Many of Palin's worst moments come when she's called upon to defend the Bush record, and/or the latest craziness to come out of McCain.

That's the trade she made - a huge promotion in the VP nod, in exchange for the unpleasantness of carrying water for the Bush legacy, which is now chained to McCain.

And she just can't do it. She can memorize a few talking points in that general vein, but once off those points you can see her thinking to herself, "But Bush is an idiot. What the hell am I supposed to say about this question?"

Consider this scenario; Palin was never intended to be the real Vice-Presidential candidate. She was picked to bolster a christian conservative block that was not going to support McCain. McCain's real choice is either Romney or Liberman. I doubt that Palin is aware of this but she will be withdrawing from the ticket soon, because of the "intense liberal media slandering" of her personally. This will enrage the christian conservative base and bring them out in mass in November. Romney will waltz in to save the day and give the rest of the Republican and independents the VP candidate they wanted along.

This scenario might be crazy, but if it's true I think it will check-mate Obama and McCain will take the election.

Oh c'mon. General questions about McCain's health are perfectly reasonable -- especially considering his VP pick -- but video-based diagnosis was silly when it was Senator Frist second-guessing medical experts about Terri Schiavo and it's just as silly now.

General questions about McCain's health are perfectly reasonable -- especially considering his VP pick -- but video-based diagnosis was silly when it was Senator Frist second-guessing medical experts about Terri Schiavo and it's just as silly now.

There's a huge difference between definitively diagnosing someone by video and asking questions based on what appears to be degeneration in someone's physical appearance (several people noted problems with his eye a couple of weeks ago). Nobody is saying -- as Frist did - that you can diagnose McCain based on video. The point is that health questions can be raised by changes in someone's physical appearance, and those questions should be answered with science: by McCain's recent medical records and physician's explanations.

-She really doesn't seem to have any thoughts about anything outside of that -- **of if she does**, she is suppressing them ...-

Mitt Romney may be a social conservative -- though that seems to depend on whose votes he wants -- but he's a Mormon. Sure, some of the so-called Religious Right would like him well enough, but the rest would stay home and pout on election day if he replaced Palin.

I suspect you're right about the Repubs planning to replace her, just wrong about the timing. If McCain does manage to win, they'll replace her after the election. The exact timing will depend on McCain's health, among other factors.

What I wonder is whether they've already picked her replacement, and whether she knows about the plan.

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers

(AFP PHOTO/Deshakalyan CHOWDHURY)

Work protests coud threaten India's economy

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

Update: Outrage as minister says attack 'serves as warning'

Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.

Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, a manufacturer of car parts that has its headquarters in Italy, died of severe head wounds on Monday after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said. The incident, in Greater Noida, followed a long-running dispute between the factory’s management and workers demanding better pay and permanent contracts.

It is understood that Mr Choudhary, who was married with one son, had called a meeting with more than a hundred former employees who had been dismissed after an earlier outbreak of violence at the plant. He wanted to discuss a possible reinstatement deal.

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* Sahara tourists seized by 'gangsters’

A police spokesman said: “Only a few people were called inside. About 150 people were waiting outside when they heard someone from inside shout for help. They rushed in and the two sides clashed. The company staff were heavily outnumbered.”

Other executives said that they were lucky to escape with their lives. “I locked my door from inside and prayed they would not break in. See, my hands are trembling even three hours later,” one Italian consultant told reporters.

More than 60 people were arrested and more than 20 were in hospital yesterday.

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but video-based diagnosis was silly when it was Senator Frist second-guessing medical experts about Terri Schiavo and it's just as silly now.

-- bearpaw1

So you don't see any difference between Frist diagnosing whether or not Shiavo was, to put it bluntly, brain dead, and people watching a video and asking about the health of a man talking who, to put it bluntly, looks like hell?

McCain is on CNN right now. live. Delivering a standard campaign speech.

When its over he will re-suspend the campaign until his next speech.

Anyone else think this has become a complete mockery of the process yet?

But I think this needs to be repeated:

someone's judgment, intellect and views are infinitely more important than how long they've held various political posts, and the fact that someone largely exists outside the Washington establishment is, in my view, a positive -- the further away the better.

I suspect you're giving her more credit than is due when you suggest that she might have political views that she's holding back on becuase they don't fit in the party line. I simply think she's never thought anything that far through.

Glenn,

I think you missed a -tag somewhere, because all your text is bold now.

Ok, there I go. I meant to say: bold-tag.

By actually using the tag in my post, my own text went bold too.

Oops. You can delete my comments once you've fixed them.

Thanks again!