Damn, that's hysterical. And not in the funny sense of the word.

Most of us do all those things. I don't live in good hunting ground, so don't get around to it, but I'd gladly join you for a target shooting contest, with open sights or scope, pistol or rifle.

You think you have some kind of monopoly on normal life? I participate in small business, collective bargaining, child-rearing, and trying to line up college loans for the kids. What does Palin have that I don't, besides youth and good looks? Oh that's right, she lives in a nanny-state that pays everyone unearned income from a state-owned business. Guess those folks are content with the freedom to keep 4 ounces of reefer at home (nice!)

She's not so special, just bouncy and lacking decent competition. Middling fish in a small pond. Let her try and make it in New York.

Why did you bother to write all those vacuous words? Just asking. You have way too much time on your hands. Maybe you should try a different form of fiction.

Damn, do you just copy this in every thread on every blog you can find?

Their trolling is really going downhill.

Meanwhile, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" I've seen *two*, yes thats right folks, TWO McCain bumberstickers. No yard signs...

deuce, snake eyes

If I see myself in her, it's the biggest reason NOT to vote for her. Are you kidding? I am a lawyer and a mother of three. I have a better education than she, and have been paying closer attention to Iraq than she. The thought of me being VP (with an 18 month old son) is laughable. NCSteve is right.

So, what your saying, oldsarg, is she's someone with whom real Americans would like to change diapers. Great! Give her her own afternoon cable show, crown her Mrs. Real America, put her on the cover of Redbook, (hell, giver her her own magazine. she could be the hockey mom Oprah), but keep her away from a job that she's not, by any reasonable estimation, qualified to hold.

Nice comment, OldSarg. Sorta like John Cougar Mellencamp, but completely drenched in sugary sap.

Listen, OldSarg: anyone who votes for Sarah Palin is an idiot. She's not running for president--John McCain is. Sarah Palin is John McCain's running mate. Remember John McCain? The hot-headed old man who wears 500 dollar shoes, flies around the country in his heiress wife's 12 million dollar private jet and can't remember how many houses he owns? Yeah, that John McCain. If you don't like those who only talk it, you're gonna hate John McCain.

John McCain knows nothing about the world you live in, and he doesn't care. And by the time the press gets done with Sarah Palin, her story is gonna sound like just more Republican bullshit.

John McCain said yesterday that now was the time for Republicans to put America first and the Republican Party second. Wouldn't it be nice if Republicans did that ALL the time?

OldSarge, you've had your helmet on too tight, for too long, and have taken too many shots to the head.

And, just passing on the best comment I've seen about the Palin:

"We are in a war in Iraq, Islamic fundamentalists are determined to destroy us, Iran is rushing to build a nuclear weapon, Russia is once again becoming a tyrannical regime threatening it's neighbors, our economy is tanking, and John McCain, a seventy-two-year-old man who has had four cancer operations choses as his running mate and the person who will be a heartbeat away from the Presidency a woman with zero experience in foreign relations and who was elected governor of Alaska by winning the votes of 130,000 people, about fifty thousand more than attended Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco field. The American people should be horrified and deeply frightened.

If this choice was a snide attempt to lure the Hillary Clinton supporters over to McCain, it will backfire, as Ms. Palin's positions on choice, universal healthcare, and the minimum wage are the complete antithesis of what Hillary Clinton has cared deeply about her entire life. If this was an attempt to get the evangelicals on McCain's side that will work somewhat as most were not going to vote for an African American Democrat anyway.

The pro-life movement in America has hijacked the Republican party and has caused it to lose the presidency, numerous governorships, and several senatorial races. Their single issue monopoly over the choice of who gets to run under the Republican banner is that of no choice whatsoever. You can be the most inexperienced candidate for vice president since Dan Quayle at a time our nation needs experience more than any time in our history since the second world war, but according to the Republicans, as long as you are pro-life on issues life, then terrorism,
the economy, healthcare, the environment, and the war in Iraq all come a distant second.

The left wing feminists in the Democratic party who are whining about the fact that Barack Obama fairly, legitimately, and in every way possible defeated Hillary Clinton in caucuses and primaries nationwide and earned the nomination, and are threatening to vote for McCain to show their displeasure, are people who do not care one iota about the issues Hillary Clinton devoted her life to, issues that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in agreement with almost one hundred percent. Any Clinton supporter who votes for McCain clearly cared more about Ms. Clinton's celebrity status and persona than about anything Ms. Clinton fought for all her life.

I hope that the American people will not allow a person to become Vice President at this most dangerous time in our history who has the lack of experience Ms. Palin has and that the American voter will not vote for McCain solely because he chose a pro-life running mate. I also hope that the women that supported Ms. Clinton who are threatening to vote for McCain will think twice before voting for someone who disagrees with 98% of the positions Ms.Clinton ran for President on.

Barack Obama brings a needed change to the White House.

— Mark Jeffery Koch, Cherry Hill, New Jersey"

We have diners, high school football, the great outdoors and we call it America. We cheer for our teams to win and don't pull our stars off the field when we are winning. When we lose, we lose with grace. We come together for a prayers on Sunday and wave at our neighbors.

Sounds exactly like my life -- and the lives of all my family, friends and neighbors, Democrats and Republicans, independents, and apoliticals.

You're not different from us, not more patriotic, not nobler.

You prove that you're just as guilty of arrogant, holier-than-thou (elitist???) thinking as others, liberal and conservative.

Unless you begin to recognize your own pretensions, your criticisms of other will only sound like hypocritical nonsense.

You're thinking of all those brie-nibblers and wine drinkers in New York City (New York City!?!).

All I have to add is, I got me a hockey wife (Go Red Wings! Stanley Cup Winners!) who just hates the idea of Palin being a means to attract women to McCain. Real people see through the bullshit, OldSarg. NOW DROP AND GIVE ME 50 FOR BEING A DUMBASS!!!

People will see themselves in Palin? As a male, I have to say the typical behavior by females when presented with an example of another female who is pretty, accomplished, and lucky in life is to hate her. The support for Hillary? Well, Hillary has never been a threat to the beauty contestants. Nor has Hillary, on her own, become overly accomplished. That last was supposed to be a reason to oppose her, but could it have been how so many women were so comfortable with her run? As for Hillary's luck, with Bill it's been mixed at best.

We could argue that Palin's child with Down's syndrome is a bit of bad luck - except she presents it as a precious gift from God. She got where she is largely by her lucks and blind luck. There's no way she's more deserving of her position - aside from looks and luck - than most other women in Alaska. She even calls herself "Valley trash." Now, I could be wrong on this instance, but there's a likelihood many women will just plain hate her for her success. The thought will be, "She's got what I would have gotten if I'd been born more beautiful." There's a sort of identification there, to be sure, but it plays against Palin.

As you say, many people will see themselves in Palin but, contrary to your belief, most people do not see themselves as VP and know themselves to be unequal to the task..

So you admit you hate America?

You nailed it OldSarg. That's Palin's attraction and that is exactly what the republicans were aiming for. The first picture I saw of the family looked like they had just stepped out of church with their Sunday duds on like thousands of middle class small town families.

They will have drilled enough talking points into her head by the time she goes live for real. I mean how long does it take to memorize "I've been to Iraq and the surge is working", "I can shoot a gun and the surge is working","POW hero", and finally "the surge is working, POW hero". She might add "Obama lacks judgment because the surge is working and he was against the surge."

This was a very canny choice on the repub part and is a very dangerous one for the Obama campaign. I think all the talk I've seen here about her dropping out before she's nominated is just whistling in the dark. As for troopergate, the republicans own Alaska don't they? And, if necessary, they will fix the troopergate story is my assessment of the situation. In summary, I am still panicked.

You're right. The Evangelicals live off of a sense of persecution and victimology, even while attacking other groups for playing the victim card. The more they're ridiculed, the more they see that as proof of the depravity of popular culture and the elites that have left them behind.

Making fun of the cultural traits that they hold to proudly as proof that they are the only Americans who are really American, the only ones who protect and defend, just makes them more stubborn.

In fact, there's some truth to the feeling that, at least, white working-class Americans HAVE been left behind by corporations and finance, who've taken their jobs and gone chasing after cheap labor over seas. And they think the nation's elites don't care about them. And to some extent, they're right.

So we need to knock off the cheap jokes and realize that there's a reason to care about these, "the least of our brothers," because they've been suffering from a loss of hope for a couple of decades now. Oddly enough, that roughly parallels the rise of teh Rovian/Nixonian GOP.

Let's not blow this, people. Palin's not the issue, but fixing the problems of the white working-class is very much our problem, too.

I don't necessarily disagree with you per se. My point is never underestimate the opposition and to that effect dismissing someone as rash or making a bad decision exposes you if you are wrong.

As Obama said tonight on 60 MINUTES, the GOP don't govern well, but they sure do know how to campaign.

If I am wrong -- and McCain made an inane mistake -- well, we lost some energy. But if I am right... can we afford the consequences?

I'll stick with the idea that they know what they are doing for now -- much as I stuck with the idea that the Clinton campaign wasn't stupid either, even when they didn't take 11 or so primary contests seriously after SuperDuperTuesday.

I will be very happy to be pointed out wrong as this plays out. ;-)

ROTFLMAO!

McCain can have that crowd of white men with that green screen. I wish McCain would rid VA of those people on stage and take them with him to perdition. You are so funny NCSteve. ;-)

Have you noticed that when McCain/Palin had their rally in PA, the camera never panned out on to the audience. We viewers on tv never got to see how large the crowd was. Also, she claps into the mic! No grace.

For the Obama/Biden rally on the same day, the camera panned out and the tv viewer got an idea of how big the crowd was, and it was big.

Nevertheless, I wonder how she will play w/the good ole'boys clubs further down state. I very much doubt her abilities in NoVA.

Ummm, but not, apparently, today.