well, I am a little stupid.

I have not read the text.

I just like Paglia.

She is forward and smart, even when she is wrong.

Sarah Palin's vitality.

Whew! Cool. Now I have time to consider credit default swaps.

Which condescension is that?

Ms Paglia:

I've relished Sarah Palin's appearances in the spotlight. She's comely. Like you said, she has a fascinating cadence. And yes, she has an Amerindian quality.

You have so much praise for her appearances and poise; her views are 'irrelevant' to you. The only thing missing from your analysis is her waist size and height. You give your game away by talking her up as a mother-figure and what not and giving her a pass on everything else. Does she have a political intelligence? A mastery of issues and details? Curiosity? Is she worldly?

These qualities aren't bourgeois, Ms Paglia.

Yours,

Penn.

I have read every letter posted on this article and am completely flabbergasted. Most of the writers seem to have had good educations and can write a coherent sentence so what excuse do you have for your intolerance? Many of you say that Camille should be banned from this site and then attack her because she dares to question the way you think. I ask you in all sincerity to consider this: Doesn't Rush Limbaugh sound like this? You (and I) can't stand him because he tears down everyone who does not agree with him and belittles them and their intelligence. How is it any different with many of you? Do you honestly think that a "dumb bunny" with no talent can beat an incumbent governor of her own party and then beat a former governor of the other party? Do you have any idea of how impossible it is to pull off such a feat in politics? Obviously, the only way to explain it is to assume that her fellow Alaskans are as dumb as you think Sarah Palin is. Ah, but of course, Alaska is a red state and not a blue one. Everyone knows that only the really intelligent people live in the blue states. The rubes and the rednecks, who make good cannon fodder for the military, live in the fly over country and haven't a decent brain to share between them. And then you wonder why people call you elitists. Gee, I can't imagine why.

No offense to frontier women. I am a big fan of Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley as well as the women who survived by working the saloons. But the frontier was a mixed bag. Remember all the slaughters of Native Americans? Whole villages burned. The lynchings of free black men? Both tendencies lived side by side sometimes in the same person as with Davey Crockett. I agree that Palin should not be underestimatd but for very different reasons. It's no accident that one of the Alaska Barracuda's stump speeches inspired a death threat toward Obama. She speaks in code to the right wing, invoking white privilege and wrapping class resentment into that package.Most people don't realize that both Himmler and Hitler appealed to the working class and wrapped up anti-semtiism and class resentment together, harnessing legitimate working class anger to a mad scheme for world domination and the elimination of everyone except those deemed Aryan. Not withstanding her attempt to appear friendly to Israel, Palin announced to her own congregation she plans to make the USA a "Christian" nation again. She knows better than to come out with her racism directly but if you think she doesn't appeal to racists, read this post about the same rally in which Obama's life was threatened:

Palin Supporter Shouts "Uppity Negro"

by RandyMI, Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 04:27:34 PM EST

The more details of yesterday's Sarah Palin's rally in Florida come out, the uglier it gets. Talking Points Memo spoke to a reporter who was at the scene to witness the infamous exchange between the riled up Palin supporter and an African American sound man. It isn't pretty.

As I noted below, in his piece today about the abuse that Palin supporters heaped on reporters at a Florida rally yesterday, WaPo's Dana Milbank wrote that one supporter had hurled an unspecified racial epithet at an African American sound man before saying, "sit down, boy."

A reporter who was there tells me what that unspecified epithet was: "Uppity negro."

The more I think about it, the less a coincendence it becomes that she wore white to the event. She realizes that she is becoming a symbol for both the Religious Right and the worst elecments of neo-facism in America. And if you want to challenge me on ther latter point, take a good hard look at what the Alasks Indepence Party stands for. It may not be enough to put her and McCain over the top, but she will be around for years to come. And as she learns the ropes of national politics, she can simultaneously consolidate her standing with these groups while sporting that "Aww shucks" grin. After all, even David Duke took off his robe and put on a suit.

Your total account and characterization of Sarah Palin was awsome. Nobody else could do it!

All politics aside, have you noticed? McCain/Palin, what you see is what we get, and it comes from the heart.

Obama/Biden, we don't know what we see, or where it comes from. Bothers me.

I usually skip Camille's bits because I find her tiresome and her use of language is pretentious and overwrote. I thought I'd give her a shot this week and see if she had any insight.

That was a mistake.

I am tired to the bone of all of the various people out there telling me and everyone else who we are and how we feel about things. While Paglia and the letters she selects rails against the feminists who are trying to jam all women into one box, she's trying to jam everyone from liberals to people from the northeast into other boxes. Enough with the boxes! Enough with the assumptions! There are city-slickers, rednecks, goth chicks, mall rats, farmers, religious fundamentalists, gun nuts, peace nuts, etc. in EVERY state in this country, along with infinite combinations of almost every trait you can imagine. There are Republicans in Hollywood, they grow tobacco in Massachusetts and the banking crisis is hitting several cities in Iowa and Illinois particularly hard.

There are certain human traits that are universal and can found within almost any demographic; greed, idiocy and being an asshole. There is also kindness and humor. Can we stop with the generalizations and move on?