASC)

By the time of his assassination, JFK had even begun a process of rapprochement with Castro, albiet secretly through one of his aide de camps, Vallejo.

What all this shows is that the exigencies of the moment, and the presence of awareness and native intelligence CAN lead a new prez to make moves he otherwise wouldn't. I believe this is equally true of Obama - or Can BE!