I see Palin's nomination as a giant sideways step for women's rights. The pessimistic view is that, of all the Republican women McCain could have chosen, he picked a phony. The optimistic view is that, of all the Republican phonies McCain could have chosen, he picked a woman.

@Lotus Feet

The Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan cards have been played and by people who are much more adept. Didn't you witness the primaries? It did not work then; it will not work now. Okay, I'll concede that it did work with the Republican base.

On the other hand, the blue collar folks in West Florida who cheered for Palen, will not be burning, looting, trashing cars and murdering innocent motorists and pedestrians, if their candidates loose. They'll have to get to work on time the next day, because they have bills to pay.

Beware of self-fulfilling prophecies or better yet "inflammatory rhetoric" by a panty waist wuss with an IQ of 100. Hey, I gave you 20 points.

@kcewa 1

I have no idea what mental gymnastics you had to perform to arrive at your conclusion about the Palin statement posted by luminesce. But REALLY, I mean REALLY? I have a four-year-old grandson who speaks in a more succinct manner.

"And where is all that lurid sexual fantasy coming from? When I watch Sarah Palin, I don’t think sex — I think Amazon warrior! I admire her competitive spirit and her exuberant vitality, which borders on the supernormal. The question that keeps popping up for me is whether Palin, who was born in Idaho, could possibly be part Native American (as we know her husband is), which sometimes seems suggested by her strong facial contours. I have felt that same extraordinary energy and hyper-alertness billowing out from other women with Native American ancestry — including two overpowering celebrity icons with whom I have worked."

I have Native American ancestry - I am a member of the Choctaw tribe, and I find the above comment very offensive. I would have thought you were intelligent enough to rise above stereotypes, but your whole pro-Palin article shows that I probably overestimated your intelligence in the first place.

Finally! A feminist voice and not a femi-nazi's! For women in their 20's (like me) Sara Palin is a new power archetype. That power comes from her charm. It is about time that a woman with no ties to our country's elitist machine (you know; the ivy league, charity galas, perhaps a 10021 zip code) shows us feminism's possibilities!

Yes! She IS smart and compared to Hillary Clinton's boring android persona, Palin is a tall cold glass of refreshment. I'm a liberal...so what?! The world needs more pit bulls in skirts, and we all know that feminists need more lipstick!

The Feminist establishment's outright dismissal of Palin boggles my mind. No wonder women my age don't want to be identified as feminists! These snobby old white hippies make feminism look like a cult of boner crushers. It is about time that a strong female embraced the sacred rituals of womanhood. Palin's hypnotic intensity is set off by her intelligence, and keen use of womanly charms (makeup, highlights, jewelry, heels, flirtation, etc.) If she is part Native American -an exciting possibility- it would explain her savvy use of feminine regalia! The debate with Joe Biden showcased her fast thinking, silver tongue, and disarming charm (that could work wonders in the world of international diplomacy.)

Palin is showing young women that strength and femininity is its own combustible power, and can become the magical aura that allows one to slip between life obstacles with minimal difficulty. Women know how to play the charm card, it’s crucial to thriving as a woman. For most of time, charm was a woman's best defense! With less muscle then men, women developed their innate cleverness into a seductive persuasiveness. Just one look at southern women and you will see that charm is alive and well.(Look no further then the larger than life personality of Paula Deen.) In the south where beauty pageants are de rigeur, charm is taught to girls at a young age. Palin, a beauty queen, knows this and has used charm to slide onto the VP ticket, and revived a dying campaign! Feminists have taken that survival mechanism (charm) and thrown it out with the bathwater! Isn't it delicious that the weapon of charm is being used against the women who got rid of it? Maybe they will remember its usefulness! Ann Richards did!

from Paglia about Palin. It is abundantly clear that Palin is dangerous for the health of this country; even just her nomination has revealed the bancruptcy of the Republican brand as they perversly inflame the neo-McCathyism that has been simmering just below national consciousness since Rush Limbaugh failed as a sportscaster and chose political bomb-throwing as his means of self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment.

I always appreciate an iconoclastic opinion as refreshing and useful, but Paglia's embarrassing crush on Palin is, well, just sadly embarrassing for a writer with some chops and, previously, perspective. But she's just "feelin' it" for Palin, clearly, and will deeply regret this column in the not-too-distant future as Palin reveals her true colors.

Camille: Seen the bloodlusting, brownshirt-like "rallys" the wonderfully Amazonian Palin is headlining this week? Will you be quite so admiring when their animal wrath is directed at YOU and your friends and family?

Excellent point. Why didn't McCain chose Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, a female, and real maverick, not a fake one? The answer is she would loose the crazy religionists, our very own Al-qaida, of which Palin is a card carrying (speaking in tongues) member.

what is REALLY funny though is that some of the people who style themselves the biggest opponents of these things (other than the "feminine acting") are some of Palins biggest fans.

Camille Paglia:

....oh, forget it.

One bad tag and I lose the whole message.

but I admit it took me a lot longer than it should have. In one sentence, for her, charisma is the highest human value, bar none. It trumps everything else. We are put on the earth to display our personalities. In a way, she is the bogey-woman that T. S. Eliot was worried about, when he equated atheism with diabolism – he feared that in the modern secular world, aggrandizement of one's personality would become the ultimate meaning of life. You have to be way wrong to make T. S. Eliot right. Paglia would have been agog over the Nazis, with their mastery of theatrics, imagery, slogans, crowd appeal – all the time writing that she is a firm supporter of the Democratic Socialists, but deeply regrets how lame they all are.

It may take a second sentence to explain the value she puts on sex, sexuality, sex appeal, whatever – that makes her celebrate not just Madonna, who arguably has some talent, but also Cindy Crawford. Sexual Personae is a book that rates Tolstoy as a minor writer and the Marquis de Sade as a major writer. For her, Freud was and is the greatest genius of the 20th century, although she is careful about saying so these days, being able to keep up with intellectual trends. This stance allows her to be one of the "sex-positive" lesbians who can get points for tweaking NOW and the dreary academic feminists and the left-wing PC people generally – great fun for her since she is, or says she is, on the Left herself. I don't know which is more offensive: her numerous love affairs with reactionary trolls like Palin, or her constant reiteration that she is still, really, really now, still on the Left. She should be true to herself and just vote for McCain and Palin and be done with it. If all the charisma is on the Right, then she should follow her heart.

But she is making a fool of herself over Palin, because even if the reader accepts her toxic value-system and her inane thought-world, there is no way that Palin matches Paglia's perception of her. Charisma-wise, Governor Palin, I knew Adolf Hitler, and Governor, you're no Adolf Hitler. That man had some genuine street smarts. And she's no Cindy Crawford. But I suppose she IS Sean Hannity – utterly corrupt, opportunist, unimaginative, and a congenital liar, but with a just-folks act that takes in the suckers. Now Paglia thinks Hannity, like Rush Limbaugh, is very, very charismatic and therefore very, very important . . . because he has a lot of listeners. So the flaw in her thinking, even if we accept her values, is her belief that pure demagoguery should be admired just because it draws a crowd. But it is easy to get an audience of right-wing bigots to chant "drill, baby, drill" if you play to their prejudices, just as it is easy to get a stadium full of infantilized men to wet their pants over a pair of large breasts. The test of genuine charisma should always be whether you can get anyone other than your core constituency of idiots to take an interest in you. Charisma belongs to the supermodel who can carry on an intelligent conversation and the politician who can get you to cross party lines. Hitler and Madonna, yes; Cindy Crawford and Sarah Palin, I don't think so.

And even after we have conceded some charisma quotient to Hitler, shouldn't a mature person then judge him for the quality of this ideas? Especially a college professor?