Re: "but times have changed -- McCain/Palin can't win just with a base of hardcore Republicans and religious fanatics". Unfortunately, you are wrong. Hardcore Republicans and religious fanatics constitute an electoral majority in this country. Issues? Who cares about issues anyway? Most Americans are too stupid, indifferent, and/or ill informed to notice. What Americans want is a dictator - and a pretty one at that. They want war - especially a no-lose war against some pathetic country that is no match for us. Americans are not much bothered by issues like habeas corpus, torture, First Amendment rights and the like. The America that used to care about such things no longer exists. We have become a sick, half dead, pathetic caricature of what we used to be. I will continue to do everything in my power to stop McCain/Palin. However, if the (Ned) Lamont campaign has taught me anything, evil usually triumphs over good, so I am not terribly optimistic that sanity and morality will prevail this year.

Sarah is certainly all things to liberals that is for sure. Everything you detest she embodies according to the liberal media and the fanatical left. The thing is right now nobody knows her very well the same as nobody would know a governor from RI, or VT, or MT, or UT, etc. Governors are busy running their own country-like state and only make news during some sort of disaster or if they are bing considered for a VP slot.

It has occurred to me that the wacky left does not want Washington to be fixed at all. After all, what they would they do with all their angst??? The fact that McCain has said he will appoint both democrats and republicans in his cabinet in an attempt to rid Washington of some much hate between the two parties is still not enough for the extreme liberal base that is hell bent on destroying one party in order to claim victory. The thing is as evidenced by the unfair treatment of Hillary Clinton the democratic party has proven they will turn on their own in a heartbeat. The democratic party is quickly becoming the party of fanatics. Take a breath. Cool down and give this woman the same respect you would give your mother or sister.

If you say something bad about a woman you are sexist. Really?

Judging by the hysteria on the part of some the women commenting here, and the venom directed at Gary and his brilliantly written piece -- it's sadly obvious that many of them are, completely irrationally, going to vote for Foxy Palin -- simply because she shares their gender. Maybe you all will get really lucky if McSame gets sick and this sad excuse for a human being becomes the Leader.

And don't bother attacking me - I'll know it's just because I am a man and a sexist pig.

Lighten the hell up already, everybody. The Nineteenth Amendment is not in danger of repeal just because of a photoshop and a snarky article on a lefty website.

not all of them, but most of the really hysterical ones that go on at great length.

http://www.petitiononline.com/giveback/petition

Sign the petition to have Sarah give the money back from the bridge to nowhere.

She IS Artie Bucco's wife!

Charmain Bucco for President!

I started trawling through these letters, but there are only so many hours in a day. Grow the fuck up, people. It is not sexist to bluntly examine the ramifications of the gross, cynical, and, yes, pandering choice of Sara Palin as McCain's veep to be. This is something that has happened, and if you think her looks, her youth, and her supposed sex appeal weren't significant factors in the Republican's choice to elevate her to VP, well, I've got a bridge to sell you.

(It'll cost you about $500 million. See what I did there?)

So swallow your overblown outrage over the tacky image up top and read the article. I don't know if what Gary's talking about will end up being a decisive factor in the election, but it's in the mix, and is as deserving of discussion as any other factor in this bloody train wreck. By refusing to discuss it, you're playing into another of the traps of Palin's candidacy.

If you must be angry, be angry with the people who put Palin out there and who are forcing us to have this conversation, not those like Gary who are merely talking about the ramifications of that decision.

I'll be the first to agree that GW Bush is the absolute worst president since Jimmy Carter and hopefully in my lifetime but this article and its author are total Bullshit! People like him are clearly threatened by Gov. Palin and are willing to spew any kind of BS with the hope that anyone with an IQ less than 100 will buy into it.

Clearly, this is the response that the liberals produce when they feel threatened. Maybe you can talk George Clooney into holding a fundraiser for you so you can fund the research necessary to determine what genes are responsible for this dribble you present as journalism.

Glad to see you came to your senses and took this off the front page. (It's still in the most-read list though).

As consumers of journalism, there's a neccesary level of trust. We trust you to select important stories. AND we rely on you to be credible. Without that sense of trust, we have to read differently, applying skepticism to everything presented as fact. And skeptical reading is, frankly, exhausting work.

I've noticed a number of other stories recently that are fact-free and ranting (I can't remember which ones specifically); but story really made it explicitly obvious that my trust was being violated. I'm saddened. I'll be reading Salon very differently for a while, as a result of this story.

Tasteless. Pointless. And fact free. I expect better. How would *you* feel if you were a dominatrix being gratuitously associated with Sarah Palin?