Please reread Joan's article. You missed the part where she identifies the sources of the complaints filed against Palin.

There will be a test on Friday.

Interesting that Joan links to an old ADN story when the latest ADN story makes clear that there is a dispute about the correct figure:

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/858523.html

Yours is the most plausible scenario I've seen for how Sarah Palin could actually compete in the GOP primary season.

Which isn't saying much. I just don't how she can hope to win, for these reasons:

-Her primary opponents will call her a "quitter" every chance they get, and the tag will stick. I see attack ads with grainy black & white photos of Palin, with an announcer scolding, "Sarah Palin quit on Alaska... during a recession... because she was swamped with ethics investigations. Do you trust her not to quit on America?" Palin doesn't have an answer that doesn't lead to more negativity for her.

-I don't think Palin ever had much of a chance anyway. From what I remember of the favorable/unfavorable ratings during the 08 election, her F/UF rating dropped sharply from September(50/34) to October(42/48). The more that voters see of Palin, the less they like her. (Interestingly, her F/UF rating improved from E-Day through June [to 45/44], when she was mostly out of the news.)

This is because she's not very bright, and lacks most of the other qualities that sensible people expect in the Leader of the Free World. This will become increasingly obvious as the primary season wears on and she has to appeal to people outside her base.

-She has not shown any signs that she will "study" or "bone up" on the issues, or do any other such thing to create an image of a thoughtful, informed candidate. I just don't think she has it in her.

I hope I'm wrong, by the way. I'm pretty sure my fellow liberal Democrats agree with me that a successful Palin candidacy would be wonderful -- and not just for the entertainment value. As long as Sarah Palin represents the best that the GOP has to offer, the Dems can't lose.

Harry was a good man and a good president, but let's keep the facts straight.

1. He was indeed a front man for the Kansas City mafia. They ran all the gambling, prostitution, and Prohibition liquor. There is nothing to "prove" in a criminal sense. The machine ran the town with impugnity during the wide open years of the Depression, and Truman was on the payroll.

2. Yes, Harry was well read. Sarah Palin says she is a voracious reader. Before you laugh, I would ask: okay, let's see the book list. She has three years before the voting starts in Iowa. At some point, a voter can ask her about this, and let's all wait for the answer.

3. Yes, Truman did some good things in the Senate, but FDR picked him as VP through a purely reductionist approach (he wanted someone who was pro-labor and in the border of north and south) -- actually, on a personal level, Truman seemed absurd to FDR and his advisors, but they accepted the electoral calculus.

4. Churchill made an interesting observation on Truman, shortly before his own withdrawal from public life. In advance of Potsdam, he told British colleagues -- keep an eye on this man. He is much less refined than Roosevelt, but he's basically an ordinary American, and that's all right.

Indeed, it was all right. It's all right for Sarah Palin, too.

Readerreader: "You might also know I like the movie North by Northwest. Palin's "escape" from the governor's office to the Des Moines rotary club reminds me of Cary Grant's scene in the Chicago art gallery, where he tricks the police into hauling him out and narrowly escapes a knife wielding man who hounds him throughout the film. "Keep trying, old boy" Cary says as he passes by."

Now you're just making crap up. The man who hounds him is part of a twosome, and neither of them have knives. (Unless you're referring to the knife that ends up in somebody's back at the United Nations.)

Also, it's not an art gallery, it's an auction house. They don't usually have auctions at galleries, do they?

When Cary Grant makes ridiculously high bids during the auction, the auctioneer says, "Will the gentleman PLEASE get into the spirit of the proceedings?" Later, though, Grant shouts out about one of the ojects d'art, "How do we know it's not a fake? It looks like a fake?!"

To which the older woman sitting in front of him turns and says, "Well, there's one thing we DO know... YOU'RE no fake! You're a genuine idiot!"

Cary Grant replies, "Thank you!"

Such is the brilliance of Ernest Lehman's screenplay.

Anyway, now you've managed to compare Sarah Palin to Cary Grant, Siddhartha, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, the founder of the KKK, a Byzantine empress, a stalk of celery, a calico kitten, four tubes of toothpaste and a sandy whale rectum. Congratulations on escaping the men in the white coats.

The part that amazes me the most is that the far right, the "christian right".....they never call her on her lies. Speaking the truth is a very important aspect of the Bible, and I have yet to see one born again soul confront Palin on this. Such hypocrisy. Part of why Palin lies is that she gets away with it. The woman is going to become a multimillionaire, and she is as hypocritical as they come. I love it that she portrays herself as one of the regular joes, yet she and Todd's income is well into the 6 figures and has been before she became VP candidate. When she prays, does she ask God if it is ok for her to keep on lying? I think not, and sadly, I think she is so used to lying by now it is almost a reflex on her part.

Nice job against that cross-eyed talking points machine. :)