Comedians and satirists have never had an easier time mocking politicians than right now. McCain/Palin is such a ridiculous ticket that they provide so much of their own material.

"Talk about being before it before you were against it!"

See The Daily Howler at http://www.dailyhowler.com

Also, Palin and McCain lied about her associaiton with the Alaksa Indepence Party:

McCain lied about it this very day.  ABC News blog says otherwise.  

From Politico

"Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla - that amounts to $3,000 per
resident."

Just what America needs right now -- someone who can dramatically expand our national debt!  

there are also huge issues with the quality of the school system in Alaska.  What has Palin done to improve them, if anything?

100%...just look at this Washington Post quote:

When Mildred Hartless, 78, was asked whom she plans to vote for, she responded: "Bahama, Omama or whatever his name his."

People who can't even pronounce his name are voting for him!

Bahama Omama for President!

that I wouldn't count 100%.  That's a vote that could very easily change inside the voting booth.

The real tell is the VP poll with Biden pulling 54 percent versus Palin at 41.  A lot of people have jumped off the Bush bandwagon, and the GOP bandwagon simply because they see other people doing it.  I don't think some of these people have answered the question in their own minds as to just exactly why the GOP is such a disaster.    

In real terms we're probably looking at a 50-50 Virginia election.  Maybe Obama can hit 51 percent, but I would be absolutely shocked if his ceiling was any higher in this state.

The upside is that the GOP will be forced to spend money in Virginia this election cycle -- that opens up the door in other battleground states.

The most improtant thing that has happened in the past few days is that the Rethug momentum has been broken due to the double whammy of Gustav and Palin's problems. Whether McSame dumps her or not will become the next big question. But whatever, it's going to take a real turn-around for the Rethugs to come out of their convention with any momentum at all. As soon as I heard the name Palin I thought this is the beginning of the end of McSame, but I had no idea it would happen this quickly. His campaign is simply not able to sustain a week of bad news like this. This is a flawed ticket from the get-go. Maybe that's why Obama and Biden are smiling so much! Just let them twist in the wind.

The New York Times has a pretty good summary of where we stand so far on revelations about Sarah Palin, with more sure to come.

Before all this personal stuff came out, people were questioning what her views were on birth control.  Tacky, yes, but now we really need to know.  This woman is asking to be elected to the second highest office in the land.  Given our experience with Cheney, we should not underestimate the power and influence of the Vice President.  These are important policy, not just personal, matters.  It is important what her views are, as she will no doubt attempt to impose them on the rest of us.

It's like the bumper sticker says: Family values?  Take care of your own damn family!

Lying about her support of The Bridge To Nowhere is an issue. Doing her job as mayor and getting as much money for her town as she can should be a plus to her credit. She didn't make the rules, she used them for the good of her people. The connection to Ted Stevens is guilt by association. The Republicans are trying to tar Barrak every way they can with this.

that she's some sort of reformer, when it turns out that she's a big-time pork-barrel/earmarks fan when it comes right down to it.  Is that how John McCain defines "reform?"  If so, I want no part of it, and I doubt many other Americans do either.

The Democratic meme for today is that Palin was a terrible liar for trying to get the biggest share of the federal dole out for her state, while opposing earmarks in principle.  The same was true when she was mayor.  Uh, when you're at the bottom of the heap that's what you're supposed to do.  Otherwise your locality loses out.  When you get in power at the top, you try to change the system.  As governor she has tried to cut earmarks requested from the state budget by the towns.  It's an inefficient, wasteful system, and the ending of it is important.  Hey, my brother was a school system administrator and fought for every federal giveaway dollar he could.  He is a fiscal conservative.  Should he have shortchanged the kids in his system because the feds choose to hand out money in such stupid fashion?

I'm feeling dizzy, how about you?

She said she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere and is against pork barrel funding for her state.  But her record shows she was FOR that bridge and FOR pork barrel funding for her state.  You can try to spin it however you want, but the simple fact is that she made a blanket statement in her speech about that Bridge ("no thanks!") and pork, and she lied.

This is one reason that it's very hard to take the GOP seriously when it whines about "relativism".

You're essentially saying that your brother is only SOMETIMES a fiscal conservative; other times he isn't.

Well, that's not entirely true if she was a big Ted Stevens backer.  And hiring Ted's Chief of Staff as a lobbyist would be backing his style of politics.  

I hate Ted Stevens.  I hope he goes to jail (assuming he is guilty).  But you also have to realize she has fought Don Young's corrupt politics, and she backed Young's opponent in the primary (there's a recount going on--Young is narrowly ahead).  Liberal blogs were praising Young's opponent.

And then there's this:

Leading Alaska Democrat praises Palin

Alaska's highly touted Democratic nominee for the state's lone congressional seat has nothing but compliments for Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's new running mate.

Former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz praised Palin's record of ethics reform and bipartisan credentials in a statement.

"This is an exciting day for Alaska," Berkowitz said. "Gov. Palin has made her name fighting corruption within her own party, and I was honored when she stepped across party lines and asked me to co-author her ethics white paper."

Berkowitz is running against the winner of the yet-unresolved Republican primary between Rep. Don Young and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. With thousands of absentee ballots still uncounted, Young leads by a razor-thin margin of 152 votes.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/...

By demonizing Palin, and refusing to take an evenhanded assessment process, you are degrading your own arguments and the value of this blog.  Palin has tried to work within the system.  She's also tried to end corruption.  

Obama did this same tightrope in his years in Illinois.  It's what pragmatic politicians are supposed to do.  Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton were masters at it.  Carter was a failure at it.

From your description of Palin's pragmatic approach, I'd be more persuaded to vote for her.

If I want one-sided analysis I can go to MSNBC or Fox.

But "Hill2012?"  Would that be as in "Hillary" in the year 2012, four years from now?

I can't help but feel like you don't actually have our best interests at heart, either as Democrats or as Americans.

She's the one selling herself as a corruption crusader who was outside the old boys network in Alaska.  If she was this thick with Ted Stevens, she certainly was much more a part of that network than she has let on.

If she hadn't made these outlandish claims in her speech, I'd agree with you.  But she painted herself as an anti-pork, anti-corruption outsider, but there is plenty of evidence to support the notion that she was "in" with some of the big time corrupt GOPer in Alaska and never anti-pork.