Without Palin, McCain would have carried maybe 7 states. But she energized the base, despite her pratfalls. People started giving money and manning phone banks. Conservatives love her.

We could have a vice president who might well believe that Catholics and non-Third Wave Christians hold false religious views and are controlled by demon powers.

Palin simply does not meet what everyone should be able to agree is a basic requirement for the office of vice president: That she has given serious thought to the national and international issues of our time.

If it turns out the person at the top of the ticket ultimately went with his gut rather examining the details it just feels that most Americans have already seen that horror movie for the past 8 years.

Were McCain to dump Palin overboard, the religious right would, in effect, accuse him of jilting her -- of political infidelity. McCain is hostage to Palin, and she will begin to savor it.

If we take the McCain campaign's word that they were aware of it, wouldn't it have been more honest simply to make it known when she was named to the number 2 spot on the ticket?

Obama's surrogates must not wait for the scales to fall from the public's eyes so that they see Sarah Palin as she is and find her preposterous. Democrats must tarnish her on her own terms.

The crux of McCain's approach to reversing the seemingly inexorable tide of Change and Hope is a campaign of denial, defensiveness and defamation. And dumbness.

The radical right wing blogs are predictably complaining and slinging mud at people who pass on stories about McCain's choice for vice president, but that shouldn't change a thing.

Governor Palin's party opposes women's access to family planning services that prevent unwanted pregnancies and that give poor women the same reproductive choices she herself enjoys.

Like it or not, John McCain, this is your case: Obama, you said the race is about presidential temperament. Well, eat this, Barack. You want to see my presidential temperament in action? Sarah f*in' Palin, man. That's the ticket!