I couldn't agree with you more Billy. I had similar reflections as I watched the speech. But I have faith that Sarah Palin actually represents only a relatively small minority of Americans. My sense is that her act is more in tune with 2002 and 2004 than 2008, and doesn't have legs.

Yep, there was something about her last night that seriously turned me off and I think you've clarified what exactly it was. The war-hero cultism of the plutocrat/theocrat coalition has gone too far. Meanwhile, there has clearly been a concerted effort to erase evidence of her radical political leanings and to stop the media from examining her record. Very worrying.

I sincerely hope that her aggression is not going to connect with middle america. In terms of energy policy, I hope that Americans realize that "drill baby drill" is seriously lacking as an energy policy. I found hope in the ridiculous deliver of the words on foreign policy that were put in her mouth. They were the highlight of an entirely dishonest, mean-spirited and ridiculous speech.

She kept saying "Great Leader," with those shining, adoring eyes, and it was a kick to the gut for me. Reagan-Thatcher gave me that feeling (and both were initially taken as lightweights), but the conditions for deep damage are greater now: Media more controlled; Executive power greater; spying & detention; An enemy more easily found or imagined anywhere; People more rootless, or detached; Economic "threat" greater than in 1979-82 (conditions worse then, tenuousness greater now); Multiple wars; Lots of torture talk, glory, God and flag; The hidden big Corporare hand; The pitch to small business & the Poujadists.

Above all, what they're Drilling for is... RESENTMENT.

So Jackboots on Palin? Easy to see. What next? 1. Watch for them to throw more foreign (or even domestic) threats & "events" into the mix. 2. They'll keep Palin targeted on Obama, not Biden. 3. Obama is going to have to continue to grow, adapt as circumstances change.

This is all perhaps worst-case imaginings, but the intentions of the McCain campaign are clearer. And Palin is nasty, new, carries baggage & may well explode. But no mistake, their intent is more explicitly nasty now... and more dangerous forces have been loosed. Work hard in Michigan Billy.

Rec'd

Exaggerated, I think. I'm not fond of arguments that raise the specter of fascism, but the Karl Rove wing of the Party has long sought to turn the Democrats into the party of "minorities". Is this because they have some nefarious evil design or because they see that as an expedient to power. I think the later, primarily. Demographic projections of the Hispanic population growth , and probable growth of future immigrant flows from Asia might make that a losing proposition over the long ruin.

It's very instructive to study how they re-districted Texas--got rid of all the white Democrats and made sure that the majority black and Hispanic districts stayed consolidated. Deeply cynical at the very least.

MercerReader: "We need to keep pushing the media to cover her contradictions, misrepresentations, and hypocrisies."

Do you want to do the same for Obama? There is plenty harvest there.

I'm not crazy about McCain, but Obama doesn't have the right solutions for any of the major issues: taxes, education, national security, immigration, economy, healthcare etc. He wants the government to take care of and run everything - wrong answer.

hey, wingnuts...

DRILL THIS!

I've been worried about creeping authoritarianism for eight years now. In particular, it seems like we've turned our airports into poorly quarintined hotspots of dystopic police state contagion.

But "writing off the big cities, the black vote, the liberal-leaning independent vote, the unions, and, possibly, the Hispanic vote" is a recipe for electoral disaster--because you just described overwhelming electoral majority.

I get what you're saying. The Republican party has become ever more frankly authoritarian in outlook and platform, and rural evangelicals are uniquely susceptable to that way of thinking. But, to my mind, the real danger doesn't come from the countryside, it comes from the boardrooms. I don't think its a coincidence that the Republicans official ideology is becoming frankly militaristic and authoritarian at the same time its economic policies frankly embrace policies that promote increasing income stratificaiton and the dissolution of the middle class. The more our income distribution and class system look like Guatamala in the 1960s the more the party of the rich will want our government to look like Guatamala in the 1960s.