I don't think ignorance is relevant to her supporters, if anything its a plus.

Palin couldn't possibly leave the ticket. She won't help McCain win, but by energizing the evangelicals, she avoids a blowout and that's what I think she was chosen for.

Although that insult is actually unfair to Bush who, unlike Palin, had the benefits of a superior education and wider experience to give him some context. Palin has spent most of her life in an isolated region of the country, and has evinced little interest in learning about anything outside of Alaska. She lacks not only intellectual curiosity, but also intellectual firepower. As this farce of a vice-presidential nomination grinds on, it becomes increasingly clear that she isn't very bright.

Still, I cannot bring myself to pity a woman who shoots wolves from planes. It says boatloads about John McCain's judgment that he chose her as his vice-presidential nominee. But it says just as much about her overweening ambition, hubris, and lack of self-knowledge that she accepted without "blinking." Not even once. She shares equal responsibility with John McCain for the joke she has made out of both his campaign and herself. I just pray that the American voters see what a disaster a McCain-Palin adminstration would be.

The best possible outcome of this election will be to see her sent packing back to Alaska, her future in national politics gone down in flames. Between her incredible ignorance and her dogmatic, fanatical religious views, this woman is far too dangerous to have anywhere near the halls of power. She scares the bejeesus out of me.

PS--I don't think McCain will dump her either. He's in a catch-22 situation. If she goes, she takes the base with her and it signals that McCain's first big executive decision was rash and stupid. But if she stays, she takes the campaign down with her as more and more voters realize how completely unsuited she is for the task ahead of her.

McCain is stuck with his choice - doesn't want to look like a waffler even if Palin gets any stupider sounding than she already does. Every question gets answered with the same set of pre-programmed pap, straight from the reactionary BS camps - a well-trained parrot could do as well. Oh, right, they've got one now.

Actual knowledge of the ways

And workings of the middle east

Are not an essential requisite

For Palin

To make for her

Serious vice presidential case.

McCain knows that any old Joe or Jane

Can deal with the byzantine political mazes

Of Damascus or Tehran

It's just like jumping into Iraq

Without a vision or a plan...

There are apparently two Couric questions that went so badly for Palin that CBS buried them. In one, Palin apparently cannot name a Supreme Court case besides Roe. Americans should be embarrassed at the prospect of her representing them.

I really wish you hadn't repeated that.

Ever since I heard the phrase, I keep getting a picture of a penis rising over the rim of Alaska from a grim landscape of ice floes with Putin's face painted on the glans in black magic marker.

I find it quite impossible to try to figure out what Palin is saying except by a means of absurd imagery. I am glad other folks feel that they are able to interpret. I feel I need a book on diagramming sentences, a tarot deck, and runes.

One of the horrifying thoughts about her being a heartbeat and a demented brain away from the presidency is that pundits would spend time asking each other: "What did she say?" Then they would make it up as they gabbled.

but remember that her daughter had a choice that she wouldn't give yours. It can't be all blissful in that incredible pool of ignorance.

I don't think I've ever spent a dime on a behind the scenes book about politics (that said, I LOVED the WAR ROOM). But I'm ready to drop down $20 for the first book that goes into details about what the last month (and next one) has been like inside the inside of the McCain campaign.

Can you imagine? It must be so tense. Oh.....give me that thing!

I'm ready for the little tick back McCain will most likely start getting end of this week, but I don't think it will last long or amount to much. I've been going to 538.com for polling data. Have any of you checked out that site?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

He'll have to keep her, I think. I just wonder if she's going to have to indefinately postpone her debate because she has to go to Washington to fix the economy.

Given McCain's acts of desperation like picking Palin to begin with, and then the slo-mo rush to D.C. to save America, I could see him deciding he needs another adrenalin infusion for his campaign, and dumping her to pick someone who'll be the next nine day wonder. He doesn't like Palin, not really. He looked pained and contemptuous when he sat next to her in the Katie Couric interview. He knows she's a dimwit. He didn't care when it seemed not to matter, but now that it does--

If you search on Daily Kos archives you'll find some information about the fivethirtyeight guy's methodology (i think he's called Pablano). He was basically the only guy to call the Indiana primary a dead heat, and he uses precinct voting histories and precinct demographics (i.e., labor intensive)

Thanks. I'm going to go check that out later tonight. So far I'm really impressed by his or her ability to articulate (wait, i think it's a man named Dennis) his interpretations...It's unlike anything I've read before in the world of polling...Thanks for the head up!

When I hear those two main guys talk on CNN or whatever.....I get kind of sick.

Alright people, let's not get cocky. The Americans have elected incurious ignorant nullities before -- hmmm, when did that happen? -- oh yeah, in 2000 and 2004. This is the Republican play: you set the bar low, and when Palin shows up and fails to drool on herself--and then Biden says something 'mean' or 'gotcha' like Hamas is based in Gaza, not Pakistan--then instantly the debate will be about how Palin held her own against the elitist, implicitly queer left.

Mark my words: Palin has at least one comeback left in her. Not simply because of whatever she herself can do, but because of the way the game is played. This cipher did not get picked by accident. She's the perfect platform for the big lie, the perfect instrument to play on the American people's love of mediocrity and hatred of intelligence. It's just a matter of time.

This one won't be over until the next inauguration. If then.