"This, my dear peoples, is the essence of the GOP. This is why I loved to watch the speech. This is how they fight, and I am glad they stopped pretending and got back to their roots so we can all see who they really are."

Yes, it is who they are and how they fight, but it's also how they win.

I wish I could share your blithe confidence, but until I see this tried and true brand of xenophobic vitriol fail to resonate among the American people, I remain apprehensive.

Very apprehensive.

The point is that where I am, in a battlefield state, in a small conservative town, bonds are seen as taxes, and people don't like them, even if they passed. SHe will be seen as irresponsible here.

We also make fun of people who pass bonds for things that are luxuries. It's a mentality that is not usual at salon, but it is far more normal than some people here understand. She claims to be a fiscal conservative. Well, that bond issue undermines the argument with real fiscal conservatives.

Marko said earlier, " Rudy Giuliani was the perfect person to introduce Sarah Palin. They are both cut from the same mean-spirited, nasty, high-school bully cloth."

It's funny, although my high school years lie obscured by forty years of road dust, one of my first reactions to Mrs. Palin was that she reminded me of some of the "in-group" girls who once stalked the sacred halls of my old high school in Montana. The voice that penetrates with the ringing edge of a hammered buzzsaw blade; the brittle, "this is my personal space" body language; the acidic, in-your-face, I'm-so-much-more-popular-and-powerful than you eye-contact behind the glassy smile; the I'd-rather attack-than-talk aura. She's the kind of person who'd rather "remove" books from public libraries than read them, just as she'd rather attack the media rather than to casually talk with reporters the way Obama does. Her handlers know that exposing her to reporters won't help their cause, because it just might reveal the unprepared, insecure bully hiding in that business suit. RB

Ike had Nixon, Nixon had Agnew, Ford had Dole, Bush(I) had Quayle and McCain has Palin.

I am grateful for two things. Gov. Palin did not call the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq "democrat wars" and did not condemn Murphy Brown for being an unwed mother. Other than that if was like Yogi said, "deja vu all over again."

You must not have bothered to read the innumerable letters, as I did.

Can I BE VICE PRESIDENT? I am a skateboard mom, worked for government over 20 years, blew the whisle on fellow employees and my boss, go to church weekly, have excellent credit, have adopted all kinds of animals, give to those who are poorer, can give a great speech particulary when instructed to really attack the opposition.

You haven't run up any massive deficits or bankrupted any businesses and have no relevant mismanagement experience. You're just not viable as a Republican candidate.

"Wednesday night she proved she could not just take a punch, but throw one too."

No she didn't. She proved she could read a carefully scripted speech off a teleprompter rather awkwardly and that Republican's will cheer their candidates.

"Taking a punch" means she could handle tough questions, a debate, or a hostile audience.

All she proved is she's willing to repeat an arrogantly brazen lie about "thanks but no thanks".

If Palin was a Democrat, the news media and Joan Walsh would eagerly point out she is flat out lying about the Bridge to Nowhere.

Here's what Palin said then: "Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island."

That's not "Thanks but No Thanks" it's "Congress should give us even more money."

She didn't just support it, she said it was insulting to call it "the Bridge to Nowhere". So in her recent speeches she's not only lying, she's knowingly insulting her constituents.

This is what you should be writing about Joan. You should have the guts to call her a liar, not spout admiring dishonest metaphors like "throw a punch".

Pay attention! She was signalling to Biden et al that she was prepped and waiting to go mano-a-mano. The Black Sea-Caucas [sic] region of the world is where the real fight for gas and oil is going to be fought.

While we are here, I'd thought I'd throw in the Caspian sea area into your argument. It also has a lot of oil and gas resources, along with our best buds, Russia and Iran. Not to mention the Uzbeks and the Khazhaks.

http://geology.com/records/caspian-sea.gif

So are you implying we need to get ready to fight a war in Russia's backyard? With what Military? It's kinda used up at the moment. The current Republican team did a real poor job of managing it.

McCain and Palin don't strike me as Aces at diplomacy. Maybe we should take those spare $100 billions of oil war dollars and invest them in alternative energy technology. Sounds like a better deal to me.

Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God' By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

Wed Sep 3, 7:23 PM ET

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."