"It must take so much energy to maintain that level of anger."

Actually, anger is highly energizing. It's also addictive. Once you start getting your rage on, you want to do it all the time. It's much like nicotine.

The right wing realized the potential of rage many decades ago, and they've been riding it to victory ever since.

To have one message for Scranton and another for San Francisco.

I wonder if Sarah Palin could find Scranton on a map. Shall we give her five minutes to look?

I posted this elsewhere, but she fired up her base...so what? She won't get any new votes when the following facts are made clear

And? She's not getting any new votes. Once it's made clear that she

1) tried to ban books (Ms. Palin, how to you reconcile your effort to ban books and the First amendment?)

2) Is ALL about getting pork, and leaving her small town of less than 10,000, what is it, 20 or so million in debt?

3) Her husband very recently belonged to the secessionist Alaska Independence Party (that's one step above treason and FAR worse than not wearing a flag lapel pin. What do you think they would have said about Michelle Obama if she belonged to a secessionist party??)

4) lied when she said she did not support the bridge to nowhere when she did

5) exteme on her abortion views - no exceptions (sorry parents, but your raped 12 year old HAS to have that baby. or sorry parents, even though your 12 year old might die because of this pregnancy, too bad)

6) made a line item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

7) wants creationism taught in schools

8) supports strictly abstinence only education - which clearly doesn't work

She may have fired up her base, but she hasn't gotten any new voted. The people in the middle won't vote for her.

Sleepy and dreary John McCain was heading towards a 10% loss, or worse. Now it's going to be interesting again because everybody has someone they can identify with or against. I only hope there are enough voting machines out there to handle a 60% turnout. It may be too early to say, but this woman could do some damage to the Obama-Biden runaway combination.

We should check back next week after she has had more time to develop a stump speech, but will she "wear" well? The Mike Huckabee flash lasted about 10 days and people started to tune him out as a case of "NFW". I suspect this woman will be in our midst for longer than 10 days.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world will be holding their breath because much of this race will be determined on the basis of style and cultural values, which blows people away in other countries. This woman oozes charm and cultural values are about all she has. Aside from the debates, it will be light on substance because it is too difficult or almost impossible to deliver a knockout punch on the policy points. Swing voters are not swayed on the basis of arcane policy issues unless, for example, somebody conflates universal healthcare with illegal immigration, or something like that. Obama dreads these "gotcha" issues because he feels compelled to triangulate his way around or through the issue. McCain makes no such attempt and falls back on sloganeering or something safe. We have no idea what this woman will say because she is not experienced enough to know when to dodge the question or change the subject. She could say something simply charming and the whole world will be charmed with her simplicity. That is the big risk for a "deep thinker" like Obama.

JOAN'S DESCRIPTION OF GOV. PALIN'S ATTACK AS "RUDY GIULIANI IN HEELS" IS DEAD-ON. BUT STILL, NOBODY DOES RUDY GIULIANI IN HEELS SO WELL AS THE MAN HIMSELF, RUDY GIULIANI, DOES RUDY GIULIANI IN HEELS.

And I thank you for it.

I was feeling fatalistic, demoralized by the evening's proceedings. I felt viscerally for the first time that the Republicans are going to win again and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

The U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! particularly unnerved me, underwritten as it was be some real vitriol and, as you so aptly put it, contempt. They are contemptuous people, to be sure: small, ugly, yet unduly and dangerously powerful.

I fear that xenophobia will carry the day, once again and the choice of Palin was masterful.

Your assessment has given me a little lift and I thank you for it.

The GOP plays the fiddle of nastiness while the American economy burns. Completely tone-deaf to what is happening out here in the real universe.

Funny how much attention and sympathy Gov. Palin is getting when she bawls about the "sexist" media. All the wingnuts b***'n'moan in chorus with her, a grand yowl of indignant victimization. And Palin is just getting the "factual investigation" treatment, not anything like the offhand denigration that Candidate Clinton received.

Funny how virtually nobody on the left had a word of sympathy, much less outrage, when Sen. Clinton was being told to "iron my shirts", her ankles mocked, and all the rest. Most of the left (not to mention the middle and right) denied there was any sexism involved at all, and it came close to dividing the Democratic Party.

Well, maybe it's not actually very funny. Unless you're a Republican. They'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

This was your most blindly partisan post in the last year that I have been reading your Salon notes.

I saw Sarah Palin's comments about Obama as accurate and smart parries to the Obama camps elitist dismissals of her small town experience. While I do not agree with her policies, there is definitely a double standard in assessing her credentials versus Obama. Promoting this double standard is both sexist and likely to backfire.

There continues to be an utter failure by the media, in general, to legitimately and objectively question Obama's shortcomings. Governor Palin simply said the emperor has no clothes. I hope that you are not finally buying into the school of thought that any questioning or criticism of Obama is unfair, by definition.

Has it become, we let you decide?