I agree with 80% of what Obama stands for.

At the same time, I share much of Palin's background, and watching her being attacked for her personality, clothes, and family makes me cringe. Why should any voter believe Obama supporters when they say that they're going to help white, working class voters? Everything Obama's true believers say about this demographic drips with contempt for working class whites.

At least the Republicans pretend to like us and pay lip service to respecting us.

I think allot of us are not saying that she "earned" the right to her opinions, rather that everyone has the right to participate in the public sphere without being attacked based upon their race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, etc.

Attack her on the issues, one of which is her ridiculously pinheaded religious extremism, not the fact that she is an attractive woman.

By the way- I share your alarm over the increasing influence that religious zealots weild in Washington. Chrisitan zealots are far more terrifying than Muslim zealots to me because many more of them are far closer to home.

I read the article - I see the point - but it will still be fodder for the right wing noise machine who are not so subtle.

High dungeon, it seems. (Yes yes, I know it's "dudgeon". One has to be careful making jokes around here.)

Tuned in this morning to see what kind of fulminating got done overnight. A quite satisfactory amount.

Couple observations - fetboy said "AKA Smith, you continue to make the mistake that voters really care what gets written on the blogs. If McCain wins, it will be because the voters voted him into office, not because of anything that you, I, Kamiya, or anyone else writes about on blogs or internet news."

Quite. All this worry about how the article & pic will make any kind of difference, sheesh.

Harlemita - what you said!

Kagikaze - "channelling Maureen Dowd a bit too much" - cute. (Wait for MD's version any minute now.)

Deeply Imbedded - For the booboisie, a candidate with boobs.

Couple notes of my own - this article is being castigated for sexism against women. I read it as sexism against men. (Not complaining, mind you!)

For all those people complaining about not enough yammer about issues, check out the WP this morning. It doesn't strike me as terribly damning (as politicians go), but this will no doubt be the first of many, many negative articles about Palin and her doings. The press wants blood (Palin should be out taking pre-emptive shots from the air), the "fresh-faced" bit getting tired now...

Gary actually makes a better case for Palin, in the first half of the article, than he does against her in the second half. Never mind the dominatrix angle, which is weak - and yeah, probably sexist.

Also, Palin doesn't rhyme with pain.

I simply refuse to believe that the majority of Americans will risk having this woman as President. If this happens, there will be no hope for America... just a downhill course.

Democrats quake at the bloodthirsty image of a pit bull and underestimate the endearing qualities: the vicious tenacity and brutal loyalty of the GOP pin-up VP.

Man, Sarah has you guys all shook up. But I know a lot of Sarahs. They're sweet, full of love, and down to earth. They are very good at what they do; and they probably would not check off all of the things that you would check off as what is important on a list of polisies. What these kind of folks do have is: a feeling that you can trust them even if you might disagree with them; and that feeling is right on the money. Kinda like the nation felt about Ronald Regan. She still has 60 days to show us that she isn't the type of person she seems to be, so, time will tell. Interesting times.

...remember PROGRESSIVE is a euphemism...none dare call them liberals but it is Marxist Lite. Without Sarah I feared we might have lost our way reading a new reprint of "Mein Kampf."

Wow. And what percentage of McCain's policies (if he ever expresses any) do you agree with? Please forgive me if I have not properly celebrated Palin's redneck, fundamentalist ways. While we're at it, please forgive me for not giving radical Islamic ideology a chance. Yes, all beliefs need to be respected, especially the insane ones. (Sarcasm)

I am at a loss to understand the negative comments about this piece. I don't think I've read anything so right-on about this parvenu from Juneau since she threw the MSM for a loop. When all is said and done, this little sketch is going to look sharper than any camera could define.

wir0monkey: "At the same time, I share much of Palin's background, and watching her being attacked for her personality, clothes, and family makes me cringe. Why should any voter believe Obama supporters when they say that they're going to help white, working class voters? Everything Obama's true believers say about this demographic drips with contempt for working class whites."

Palin is being attacked about her appearance and personality because those are the things that she is being praised for by the extreme right. If issues mattered at all in this election, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And with all this talk about the so-called contempt Obama supporters have for working class whites, why is OK for media proxies of those working class whites to drip scorn on urban dwelling Americans? Would you really, really vote for someone that only agrees with 20% of your issues, just because you feel looked down on by straw metrosexuals? If that's the case, then you never really cared about issues.

Dearest Salon,

No, I didn't read the article, nor did I read the 300+ letters ahead of me. Your title photo pretty much sums up why I'm not extending my Salon subscription. I subscribed back in 2002, when I had moved to Atlanta from Seattle and was desperate for some evidence that the entire country wasn't in love with George W Bush. I've read a lot of your content since then. But telling me things I like to hear doesn't make you right or worth reading, and semi-intelligent discussions of the issues at hand, clad with stupid graphics of photoshopped Republicans seem to be part of the problem, not the solution. Maybe I'm just tired of politics instead of government being the topic of elections, but Salon has not been telling me much beyond the gossip I get from the New York Times.

Thanks for the good times. Go ahead and grab the page views, but you won't be getting a subscription fee from me.