OMG! Has the White House Got it Wrong AGAIN???

ALEX's BLOG:

NOTE TO WHITE HOUSE: BIPARTISANSHIP DIDN'T WORK: you held out your hand and the GOP spit on it...and then they complained that you tried to touch them with a spitty hand!

Okay, just last night, as I watched John Boenher slur his way through a victory speech, I looked for some silver linings...and I found one: now that the GOP holds the purse-strings in the House, they will actually have to DO something, rather than carp, complain, and pretend that this is not their mess in the first place.

I am very confident that, by 2012, the seeds planted in 2009 will begin to pay off for Democrats, while Republican efforts will bring absolutely no relief to a nervous American people. Making 2012 a pretty good year for Democrats...and allowing them to finish the work they started. We need to get this country BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK...we need to re-build our neglected infrastructure, incubate the industries and energy sources of the future and set ourselves up to compete with China and India...so that we do not wind up as a second rate power within the next three decades.

The only thing that really needs to be in place to make this happen is a White House Communications Team who understands that we are fighting for the future of our country...and that we are in a fight against a party who is completely wrong, and so completely bullheaded that they will never realize it, they will never compromise, they will never surrender. We must, therefore, do the same. Draw the Sword and toss the scabbard. The White House needs to cast itself as the underdog, show the country how arrogant and ignorant these republicans are and...FIGHT! (Have I said that before?)

But this morning...I have to admit, I'm a lot less optimistic than I was last night.

The first thing I read was this headline:
"White House aide: President Obama will heed election message"

The text doesn't get any better:

A top aide to President Barack Obama said not to look for a change in his “fundamental principles, but certainly there were messages that have to be heeded, and we will.”

“If you believe in democracy, we were swept in by a big wave, so you have to pay attention to these results and what people are saying,” the aide said. “They want us to work together, to focus on the economy – for jobs and growth — and we’re going to do that.”

The tone was more humble than is customary for this White House, and the aide promised a period of introspection.

The aide also mentioned deficits as an area that the parties can do a better job of working together.

JEESOM H FREEKING CROW!!! A better job of working together? What freaking planet is the "aide" living on?

And where have they freaking been for the last 20 years? When Republicans get their asses handed to them, they don't go talking about "working together"....HELL'S NO!

Republicans get Whooped, and immediately they go put their big boots on and start stomping around like they OWN the place! They start talking trash, throwing rocks, and pretending like they actually won...and nine times out of ten, it works. My god, by February of 2009, a mere month after Mr. Obama took office, you'd think the freaking GOP had actually WON the election of 2008!

But our Team Of Leaders in the White House is "Humbled" and talking about "working together"...

Look, kids: That's what you said when you WON in 2008. And I have to admit, that whole Bi-partisan reaching across the aisle thing...it was a nice try, it showed class...really, it did. But it didn't work. Again, in case you missed it: IT DIDN'T WORK: you held out your hand and the GOP spit on it...and then they complained that you tried to touch them with a spit covered hand!

If it didn't work then, what the hell makes you think it's gonna work NOW?


Look, Democrats...the policies are GOOD. They are working and will continue to work. But you are going to have to FIGHT.

Because that is what the other side is doing:

Boehner and many Republicans floated some conciliatory messages toward Democrats on Tuesday night, but many factions of the party, including those closely aligned with the tea party, remained defiant. Two leading tea party leaders -- Sarah Palin and South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint -- insisted that the election results were more an argument against compromise than a case for working with Democrats. "The GOP has to understand, that machine has to understand, we are not sending Republicans … to D.C. to sing Kumbaya with Obama," Palin told conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham. "We're sending them to stop Obama!"

That's a clear a declaration of war as you could possibly want... so stop showing up dressed for tennis, Mr. Obama, and come dressed for all out combat...

The Today Show vs. Fountain, Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Sink Holes and 343 people

Fountain, Minnesota, which is about 30 miles south of Rip-and-Read's new home, bills itself as "The Sink Hole Capital of America". With only 343 residents, the sink holes are just about all they have. Sadly Rip-and-Read has just learned of a dastardly move by the venal Eastern Elite Establishment to take even this title away from poor Fountain...leaving them with nothing but holes.

According to the Rochester Post Bulletin, Today Show Travel Host Peter Greenburg totally dumped on the little town and it's 343 residents by including their attraction in his book, "Don't Go There", and then waxing funny about it on the morning news.

Mostly notably, Greenburg seized on the fact that the word "Capital" was misspelled in the town's tourist brochure. Of course, there are very few things guaranteed to tick Rip-and-Read off faster than a spelling purist. There is a misconception that Good Spelling equals High Intelligence, when, in fact, it is no more than a signal of Petty Pedantry. If bad spelling was good enough for our Founding Fathers, then it is Good Enough for us...and should be more than Adequate for an elitist like this Greenburg fellow.

According to the article, no one is sure if Greenburg actually managed to visit the "Sink Hole Capital of the World." The Post Bulletin's Laura Gossman interviewed Debra Richardson of the Fillmore County History Center:

Richardson said she'd like to invite Greenburg to stop and visit the town.

"We could take him out to a sinkhole and let him know they aren't a danger to children in the area," Richardson said. "Many kids are fascinated by sinkholes and are eager to learn more about the formations."

Rip-and-Read is sure that this is true...who wouldn't want to spend a day, perhaps even a week, looking at, thinking about, and maybe falling into, a sink hole: nature's playground? Any Red Blooded American Tourist would be Proud to include this stop on their itinerary; Afterward, they would display photos prominently in the digital picture frame bought from Walmart to commemorate the experiance.

After thinking about Peter Greenburg's snide comments (which I admit I've neither heard nor read) I couldn't help but see this as a big city swipe at small town life. I wondered just what that great defender of Small Town American Values, George Bailey of It's A Wonderful Life would have said. I imagine something like this:



In the end, this just tells us that the results of the recent election have gone to the heads of the Big City Elite Media...and they think they can return to their old ways of disparaging the citizens of tiny little God-Fearing, Sink Hole Havin' burgs like Fountain.

Well, I would like to remind Greenburg and his cohorts that Sarah Palin, that great champion of the Real American, will be back- with a plumber AND a six-pack, and that this time: IT'S PERSONAL...

Violating Sarah Palin's Rights: "So Dumb It Hurts"

Not much time to blog today, out to knock on doors again. But I just had to throw up a link to this: Sarah Palin is claiming that, by criticizing her campaign rhetoric, the media is violating her first amendment rights.

Read Glenn Greenwald on Salon to get the full story...he also takes a slap at liberal columnist Maureen Dowd who equally deserves it.

The stand out quote is as follows:

The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.

People have the right to say whatever they want. But when they tell lies, or stick their Uggs in their Mugs...other people have the right to point it out. If they tell lies, they suffer the consiquences. Sarah must have been out at a pageant rehearsal during that social studies class. Read the piece...please!

Sarah Palin and her Boosters The Geeks and the Beauty Queen

So where the hell did Sarah Palin come from, anyway? Like most casual observers of politics, I'd never heard of her until this summer...or if I had, I quickly forgot all about it.

Today's Washington Post has a great piece by Richard Cohen entitled: Palin's Love Boats. In the column, Cohen spins the tail of a gaggle of conservative journalists who trekked up to Alaska in 2006 and were stunned to find a beauty queen fairy princess.

Upon their return, they began a drumbeat designed to bring Palin to center stage in the lower 48.

Cohen writes:

After an apparently bravura saying of grace, she wowed her guests with some excellent halibut cheeks and the Category 4 force of her personality. Some of them sank into a kind of delirium known to high schoolers and praised her as "my heartthrob" (Kristol), "a mix between Annie Oakley and Joan of Arc" (Gerson) and, so far not evident, "smart" (Barnes).

It's a great story. And, as we keep our fingers crossed for an Obama Presidency, it's tempting to laugh at the Saga of Sarah.

But my fear is that Palin is not going away. When I first saw and heard her, I was afraid. She did come across as a hockey mom, someone from the "common ranks" who would break the "elitist" mold. I looked at Sarah Palin and saw a political actress I could easily cast as my local bank branch manager, real estate agent, or local sales rep. Someone perfectly likable, hardworking, knowledgeable in their field, and yet at the same time, perfectly willing to believe that aliens walked among us, or that Harry Potter books led to Devil worship.

While I'm not hungering for this type of leader, I suspected that many Americans were.

Palin would have been very hard to stop, I think. Because to criticize her would be to criticize ordinary Americans...

And, in the end, I think that we were only saved because we were VERY fortunate to have a rare combination of looks and talent in comedian Tina Fey. Fey almost single handedly was able to defuse Palin and help us see her as ridiculous because the actress looked SO much like her target that it almost seemed as if Palin herself were making the jokes.

If elected, President Barak Obama will have a rough first term...there is little doubt about that. The problems heaped on his shoulders will be all but overwhelming. If he is unable to convince a divided America that he is making progress, I have no doubt that we will see Palin back again.

And that still scares me.

Obama ahead in Cookie Poll

These days, everyone, it seems is taking polls: API, CBS, BBC, NBC, CSPAN, Reuters, NPR…the list is all but endless. All about the same, both in results and methodology.

But in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, there is a new kind of polling taking place, one I thought “Rip and Read”ers would enjoy: the cookie poll.

In it’s own quest for results, Daube’s Down Under, a lunch spot located in the subterranean shopping subway under the Mayo clinic, has instituted the cookie poll.

Each day, a tray of cookies is placed out for lunch customers looking for desert…one side of the tray offers blue frosted “Obama” cookies, the other, “McCain” cookies with red frosting.

According to staff members, they’ve been keeping track of sales. Obama is out-polling McCain by 150 to 80 as of today.

As a responsible voter, I felt it my duty to try both of the baked goods. On the surface, both cookies were much the same size and weight, there was a lot to like about each, but I must confess that, somehow, in the end, I found the Obama cookie much easier to swallow.

Perhaps it was the spice they used to make the red frosting on McCain’s cookie. What did the lady behind the counter say it was? Cumin? No…wait—PALIN! That’s what it was…the McCain Cookie had too much Palin.

Sarah Palin: Livin' Large at Taxpayer Expense.

When Sarah Palin burst on to the national scene last summer, we all heard about what a pit bull she was when it came to saving the taxpayers money. She stopped the "bridge to nowhere" and, in a dramatic move, put the state's plane up for sale on E-Bay.

Problem is, she still needs to travel, and she's got a large family. Fortunately, Alaska's taxpayers were able to foot the bill, it seems.

Bobbi just sat down to her email and saw this article from the AP:

Alaska funded Palin kids' travel

Even at this late date, I have a lot of respect for Senator McCain....but I can't really say the same for his running mate....

We've heard a lot from the GOP about science center slide projectors and projects to study bear DNA foisted on the public by Liberal Democrats..

...but it seems that the apostles of "thrift" in the GOP may have dirty hands on this one. I know that some Democrats have been guilty of abusing the system, but there is an old saying: Those Who live in Glass Houses should not throw stones.

In other words, it's bad enough to do wrong, but to do wrong while loudly pointing the finger at OTHER people and trying to punish THEM for doing wrong is even more despicable.

Governor Palin has been throwing a lot of rocks lately- and it looks like one of them might have come back to brake her house.

The AP has just released an article which suggests that Sarah Palin may well have taken her children on junkets and had the taxpayers of Alaska pay for it.

Here's a quote:

"In October 2007, Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York for a women's leadership conference. Plane tickets from Anchorage to La Guardia Airport for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, records show, and mother and daughter shared a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park."

And later we learn that the Governor had her family sent to an event just so they could watch their dad finish a snowmobile race:

"The organizer of an American Heart Association luncheon on Feb. 15 in Fairbanks said Palin asked to bring daughter Piper to the event, and the organizer said she was surprised when Palin showed up with daughter Willow and Bristol as well.

The three Palin daughters shared a room separate from their mother at the Princess Lodge in Fairbanks for two nights, at a cost to the state of $129 per night.

The luncheon took place before Palin's husband, Todd, finished fourth in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, also in Fairbanks. The family greeted him at the finish line."

Well...the family that plays together stays together...and the citizens who elect her will PAY together, too.

Sarah knows where the money is: She looks at the taxpayer and says: Drill, Baby. Drill.

While Worth Watching, Obama Film missed a chance to Teach and Resorts to Gotcha Tactics.

"Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it."



All week we've been subjected to sound bites of Tina Fey (oops, I mean, Sarah Palin) yammering about how "The Noow Yoork Tiiimes sayz dat Barak Obama Palled around with Terrorists a heck of a lot don't ya know" And the "Liberal Media" continues to play the sound bite despite the fact that the NYTimes article concludes that the connection between the two is not close...and that the terrorist in question has since become an activist for education AND that Barack Obama was all of 8 years old when Bill Ayers was active.

So, I can understand WHY the Obama Campaign felt obliged to make and release it's short documentary: "Keating Economics". Still, after watching it, I found myself wishing that the campaign could have aimed a little higher.

Don't get me wrong. As the financial industry collapses around our ears, and We the People are tapped to pay the bill, the ghosts of the SAVINGS AND LOAN crisis are hovering right above our shoulders. So it's great to have a reminder.

(Wikipedia has a nice refresher course in the S&L Crisis, just in case you forgot the 160 BILLION Dollars you paid back in the late 1980s. It basically boils down to a bunch of Greedy Financial Types, doing fraudulent back flips under a "Free Market" President who sent all the Federal Regulators Home for the Long Weekend. This was back in the 1980s- and here we are again- hence my resort above the overused Santayna quote.)

But "Keating Economics" does a little more than "remind" us. The movie, which feels a lot like a cross between a Frontline piece and something from Fox News, opens with John McCain being hauled before the Senate Ethics committee. In flashbacks, we learn that McCain had close personal ties to Charles Keating, one of the most infamous of the S&L bandits. We learn that McCain and several other Senators used undue influence behind closed doors to offer improper advantage to Keating.

We watch as Keating is trapped and cornered....and the documentary leads you to the emotional conclusion that we will be watching John McCain doing the Perp Walk, too.

But McCain never did the perp walk. The truth is that he was found largely innocent of wrong doing...and he went on to continue a fairly distinguished career in the U.S. Senate.

At this point the movie swerves away from it's "criminal" narrative and makes some really valid points about what happens when Government agrees to protect investors without regulating their activities...in the end, THIS is the most valid part of the film, the part the makes it worth sitting through.

I wish that the Obama campaign had used the same tricks of the trade (tight editing, good story structure, etc.) to make an easy to understand movie about why a Free Market works best with a bit of government oversight to protect the Taxpayers and the Public, rather than indulging the in the temptation to race Sarah Palin and her ilk to the bottom.

My fear is that the American people, realizing that the case against McCain is overstated for dramatic effect, will ignore the parts of the S&L story which are truly important. Our present crisis proves that we've ignored these historical lessons once to our cost (Savings and Loan, 1980s: $160b...government bailout, 2008: $700 -so far!)- let's start electing some public officers who won't continue to compound the mistake.

As it is, this campaign could feature a real debate (Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Milton Friedman vs. FDR and John Maynard Keynes)- instead it's turning into a bickering match:

"You sat too close to Bill Ayers at the board meeting!"
"Oh, yeah? Well, YOU sat too close to Charles Keating!"

Of course, that having been said- it IS true that THEY started it.

The Swimsuit competition: Shattering the Glass Ceiling

Offered without further comment.

Leave it at the Door? Fat Chance- I'd Rather Fix Some Blame.

Ever since the financial crises exploded onto the national consciousness last week, we've been hearing calls (mostly from the Republicans) to "tone down" the "partisan" rhetoric.

In Iowa, John McCain declared that: "Our leaders are expected to leave partisanship at the door and come to the table to solve our problems..."

[Let us completely ignore the hypocrisy in this statement. After "Super John McSame" Suspended His Campaign last week and FLEW to Washington to lead his colleagues out of the mire of negotiations- is there any one left in the room who does not think that was a partisan stunt?

And let us pause to consider that- after seizing the high ground for himself in this speech by decrying partisanship- Super McSame immediately launched into a partisan polemic about how OBAMA and other dirty Democrats had sullied the process by injecting partisanship into the process. Somebody had better tell McSame that you can't take the low road and the high road at the same time...that's what you need a running mate for...oh, oops! We don't want her to Meet the Press again, though, do we?]

Immediately after his partisan call to stop the petty partisanship, McSame said:" Now is not the time to fix the blame. It's time to fix the problem."

This has become THE Republican Line of the 21st Century. Every time something is broken by the folks in charge (who, I will partisanly point out, all seem to have little "R"s behind their names)- the folks who did the breaking rush forward and say: NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO FIX THE BLAME...now is...etc. etc.

What a load of Elephant S#*t!

I only wish I could have behaved this way as a child. Imagine: my mom comes into the kitchen at 2:00am. I'm six, standing in my pajamas, with a broken cookie jar at my feet. As my mom's face begins to cloud with fury, I pull myself up to my full two foot hight and declare, more in sorrow than in anger: "Mother. Now is not the time to fix the blame. Now is the time to fix the cookie jar."

If I had done that, I would have wound up with a very warm behind, and THEN my mom would have fixed the cookie jar.

And it's for damn sure I wouldn't have tried to break it again for a while, either.

So, as Democrats, let's feel free to acknowledge that we choose to be Democrats for a REASON! WE THINK WE'VE got BETTER ANSWERS! And while we're at it, let's fix some blame!

Wow! What a Week.

I've been in and out of e-contact this week, so my glimpses of the national scene have been as if viewed by strobe light.

However, here are a few of the more interesting things I read this week.

First, my Friend Elsie of True Green Studios, sent me the following commentary from Garrison Kellior.

It was your money they were messing with. And that's why you need government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say, "This is a scam and a hustle and either you cease and desist or you spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing backgammon."

The Republican Party used to specialize in gimlet-eyed, steel-rim, crepe-soled common sense and then it was taken over by crooked preachers who demand we trust them because they're packing a Bible and God sent them on a mission to enact lower taxes, less government. Except when things crash, and then government has to pick up the pieces.

Also, when I saw that Katie Couric would be the one handling the Palin interview, I thought, oh god: The Blond leading the Bland....but as Nation points out, only Nixon could go to China, and only Katie could have dragged Palin out where Tina Fey could masticate her (in some cases, by simply quoting the Alaska governor word for word.)

Meanwhile, I tend to support the idea of a bailout (and the hiring of a lot of new financial cops) but here is an interesting read from the Christian Science Monitor that says the opposite. Certainly food for thought.

The premise is that doing nothing will hasten recession. And recession is unacceptable.

But that kind of thinking is a big reason we're now on the verge of a financial meltdown. By taking a zero-tolerance policy toward recession, Washington has dangerously juiced the economy with monetary steroids for more than a decade.

The painful truth is that recession may be precisely what's needed to restore economic health. Yet the bailout attempts to avoid this crucial reckoning – which may make things worse.

Short And SweetPalin and her FRIENDS!

Here's a link - sent to me by my friend Elsie in Florida- in which, not knowing that the mike was still on- a couple of Republican prognosticators say what they REALLY think....what was that Sarah Palin was saying last night about "Democrats" who say one thing to one crowd and something else to themselves....I think we see here that REPUBLICANS are pretty good at hypocrisy!

Check it out!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/peggy-noonan-and-mike-murphys-off-air-attack-of-palin-for-vp-pick-whos-telling-the-truth/

Palin Round Up

Just finished a round up of Palin coverage...On Green Mountain Daily, Julie Waters threw a bone to the pack with "Three Things You Need to Know about Sarah Palin". Some great comments there...this one is my favorite:

"Ah Come on... She's an ex-beauty queen besides. And an avid hunter. Member of the NRA. Her husband is some kind of fishing guide, and works on an oil rig in the off season. He races snowmobiles. It's not just about Hillary's supporters--they're going after the GUY vote. The McCain people will probably put out scratch lottery tickets as a fundraising gimick--Swimsuit editions."

This echos the sentiments over at Politico, where they point out that, while the "media elite" mock Palin's lack of experience, she has energized both the gun totin' and abortion blockin' segments of the GOP base- previously lukewarm to McCain:

"Most importantly for McCain, the two constituencies who are most energized by Palin just happen to be the twin grassroots pillars of the GOP: anti-abortion activists and pro-Second Amendment enthusiasts and sportsmen. Without these two camps making phone calls, stuffing envelopes and knocking on doors, Republican presidential candidates would severely lack for volunteers. They are critical to the health of the conservative coalition that has dominated Republican politics for a generation."

JD Ryan tosses out the observation that "we have our first MILF candidate" - if you don't know what that means, look it up for yourself, I'm not the one to tell you.

The topic has engendered an interesting discussion as well. I watched Sarah Palin's introductory speech- and my ears perked up when she praised SENATOR Hillary Rodam Clinton for putting "18 million" cracks in the glass ceiling...

...I did a double take (when a Republican praises Hillary Clinton, who, up until about 12 months ago was the monster witch of the GOP world- you just KNOW they are up to something slippery)...and saw that this Sarah Palin character was a pretty good stink bomb after all.

The temptation to score cheap points off the "other side" is very hard to resist. In this world where intelligent discourse has all but evaporated- a quick one-liner that makes your opponent look contemptible in 30 seconds or less is tough to pass up.

Many of us (males) WILL be unable to resist the temptation of VPILF comments- it's just too damn EASY- many women will spend time taking down males who make those comments...and All that Time spent on the debate over inappropriate humor will take time AWAY from McSame Bashing- which is more important.

On a related note, Sarah Palin's background is going to lead to some interesting stuff as well...tough for Democrats to resist, but which should be resisted, because of the battleground states we HAVE to win.

This is "working class" issue. Democrats sincerely have the best interest of the working class at heart, but we are often uncomfortable with the appearance, attitudes and pastimes of the working class (one might venture to guess that, as we gained the education that informs our opinions, we also soaked up a little, hummm, snobbery?)

At any rate, this picture appeared on Politco. It shows a college-age Palin wearing a very slightly risque t-shirt.


Here is another area where it's REALLY tempting to have cheap fun. The big 80s hair, the stupid t-shirt (It reads "I may be broke, but I'm not flat busted"), and just the general red-neck fantasia feeling of the photo make it all but irresistible for a certain type of Democrat. Red Meat, as it were, for Blue America... My message to all: RESIST!

Here is an interesting quote- I certainly wouldn't have thought of it myself- but it gives me pause-

Isn't that photo a good thing?
That's a real person. A girl next door who decided she's had enough and decided to get involved.
And now look at her. From that photo to this time: She took on her own party and big oil and now she could be the next VP of the United States of America.
Gee, isn't America great!
What's wrong with that photo? Nothing! She should be an inspiration for all regular people to get involved and you never know what's going to happen if you stay true to your convictions.
Staying true to your convictions doesn't mean you have to be a hardened politician. Look at her then and look at her now...she a testament to what can happen to you if you just get involved.
mike t.

This quote was buried in the midst of a heap of derogatory comments. But it is a useful to remember that many Americans will not look at this picture and see trailer trash...lot of voters will look at that photo and see somebody they know...themselves. These are exactly the people whose votes we need.

Interesting, interesting election.

McCain Plays Fair- Restores My Hopes for Obama

I was concerned about the choice of Joe Biden as VP. Although he brings a great deal of experience to the table in foreign relations and political longevity, I was cautious about the shadows of plagiarism and crony-ism that lurk in the darker corners of his history.

The more I watched him next to Obama, however, the more I started to enjoy the contrast between the two...Joe Biden makes Barack Obama look damn good...reminding me as I watch, that Obama is a cut above the rest as a speaker and a motivator.

And now, McCain has played fair- he also has chosen a running mate who brings many problems to the table. You say Obama is young? Well, Palin just dropped off the turnip truck! Two Republican strategiests, quoted in the Washington Post said:

"I would rather be arguing with conservatives about abortion than with the Democrats about a lack of experience on our own ticket."

"She really destroys the 'not ready' mantra,"

According to another Post article, they call her Sarah Barracuda- both because of her tancity, and her record of turning on her political patrons. Starting with the politician who first urged her to run for City Council to the Republican Governor of Alaska- all have befriended her, and all have been thwarted or defeated by her.

Still, the record is a bit more complicated than that. In each case, it seems from a brief first reading that she turned on these sponsors and mentors because she found them not pure enough.

She certainly seems like that rare political animal: Someone who practices what they preach.

• She's against Abortion. However, when her own child was diagnosed with Down's Syndrom, she acted in accordance with her beliefs and had the baby.
• She is a fiscal conservative, and as Governor she sold the jet plane of the previous Republican Governor. And she opposes large federal projects, even though it would mean money and jobs to her state.
• She is of Bush's war party, and yet, unlike most senior politicians, her son is actually off to war.

Americans are so used to hypocrisy from their politicians that, when they meet one who actually says one thing, and does the same thing, they tend to be dazzled- respecting the character of the person so much, that they overlook the fact that the things the honest politician believes and stands up for are not, actually, possitions with which they agree at all.

(I remember friends in 2000 who liked McCain because he was a "stand up" guy- yes, I would answer, he is-- but what's he standing up for?)

For all of her advantages, like Biden, she has a weakness...She's a Woman, but she is against Freedom of Choice. She's a Christian, but a hard right evangelical one, attractive to the base but frightening to those of us who value our OWN religious freedom. She's Upright, but a Barracuda.

And maybe just a bit of a hypocrite after all, it seems she may have tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired, and then fired the man who wouldn't do it. Like Biden, however, there is enough ambiguity here, however, to cast doubt, but possibly not to condemn her- some reports say this ex-brother-in-law was a cop who tazered his step-son, and other unpleasant things....

All in all, by chosen Sarah Palin, McCain has leveled the playing field again...and that gives me good hope, because I believe that, in fair fight, we can take the GOP this time...

...and the consequences for the country are unthinkable should we fail.