in convoluted and irrational thinking. Since we live in a Republic, of course our leaders are from somewhere else. It is the long years of being in DC that leads to a group think that is different from the thinking of main street. Even Biden, who famously commutes back to his home, spends most of his waking hours inside the Beltway.

Most of our leaders use their recesses to stump their home districts, not to get a job in the private sector, paint their houses, and shop the local grocery store.

Ask any college kid how well he/she fits into his/her parents home, after they've been away at school for a couple of years. They'll tell you they don't belong any more.

But perhaps consider that there is a REASON people start to change after living in the beltway for a while. Perhaps it slowly dawns on politicians that "small town, main street" values don't actually work or accomplish anything.

Are you or Sarah Palin really under the delusion that the governance of a gigantic nation of 300 million people would be governed so much better if we just treated the whole thing like a big Wasilla, Alaska?

Such talk is babble and campaign rhetoric at best. It is a bit scary that Sarah Palin thinks national policies are better decided by listening to overheard conversations at a soccer game than national polls. Given her track record of petty governance as Alaska governor I suspect she believes her own drivel far more than Washington insider McCain ever could.

Wow, aren't you the poster child for the smug elite! A perfect 10 *and* you nailed the sneering effete dismount! Thanks, YOU are the reason Sarah will be VP! You DO make a difference. Beautiful, just beautiful. See you in November! And again, we couldn't do it without ya!

I would rather the mayor of Podunk, Idaho, make decisions that affect my families' lives rather than Nancy Peloci or Harry Reid.

Anne, Sorry, the rest of America must really bore you. Maybe you have been on the east coast so long you don't even know what burns us little people. We hate long term politicians who are so smug they fill legislation with pork to get reelected, we hate smug east coast writers who think they have the answer in smarmy condensending way. Sorry to say we went to Midwest colleges and have Midwest thoughts. And quite frankly, some of us are very successful. Albeit we don;t write for snotty east coast rags. But other than that, we are perfectly happy. And we feel you are irrelevant.

I would rather the mayor of Podunk, Idaho, make decisions that affect my families' lives rather than Nancy Peloci or Harry Reid.

Amen, brother! I'll never forgive California for inflicting that horrible bitch Pelosi on this fine nation.

And you express this joy by writing insecure comments on magazines that you consider irrelevant?

I sure as hell hope that the above commenters are just kidding, and that they recognize that running a nation of 300 million people, with some of the most powerful military and economic power, is in fact nothing like running a small town of 9000 people.

And since when did it become elitist to have, you know, standards when it comes to electing the national leaders? Or has America become such a mediocre country that Sarah Palin is the smartest and most articulate person you can find?

yen223- "And since when did it become elitist to have, you know, standards when it comes to electing the national leaders?"

Standards? What standards? When you have the inexperienced Sarah Palin running for Vice President and the at least as inexperienced Barak Obama running for President that proves there are no standards!

Why are you people arguing about who you want to steal your money? Don't kid yourself. Obama, McCain, Clinton....It doesn't matter. They all play for the same team. And the name of the game they are playing is Let's See How Much of the Peoples Money We Can Steal or Screw the TaxPayer for short. Just last week they stole over a TRILLION dollars of your money and here you sit arguing about who you would rather have leading these thieves. And make no mistake- They ARE thieves!

So true! All these nitwits crowing for change have no idea what kind of change we are about to receive. The only difference between the Democrats and Republicans is who gets all the money they steal from us! If you want real change elect a real outsider, elect a third party candidate. Throw out all the incumbents and start over. We wouldn't have to rewrite anything just make the President and the Congress come befor ethe people and JUSTIFY everything they want to do. Give it the smell test and I'd be willing to bet none of their boviner excreta would get by.

Bayoudawg, STOP MAKING SENSE! Dammit, you see that what the American people want is to keep things the way they are but with money and power tilted more to their side but they want to get that while at the same time electing a leader who promotes the ILLUSION of change.

And it is quite obvious that Obama fits that bill (redistribution of power, illusion of change) better than McCain.

Until people break out of the tiny boxes that political parties force them into and start demanding action on the part of our elected officials we will continue to get what we are seeing today.

Last nite we find out Barney Frank is bopping some guy over at Fannie Mae while he is supposed to be overseeing them. Thats just great, I am happy for both of the guys, but we need to get all the republican and democratic lawyer/representatives to crap or get off the pot.

It is too bad for the author that she can't understand the basic concept that we are mad as hell but most likely will continue to take it.

yen223:

I sure as hell hope that the above commenters are just kidding, and that they recognize that running a nation of 300 million people, with some of the most powerful military and economic power, is in fact nothing like running a small town of 9000 people.

And since when did it become elitist to have, you know, standards when it comes to electing the national leaders? Or has America become such a mediocre country that Sarah Palin is the smartest and most articulate person you can find?

So please tell me what Obama has ever run that makes him more experienced than Palin (even though Palin isn't the one that we should be comparing him with). What experience does he have to run a nation of 300 million people?

bsharp, yen, what you're seeing here and in this election is the demonization of both intelligence and dissent as being unamerican.

More precisely, the demonization of intellectuals (by calling them elitists), and the demonization of democrats (by referring to "east coast politicians" negatively). This adds up to nothing less than an attempt to dehumanize half of america by literally calling us traitors, defeatists, and elitists. Frankly, it scares me.

To bring up issues of competency, qualifications, or a person's actual plans for achieving this or that is to mark oneself as unamerican.

Our only solution is reproduction JW. We gotta start having more babies ;- )