You are dead wrong about the (much dreaded, derided, and despised) PUMAs having anything at all to do with the figurative stoning of Sarah Palin. Though not in tune with her political ideololgy, we've been standing up for her from the get go, something which you would know if you had spent any time at all on PUMA websites over the past months. If anyone can be blamed for the alarming hatred aimed at Palin, it's the Obama-loving, woman-hating New Left, whose hallmark is unreasoned, extreme vitriol.

As a liberal, I disagree with just about everything I've heard Palin utter. Nevertheless, the elitist sneer, the rolled eyes, the dismissive disrespectful tone relentlessly directed towards her is unbecoming. There is something about the reaction of the elites (liberal and conservative) who bash Palin... This bashing reminds the rest of us in middle America that we are not part of the club either. The poison of Palin's critics makes a large swath of the country think those same elites would probably laugh at them too. This is the key to Palin's popularity. She represents everyone who has ever felt snubbed or disrespected.This group constitutes a majority of the electorate. If the progressive elites don't start showing her some respect (and the economy stays in the tank) she will the next president. (Yikes.)

One of the best books I've ever read was Richard Schickel's "Intimate Strangers: The Process of Celebrity." It talked about the big celebrity death of Monroe, the odd career of Brando, and what was probably the origin of modern celebrity: Douglas Fairbanks and the origins of the Hollywood celebrity.

But he also ties it in to the Reagan shootings and John Hinckley Jr., Kennedy and his particular take on politics and so much more. Schickel says celebrity warps our lives, and the last week has certainly been an example of that in both politics and entertainment.

And the previous writer was right. Celebrity diminishes our everyday lives. The reason no one cares about how many auto workers or car repairmen or call center people are out of work and desperate is that they're ordinary people, and worthless. Throw Tina Fay out of work, and everyone freaks and protests.

I have no problem with my own vitriolic reaction to Sarah Palin, because she is George W. Bush and Phyllis Schlafly, all rolled into one very harmful personality. She doesn't represent "everyone who has ever been snubbed;" she represents The Problem With America, this new anti-intellectualism that seems to have taken over much of our leadership. She is clearly an incompetent idiot. I would be saying the same about her if she were a man - as I did about GWB.

If she gets to go out there and spew her anti-woman, creationist, abstinence-only nonsense... if she really gets to say that "what newspapers do you read?" was a TRICK QUESTION and get taken seriously... if she really gets to lie and lie and lie about being "fiscally responsible" just like the sham of a political party she represents... then hell yeah, I get to dish it out too. Do I condone explicitly sexist attacks on her? Is it okay to call her a bitch or a whore or a bimbo? No. Do I think she's gotten more than her fair share, considering who she is, what she says, and what she represents? Hell no. You don't get to play "barracuda" and then play the shocked victim when it comes back.

"If anyone can be blamed for the alarming hatred aimed at Palin, it's the Obama-loving, woman-hating New Left, whose hallmark is unreasoned, extreme vitriol.'

Nice broad stroke you got there. Any other carefully cultivated stereotypes you'd like to throw out there as to why many people on every political spectrum find Palin utterly contemptible?

You are misguided if you think it's only people who love Obama or hate an entire gender who have problems and are in fact disgusted with Palin. I'll give my own reasons. The woman is a vacuum of intellect and common sense. Her speech at the RNC degrading "community organizers. Her incoherent grasp of meaningful issues ie"in what sense Charlie?" and her belief that being able to see Russia from Alaska counts as foreign policy experience. Her incendiary rallies where she fanned the flames of hatred with her "pallin around with terrorists" and Obama is socialist bulllshit rants. Rants which were so successful they caused serious of shouts of "kill him" and "traitor." Her constant lying that she told the government thanks but no thanks to taking the money for the infamous bridge to nowhere, even after it was proven that she inffact was on record as being all for it. Her constant screams and whining about being attacked by the good old liberal media but then inviting them in to document her every move.

There are literally dozens of more examples as to why I personally find her painfully unsuited for national office, but I don't think the internet has the bandwith. Anyway Katetex if it's easier for you to digest why so many people in this country find her reprehensible, by all means go ahead and do it. I've read enough of your posts at this point to know you're big on pointing fingers, and broad stereotyping to make your points. Continued good luck with that.

I don't think it goes any deeper then that. How else do you explain how this woman got taken seriously by anyone. Ditto the week long media obsession with Micheal Jackson. Coups in Hondouras, violence against ethnic groups in China, but CNN puts everything on hold for a half days worth memorial service to a singer. Is it any wonder people looked the other way for eight years while Bush trashed everything this country stands for?

gender über alles

I have to agree with Pastor Horace: it's elitism that drives the progressive left's disdain for Palin. I'm as guilty as anyone else. I'm white, upper-middle-class, southern-born, Ivy-League-educated, gay, and incredibly privileged. I listen to Palin speak and read the texts of her public statements and I want to scream. I believe that clarity of thought leads to clarity of expression, and that Palin embodies the truth of the obverse. I'm sure I would have fit in well with the elite 4% of the population that was eligible to vote for (or against) George Washington.

But Pastor Horace is right about this, too: our (my) elitist arrogance raises the hackles of "regular folks," and it will raise an army of Palin supporters (and/or Huckabee voters) in 2012. If Obama's and the Congressional Democrats' policies don't succeed in the coming months and years, those voters will be highly motivated to slap us back down into our place.

And that raises a question: given Palin's proven ignorance about issues and her cavalier attitude towards facts; given the huge disjunction between her claims and the truth; given the hypocrisy of many of her policy positions and of her complaints about her media treatment -- how can I, or you, or any thinking progressive develop a non-elitist challenge to her? In other words, how do we point out and challenge her actual failings and lack of qualifications without disparaging her person?