John McCain isn't the first Presidential candidate to seek votes by appealing to hatred, racism, and fear. He won't be the last. But almost always that has been a surefire way to obtain less than 40% of the votes. The McCain-Palin approach increases the possibility that the Republican Party will be defeated down to the bottom of each statewide ticket, as most Americans find repugnant these blatant attempts to plumb the depths of the human soul.

For those who choose this walk on the wild side of politics, the usual result is electoral disaster and a lifetime gig as a talking head on the rightwing cable shows. Governor Palin, even if she is caught short by Troopergate or the Taxman, can count on television as her ticket out of Alaska. I see her going from an interview by Greta von S to a seat on Greta's side of the table. And watch out Katie Couric, the Governor may not have shown a big heart but I'm sure it's filled with revenge. Doubtlessly, Sarah Palin will play Tina Fey on SNL. Probably she will fill in for Pat Buchanan on the Rachel Maddow show -- indeed she is more or less following in that nativist's political footsteps, although she was a mere child when Buchanan began his own long odysssey through the Heart of Darkness. (Nixon and McCain have proved to have a great deal more in common than anyone would have thought.)

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My writer friend in Los Angeles, Jeff Levin, has had a vision of the next Palin news story:

PALIN AGREES TO INTERVIEW SELF

By Jeffrey Levin
Disassociated Press

WASHINGTON (DP) - Following on the heels of the McCain campaign issuing a report clearing Gov. Sarah Palin of any wrongdoing in the so-called Troopergate affair, the campaign is now dealing with the demand that Palin submit to more interviews.

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No one really knows anything for sure just now about the Paulson Plan or the markets. some uncertainty has to be accepted.

Yet the Paulson Plan, we read, was prepared over the summer and called "Break the Glass." Now that it has been authorized it turns out that it will take weeks to implement and also that its goals are not yet decided upon.

They should have broken the glass, taken it out, and finished it over the summer. It apparently wasn't so much a plan as a notion.

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Did McCain suggest he was going to reduce Social Security benefits?

If McCain thinks Treasury should buy all bad mortgages, then why didn't he say so last week? What is a bad mortgage? If that refers to homes whose value is less than the mortgage debt, then that may amount to as many as 10 to 20 million homes before prices hit bottom. So does McCain imagine that Treasury will spend another two to four trillion dollars -- perhaps what it would take to fulfill his commitment? And would Treasury then be the creditor of millions of Americans, forcing foreclosures and auctioning houses? Does Paulson support this plan? Does anyone? Will McCain support or explain it tomorrow?

Does McCain really not have any prioritization of his goals?

It has been amazing to watch Barack and Michelle Obama visit with everyone in the crowd, chat, give photo ops, for now twenty minutes after the debate and still counting....while apparently the McCains left the scene.

Palin regaled the cheering crowd with a story about how she was reading her Starbucks mocha cup yesterday, which featured a quotation from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

"OK, now thank you so much for receiving that well--I didn't know how that was going to go over," Palin told the southern California crowd. "And now California, let's see what a comment that I just made how that is turned into whatever it'll be turned into tomorrow in the newspaper."

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