just in todays issue alone. We get everything from her accent to why she makes women cringe. wow, what a bizarre obsession.

1. She is, for better or worse, arguably the most intriguing personality in the news right now.
2. Veep debates are tomorrow.
   
3. Biden is a known quantity. We're still learning about Palin.
   
4. She's had a trainwreck of an interview series with Katie Couric, who's not exactly known for throwing hardballs. Which I guess goes back to my #1.
   

It's like watching a junkie stick a dirty needle into her neck. It's repulsive, but they have to do it. Let's face it - the progressive types writing for Slate are sick and tired of colored people. You do everything for them, and a generation later they're still killing each other for a pair of sneakers. White women, on the other hand, are the cause that doesn't disappoint. And Sarah Palin is that most curious creature - a strong, successful working women, balancing work and family, who would happily gut Roe vs Wade like a trout. Asking Slate writers to understand that is like asking a cat to bark.

Not quite. What Slate writers don't understand is how in one breath, the GOP can argue that Christine Gregoire - with 7 times the budget, 10 times the population, A JD, massive success in lititgating the tobacco settlement (which she actually lead) and some 3 international trade delegations, - is NOT QUALIFIED to lead Washington state (Alaska's proximate neighbor) but Palin, with accomplishments that wouldn't match up well to the Deborah Senn the Democratic runner up in the last GOP primary, is considered by the GOP as capable of running the nation.

Understanding that inconsistency is like asking a cat to bark

What don't the writers understand? That Sarah Palin is strong (some would say ruthless), successful, has a job, has a family, yet is anti-abortion? I think they understand that. So it must be something else.

You say liberals are disappointed in colored people because their per capita crime statistics are higher than average, or so I take your remark, despite liberal policies aimed at helping them over the last few decades. (Let's just ignore the fact that this isn't true for all non-white races.) Do you mean that white women haven't disappointed liberals because feminism has been more successful?

In this case, I would guess you're saying that white women have taken full advantage of the benefits of liberal policies designed to end discrimination, and therefore haven't disappointed liberals, but that Sarah Palin is turning the clock back to a more sexist time, despite having benefited from those policies herself, and is thus disappointing to liberals, even though most white women aren't. So watching her is like watching a junkie.

Is that right? But in that case I still don't get what the writers don't understand. They don't understand why she would choose to put the clock back? I don't think it's that hard to get why successful women might choose to embrace conservative policies. Surely religious background is one important cause.

But more importantly, I don't think liberals are disappointed in colored people. I think they understand that racism is real and that there's no quick way to eliminate problems arising from endemic factors like the physical housing estate environments, growing up in disadvantaged and dysfunctional families, and so on.

Politics of extremists today involve not simply disagreeing with your opponents stance on issues and explaining why your ideas carry more merit, but instead focus on dehumanizing, demonizing, belittling, etc. etc.

That way you don't have to listen to what she says. She is a non person.

That is a big reason for the major issues that are not being addressed by our political leadership today. We don't have 5 percent extremists on both sides and 90 percent moderates filling up the middle, working together, coming up with potential solutions.

Instead we have 2 groups on opposite ends of the room throwing hand grenades at each other all while convincing themselves how perfect they are and how totally stupid the other side is.

Sorry folks, but time to frickin grow up. This isn't high school football where we sit on opposite sides and only one side wins. We are all losing right now. Take your petty prejudices and preconceived notions and throw them out the window.

It is time for a change, and I personally don't care all that much who gets elected, but the arrogance of extremists on both sides needs to be dealt a death blow, because assholes got us into this mess, and they are not going to get us out.

I think that you need to step back and take a look at who are and are not extremists. That there are 2 parties doesn't mean that they are necessarily equidistant from the "reasonable center". For example, the notion that someone who is a mainline protestant, in a long term marriage with kids, powerfully supports education as something everyone should strive for, who is personally vested in the wealth of the anation and who "supports the sacrifice of our brave men and women" in the military as someone who is "far left", simply boggles the mind.

_I'm_ not on the far left and I am well to the left of Obama.

OTOH, mainline GOP leadership includes the likes of Sam Brownback who believes in talking snaks and other bibilical inerrancy. It includes individuals who insist on the USA's preemptive right to attack any nation it deems a potential threat, and it includes those who believe the answer to the current economic crisis is further deregulation.

Now its true that there is roughly 30% of the population that agrees with these views, but that does not mean that the Dems only have 30% support as well. Theirs is actually quite a bit more - 40% core supporters and closer to 55% if you include leaners.

We also know that 16% of the population is well to the left of the Dems. So if you add up the numbers, the "extremes" of political thought are NOT being represented by Dems vs GOP. Instead its GOP vs Greens, with the Dems BEING that "rational middle".

Me? I'm a Progressive Green. And yeah, I consider the Dems too conservative for my tastes.