When I first started reading Salon the comments were great fun. Lots of smart, funny people with interesting insights. It's now descended into misspelled juvenile and often racist name calling. What happened? Sigh, another one of my time sucking diversions hits the dust. Guess I'll have to just read the New York Times and go to the gym!

“Is so incurious that not only does she never read a newspaper, she can't even -- name one? I mean, she's asked, "what newspapers do you read?", and she answers, "oh--all of them, all of them." "Yes, but which newspaper specifically?" "Oh, all of them. All of them."

That’s not fair to label this highly intellectual governer this way.

Here’s a line of Qs the repugs would like us “elite media” to ask the governor the next time we have the “privilege” to interview her:

1) How are you today, governor?

2) Do you like more coffee?

3) How’s family, first dude, kidz?

4) How’s your out-of-wedlock- grand boy? Anit he adorable?

5) Nice dress you have on, is it a gift from Mrs. McCain?

6) Are you going wolf hunting this weekend?

7) Do you like to go for photo-op with some hockey moms?

8) Are you going to church this Sunday?

9) Your approval rating among trailer park population is sky rocketing, do you care to comment?

10) Your approval rating with the rest of Americans is only 2%. It’s the liberal media fault, correct?

Nope. Not even close. Joan started the slander before she even appeared on O'Reilly. THAT'S why she was there in the first place, my friend. She first tried to say O'Reilly was responsible for the murder on Hardball earlier that week -- and here on her blog, of course. And BTW, if you're quixotic enough to find a measure of comfort in the final minute of the segment, by all means, have a jolly good time. But for the rest of the 10 minute segment, I'm afraid Joan looked like a slapped ass.

Sarah Palin is a small town girl with big city aspirations. She's also an atypical Alaskan politician. She rose to where she did through a combination of ambition, drive, and a hell of a lot of luck. She was, as they say, in the right place at the right time. I do not believe her ruthlessness or vindictiveness are myths, but nor are they typically Alaskan traits; observe how they have been received there. When she tried to fire a State Trooper for personal reasons, the chief law enforcement officer refused. She fired him instead, and a panel of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats unanimously ordered an investigation. Would that have played out the same where you live? It wouldn't where I am; the parties would have toed their respective lines and circled the wagons. She has also turned on everyone who has ever helped her succeed, a trait that McCain would have done well to observe. That too, isn't normal, as professional communities--whether they are politicians, doctors, lawyers or whatever--tend to be comprised of personal relationships in which everybody knows everybody else; this makes sense if you remember that the entire state population is about 75% the size of the city in which I currently reside.

I may, in fact, be assimilated, but it doesn't feel that way. Even after all these years, I still feel like a stranger in a strange land. Or, more likely, I'm a stranger from a strange land.

Maybe some time you should go up for a visit, get a feel for the place. It really is that different, and I don't believe words can sufficiently convey that. You simply have to experience it. You might not want to come back.

Amusing how calling O'Reilly out on his habitual "Tiller The Baby Killer" repititous inciteful sloganeering is "slander", but the actual words "baby killer" is in your view some sort of realistically illuminating bon mot meant to bring rational discourse to the fore.

Quixotic? Nothing dreamy about O'Reilly's 'I wish I could crawl into a hole and die' mien at the end of the interview after Ms. Walsh hacked into his core being with the serrated edge of her fact filled rhetorical machete.

Respectfully, I believe that you're fueling a fantasy, mistaking O'Reilly's red-faced spittle infused blustering prior to that iconic moment as substantive. I disagree.

We'll let the viewers decide.

"Ms. Walsh hacked into his core being with the serrated edge of her fact filled rhetorical machete."

Uh... okay... if you say so. Whatever gets you through the night.

I, for one, will bask in the memory of the other 99% of the segment, when Joan, as I said before, looked like a slapped ass.

Enjoy the holiday:)

Sorry, missed your reply.

The implication in all of this is that Palin is clueless that a great deal of the country would indeed regard a political platform of secession as far out and, yes, anti-American. She doesn't get it. You can parse it any way you want, but here it is:

1. Todd is a member of the AIP for 7 years.

2. AIP's front web page (see for yourself) says its goal (not "one of its goals" - it's primary goal) is the right to secede

3. Palin wants to deny the implications of that

4. Steve Schmidt does the math - denying is not a possibility

Palin is oblivious. Hence the dying-turkey interview. Oblivious.

“Who wants a President who will simply tell the biggest lie-right in the face of contradicting facts and smile and wink while doing so?”

Absolutely. Bald-faced lying about a documented fact that anyone could see, evidence here:

http://wizbangblue.com/2008/10/17/sarah-palin-lies-to-reporters-about-troopergate-findings.php

Maybe not technically the “Big Lie", nevertheless “a lie so 'colossal' that no one would believe that someone 'could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously'”. (from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”)

To be fair, she did stutter and stammer a little….

Just off the AP wire:

Palin will not run for reelection as gov of Alaska.

She will now join the bimbo collection @ FIX news.

I wonder if she’ll be able to get the first dude a job as a janitor or maybe a doorman.

She will now move to liberal, non real-American NYC.