I know that Obama is sleeping better tonight knowing that this bunch of has beens is going to be whipping up support for him.

See, I just can’t stay away.  BTW, when’s the last time you read MY blog?

Thought so.

Honestly, I’m not picking a fight here...there is not ONE thing I like about that woman.  Nothing.  At all.  Except maybe her hair.  Please please please tell me what it is that you see in her.  Not what it is vs Biden or Barack....just HER.  Because I really CANNOT see it.

Well, I won’t speak for Jerry because I don’t know what he thinks on the subject (not even sure what he thinks of Palin, for that matter), but for me…

First, you can never take a candidate outside of a greater context. I will vote for McCain-Palin not just because of her or because of McCain, but because of the contextual situation. Obama-Biden is part of that context, of course, but not all of the context. There is also the question about how comfortable I feel with Democrats controlling the House, the Senate, and the Presidency (especially with Dean, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama being the leadership of the party) and how I feel about the way each side would attack the biggest issues of the day.

But as for why I like Palin: I like her because she’s a hell of a lot more like me and the way that I grew up than any other person that I can currently think of in national level politics. She’s been to the same churches, had a lot of the same upbringing, and values many of the same things that I do. I like her when she does things like this. I like that she brings spark and excitement to a campaign that wasn’t even my second or third choice (although I don’t dislike McCain the way some conservatives do)--and you can’t change anything if you can’t excite people enough to get out and vote. I like that she has been poised and much nicer than me in dealing with utterly ridiculous intrusions, accusations, and basically a bunch of BS since she was announced as the nominee. I like the way that she is a true citizen politician and not someone who is entrenched in a system that I am growing more and more to despise (and I’ll refrain from making the commentary about Obama right now that I want to).

I like that she’s a hunter and that her kids serve in the military. Hell, I like that she can see Russia from her back yard (in a metaphorical if not actual sense) because I think it imparts a very different world view than the one that someone from, ummm, near Chicago might manage. I like that she’s both for drilling in ANWR and believes in anthropegenic global warming--because even though I don’t believe the same things that she does on the global warming debate, I think our economy and our lives will be enriched if we are smart enough to move away from burning coal and oil to fuel our economy. But I don’t want some promise of a ten year timeline, I want the market to be given enough room to come up with the best solutions and technologies to the problem while we transition intelligently from where we are at today to where we want to be in the (again, metaphorical) tomorrow.

I like that she doesn’t seem to believe that government is the solution to many of my biggest concerns.

And, lastly, I like her. I think that if we were to invite her and Todd to one of our parties, they would be fun to drink and talk with. I wouldn’t agree with them on a lot of things, but I’d enjoy the experience--which I’m not certain I can say about any of the rest of the people running at this point. Obama or Biden? Maybe Biden, but Obama and I would clash in ugly ways. McCain? Ten or fifteen years ago, sure. Barr? Laughable idea.

I don’t like everything about her. I wish she had been stronger in those early one-on-one interviews, but I’m willing to cut her slack since she’s learning on the job. Some people like the winks but to me they play about as well as referring to yourself as “the maverick” two or three times in the same debate. Irritating. I think that her religious beliefs are more conservative than my own--although I’m glad she seems to be a true moderate on some social issues.

And, yeah, her hair is really nice, too. Really nice.

Thanks, honestly.

Mine’s not as eloquent as yours, but here’s what I see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJVTao4X-Y

Loved that movie.

Although, I have to tell you, by the end I liked TF more than I liked her teacher--although it certainly didn’t start that way.

Yeah, what Z said. That’s much better than I could have expressed it myself.

Dude, if memory serves Election was part of The Streak[TM], wasn’t it?