There's a hunger in the air.

It's understandable.  Over here on the left, we've had eight solid years of being bitch slapped around from every direction -- the moderates, the far right, and, much of the time, from the mainstream media they seem to have so deeply in their pockets. 

We are the few, the proud, the marginalized.  We are deeply out of touch with how decent, hard working, God fearing Americans think, and what they want .  We're extremists.  We can't understand.  We're elitists.  We live in ivory towers.  We just don't get it.  We aren't Serious.  We don't live in the real world.  We're silly.  We're foolish.  Our expectations are ridiculous.  We need to Get Real.

You can be friends with us, maybe, if you speak to us as if we were children and keep the conversation entirely attuned to casual pleasantries until we're safely out of earshot. 

But we can never, under any circumstances, be allowed to govern. 

We've heard that shit and we've HEARD that shit and WE'VE HEARD THAT SHIT for the last decade... longer, actually, given that Clinton was the least liberal/progressive Democratic President since WWI... and we're sick to death of it.  The Serious People, moderate and grown up and realistic and down to earth and mainstream and decent and hardworking and God fearing... all those fabulous people have screwed things up so hard, so bad, for so long that there seems no end to the shit we're going to have to shovel once we get back into power.  And they don't want to let us back into power.  They're digging in, they're fighting tooth and nail.  They're still telling us, at the top of their lungs while they look around frantically for anything heavy they can throw at us, that we're no good, that we can't be trusted, that we're not serious, that we're out of touch, that we're idealistic daydreamers and crackbrained sky pilots and under no circumstances can we be trusted in power.

So it's perfectly understandable.  We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more, by the Jesus -- and when the people who have been insulting and abusing us for nearly as long as any of us can remember show us their soft white underbellies, well, we're going for the throat, dammit.

But we have to find the character within ourselves to resist this powerful, nearly overwhelming temptation. 

Have to.  HAVE TO.

We cannot personalize this ridiculous VP pick of McCain's.  We cannot do it.  We must not do it.  Because, yes, it's all blatant political tactics and he's just throwing out red meat, yes he is... but not to his base.  He's throwing the great big T-bones right into our laps... and the meat is poisoned, baby.  We need to drop the chalupa and back away slowly.

If we take the bait... if we bite down hard, if we swallow it all hook, line and sinker... then McCain is going to win in November. 

How?

The Palin pick has already, to some extent, galvanized the religious conservative base.  They don't care if Palin is competent or qualified to be Chief Executive, all they care about is, she's stridently, screamingly pro life.  So with this pick, McCain's got them.  He didn't have them before and wouldn't ever have had them if he'd put Romney on the ticket, but he's got them now. 

But the far right Jesus huggers can't win the election for McCain by themselves.  And the rage deranged Hillary dead enders won't put McCain over the top, either. 

What will win him the election, though, is all the moderates and undecideds who are going to watch as we on the far left turn into 12 year olds in our exultant joy over McCain's 'misstep'.

Yes, indeed.  The world is watching, folks.  And every time some so called 'progressive' puts a post on the Internet calling Sarah Palin stupid, dumb, moronic, shallow, trailer trash, a bitch, a bimbo, a (derogatory slang term for the female genitalia), the world is going to hear about it... on Fox news, and CNN, and MSNBC, and through the larynx of every right wing dingdong with a talk radio beatdown gig.  They will hear about it, and they will read about it on the New York Times and Washington Post and Wall Street Journal op ed pages, and many of them will be disgusted by our loutish, despicable, reprehensible behavior. 

And they will associate our immaturity, our unprofessionalism, the sadistic glee with which <a href="http://miserableannalsoftheearth.blogspot.com/2008/09/fear-and-loathing-on-internet.html#links">we cruelly photoshop Sarah Palin's head onto the body of bikini wearing bimbos posing with machine guns</a>... and they will associate this with all progressives.

With all liberals.

With all Democrats.

With, y'know, that guy Obama, whom a lot of them are already inclined not to like anyway.

A lot of moderates and undecideds are just looking for a reason not to vote for Obama.  Maybe they can't bring themselves to vote for McCain, but they do us nearly as much damage if they just stay home in November. 

Plus, all those Christian conservatives we've been counting on to stay away from the polls out of disgust with Republican excesses during the Bush Administration?  Ain't gonna happen, cap'n.  A lot of those people are already back in the boat... for Sarah. 

We start punching her in the face, over and over again, all over the Internet (and therefore, all over TV and talk radio and the editorial pages) and they will come riding to her rescue.  Millions of 'em.  Rolling in like thunder, full of righteous indignation, not just ready to vote for Sarah, but to volunteer for Sarah, to organize for Sarah, to phone bank for Sarah, to go door to door for Sarah, to march for Sarah, to blog for Sarah, to write op eds for Sarah, to donate money to Sarah. 

We can talk about Governor Palin's lack of experience.  We can talk about McCain's hypocrisy, about how she's nothing but a politically opportunistic pick on his part, about how it won't be good for America if she ends up taking one of those red phone calls at 3 AM, about how she's already mixed up in a corruption investigation and even at this moment she's scrambling to evade further due process on it until after the election.

We can shine a big light on why we feel she isn't qualified to be Vice President.  All her political stuff is certainly fair game.

 But we need to be professional.  We need to show respect.  We need to not attack her on the grounds of gender, of sexuality, of her parenting skills.  We need to lay off her family and her kids.  We need, especially, to not call names, to not hoot and cat call like freshman frat boys, to not sexualize her. 

Make no mistake.  McCain's pick is craftier than it looks, on the surface.  Sarah Palin is no Thomas Eagleton, no matter how fervently we may wish otherwise, and she isn't going anywhere.  She's a way for McCain to cement the support of his far right lunatic fringe base... but she's also bait. She's blood in the water.  And right now, Karl Rove is sitting back and watching the feeding frenzy, and smiling, and smiling, and smiling.

Millions of crazy Jesus huggers were looking for a reason to vote for McCain, and he just gave them one. 

Millions more moderates and undecideds wouldn't at all mind a reason not to vote for Obama.

Let's not serve one up on a platter... even a platter as tempting as Sarah Palin.