...that trifling with and belittling Sarah Barracuda, the pit bull with lipstick, was a grave mistake. It was already clear last Friday she was a very impressive personality. But instead of tackling her on the issues, they chose to go after her qualifications and character. She stayed quiet for the whole week, seemingly ceding the field to her attackers, then pushed back with a speech that outshone everything else said during both conventions. Even Obama pales in comparison with her, because she genuinely IS who Obama CLAIMS TO BE. And that gives her speech sincerity and appeal. Next to her, Obama positively looks faded. If I were McCain, my biggest fear right now would be that, after that speech, the GOP might decide that maybe Gov. Palin should be at the top of the ticket...

This is the kind of speech, by the way, that Hillary should have given. She'd have won the nomination if she hadn't pulled her punches. Gov. Palin hammered Obama relentlessly and worked him over real good. She left no t uncrossed, no i undotted. Every Obama gaffe, misstatement, and questionable association and decision was exploited in turn. The part about having written two memoirs, yet having failed to author a single law (not to mention a single article for the Harvard Law Review) will sting. And, as a bonus, she's also managed to tell the pro-Obama media to take a hike, something that Hillary should have done a long time ago.

I have to say I enjoyed plenty of schadenfreude, looking at the long faces at MSNBC. I haven't seen Matthews or Maddow in such a sour mood since Hillary won Pennsylvania. Because, what are they gonna do to her now? Talk about her teenage daughter's pregnancy?

Or at least one comment, when he said the difference between them was that she was prettier.

The other thing is that this makes no sense - the right loves Palin, they wanted her on the ticket, they would not then attack her for being on the ticket. Most of the people making the comments were Obama supporters, men and women.

or what he was referring to by "right-wing guys," but his point about single moms is on target.

still and all, it would be nice if there would be a glimmer, a scintilla, nay, even a WHIFF of awareness about the sexism that has characterized this political campaign among the Dem candidates.

because she genuinely IS who Obama CLAIMS TO BE.

Palin is a flunky for big oil. She is also a right wing nut. She is a younger version of Helen Chenoweth, a good looking version of Ron Paul. She really is a nutty extremist.

Biden got it just right when he said he didn't hear anything about the middle class, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, or anything else that mattered.

I'm not buying it. That's not what her record says. And, please, no need to inundate me with quotes, links, or other similar stuff. I've done my research and my mind is made up. She's not perfect, she does not stand for all the things I stand for, in fact she opposes some of them, but she is a darn sight better than Obama.

And, besides, McCain-Palin will be checked and balanced by a Democratic Congress, so their worst impulses will be negated. Who will negate the worst impulses of Obama-Biden? Right, the Republicans, once they win the House back in two or four years, or the presidency in four years...Because that is going to be the end result of Obama-Biden win--another lost opportunity, another failed presidency.

Now, I surmise you haven't actually understood the part of my post that you cite. Here's an explanation: Obama encounters a corrupt system and his first instinct is to exploit it, profit from it, advance through it. Palin, on the other hand, challenges and defeats it. Big difference. She has genuine accomplishments to her credit, as young and inexperienced as she is. What are his?

Obama has run on a message of Change, yet he has not effected it in any of the offices he's held. He has not even remotely affected that crazy little church whose member in good standing he's been for 20 years. I guess he's been saving himself for the Presidency, huh? Palin, on the other hand, changed Alaska politics and for the better. That's what I mean when I write she IS who he CLAIMS TO BE. That's why they fear her so much. Good. I hope we see and hear much more of her. If that speech was the preview of the remainder of the McCain-Palin campaign, we are going to have fun two months.

McCain-Palin will be checked and balanced by a Democratic Congress,

you mean the way a Dem congress stood up to Bush????

Four years of McCain/Palin or a complete breakdown of the system where Dems are on par with the GOP when it comes to lying and cheating? I don't know, but the more demonization of McCain/Palin by the left (in conjunction with their lying and rumor mongering) makes me fear the latter more. As evil as folks say McCain is, he is a shift to the left for the GOP while Obama is a shift right for the Dems, in policy and tactics.

She supported the bridge to nowhere, she supported Stevens, she is part of the oil slick that is Alaska Republicans. Her speach was a tissue of lies.

As evil as folks say McCain is, he is a shift to the left for the GOP

On what planet? McCain is co-author is the war crimesMilitary Commission Act. McCain institutionalized torture. Torture, do you understand? Torture. That is as evil as it gets. Really, truly, evil. McCain is an evil war monger and Palin is good with that.

Obama will be much much better. Obama is going to win, but I just want to go on record that McCain is truly evil.

than any Democrat. He's about the only member of Congress to have done so, even if it meant bucking his own party.

But, you are free to vote for Obama and Biden. I am glad you have found someone you are proud to support even if so far they've been part of that weak and ineffectual Democratic Congress whom you deride as incapable of/unwilling to confront Bush. All I can say is that evidently things look differently if you are in DC...

(Yes, that is a gratuitous dig.)

McCain authored a law that institutionalized torture. He has never stood against torture, ok, he made some noises on Sunday morning TV shows, but he senate record is pro-torture.

that's what Biden's comments really mean. It's as close as they ever get to admitting a mistake. They try to erase it.

I'm listening to Pat Robertson going on and on about how Palin's nomination has electrified the evangelical movement around the McCain ticket. It sure would've been nice to have spent the last week framing Palin as a right-wing religious nut and liar going into her speech last night. But instead they wanted everyone focused on her family. Nicely done, Boiz.

When you say that McCain is an "evil war monger", what exactly do you have in mind? In what sense is McCain evil? In a theological sense? Or do you mean that he's like Hitler, or Stalin, or maybe Pol Pot or Saddam Hussein? Do you believe that he enjoys inflicting pain or witnessing human suffering? Or does he limit himself to biting off doves' heads and drinking their blood?

Namely that Gov.Sarah Palin has proven an huge asset to Sen. John McCain's presidential bid. It's been almost a week since we've heard of her and she's still the number one news item. The Obama campaign is still scrambling to figure out a way to counter her impact.

I vaguely recall BTD at talk left wrote that McCain gave away the election to Obama when he picked Palin. I wonder, is that still his opinion?

Let's just say we are talking about politicians and not saints. Perfection is not something we are going to get. As I recall, Gov. Bill Clinton sent a retarded man to the electric chair so that he (Gov. Clinton, not the retarded man whom he allowed to be the victim of state murder) wouldn't look soft on crime. Yet I (and many if not most of you) have voted for Bill Clinton twice and probably would still be voting for him if he were eligible. So let's keep things in perspective and not hyperventilate.

is an evil warmonger

Palin never mentioned him last night.

; >

Right, Palin seems to have their number. I guess what they say about confronting bullies is true. She didn't sit there and take it, she punched back. Dammit, why couldn't Hillary have done the same?

I don't disagree with you re: Palin and real deal. She, too, is politician. She makes compromises. I'm not in some denial as to what her policy positions are. It's just that, looking at the political big picture at this point in time, McCain-Palin ticket makes more sense to me than Obama-Biden. For me, it's a strategic choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2v8cuQTV...

...but if you prefer a more substantive reply, I hope you are aware that at the AIPAC conference Obama made a fairly explicit promise to use force against Iran to stop its nuclear program. We simply differ in our choice of evil warmongers, that's all.

she is a very dangerous liar

You have successfully located an Obama campaign release. I concede. You, sir, are a master debater. How many did you have to spend in DC to reach this level of skill?

One hell of a post summarizing why the hatred of the media is a *great* way for McCain/Palin to win:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefiel...

"Bloggers, in general, claim to understand just how much the public distrusts the media. We bloggers have been "running against the media" from the get-go. It's one of the biggest keys to our success: that readers turn to us instead of the commercial media it distrusts. The one thing that could most rapidly destroy that for us would be if we became, in the public's mind, associated with the same sloppy arrogance which it associates with the media.

That ought to be a no brainer. But in recent days, too many bloggers and their commenters have aped the worst qualities of the commercial media in such a way as to allow the McCain campaign and the far right to lump us in with the reviled commercial media to make us, too, the receptacle of that public hatred.

It's about the "unvetted diaries," stupid.

Netroots and pro-Democratic party blogs have become the staging areas for "unvetted diaries" - some planted, no doubt, by covert McCain backers, others as sincere as they are imbecilic - that screech about McCain not vetting his vice presidential pick while behaving just as irresponsibly as their target. Too many bloggers and their commenters have jumped on rumors - about pregnancies and other matters - that turned out to be false, and have harmed the messengers' own credibility by stating them as fact.

And in cases where the front-page bloggers at websites did not engage in such boneheaded activity, but their rank-and-file diarists or commenters did, we who run our blogs have a special responsibility to step in and put things right again."

Like, doy.

Didn't *we* run on that plank, in trying to carry Kerry, now Obama, over the hump, by telling him the media will never be his friend, so why not fight for real issues for the people?

If you want to frame it as a Manichean struggle of good vs. evil, that is your choice. I just hope you are not actually deluding yourself into thinking that Obama, Biden, and the rest of them represent pure, unalloyed Goodness.

Me, or the people (including yourself) impugning my motives and accusing me of associating with Evil?

...Obama campaign releases I can do without, thanks.

that wouldn't mind seeing our troops broken, a draft grinding up anyone able-bodied and unable to buy their way out, and would not mind seeing us in perpetual war, because our broken, crazy president was a POW, so that's really bad, and we must trust him about war, don't you see.

Yes, I accuse *you* of associating with Evil, through meretriciousness of thought and action.

It's Manichean, yeah, but when someone puts on the Vader mask it's kinda hard to discuss anything with him unless one resorts to the two-color paint box.

It's hard to tell who is who online. I just wonder whether impugning posters' motives and calling them evil counts as a substantive comment.

To run a campaign based on TV images, not facts or policy. That was the core of Obama's almost exclusively charismatic appeal. Evidently the assumption was that nothing could trump that. Enter Sarah Barracuda.

You go on and "fight with the truth". I'll stick to fighting for truth.