Palin presents an even bigger problem for traditional Republicans, many of whom found her a complete embarrassment. But if Obama is even halfway successful, she may be offered up as a scapegoat in 2012, which could put a welcome end to the "family values" wing's inordinate influence in the Party.

I will be very surprised if we don't soon see a Christian Right Party dedicated to returning us to those golden days of yesteryear when everything was perfect in America and black folks knew their place. Stay tuned.

If I were she, “rewriting history” would be an all-consuming project with me.

She is a train wreck.

But to be honest, Joan, she and her shenanigans are not what bother me most. My problem is with the conservatives and the Republicans—who profess love of country and then offer people like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin as two of their most qualified to lead us.

Hey, if the conservatives and Republicans were a fringe sect with little say about who we are and where we ought be going—even that wouldn’t bother me. But they are principal players—and they ought to be doing a better job.

The Republican Party has always provided this country with excellent service as the loyal opposition—people who ride herd on the Democrats and liberals—who, we all know, have occasionally gone off-track themselves, no matter their noble motives. The fact that the Republicans don’t have the slightest idea of how to lead should be enough to keep them in the minority—although obviously that is not always the case.

The fact that they elevate incompetents to the levels they do should trouble us more than the out-of-control ego and ambition of Sarah Palin. Although at times, I do find myself wishing that some Alaskan moose will get lucky!

I agree. To ignore her is to allow her and the Republicans to write and control the narrative. We should have learned by now that the American people are willing to engage in willful disbelief over and over again.

Palin has four years to, as you say, rehabilitate.

She has four years to learn geography on both the American and African continents.

She has four years to learn the names of newspapers and news magazines.

I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss her as a viable candidate for president. Americans can be forgiving and forgetful. If she polishes her act up (and God knows there's a lot of polishing that needs to be done) Palin could position herself yet for a run for the White House.

This country has a long history of casting aside osing vice-presidential candidates. Franklin Roosevelt is the only one to ever go on to win the White House. (See this blog)http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=40174

I hope that Ms. Palin isn't the second.

Here is my mantra:

As Republicans, including Sarah Palin, try to aportion blame for their election defeat and position themselves as their party's savior,
Democrats must not let Republicans put the blame for their election defeat on any particluar person or personality.

We must constantly assert that their defeat -- and Bush's great unpopularity and the current economic and governmental crisis -- are the result of policy failures, not personality failures, and the policies that have failed are those shared by all Republicans: hostility to government regulation of markets, and hostility to government spending on crucial social projects such as infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

The most ridiculous part of today's "Today" interview is her claim that "I"ve never been an obsessive partisan." She took partisan politics to a new, ugly level with her attacks on Barack Obama as "pallin' around with terrorists" and her questions about his patriotism.

If you think about it, the facts are consistent with her really not being an "obsessive partisan". She could conceivably just be essentially amoral and willing to say or do anything to advance herself.

No one bothers with Brittney Spears anymore, now we have the Palin train wreck to watch and obsess over.
I have two bedtime prayers:
1) She'll be eaten by a moose. Such poetic justice.
2) She'll keep on talking and either we will all get bored and move onto the next wunderkid or as she continues to polarize, she will also marginalize.
Either option would be fine with me.

Good point, she may have meant, "well I like to party, but not obsessively!"

It's as if we are living in an Ayn Rand novel.

I totally agree with you but she is still as stupid as they come. I watched the interview, seriously ????? But trust to know that she is not going any where. She is on her own campaign.

I also blogged on opensalon yesterday regarding her nonsensical comment that the Bloggers who were out to get her were sitting in their pajama's in their parents basement's. This statement coupled with her complaint during the campaign that her First Amendment right's were being infringe upon by criticism's of her reported in the media frankly scares the hell out of me. Her lack of understanding across a broad spectrum of issues is astounding.

I have said it before, but the Republican establishment has gone so far down the rabbit hole that they can go on media outlets stating that this election was NOT a mandate and that this country is still Center-Right politically. I say, keep telling yourselves that people and you will keep losing elections. In them meantime, the rest of the country can get to work cleaning up the mess left by the last eight years of misguided judgement, faulty ideology, mismanagement and severe neglect. As for Sarah Palin, I and countless thousands of other Bloggers out there will keep reporting on and analyzing what you say all along the way.

I just can't take anyone seriously who butchers the Language like she does.......Ulp! ( please do not read my early stuff).

I agree - we can't discount her - right now anyway. And how can we when she's on every channel working her campaign for 2012? That statement she made about "assuming Obama surrounded himself with those who understand terrorism" gave me the chills. I thought that God told her the best person for the job would win?

Yes, she has time to learn all the subjects she was overwhelmingly underqualified in, but will she? I highly doubt it. She thinks she knows better than everyone else. That will be her downfall. She's had an incredible and motivated rise. But, once in each position, she surrounded herself with "friends from high school" - people who wouldn't correct her if she was wrong. If they diid cross her, they were out. But, this is the big leagues and she's in way over her head.

While it's a little early to write of Palin's future political prospects, the last thing I'm worried about right now is her chances in 2012.

My friend from exercise class who is a lovely woman and not unsmart is almost hysterically frightened of Obama. She bought the terrorist association thing that "non-obessive partisan" Palin was pushing. A long, calming talk didn't assuage her fears.

She is the base that Palin still appeals to, willing to buy the lies and fear-mongering because she identifies with her. I think Palin is dangerous and don't know whether it's better to ignore her or let her show her real self ad nauseum on the cable shows hungry for something to fill their time now. One thing: we have to keep a list of the lies and flaws to use, as/if needed.

I agree Joan. Coverage of a public figure is not harassment. She seems to want a pity party while she seems to take every opportunity to disparage her philosophical opponents. She may or may not know the meaning of "partisan", and I am not making a Palin is a dummy joke by saying that. I am merely giving her the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately for Palin, the benefit of the doubt exists within her ignorance. She can be partisan, and she can say obviously partisan things. But she can not also insist that she is not partisan. She must take responsibility on one end or the other. She may not have known that lobbying for the dismissal of her former Brother-in-law was unethical. She may not have known that taking per diem for staying in her home is unethical. But we know that it is. Forewarned is fore armed. We do not need nor do we want a person of such ignorance or ethical failings in national politics.

For me, she may be a thorn in the GOP's side. I am conservative but not foolish enough to think she is the best they've got. Hoping she will fade into the background and focus on the new leadership in front of us, far more reassuring for the time being. Thanks for staying on top of this, however, as it may not be the feel good coverage you or others may want to embrace at present. Still, an important piece to the political puzzle.

Joan,

My fervent hope is that Palin is a blip. Four years is a very long time, and unless she works hard at it, the ceaseless mainsteam news cycles and events of the day will wash Ms. Palin away like a child's sandcastle at the beach. This, I hope, will especially be true once President Obama (ok, I just like to say it) takes office.

As long as she's relevant, I say cover her. I just hope it's not that prolonged a period.

Best,

Elliot

With the capacity she has to put her foot in her mouth, the exposure she has will work against her with the party--though probably not the beanheads still quivering after their defeat. It will be interesting to see what she has to say to the RNC and just how many enemies she's able to make.

The Republican to watch is Romney. I'm telling you--ask the women on OS. It's the hair! (please don't take me seriously, I'm still celebrating.)

I think that Sarah Palin's very nature will prevent her from becoming a serious contender in 2012 or even 2016. She doesn't appear to be one who appreciates being "handled" or given scripts to follow. The RNC would have a lot of work to do on her in order to make her palatable to conservatives (as well as people who prefer "informed" and "intelligent" in a presidential candidate) and I don't think she'd be one to play along. She seems to take great pride in doing things her own way, no matter how ridiculous this choice makes her look. Hopefully, the longer she's allowed to talk, the more people will see her true character.

Bensen, listening to Romney's speech at the convention, I came away certain he is just a male version of Palin. Go back and listen. It was as nonsensically partisan and language butchering as she's ever been....with the same great hair and smile.

As tempting as it is to write her off and to just ignore her while we go about the arduous task of cleaning up GWB's messes, I think it's more important to engage with her and hold the mirror up to her face, closely, so she and everyone else can see precisely how hypocritical and irresponsible and intellectually bankrupt her ways of thinking are.

Her brand of Republican partisanship should be bathed in kleig lights from here on out and identified as the culprit in the global pickle the US found itself during the opening decade of the 21st century.

Are we going through republican withdrawls? Your victory not enough. Feel the need to beat Palin somemore?You folks in the liberal media went after her in unprecedented fashion. Your attacks were not only on her but her family. Its funny hearing you complain about her partisan attacks. It was her job as the VP candidate and she did it very well. Feel free to swing at Palin a little while longer. But eventually you will have to deal with the fact that you have a democratic president and democratic congress. You will have to find a democrat to blame for whatever ails us. There will be no conservative to beat on and brag about beating on. Beating on Palin while she is down is nothing more then cheap theatrics. Will you now start dredging up past conservative demons to beat on since todays politics offers nothing but liberals in power?

I was deeply offended by McCain's choice as running mate. It felt like he was making a mockery of how we choose our candidates. It felt like a parody on a comedy show. And then it was. .

"Ridiculous" and "Sarah Palin" - three words that make me smile when I see them in a sentence.

While there is a temptation for us to ignore Ms Palin, I think one ignores the Republican right wing group Counsel for National Policy run by James Dobson and Ralph Reid at their own peril. These are the people who chose her, who shoved her down McCains throat and will continue to put money on this bet.
She will be back. And she will be fighting Romney. So the question in 2012 will be, should the Rs run an ignorant incurious uncultured woman or an avaricious wildly (policy) swinging Mormon.
Wanna take bets?

I've taken the fact that Fox News is ragging on her to be a sign that she's over. They don't eat their own, so TPTB in RepuboLand must want her to disappear. Jokes aside, I think she truly is too "rogue" for them to feel they can control her the way they want to with their pols. She has her own agenda and believes in herself far too much to be obedient.

Right now I see her like the old vaudeville acts that wouldn't get off the stage even when the hook came out and tried to drag them off. She got used to the "high" of being the star attraction and isn't willing to give up the spotlight as long as people keep pointing the camera and lights at her. If they would stop, it would be interesting what she'd do, so I look forward to that. (My bet is she'll engage in ever more pathetic bids for attention.)

I also think she's a compulsive talker who just can't shut up, which is why the McCain folks tried to contain her. But it's also her undoing, not only because it reveals her ignorance but because after a while you just don't want to hear her go on and on anymore.

Michael Fox is exactly right.

And I simply can't - or won't - agree that Sarah Palin is stupid. To recognize that she is not stupid is not the same as saying she is the greatest intellectual thought leader to ever walk the stage. But she's not stupid. To call her that is actually to fall in the trap of being like her. I found her unethical and fear-mongering -but that is a far cry from stupid. I found her inarticulate at times, when she felt she was on the spot and afraid to answer directly for fear of a hidden trap. That doesn't make her stupid. I found that she made gaffes - like every other politician. I found she occasionally said things that made her seem to foolish - but since Obama did too ("clinging to guns and religion" remark, anyone?) I'll keep it in perspective, but I won't call her stupid.

Her methods are execrable. Some of her ideas are dangerous. But she is not stupid, and to call her do nothing but a) ignore the dangers she represents b) solidify her base and c) continue to burden progressives with accusations of elitism.

Michael Fox is exactly right.

And I simply can't - or won't - agree that Sarah Palin is stupid. To recognize that she is not stupid is not the same as saying she is the greatest intellectual thought leader to ever walk the stage. But she's not stupid. To call her that is actually to fall in the trap of being like her. I found her unethical and fear-mongering -but that is a far cry from stupid. I found her inarticulate at times, when she felt she was on the spot and afraid to answer directly for fear of a hidden trap. That doesn't make her stupid. I found that she made gaffes - like every other politician. I found she occasionally said things that made her seem to foolish - but since Obama did too ("clinging to guns and religion" remark, anyone?) I'll keep it in perspective, but I won't call her stupid.

Her methods are execrable. Some of her ideas are dangerous. But she is not stupid, and to call her do nothing but a) ignore the dangers she represents b) solidify her base and c) continue to burden progressives with accusations of elitism.

Seventy percent of Republicans would like to see Palin run for President in 2012, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of Democrats would!

That's how I feel at least. If she's the best they have to offer, we're in good shape for the next decade at least.

I also found the "softball" Greta Van Botox interview on "Faux News" to be revealing about her demeanor when being cow-towed to rather than asked REAL off the cuff questions, a la Matt Lauer, Katie Couric and "Chaaaaarlie Gibson." She's a joke and give her four more years to come out with her "Qualyle-isms" and more scandals. Give an idiot enough rope and... well, we all know the story.

I don't get it. I will never get it. I'm not sure I want to get it. Listening to Sarah Palin yet once again last night, and the whole God thing and the "plowing through this" (I'm sure some men loved that one), once again nauseated me and ruined my appetite. And, as much as I hate it, she doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon. Great post.

The biggest problem I have with giving Palin column inches isn't that I am sick to flipping death of her and her ilk...

it is the fact that OBAMA won the election. He is the President-elect, his wife and children are getting ready to assume their places with him in this inspiring, hopeful and historic journey we are all beginning.

This is NOT PALIN's moment. It is Obama's and the plans he is implementing to clean up Bush's mess.

Stop allowing Palin the spotlight. Her train has left the station, and it is a long time and a lot of work before we are at the next election.

She lost. Shut off her damn mic and klieg light.

I just can't let myself believe that she is the direction that the Republican party wants to go.
They have an opportunity to regroup, rethink, rebrand and attract more moderate intellectuals who value all personal liberties, not just gun ownership and not paying taxes.
Why continue to play to hardcore religious social conservatism, that this election proved is dwindling, slowly but surely.

Sure, we shouldn't forget about her. She won't LET us forget about her. But she's shown a healthy capacity to screw up, so lets cling to that. But no matter how hard she charges, she won't get much traction of Obama's administration is successful. So let's hope it is, and do what we can to make it so.

Palin doesn't so much lie as cherry-pick the truth. She employs a logical fallacy familiar to lawyers and rhetoricians: by invalidating a part of the claim, you invalidate the whole. She did this throughout the campaign. I, too, want to ignore her but after reading Camille Paglia's article today “Why” I still like Palin", I can't believe Paglia couldn't have seen that Palin's candidacy, in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible. And, to even consider her future in the GOP, will definitely cause me and any other voter to demand a basic accountability if she chooses to run again.

The only reason she may have a future is if you keep covering her.

Palin is ambitious, but her ambition is fueled by media attention. If her celebrity doesn't pan out, she won't invest the time mastering the issues she needs to in order to run for national office.

You could see how unprepared she was in the debate and in her interviews. She thought she could coast by on her celebrity.

She may be smart enough to have learned her lesson and understand that she needs to do her policy homework. But the only thing that will give her the incentive to do that is the continuation of her celebrity.

Palin has had her 15 minutes and the media attention will wane and she will be forgotten. And once her celebrity is gone she will be finished.

The thing that disturbs me most about Palin is that she displays the same arrogance of Bush. She's dismissive about things she doesn't deem important and believes that her view of the world is the best view. In this age of superficial adoration, she scares me.

I had to laugh about the terrorism line - as if a Gov of Alaska has ever had any experience with terrorism when compared to someone living in a major metropolis like Chicago. Russia didn't give a rat's ass about Alaska, they sold it to us and the Japanese were never interested in the north...

I despair of people who have no sense of history or the world at large.

No gaffe of Palin's was as great as the great Obama not knowing how many states are in the Union.

Her statement that Obama was pallin' around with terrorist Bill Ayres is as true as anything in the World Almanac, although now that Obama's been elected, I think the pallin' around is over.

Aside from schadenfreude, an unworthy feeling, there is simply no reason to pick on Palin at this point. If Obama behaves as his past and his principles would indicate, Minnie Mouse could beat him in 2012.

One poster mentioned Ayn Rand. What she wrote in Atlas Shrugged seemed like science fiction at the time. With Obama and those who tell him what to do at the helm, the next four years may prove it to be mere reportage.

Joan,
You're making it hard to keep my vow to not type another nasty word about Palin. She, as subject, makes the blood rush through my temples---not in a good way.

Nina wrote that it's not Palin's moment. Come on, we all know the type---they're ALL her moments.

Sandra wrote that Palin isn't stupid---and even though I have called her dumber than statuary--the truth is Sandra is right. She's more clever than smart. Her level of ambition is quite frightening. I'd like to make her take one of those profiling tests we used when I was in the corporate world---those tests that try to weed out potential axe murderers from working in the office next door.

It's this conversation with God thing that I find newly upsetting. I have no problem with other's degree or practice of faith. But really, I don't want my presidents engaged in a "conversation" with their Deity. We've already had that, and it just didn't work out too well.

As Sam Harris said in "Letter to a Christian Nation" when referring to Bush's sanity and his conversation with God...( I paraphrase) I fail to see how an addition of a hair dryer changes anything...

Stellaa, I really do agree with you about blaming Palin and exonerating McCain, and I've made that point explicitly in several Salon blog posts. I do not necessarily believe the leakers, either, and I've said that, too. But I think Palin is someone who's fighting to emerge as a leader of the Republican party, and she's also a grownup -- she deserves scrutiny, and criticism.

Palin has something more important than intelligence.
Ronald Reagan had it. It is Charisma that is telegenic. You can't
buy it and you can't teach it. She can learn to speak in public,
that's what rotary courses in public speaking are for. And she
is intelligent enough to have parlayed a governorship of a sparsely
populated state into a VP run.

People underestimate her at their own peril.

America loves Obama for much the same reason that the other side
loves Palin, a message they want in a package that excites them. And I am not talking about attractiveness, I am talking about the
ability to tell a good story and captivate an audience.

If someone works with her for the next 4 years, she could be a juggernaut. Just consider, she got to where she is by native instinct and now she will have a Rovian team of handlers grooming her. All of the gaffes of the last election cycle will seem like old news and bad bathwater attributed to McCain by the time we see her in earnest again.

In 4 years, Trig will be walking and talking and Palin will be a grandmother, lending her even more gravitas than the handlers will be trying to instill. She may also be a senator by then having also fulfilled service as a governor.

People who don't get this should stay out of politics.

" The most ridiculous part of today's "Today" interview is her claim that "I"ve never been an obsessive partisan." She took partisan politics to a new, ugly level .."

What you just said.

And the scariest part of it to me is that she thinks her spin makes perfect sense, which is what lets her speak with sincerity. I'd prefer to see her myopia as the manipulations of a cynic, but I fear it really isn't. It's that she truly doesn't grasp what she does not know.

From where I sit, that makes her more dangerous than a cynic.

Once again Palin referred to the president as "our commander in chief, and that total wimp Lauer, failed to call her on it.

Article II of the constitution clearly says: "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States..."

Hitler was commander in chief of his people, as were Mussolini, Franco, Stalin and others.

The American people have no commander, only (hopefully) a leader.

ePriddy pretty well said some of the points I was going to make. I would LIKE to think that virtually everyone could see through Palin, and see what the posters here find so obvious, and see what so many of the Republican thinkers (Peggy Noonan, George Wills, Christopher Buckley etc.) find so painfully evident in Palin: that she is uneducated, ignorant, incurious about the world around her; that she has a galling lack of insight and self-awareness so that she doesn't even realize that not being able to name a single serious magazine or newspaper that she reads and citing the fact the Alaska is next door to Russia gives her foreign policy experience means that she is unworthy of the post of highest office of the US. I mean, it takes a particularly repugnant candidate or one with an appalling degree of deficits to make these staunch conservative Republicans publicly criticize their party's candidate and vote Democrat for the first time in their lives. Can any of you here, fiercely Democrats most of you (I am assuming) even imagine what it would take for you to be so very disgusted with a candidate that you would vote Republican???

I fully expected that after the 2nd Couric interview, they would find a nice family-oriented excuse to force her off the ticket and find someone, anyone, more suitable... BUT I WAS WRONG! I fully expected that McCain, even though choosing her in the first place was a wrong and cynical stab in the dark to appeal to Clinton supporters and women and youth, would recognize what a disaster train wreck he set into place, and would try to replace her, or stifle her inflammatory campaign rhetoric and do damage control... BUT I WAS WRONG! I expected that, once everyone could see what was so transparent to me about her, that not only would her popularity plummet... but that, at the very most, she would only have 15% of voters who would support her and that even the Republican 'base' (whatever that weird term means) would realize they needed someone more articulate, and would be embarrassed of her... again, I WAS WRONG!

Like everyone except the few trolls here, I despise her 'values'... her lack of empathy to rape victims in trying to have them pay for their own rape kits just floors me... the irony of her trying to tarnish Obama's reputation with 'pallin' around with terrorists' accusations, while ignoring her and husband Todd's AIP connections is nuts -- how can she not even see that? How can she continue to make these scurrilous accusations when her connections to AIP are recent and much more troubling? (& why has the MSM not picked up on that?) And her attitude towards those she does not see eye to eye with (firing the librarian over censorship, trying to get ex-brother-in-law fired and firing Moneghan for standing up to her interference)... and that she does not seem to even have any sense that there was anything in the least wrong with that... omg, I am getting worked up again. (and I have not even touched on her inability to string coherent, cogent thoughts together in intelligible form that approximates resembles English grammatical sentence structure)

But, I also feel, dismiss her at your peril. What she does have is a really attractive package, she is very good-looking and telegenic. She has charisma, and when she read from her speech at the Republican Convention, she had a great sense of timing and good and fervent delivery (I sense that she is a great actress, and can deliver lines convincingly). There is no way that she would get those 10 - 15 thousand crowds pumped up like that if it weren't for her charisma (no, it is not JUST that she is a born-again fundie who is opposed to abortion, like they are). She knows how to relate and appeal to everyday people; that is her mantra. Although she is not super-intelligent, she is very shrewd, and knows how to try and deflect the criticism. And she is incredibly ambitious.

It's sad if the Republicans can't field someone better than Palin. Palin is like the distilled essence of all the superficial silliness that the party has become, so if she is what is offered in 2012, that will mean all their supposed introspecting right now about what their problem is went nowhere. This is an opportunity for them to revise themselves. They should jump at the chance. We'd all be better off with a legitimate choice in 2012. These are tough times and we need all the genuine thought we can get. And Palin is not strong on genuine thought.

I think the Republicans would have won this time around with Romney/Rice and if they want to start with a baseline, that's the kind of pair they should be looking at. But with four years to prepare, I bet they can do better still.

I agree with ePriddy and Sandra Miller. Her problem is one of
naievete, rather than stupidity. She seems like someone willing
to do business. Politically, I am light years to the left of her yet I
get a positive charge whenever I see her on tv.
I don't blame her for trying to rehabilitate herself so soon, she
got a whole lot of shit thrown at her (whether or not she
deserved it) in a short period of time.
And she does that Reagan wink and a nod thing so well. Middle
America just loves that stuff!
Don't forget, they didn't call her Sarah Barracuda for nothing!

I have never witnessed as much sexism as I have in the reaction to Sarah Palin. My guess is that these bloggers have never experienced an accomplished women with a normal family. I'm quite sure that they do not understand what she meant when she said she went into this campaign with a "servant's heart" and left with more grace than most humans could muster.
I'm still trying to imagine how you can criticize people who chose to vote for an American hero who has accomplished so much and a progressive women with executive experience and an expertise in energy over a man who speaks very well, but has accomplished nothing and has the most radical and liberal past of any president elected in history.
If Gov. Palin's way of speaking is so foreign to you, than perhaps you should travel your own country and get educated.
Kristin (newly Republican, thanks to Sarah Palin)
Madison, WI

I have not been able to get my head around the perspective that criticism of Sarah Palin is sexist. What seems sexist to me is the belief that to evaluate, critique, and even judge (we all do that, you know) her is sexism simply because she happens to be a woman. Anybody remember Dan "Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child" Quayle?

Thank you, Joan, for the important work you are doing. (Now there I go --- kissing up again. We all do that too, yes?)

Palin around with terrorists.

Let me see, The Republican take on Patriotism is to poop on the Constitution where ever they feel like it.

Doesn't sound so very patriotic to me. As a matter of fact, Guantanamo strikes me as being NOT patriotic. More like idiotic.

Whay a bunch of Maroons. Even to the point that the 'guests ' have been so vilified, ABSOLUTELY no country will accept them after their release. Crawford, Texas is the place.

Dean

I don't know why she doesnt just take a job with Fox News or talk radio so she can keep her celebrity status while preaching to the converted. But her accusing someone of not being ready for the Whitehouse is over the top. The woman is a major fuckwad. Maybe she should just host a cooking show. She's too demented for national politics.

The most ridiculous part of today's "Today" interview is her claim that "I"ve never been an obsessive partisan."

Mm-hm, agreed... but Matt Lauer's coat-sweat-shirt combo runs a close second. Did he not believe there were heaters in Alaska?

I meant: coat-sweater-shirt combo. Bad typist, sorry.

We ignore Palin at our peril. She may be ignorant but she is not stupid. At this juncture, we cannot afford to take risks or to underestimate the regressive neocon facists who are already at work to reacquire their power. So, from my perspective, at a minimum, we must keep a careful watch on that faction .

I was hoping she would go away. I think the media fed her confidence too much...especially the special appearance on Saturday Night Live. Then again, maybe we could encourage SNL to hire her as a comedian. That would get her off the political track for a while wouldn't it? ....wishful thinking....

One hopefully short point on the Palin experience. I understand that many voters felt Palin unqualified for her position. I'm sure Obama could have given us type of material to roast him by four years ago before he was properly prepped. But there are also many of us here that are disgusted with politics as usual. For those of us here we have to do some soul searching and determine what the best process may be to pluck a fresh face out of relative obscurity. If we do come up with a process we can all live with then we are doomed to vote on well entrenched washington insiders who have learned how to play the game and learned what sweet nothings they need to whisper in our ear. So as we assess the process that thrust Palin into the national limelight I think we also have to assess how we recieved her.

Keep her in the digital ink...I'm a firm believer in keeping your enemies closer.

She is anything but stupid. She's cunning, self serving and power hungry. She won't eat her young, but no matter the circumstance she'll make them have more. But mainly I agree with my wife...she's just plain dangerous.

So by all means, keep talking about her...except I'll be the guy covering my ears chanting, "NANANANANANANAH"

You know, Palin appeals to a certain demographic.

Screw 'em.

They're the past. They're dying off -- literally. Let's beat them down, destroy them, and render them useless.

They can have Caribou Barbie. And hopefully, that demographic will die off sooner rather than later and we can move forward.

The demographic that likes Palin and thinks she's a good candidate for President will NEVER vote for a democrat. So who cares? Screw 'em. They're dead to us. We need to marginalize them and render them useless as a political force.

They're the 30 percent that will always vote for a republican no matter what. They're irrelevant. What we need to go after is the 40 percent who will vote for the right democrat.

The Palin crowd? Let them vote for her. They are useless to us.

Palin is a partisan, and that's her appeal to a certain demographic.

But we must remember what demographic she appeals to. She appeals to the right wing nut jobs who think that Barack Obama is going to take away their guns and tell them what roads they can and cannot drive on. No BS on this. There was an article in the Washington Post where a Michigan voter told her sister that.

Let her have that demographic. They're always going to vote for the republicans anyway. Appealing to them is pointless because they are both ignorant and unreceptive to any message that a democrat could deliver. They are about a third of the population, and you can't win with those numbers anyway.

The demographic that we should focus on is the third of the country that are swing voters. They're the ones we need to keep in the fold in order to win elections. They're younger, they're more racially diverse, and they tend to be more educated and wealthier.

Let's see. Pander to the right wing nut jobs who Palin appeals to? Or go after a younger, wealthier, more educated, and more diverse group?

I know who I'd go after.

So we keep on pounding Palin as out of touch, inept, and hint at her being stupid. We let the Jon Stewarts and Dave Lettermans and Jay Lenos of the world pound her and destroy her credibility. And if she does win the nomination, we go after the swing voters and we build upon the work of the Stewarts and Lettermans and Lenos.

Palin with her dissociative disorder is following right in Bush's footsteps. She lobbied WAY over her head for the VP position and McCain unleashed her on America and she's not going anywhere. The most frightening thing is to realize that once again MANY Americans are willing to follow the lead of someone who makes absolutely no sense. Just try reading her sentences and coming to a conclusion about what she is saying. She can memorize, she can spew, she can ramble, she can charm. But she can NOT think.
Another plague on America, I fear.

She's currently speaking to a group (Republican Governors?) on CNN and could not be more partisan in what she is saying. Apparently, the Republican party is the party for God and disabled children. She's also talking about Joe the Plumber again and about how real leaders can't vote "present." It's an atrocious speech in implying that only Republicans are good and right.

To Mr. Thom Rutledge,
My experience with people's reactions to Sarah Palin have indeed been sexist, including coming from dear friends of mine. Please review the blogs, the media's general response and some dear friends of your own. Then read an article written yesterday from the New York Times entitled "Sarah Palin is Back in the Kitchen, But Its Still Not Enough for Tina Brown" in which she asks "Now that its over Sarah, who does watch after the kids?".
Of course it is fair and necessary to "evaluate, critique and even judge" our candidates, but where is the realistic evaluation, critiquing and judging of Obama coming from. Isn't Joan's article based on her outrage that Palin could (how dare she) criticize Obama. Does that really make her partisan?
Truly, what has he accomplished?
You might be surprised how many families are out here, who we are quietly raising decent families with a set of core principles. I'm tired of being quiet.
Kristin Gibbons

The saying is true "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" Palin is a threat to both parties. If she is allowed to win in anything, we all loose. Well Done blog Joan.

Since no one else will say it, I will. Sarah Palin lies...non-partisan is just the most recent...she is a caricature of herself, manifested in Tina Fey so accurately...Palin lies, and she doesn't know that she doesn't know. Democrats cheer her on because she only helps them by being on the world stage and kkeps crimping the RNC re-group and urge for new styling. She hampers her own growth so how could she ever help them? I can site many lies she has told but why overwhelm you with the mundane.

Sarah is a non-entity who is a self-smart, self-starter, self-styled, plow through operative who is going for a book deal. In that regard, she is a smart, self-centered, me first operative maverick for the $$$$$$...and yes, John and she were well matched as it turns out...for in his selection of her, it was a "John first" mechanism to win, not country first, which helped him loose...

He is indeed, disappointed in himself today with a poor Sarah choice. She undermined him all the way...she may not be the reason he lost, just one important ingredient in the mix, that could have helped him rise or fall as he did.

The only people thrilled that "You betcha" Sarah is around hurting herself further in her circular media bonanza she is doing, is Tina Fey and the cast of SNL...this lady Sarah is unstoppable and so self contained in a bubble she can not burst out of...unfortunately, she bores me and again, she lies.

She has a piece missing in her persistence...its as if for me at least, she is socially retarded and out of step...She is like the Bumble Bee who aerodynamically can't fly, but does because he or she doesn't know it can"t.....anyway...

I hope the Democrat wins Alaska so miss Fey can return to Alaska and study up on her future pursuit...to become intelligible and not regrettable as she is now. A Democrat winning will insure her studies get done and keep her out of the RNC's hair...they can't get what needs to get done with her around...she sucks up all the oxygen, like a brat who rejects discipline and sensitivity.

I find her annoying and abrasive...borderline abusive.

No, Sarah Palin is not a "blip". She has to be taken seriously. I live out here on the "Midwest Coast"-- in Kansas, dangerously close to Oklahoma and the rest. These folks are passionate about Sarah Palin. It's some weird combo of evangelism, racism and hard core lust. Folks here think Sarah's sexy as hell AND chosen by God. If you want an eye opener, start monitoring newspapers from this region. Tulsa papers are especially fascinating. To be sure, the red states are getting redder. Sarah Palin and those like her will loom as heros over the next few years.

Ummm....has anyone been able to locate a Sarah Palin blow-up doll?

I agree that we need not to ignore her. She is relevant to a certain degree. However, my hope is that as we continue to engage in a dialogue about her, we finally reach the point where we can address her and her positions with a substantive critique and challenge her without being accused of being sexist.

Joan, I suspect that covering Palin is the one thing that keeps her around for 2010 and beyond. There are a lot of reasons to believe she'll disappear from the national scene fairly quickly. She lost--we forget losers awfully fast; she's governor of someplace that's very, very far removed from national media markets; she is charming, but there are other charmers with similar political positions who are more articulate, informed and less divisive (aka, Huckabee); she's facing both a substantial change in the state budget and multiple ethics allegations; she got very far with very little scrutiny--with scrutiny, her popularity among all but the hardcore rapidly deteriorated.

People who think the reelection of Ted Stevens was indicative of an Alaskan tolerance of ethical problems don't understand what Stevens meant for Alaska. Palin doesn't have a track record that will make it easy for voters to forgive her failings.

Covering her needlessly only helps her overcome one of her obstacles.

I've been watching and listening to the most recent Palin nonsense er-ah interviews - well, you can hardly escape them, but it seems to me that she throws out a lot of words but doesn't really say anything. She lobbied for the VP nomination and she's now lobbying for a run in 2012 - which is frightening - I only hope the Republican party gets their act together before then and turns their collective backs on the ignorance that has dominated their party for the last 20-30 years and start behaving in a non-partisan and more solution oriented fashion. I don't want Palin anywhere near the Whitehouse. We've had our fill of egomaniacal, one dimensional, conscientious-less divas who don't have a clue what is going on.

I am looking for a Sara Palin bobble head

Palin constantly says one thing and does another. It is either the sign of a liar or a total flake. I find neither attractive politically. I did, however, like her calling out the anonymous McCain staffers who threw her under the bus. Right wingnut infighting is truly a spectacle. Now let's keep the far left from trying to steal the show, get all Americans together, and pull ourselves out of the Bushie eight-year, self-induced hell we found ourselves in.

Sarah Palin is a dangerous woman. She has an unquenchable
desire to be elected President, but does not have the intellect,
common sense, basic knowledge of national and international
affairs, open-mindedness, basic skills in talking and negotiating,
and the list could go on and on. The people who love Sarah Palin
see her as some kind of disciple of God who will fight the abortion
issue for them. I have relatives in PA who love her for this reason.
I believe they are close-minded and did not vote on any issue except the pro-life one. They are super religious and believed all
of the lies/smears/slanders about President-elect Obama being
a terrorist, a traitor, the anti-Christ and that he had no experience
or had done nothing other than community activist. They do not
research anything to see if it is true, but believe wholeheartedly
what is sent to them in emails from their friends and family.
This is ignorance, pure and simple. The McCain/Palin campaign
fed on it and stirred up the hatred and racism along with it.
These are the people Sarah Palin hopes will put her into the
Whitehouse. Hopefully, there are enough sane people in
America (it looks like it after Obama/Biden were elected) to
stop another George Bush close-minded idiot from becoming
President Palin!

Dawn, Sarah Palin is relevant to the folks where you live. Fine.

But you know what?

The population in the places like where you live is dwindling as a percentage of the nation every single year. It wouldn't surprise me if you were seeing a net population loss in the areas where Palin is popular.

Guns and God plays to a certain demographic in a certain area. When I looked at the map they did of place that turned more democratic and places that turned more republican, I thought one thing.

The places turning redder are losing population, and losing jobs, and losing influence. Quite honestly, they are on the margins right now and will become more so as time goes on.

They comprise the "real America" of Sarah Palin, but you know what, they're not the real America.

The real America is in the cities -- 80 percent of the population lives in a metro area. That's where the population is, that's where the jobs are, and that's where the money is.

Given those facts, the "real America" of Sarah Palin can quite honestly be written off. It's shrinking and becoming less and less relevant each passing day.

So let Sarah Palin be relevant to the folks who live there. What they don't realize is that THEY are becoming less and less relevant to the country as a whole.

I quite honestly don't give a rat's ass about what some person who didn't graduate from high school and who thinks that going to a town of 100K people is selling out and moving to the big city thinks. That person isn't educated enough or informed enough for me to have an intelligent conversation with.

Elitist? Some may call it that.

But I don't care.

70-75% of Republicans polled hope Sarah Palin has a prominent future with the party. 100% of Democrats and comedians hope she has.

There's a strange disconnect between sensibility and her mouth: she rants and raves and can't regroup. The longer she chases inanity and defends a wrong comment, the stupider she looks.

She's from the school of repeat-anything-and-they'll-buy-it, while we're living in the age of I'll-Google-that.

In a way I hope her spotlight doesn't subside. Overexposure and unrelenting stupidity are two ways to wear out your public welcome. I'm dying to see how fellow Republicans rip into her, vying for a presidential nomination. It could add interest to a very bland party.

As I read all this, I am listening to the CNN special report on Jonestown, and the same sick feeling is getting all mixed together about the combination of bizarre religious fundamentalism, guns and suicidal hatred of the world, a desire for a rapture away from here that includes apocalyptic destruction. We have reports from Alaska and other states about booming gun sales, by Palinistas who are "terrified" [their word] of an Obama administration. And she is still stirring it up. Witness a couple of posts here, still insisting on the truth of the lies.

What next? Two of the commonest words I read about her are "scary" and "dangerous." Let us pray that they are not prophetic.

I would love to go on in a celebratory, positive mode, but she won't let me. The night I heard about Jonestown, a passage from the Gospel came to me, the one where Jesus spoke about false prophets coming in his name. Can anyone give us that reference?

Over Jim Jones's dead body was a sign: "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

Just for JOAN! You would be glad to stop covering Palin?
With massive coverage, still somethings don't get
UNcovered or pushed into the spotlight.

I have a simpl,e historic question. I have assumed that
Palin was the FIRST governor to be on a national ticket.
It is a real place in history but not a good place.
Granting you, Joan, to probably be more
knowledgeable on such matters.

Is Sarah Palin the only governor in American history
to be on a national ticket? I know that Reagan and Carter
and Clinton had all been governors, but I thought
that each of them had left the office of governor
before each of their campaigns had reached
the conventions. Am I right?

If I am, is this really a minor thing?
I mean she should NOT be able to claim
the office as a qualification for
something higher if, as she runs for
higher office, she is neglecting
the duties of the office
of governor.

I want an answer to my little question
from my friend Joan, but anyone
else is welcome to chime in.

To Kristin [newly Republican, thanks to SP]: you describe her as "an accomplished woman with a normal family." My Holy God, girl; have you read nothing? Drugging and drinking [tthere are photos] school dropouts, unwed mother, nutcase, witch-hunting, speaking in tongues religion, political and ethical corruption yet to be revealed, fraud or negligence in the birth of Trig, and the list can go on.

Normal? Maybe in your tiny-minded little part of Wisconsin [and I have a niece there who is a religious nutcase, also--something in the water?] her family is normal, but I pray to God daily that her version of normality crawls back under the Alaskan boulder it came from.

Best comment of all is the photo of Piper giving the other little boy the finger, on the stage, right in front of her mother, who is busy at the podium doing her celebrity thing. Check it out, read the Anchorage Daily News, for starters, and get back to us when you get just a little more information.

There was a post here on Open (on the front page) about Palin potentially being the next Hitler. Don't count that out... Especially if Obama rules from the 'center right' as expected, there will be a whole new class of disaffected democrats and other assorted voters who may very well see her as offering 'change' from the ineffectual administration of their political paramour.

Yes, Hitler very well could have, and probably did run under the idea that he would bring 'change' to Germany. There isn't any doubt that he did...

I truely, honestly wish that she would just do us all a favor and crash and burn early. It would save us all a lot of trouble.

I have to say that I am some what amazed at my interest in Sarah Palin. It is not because I find her a compelling figure. It is not because I admire what she stands for. I think it boils down to, I can't believe that she is getting so much attention! Even those in the GOP are baffled with her narrow vision and her rather obvious interest in media exposure. Perhaps she is somewhat in awe herself with the notion that someone may view her as a possible presidential candidate down the road. How simple politics has suddenly become.

I believe I am particularly in awe of how she has gained what ever political traction she has managed to obtain. Oh what a country.

Don't take your eye off Palin (keep her on your radar) but don't necessarily give her any more PR. Otherwise we'll have two "rehab-ed" GOP contender son a future primary ballot: I couldn't believe my ears when I heard a pundit speculating on potentials for GOP presidential field for 2012 -- Palin and Newt Gingrich! Yikes!

Tony-- yes, Sarah's important here in the red states-- along with god and the Right way to be a girl. But don't assume these folks have no impact nationally. They just clobbered gay marriage in California. They're incredibly organized and doggedly persistent.

If she continues with her divisive politics, and her nonsensical "joe the nobody plumber" strategy, the only ones who will have to worry about Sarah playing politics is the GOP wanna be Presidents.

Fox news, Sean Hate -ity, and Bill O'wrongly, are what caused the GOP the election. Even when John McCain tried to get back to the issues, they were too busy putting spin, and foolishness in every nothing to do with any thing incident. They were so ignorant with their constant rant over issues no one believed that people got tired of them. And with every lie they were caught in, people pulled away.
I am Black, and I voted for Bush twice. Not because he was white, but because I liked him. So did most of my friends. Yet, when Obama ran the GOP, lied on him, disrespected him, called him every name in the book, and that infuriated me to work hard to get him elected.

I really, really like John McCain, and there was a 50/50 chance that I would vote for him until Sarah Palin came along. John McCain had everything it took to win this election except confidence in himself. My strategy would have been this:
Bush have made some terrible mistakes, but he has kept us safe sense 911. There are top secrets that only the president has knowledge of , an and we Will Stand by our president until his term is over. And that is MY policy. Even though I am vex with his bad choices, I think he was doing the best he could, based on what he believed. Right or wrong, we all voted for him so we all have to also blame ourselves for voting for him for the wrong reasons.

My reason, was the Abortion issue. I am against abortion. but when I thought about it, I realized, that this has always been an issue and it has never changed. So, why is it always an issue? The Bush Administration had 8 years to change it and they did not, so why is it an issue again?

Sarah Palin has nothing to offer except Rant and hype. Will the GOP allow the Media to run their party? They had better take charge and Sarah Palin is not the one. She has insulted professional women with her use of her sexuality and winking, and u betcha nonsense. She never makes a complete sentence and comes to a full stop. So the GOP has to Stop her, for her, cause she clearly doesn't have the good sense to stop herself, like me and this blog comment, lol!

Excuse the spelling error -which I could go back and edit. ~since 911

Are we done with Sarah Palin? After seeing George W. Bush get 're-elected' in 2004 nothing can shock me too much. No, Sarah will keep rearing her ugly head.

If you review the mode of operandi to her rise to the governorship one will see a unifying thread. She is excellent at attacking her opponent. On further investigation it is obvious that her rise is not based on a plethora of her accomplishments in a frontier state that does not have the complexities of issues that mainland governors deal with on a daily basis. In short it did not take much professionally to get where she is right now in the state of Alaska. However, she took that mode of operandi to a national level where she was conceited enough to think it would work without her having the gravitas to compete. Personally, I have additional issues with her. I think if you look closer, I feel she is harboring racist tendencies. Take note of the hate on her face when she is talking about Obama, or the disregard for his safety when she was inciting a crowd with "palling around with terrorists". Obviously she didn't care that she might be provoking a dangerous situation for Obama and his family, also she never did offer her condolences when Obama's grandmother died, as McCain did, and every newscaster did at the time. She also thought nothing of pro-claiming certain parts of the country more patriotic then others. Her main retort when caught relating to her own stupidity and ignorance is to blame other people or organizations. The interviews this week were further indications of her lack of intellectual substance, and I was appalled at her rambling on Larry King and with other interviewers, where she always tries to blame others. I am hoping that the citizens of Alaska start taking a closer look at this woman, and I also would like the press to start asking her substantive questions and require her to answer them and not allow her talk in circles.

Four years is a lot of time in which to accumulate embarrassing sound bites. She had some initial success in this campaign because she was under the radar until her selection. Now, she's been noticed.

I hope that she continues to receive plenty of media coverage for years to come and does not fade into the background. In other words, give her the rope. She'll hang herself and the Republicans with her if they pick her to represent them, preventing the far right from taking over again.

With the charges and counter-charges of the presidential election well behind us, Sarah Palin is now free of the "jerks" who ran the McCain campaign and feels like chatting openly with the press. (Most of us agree she's got a talent for public speaking, and want to hear from a "Sarah who can really be Sarah.")

Soooo...what's on her mind of late? Will she support Ted Stevens if he wins his Senate race? Will she run for president in 2012? Answer: Sarah Palin, though she promises to burst through any door to the presidency that appears even slightly ajar, is still "worried" about Obama's "pal," William Ayers. She says it isn't "mean- spirited" to be questioning such "associations"...even now.

In other words, it isn't "mean-spirited" to continue to aim weak, guilt-by-association campaign smears at our president-elect, but it IS "mean-spirited" (as she put it...yes, same adjective) for the media to have questioned her recklessly expensive clothing purchases.

I, for one, am glad Sarah Palin has gone on this latest media tour. It has served to complete a personality picture that some "jerks" at one time didn't want the rest of us to see.

Just as Reagan made it possible for morons to become president in Televisionland, so has Sarah blazed a trail. And there's lots more where she came from.

Enter the Palindrones ...

Who are these people?

Twenty years ago, I was a Republican. I voted for Ronald Reagan twice. I deeply regret the second vote, not the first. But, to steal his words, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me." Ironically, Reagan was largely responsible for where the Republican Party has gone. And, where it has gone is over the deep end. "Conservative" now means "Social Conservative."

These are people who want to control what goes on in the bedroom, what books to have at the library, and have a ridiculously naive idea about sex education for our kids. Just an FYI, my children were given ALL the facts early on, and I have remained engaged in their lives with discussions of sex, disease, birth control, and all the difficult psychological factors that can be experienced in this realm. The "Abstinence Only" approach that you would get from Sarah Palin and what the world has had shoved down its throat by the worst president in our history, is one of the most absurd concepts I have ever encountered. People who espouse Abstinence Only don't understand basic facts about humans. The proof is in the pudding... and Palin's daughter is the Poster Child.

Fiscal conservatism is in the hands of the Democrats... at least it's certainly NOT in the hands of the Republicans, as they will never again be able to claim the high ground on controlling spending after the fiasco of the eight years of the Bush administration. Bush spent money like a drunken sailor.

Except, that's not totally true is it? He wasn't too willing to spend money to help Americans who lost their homes after Hurricane Katrina either... as three years have passed and many people still do not have their homes... OH, but those were poor people... or people of color... hmmmm. And, he was unwilling to spend money on health care for our children wasn't he?

But he was willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a Missile Defense System that A) Won't work, B) Might restart the cold war, and C) Is being deployed under the assumption that somebody is stupid enough to send a nuclear warhead our way complete with a return address label... I don't think there is anybody that dumb, or that crazy in existence in the world, as we would probably turn their country into a very deep crater. Meanwhile, little has been done to truly secure the existing warheads or stop rogue states from producing nuclear weapons that could be handed off to terrorists in a packing crate, ready for shipment.

So, what are we worried about? A warhead being driven by rental truck into downtown New York, Washington D.C., or both? The national debt? The deficit? Why should we care about our children? Why should we care about Katrina victims? Each other?

Where are our priorities? Iraq? The "Surge" was largely successful because American Taxpayers (the holiest of holy's for Republicans) are paying 100,000 Iraqi Sunni militants/insurgents (former IED makers and planters) $300.00 per month (that's 30 million dollars per month) to lay down their arms. NOW, that is a price as an American I am willing to pay if it saves lives, especially the lives of the sons, daughters, fathers and mothers that our Commander in Chief has forced into a war based on lies.

Sarah Palin? Who ARE these people? We need smart people to lead us. Sarah Palin is George W. Bush in a skirt. If we were smart, these recent experiences should inform us that we need our potential presidential candidates to pass basic knowledge tests. We need intelligent leaders. Thankfully, the American people have responded. I am incredibly proud of the voter turnout and the insight the voters demonstrated in this election. Now democrats, let's not screw it up.

Sarah Palin? She is a train wreck.

No, she's not stupid. No more so than say the black inner city kid who scores porely on a standardized IQ test, or the white middle class suburban kid who fails on the Chittlin' Test. But let call her what she is: A Beauty Queen, with a powerful addiction to lights, cameras and a microphone. And not a lick of a coherent thought process in her soul. With respects to Dick Cavett's blog:

"My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars."

For the full article, go here: http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/?em

Sarah Palin is yet another example of how self focused America is.
As a Canadian i am awaiting yet the next time an American president decides what we have she / he wants be it water, oil, land or maple syrup. It is why Fort Drum NY was rebuilt and stocked.
America is at it's best when it leads by example in relief and innovation taking a rightful place leading the global community.
Change comes from within a society not an elected figurehead.
Can we have our land back in Conneticut we were robbed of after the War of "Independence"? It's truly time for America to soberly reflect on her strengths and path thus far.
The global economic community may well decide in the days ahead it can't afford America's debt and that a new future is needed.
Palin is irrelevant.

Palin is certainly not as dangerous as Hitler, but look what happened when the world ignored him. You can never ignore
a politician that has millions of supporters, that in itself gives
them power, and you never ignore power. In fact you have to
do the opposite, you keep a close watch on it, for those who
fail to will have no standing to complain if this power they
ignored ever gets elected to make policy.

I would love for Palin to go away! She is raw ambition with solid ignorance. She is an embarrassment to the Republican party and to all of the numerous women who have fought and struggled for her to even have a chance to be where she is today.

However, as long as the public is interested she is not going away.

Hopefully if she talks long enough she will dig her own whole and those who think she has some original ideas will see the puppet she is just like George Bush. These people are not deep thinkers. They live on the surface.

please stop w this bum@@@@ they and their like should not get air time it's fueling their fires deny them press and they will go away b/c of no money

The only thing I have to say is I hope she becomes the 2012 nominee of the GOP. The rednecks will be so busy droolin over her they'll forget to vote!

Rewriting history, consolidate her leadership status....
Rewrting history alright. The first moron woman who might go down in history to be President of the United States of America just because the American people love to glorify ignorancy. How low can we get.
Consolidate what leadership? Seducing the American public with her wink and charming smile without a brain to show for.
Sarah Palin's educational attainment went only as far as graduating from an undergraduate degree program in journalism, attended six (6) unknown colleges, with "D"s on her school records.
It puzzles me how all these highly educated people, scholars and all with trails of outstanding accomplishments behind them can look me in the eyes and say great things about her.
Are they for real? or for show? How can anyone who attended all this prestigious universities and commanding professional status can identify with Sarah Palin? What if any do they have in common with Sarah Palin? This is like comparing the earth from the sky. Sarah Palin down in the dirt and them up high in the sky.
And yet it is a wonder to me how these accomplished professionals can say great things about Sarah Palin. Not to mention how lousy she is as a mother. She has three daughters, what a pity. The oldest getting pregnant out of wedlock. One would wonder what moral upbringing did she ever do for her daughters.
I have two highly accomplished daughters with high moral values. I insist on moral values, as in dignity and integrity. My oldest one is 28, unmarried, graduated summa cum laude double major, Philosophy/Psychology undergraduate degree program from Boston University. Took her Masters Degree in Business Administration graduated with honors. Took her Law Degree (JD) and currently a lawyer here in California. Took her Masters Degree in Law, graduated with honors. She traveled the world with her brains. I did not give her a backpack and a passport and have her travel the world. She did it on her own. My younger daughter is 22, unmarried, graduated summa cum laude double major, BS Computer Science/BA Math, University of San Francisco and commanding a six (6) figures annual salary.
Both were very active in the primary and general election for Barack Obama. My two daughters can identify with Barack Obama but they can never ever identify with Sarah Palin.
They are already annoyed about her daughter Bristol. They are more annoyed with Sarah Palin displaying her appalling stupidity on national television.
If Sarah Palin is the future of GOP and the future of America, I would like to hear what you have to say about this Joan Walsh.

The nomination of Sarah Palin exposed the GOP in a way that many Dems could only dream of. The truth is that the base she energized is that Right version of the Loony Left. The GOP knows this but won't admit it in public.

I'd love to see the GOP split off into two factions, the True Conservatives (small government) and the Family Values (Christian) parties. Then they can complain about Palin splitting the right vote in 2012, giving the election to Barack Obama.

After the election of GWB, I worried that the American public would fall for just about anything if it pretended to be just like them. At least Palin gave us a bottom to the hole. Run, Sarah, please!

As they said on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, in response to those angry emails complaining that the election was over and why were they still making fun of Palin –
“When SHE stops, we'll stop.”

Since Palin first surfaced, Venus-like, I have thought she was 1) a joke, 2) a demagogue 3) the manchurian candidate of radical and militant fundamentalism, 4) all of the above.

However, the important thing isn't what she is -- an ignorant, uneducated woman endowed with "trailer trash" ethics, good looks, and a radical, apocalyptic religion. The important -- and interesting -- thing about her is what she is in the eyes of her beholders. (http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=37488.) . Like John the Baptist, she is the messenger of a contemporary religious movement that is virtually unknown to most people, and ignored -- or sneered at -- by sophisticated people.

Vice Presidents are always hatchet men, and now women, so the Presidential candidate can "Keep his Hands Clean," while applying Robert Greene's 48 Laws of power. Time will tell with Mrs. Palin. Given how far she has come relative to her pretty humble roots, and her name recognition, and given the fact that Mr. Obama himself lowered the bar on experience and raised the bar on looks (although I don't get that personally, she's alright, although my male students think she is hot in an American Pie sort of way, go figure), I would not underestimate her; name recognition in an idiotic celebrity driven culture will not hurt either.
Note two that Greene's Law of Power Always Seem Dumber than Your Mark has always been popular in American politicians, see W. sort of beating Gore and Kerry, particularly in a country like the United States which does not value genius in the same way as Western Europe due to our lack of an aristocratic tradition.
Note three, Mr. Obama is going to face a very agressive Russia under "Medvedev" (really Putin) and that the federal government has scarce ability to maneuver either fiscally or monetarily already before it has to deal with Russia Resurgent in terms of policy withing the dying Keynesian framework, and I would not underestimate her chances at all.
Who knows, if she just spent two years traveling and reading history, she might still surprise people with growth. A lot of people make fun of her because of Alaska and the community colleges, but then the insufferably arrogant Northeastern elite educated W., Greenspan, Bernanke and Paulson, and none of them are looking too great now. Maybe a better read Palin would be a big surprise. That is after all what the supposed egalitarians on the Left say they want.

My Boy, Matthew:


15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

And gosh darnit she sure is fruity!

I just read Joan's posting on Sarah P and the comments. A few days ago, I posted a similar essay. A comment that I received about my thoughts on the subject was quite correct and reads as follows:
There's an aphorism from the 1930s that's been attributed to Huey Long and Sinclair Lewis, among others: "When fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross." That is the issue.

Mr. Bush has not been the problem so much as those who have been handling him. These people are still with us and will not go away any time soon. If we are entering into a difficult time economically, as it seems, then someone will rise up like a phoenix to tell us that the problem lies with others, elsewhere. Think back to the period 1918 to 1933. We ( and others) were the victors out of WWI. Germany was defeated. We had good times in the 1920's and a depression followed. America got FDR. Who did Germany get and why? Hold Obama's (and the Dem congress) feet to the fire, yes. At the same time, be very leery of those who, although very brainy, are not on the side of the common (wo)man. Palin and her ilk are not electable unless those of us who care about a civilized world stop paying attention.

As of this morning Ted Stevens is no longer a U.S. Senator. While I'm grateful those 3000 votes will keep that bastard out of Washington, I Think i'll miss the humiliation of seeing him profess his innocence in front of millions. And I think in a weird sort of way, I'll miss Mrs. Palin. Seeing her everyday as a Senator would be funnier than seeing Robin Williams on coke.

You probably recycled a comment you wrote about Dan Quayle. Shame on you.

PS: I notice my last comment critical of you was taken down. It's good to be Queen!

I cringed-- CRINGED-- with embarrassment while listening to her responses to Katie Couric's questions. I thought: is THIS the type of statesperson we deserve?
We are seeing the worst of what promised to happen after Ronald Reagan invited the Religious Right into the GOP in a big way.

I spoke with some supporters of Palin during the nastier parts of the campaign and came to understand better the differences between how they and I think. While they were all genuinely concerned about her lack of understanding of even the basics of complex issues, that was something that they were willing to live with.

The real divide was division itself. While I reacted in horror to talk of "the real America" as being just a certain kind of person in a certain kind of community, many of my Republican friends (the less educated ones) simply couldn't see why that bothered me. I had tried to suggest that Governor Palin's talk about "real America" was something that would particularly frighten Jews and almost certainly had a detrimental effect in Florida. (Jews have always voted overwhelmingly Democratic, but I think that Republicans were poised to make significant inroads there until Palin lost it for them.)

One very reasonable person that I talked to could not understand why I or Jews in particular would find the implication that some Americans aren't "real Americans" alarming. It was her bafflement at this that I found illuminating. It really reflects on a very different outlook on what ideas are deeply pernicious. Palin and her supporters aren't trying to be divisive. They are divisive without knowing it. They really are blind to how others see them.

Did Palin's shot at "eastern elites" during the debate shift New Hampshire from a battle ground to true blue? I think so, but this is just another example where they probably have no idea that she insulted an entire region. Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" remark pales in comparison to what Palin was saying.

I'm thinking that if the Republican Party really wants to reinvent itself, or get back to its roots, it will reject Ms Palin. She represents everything - the stupidity, the crass partisanship, the hate-mongering - that sank them in this election. I really think, fingers crossed, that the party ultimately will tell her to stay up there in Alaska and not bother us.

Oh, I dunna, JP, Palin may have blown New Hampshire for the republicans when she said it was in the "great northwest."

I think they may have been a little pissed off that someone running for high political office was one of those U.S. Americans who don't have maps.

I swear, every time Palin talks, I feel bad for comparing Miss Teen South Carolina to her.

I insulted Miss Teen South Carolina by that comparison.

Did you see this?

It's Palin's turkey pardon clip. Fairly dreadful-- so if you haven't already seen it you might spare yourself.

My question: how did she NOT know what was happening behind her? How did her support team miss it? She must have known, but not thought it so awful after all. And THAT'S a problem.

I think the appeal of Palin was because she was totally different. She was a women, a Washington Outsider, and projected a folksy one of the people vibe. The great thing about this election is America is willing to look at new ideas and not the usual suspects.

Obama won because he represents something new. Time will tell if he drifts back into politics as usual, but people really do believe we can change our current country's direction.

Who knows maybe Palin will be back in 2012, but one thing is for sure America would rather see new blood than the so called experience that has been running this country for the last 40 years. I think a woman has a good shot in the 2012 or 2016 election to win the presidency. It most likely will not be Palin, but there are some rising stars in both parties.

palin is looking more Alaskin all the time. Gone the hairdresser and the expensive makeup artist. lines from nose to chin and mouth to jaw beginning to be apparent in closups. In four years and indeed in eight years age will contin;ue to remake the pretty folksy image she projected at the convention.

It's too bad. For her sake I can empathise with the ravaging age bug and what it does to ones self confidense. Of ourse he self confidense is indestructable and she "doesn't BLINK". That is she doesn't let ANYTHING bother her.

it is up to the moderates in the Republican party to keep her in check, not to celebrate her. She is a liability to them.

as for us keeping her in our sigthts, maybe just a little. please forgive typos. . .claire

Somehow I just cannot bring myself to worry about this featherweight excuse for a politician. The recent turkey video is a good example. She blathered on about nothing while we were treated to a turkey slaughter behind her. During about the fourth time I saw this sorry scene I paid more attention to what she was actually saying.

It was as Charles Gibson said, “a blizzard of words.” Seldom will you hear anyone talk as long as Palin does without actually saying anything. I can't imagine anyone listening to that for four years and still wanting to support her for high office.
-Jonah