After reading what Paglia wrote about Palin it became clear to me that I'm done reading anything Paglia might ever have to say again. About anything.

If it weren't for Camille's always intellectually refreshing articles and the occasional essay by Garrison (where he sticks to his art and avoids his superficial analysis of politics), Salon would not be worth reading.

I waited to post about Camille's crush on Sarah Palin until after her second opportunity to comment on her. I gave Camille the benefit of the doubt; guessing that in her first blog, right after Palin's nomination, Camille had gotten all caught up in the newness, freshness, and sexiness of this political season's version of the IT girl along with most of the other blabbagentsia.

But having just read Camille's latest mash note, I have to call her out. I'm troubled by this. I sort of have the same sour pit in my stomach that I had in 2003 when I started reading about McCain's loopy and indefensible flip on George Bush and his policies. In McCain's case he chose to turn his back on our soldiers so he could throw in with the neocon cabal; a case I assigned to early onset senility and utter surrender to narcisism.

In Camille's case, I'm sensing that she too is succumbing to advanceing age, but also wishful thinking coupled with a libido in search of some new magical catnip.

Camille, please look elsewhere.

The energy that you feel is sexual. It can't be anything else. Palin is the poster girl for beauty covering up any number of shortcomings, failures, and sins. Palin is demonstrably uninformed, completely un- and anti- intellectual, not terribly accomplished, and terribly ill equipped for the role she is pretending to.

Camille, its time to get a grip on yourself. Of course we need equality, of course we need women to take over in the jobs that lesser men currently hold, and of course we need beauty and sex. But, Sarah Palin is no more the vessel of 21st century feminine empowerment than George Bush is the herald of compassionate conservatism.

Camille, do yourself, women and men everywhere, and especially the women who really are capable, qualified, and deserving a favor: nurse your crushes on your own time, and spend your public time with facts and interesting and insightful opinions. We value you in that role.

The most eye-opening aspect of this whole Palin choice is indeed the reaction of "Feminists". Sure she has flaws but, I strong woman who's rise to prominence was more from other's urging than naked ambition is what most of use prescribed as a really great trait in a leader. The pathetic bashing says more about the wielder than the target. "Feminism has long ago stopped being about the advancement of women but, a faction of a larger movement just as the NAACP stopped being about a color blind society and more about perpetuity.

Hillary with all her strengths really made a Faustian Pact in staying with a philanderer whose insanity is now even obvious to his most strident enablerers. Yet she is an icon.

Then, there is the anti-Hillary bold,powerful,warm with an 80% approval rating in her state but, she is on the wrong side on a few issues so we must minimize her to the nth. How sad, how closed minded...we fail to see ourselves yet again. Fiddler play on

the first couple of paragraphs. Why, Salon? Why do you publish this stuff?

More like underestimate the stupidity of people falling for Palin's schtick at my own peril.

cp;dr

What is it about Camille’s independent analysis that flat-out terrifies so many letter writers?

Great work on another superb piece, Camille. Keep up the great work!

Reading these posts is like watching a sitcom--oh so predictable.

They also remind me of the lines from Yeats' poem The Second Coming:

[E]verywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all convictions, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.

Fortunately, one of the best does not lack conviction and so describes Sarah--the young woman who is in so many ways exactly what femnists hoped for, and her husband, who in so many ways is the kind of strong but sensitive man femnists (and pretty much every heterosexual woman) hopes for--in positive terms.

How could Camille have the audacity to stray from the opinion held by the flock, the opinion held by those sheeple who have learned about life from the third-rate minds who teach womens's studies courses? Who does she think she is?

And so Camille's essays cause these sheeple, who claim to love diversity, to engage in the passionately intense but hateful and ultimately thoughtless words in so many of the posts here.

No need to worry. 'The worst' may win a few battles, but they always end up losing the war.

Symbolism is one thing; reality is another.

It's fascinating that you (and you alone) can read disdain for Palin into Biden's smile. I truly haven't heard anyone say that... even Palin's own people!

Having said that, I think there's merit in some of what you say about the male/female dynamics in the Palin marriage. However, what you don't point out are some of the disconnects in that apparent symbolism which makes your analysis seems forced in some ways. For one thing, fundamentalist Christian social thought speaks of a wife's obedience to her husband and greatly circumscribes a wife's role within that relationship and by extension in the community. Those teachings have not changed, to my knowledge; so it begs the question: Are the Palins fundamentalist Christians by conviction, or by convenience? That's just one of the disconnects... there are others.

To me, the Palin "story" seems too facile and amorphous at this point for us to draw any concrete conclusions. The jury is still out as to whether the Palins are simply opportunists using whatever is at their disposal to pursue the limits of their own personal ambition. I agree she's smart in that way and for obvious reasons should be underestimated. What I deeply doubt is whether in the end there is "there" there.