Mrs 666 is nothing more than a marionette of Lucifer himself ...

It seems that, in addition to the "heartbeat away from the presidency" argument, liberals should also be making the more direct argument. Whether McCain remains healthy isn't really dispositive, especially if Palin believes following in the footsteps of the expanded VP powers of Cheney. She will immediately have an active role on important domestic and foreign policy issues because she believes the VP has that authority. Her ability to perform the duties of the office of the VP takes on an added signficance in that case.

There is more to worry about than Sarah being VP..

Every American, all the Rs, the Is and the Ds, need to be concerned with McCain's medical condition. He has successfully avoided providing this information. He has seriously clouded every attempt including the recent controlled press review which was a sham.

If he is unable to complete his term because of disability or demise, the last thing America needs is an empty skirt to be number 45. This will be worse than the Bush administration if that’s possible.

He is occasionally irrational and facial ticks are becoming noticeable. McCain’s actions indicate that he has problems and he wants America to remain in the dark. We can not afford to and we must demand full disclosure of his medical records.

"In an interview with Fox News yesterday, Palin again touted the "flexibility" given to the Vice President under the Constitution, and said the VP even has added "authority if that vice president so chose to use it." It wasn't entirely clear who or what that "authority" would be applied to."

This is a big deal. It certainly indicates that Palin doesn't even know what the Constitution says about this in Article II. The "vice president" cannot "choose" to have more authority. The President, of course, can delegate some authority to him. I have suspected (as many of you have) that it's been Cheney running the show while Bush cuts brush at his ranch. But this is NOT a Constitutional privilege for the VP. It is, in fact, a violation. She seems to neither know...or if she actually does...doesn't care.

Here's where Palin's ignorance shoud be a comfort to us. I doubt there's much chance she exerts influence or power of any significance were she to become vice president.

I also doubt she's actually read the consitution.

How exactly did they happen to prep her on this? (I assume she didn't come up with this line on her own.) Shout-outs to the anti-choice crowd I get. The need to publicly pander to corporate tax opposers: understood. Previews of her planned damage to education, the environment, health-care reform efforts, etc.: check.

But who exactly is the constituency clamoring for an extension of the unitary executive theory, and why did the campaign feel the need to reassure these people? Wouldn't McCain-Palin have been better served by trying to fly under the radar on this one? Or is the potential extent of her own power the single aspect of government that interested Palin enough to wake her up and get her forming her own opinions?

I don't know. The constitution does not say what President of the Senate means. After eight years of Bush, I would not assume Palin/McCain wouldn't find a legal team that made a unique interpretation. And then we would be at the mercy of Bush judges to decide. I think we continue to underestimate the danger of the Republican party.

"Here's where Palin's ignorance shoud be a comfort to us. I doubt there's much chance she exerts influence or power of any significance were she to become vice president."

Sorry, Boots, I disagree. I could see McCain, a sick, tired old man ceding power to Miss Sarah, willingly or unwillingly. She has shown herself to be a supreme back-stabbing, power-abusing manipulator. If she has the opportunity to grab power, she'll grab it.

The best part of that Fox interview was when they asked her the same questions Couric had, about the SC and what she reads. The Fox interviewer (Carl Cameron) was surprised to see that she had very well-thought-out answers.

Kind of amazing how you can do when you know the questions ahead of time, no? That Governor Palin sure is a quick study, by Fox News standards that is.

This is off topic, but I just learned Bruce Springsteen will be performing live in Philadelphia as Obama campaigns there--within the hour, on CNN!

(Obama did a great job discussing health care in Newport News,VA earlier today).

If the Republicans win, John McCain had better hire a taster.

Sarah Palin has more hubris than George W and a frightening sense of divine destiny. Hopefully she'll continue to speak outside of the campaign's bounds, as she started to with her outcry against the McCain decision to let her and Todd continue to speak directly to the people of Michigan. (Does that mean she thinks all it's gonna take is a "wink and a Todd?" ooh awful!)

The ,edia need to keep on the tax cheating story.

Sorry for the typos - kitten on keyboard.

Last post should rad "McCain decision NOT to allow her and Todd continue to speak directly to the people of Michigan. And, "media," not ,edia.

Cheney hasn't expanded the power of the vice-presidency at all. It's the same as it ever was. What Cheney has is influence with George Bush which is his due to the deference George Bush has for Cheney. That doesn't inhere in the office.

I can't tell if the hysteria is genuine (which is stupid) or ginned up (which is also stupid).

Furthermore, Palin is being rather outrageous and petty again, saying Obama's comments make him unfit for Prez, he "palled around with terrorists" etc. Time to quit playing nice with that witchy wasilly girl and bring up the Alaskan Independence Party again, her weird ministers, people and dinosaurs, etc - too much "deference" about all that except from bloggers.

BTW, I just got back from Barack Obama rally in Newport News VA today, he rocked and talked about healthcare. I went with my 81-y.o. mother. We got to see him line of sight but far away. It was her first time, my second (HS in Southside VA around 2004.) Good zingers about McCain, basically that he just doesn't get it. No mention of Palin. I can hear and see why he has such an impact. Downtown mostly black, crowd about 10% white.

I noticed, our side much more creative, with many varieties of shirt and button etc. designs - contrast with McCain-Palin. Also, funny incident: old balding white-haired white guy looking out window while I walked with some crowd to area. So I said, clearly joking: "Hello John McCain, we know you're spying on us. But we've got the election wrapped and you're gonna lose" or somesuch. Many in crowd snickered, it was fun.

BTW-BTW: After rally my girlfriend saw big "hot pink" limo some miles away from the event, driving away (to the NW.) She said, two black kids in back peering out crack in window. I don't think BHO would ride a pink limo, so GF theory is some famous supporters or etc. Any clue?

While Congress can impeach elected or appointed individuals, their underlings can only be held in check by the people they report to. Recall Ollie North, et al, and consider Addington and Scooter Libby.

It is therefore incumbent upon us to elect people who will see that their staff will act in the best interests of these United States (as in: within the law, putting the country before their political party interests).

Clearly, from all that we've learned of Palin and McCain, both lack the attention span, breadth of knowledge, and intellect to do this.

So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong.

Ms. Palin? Really? She's married, and Palin is her husband's name, not her maiden name. How is it not Mrs. Palin? A quirk of the NY Times stylebook?

I looked at the debate transcript at the
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/, to check up on the details of Palin's fibs. They were bad enough in real-time viewing, but they are even more repellent when encountered in bulk during a more tranquil and less distracted read-through.

(snark, somewhat) We should solve the financial crisis by instituting a Pol(itician) Tax in which politicians would be able to say anything they want, but whenever a bipartisan Electoral Commission decides that they fibbed or misrepresented, they'd get penalized 1 cent per instance of the fib being heard or read, i.e., one cent per error times the # of people who heard it (from estimates of audience size / readership / etc.), for each time the fib got repeated without correction. Call it the "Clean Airwaves Act"
(/snark)

People should read "Angler" by Pulitzer Prize winning author Barton Gellman. It's a fascinating examination of Cheney as VP. Cheney essentially inserted his staff members in key positions to preempt any policy or legislation headed for W's desk that Cheney didn't agree with. He was running a shadow presidency.

However, I don't think Palin is as brilliant as Cheney, nor McCain as obtuse as Bush. Her ability to pull off a Cheney-esque Vice Presidency would be difficult.

The Times' policy is to let married women choose which honorific will be used. Governor Palin prefers to be called "Ms. Palin."

"Sarah Palin...is a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical
masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove...
"...the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable...
...Palin's symphony of sneering remarks at the convention was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag." Bwa ha ha
This Matt Taibbi article is in the 10/2 issue of Rolling Stone.
Tim Dickinson also outlines her spins, lies, myths. Guess what:
BP was a sponsor of her inaugeral ball.
Not a single section of the pipeline has been laid.
And you know no one bought the jet online.
She has ties to Abramoff.
Her city of Wasilla was the meth capital of Alaska, with 42 meth labs busted in a single year.
She served as director of a fundraising group associated with indicted senator Ted Stevens.

I love bad-mouthing her

Isn't it interesting how incoherent and ill-informed Palin sounds on most if not all substantive issues, and yet how attuned and even subtle (though wrong) she is on the issue of the powers of the vice-president?

shortstop's thinking here is correct. She's very informed on this issue because it matters deeply to the constituency that matters most to her: herself.

Cheney's little sister in waiting is getting a "rise" out of prick-pawing pricks like Rich Lowry (see below.) He and his kind? They're wankers wagging their wanks at the winking of the witchy, wasilly woman we want whomped.

After all this time and posturing she still doesn't know what a VP does all day...or even what a VP stands for besides the duties she listed...and she didn't even get that right.

What a joke. Palin proves McCain is unfit to be president. Look at who he surrounds himself with and then has a munchin licking his senate seat and a dem reject campaigning for him. (Graham/Liebermann should be forced to live in Iraq)

They can only try to steal it now. It's the McCain/Palin disaster...they have no answers only condemnations. The damage continues all the way out the door.

From her comments, you can tell who her advisors/handlers currently are. She has no network of advisors in DC, having travelled there only a handful of times, so McCain is free to stuff whatever BS he sees fit into her pretty little head.

...more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it.

[W]e'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.

Painting a swastika on this woman's campaign billboards would be an understatement. She is an enemy of Freedom, of the People, and of the Republic and its Constitution.

I seem to remember something about the need to "...protect and defend the United States of America from all enemies, both foreign and domestic." Palin, by her own words, constitutes just such an enemy.

As I have said before about John Yoo: How in hell do people manage to grow up in this country without any basic indoctrination in the American Way? I mean, the actions of the President, Veep, Atty General, etc can only be described as antithetical to the core values of this country! The only word that can fit is "Un-American"!

I admit that I went to some pretty nice public schools in Southern California in my childhood, but surely even the most marginal education in this country will include proper political and historical training.

At least some of these Republicans are veterans of WWII, aren't they? Can any member of the "Greatest Generation" stomach being associated with this crop of Nazis? I mean, even GHW Bush is a WWII vet! How can he even look at his son and not be sick! Do they take their children to camps to be re-educated into these evil values? Where does this come from?

It's a festering abscess of greed, corruption and authoritarianism whose toxin seeps into the lifeblood of the country.

What Sarah is saying is actually very comforting to the Christian far right. They see arresting control out of the hands of us Heathens (that includes christians who they consider not born again) as THE most important call to duty. Circumventing or subjugating the congress, just makes it that much easier and faster. Period. We are (and will be) seeing the desperate thrashing and grasping of that movement as it reels from the possible rejection of two decades of carefully planning and execution of it's power grab.