There's one serious problem with Democrats attacking back. We picked a candidate whose message is all about changing the discourse of politics. How do you attack character without being labeled a hypocrate?

I think you're wrong here Glenn. I think Obama either wins on the merits this time without getting into the gutter (in which case he can truly claim that he has changed politics), or he's relegated to the dust bin of political history, and the Democrats try again in 2012 with the full on Clinton machine backing Hillary.

of San Francisco has more population, infrastructure and critical executive functions and decisions to make than the Governor of Alaska.

What do you think? Can she effectively be attacked on these grounds? Are we afraid to attack women when they use their sexuality to get ahead? Or maybe we don't want to talk about it.

-- cj

I don't know who or what politicians or campaign workers could or would speak on that aspect, but I read comments from women who were part of a couple of different focus groups who expressed similar thoughts to what you've expressed.

I can smell the fear...in Obama Nation, LOL!!!

McCain '08, easily followed by Clinton 2012.

Justice eventually comes to those who wait. I will so enjoy your defeat in November, worms. Talk to you then. :P -- red_gti2000

What is this, amateur night? Multiple comedy comments from complete newcomers in barely 10 pages.

I'm starting to wonder if these commentators (provided they're all different people) aren't competing for some prize or something. It must be pretty good for them to humiliate themselves like this.

Where the heck are the surrogates of the Democratic Party? They can easily attack McCain and Palin, in sharp personal tones. They will if Obama will let them off the leash. When Wesley Clark told the truth about McCain, Obama cut him off like he was a gangrenous limb.

You are just some person on the internet. The campaign and key Democrats will keep their hands clean until Biden decks her at the debates, on substantive issues. It will be easy for him, and I think he can pull it off. A-List, B-List bloggers have been having at her. Go for it.

"Sarah Palin is one of us, not one of you".

To whom do you refer as "us" and "you". What does field dressing a moose have to do with being Vice President of the United States of America?

What I honestly do not understand is why certain Americans view educated, involved, engaging politicians as unfit to run a country of about 300 million people from diverse backgrounds with a more or less common national goal (American dream), and instead prefer divisive, pandering, barely literate politicians with a single train of thought to represent a pluralistic society. Why?

One of your previous posts states that you're a southern populist. I grew up in a very deep southern state and found no shortage of intelligent, well-educated, progressive thinking people. Why don't we want this for our society? Most of us are not hunting moose in our backyard. We're trying to pay our mortagage, give our kids a decent education, and enjoy our lives with family and friends. Do you want a moose hunter operating on your brain? No, you want the most qualified brain surgeon doing that. It should absolutely matter that they know more than you (and the moose hunter) on topics relating to brain surgery because it's IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SURVIVAL.

If this little chippy is about to become the second most powerful person of the most powerful nation on the planet, and one heartbeat away from being Numero Uno, and she can't handle a little rough and tumble and slap and tickle of bare knuckled political campaign, what the hell do you think guys like Assad, Ahmadinejad, Putin and Kim Jong-il will do to her? Not to mention our own allies.

The Democratic party is stuck in an impossible position. They can't satisfy the likes of Glenn Greenwald and really blood their political opponents, the Republicans, without tough, no-holds-barred campaigning — and they can't get tough and bar no holds because ... well, the reasons why they can't are self-evident, right? Because that's bad.

Look, when has a hard-hitting, media-smart, wiley, contentious, aggressive attack campaign ever led a Democrat all the way to the White House? Even if he were to win, such a candidate would certainly be so scandal-plagued and divisive that there would likely be no chance of a second term. America would be plunged into a deep cultural conflict between reactionary troglodytes and normal people. Gays, minorities, women, immigrants, and progressives in general would be the ones who suffered, and it would all have been because of that one Democrat's narcissistic decision to run an aggressive campaign.

I know, I'm spinning fantasy, because such a Democrat could never win in the first place. Everyone knows that it's not possible to simultaneously make a high-minded appeal to the better (if only by comparison) instincts of Americans, and also drag the other party out and give it a few swift kicks in a back alley — metaphorically of course — so just forget these crazy wild ideas that Glenn Greenwald has about the Democratic campaign message.

Fighting is bad!

None of your usual idiocy in the first two paragraphs. Then you had to end with this:

You say Obama "should" be ahead by double-digits. I don't know about that, you might be right. What I would say is that there is a deep-seated opposition in America to Obama's far-left orientation and his far-left base. If Obama is to win, he'll need to move much farther right, Clinton-style. I don't think he'll do that, and I don't think he'll win. If he does move right, I expect that it will be Axelrod's strategy that pushes it.-- Elephantman

The problem here, as with most of your comments to date, is the complete divorce from actual trends and expressed attitudes. I again realize that you instinctively perceive everything outside of yourself as "far left", given you inhabit the extreme fringe on the right. One could even argue your perceptions, while egocentric and subjective, are correct given your ecological niche, which in turn prompts you to write dross like this because you simply can't see the world any other way.

I still urge you to seek medical help, preferrably before you delusional paranoia causes you to kill someone.