McCain's advisors deserve blame for not properly vetting Palin.

McCain deserves blame for not examining her carefully enough.

Palin deserves blame for being enough of a dolt to not recognize that she was insufficiently qualified for the job.

I see what you're saying... they're trying to blame the woman. But can't we just enjoy the blame-throwing from a relatively safe distance? I gotta admit, I am completely thrilled by the total disarray of the GOP at the moment.

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Along with a destructively negative campaign (which can also be attributed in large part to the vile trash that came from Sarah Palin's mouth), the selection of Sarah Palin stands as one of the biggest mistakes of John McCain's campaign.

You simply cannot explain why McCain's selection of Palin killed the ticket without detailing the glaring shortcomings that make her unsuitable for the job. Obviously, assholes like Schmidt are the ones responsible for choosing her. And, they rightly deserve the blame. But, you have to explore Palin's failures in order to add context for blaming the staff. But, apparently you cannot do that without raising the ire of this author. Her insistence on defending Sarah Palin, in the face of loads of evidence that she's an ignorant, unqualified, loud-mouthed fool, working feverishly AGAINST the pro-equality agenda, simply BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN, is a slap in the face to real feminism and the fight for equality in this country.

These weak articles are bad for the cause.

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Spare us the pity party for poor Sarah Palin. This is the woman whose rallies the Klu-less Klux Klan would have felt mightily at home. Her thinly-veiled race-baiting and divisive rhetoric not only tried to destroy Barack Obama, but continue the fracturization of America, so I feel nothing but glee as the McCain people do what Republicans have ALWAYS done to those who fail them--destroy them! At one point in time, they tried to destroy McCain because of the campaign finance reform bill and his views on immigration.

Yes, McCain picked her to energize the base that hated his guts, but in the end, it was Miss Sarah who decided that--in spite of being woefully UNQUALIFIED for the position of vice-president--thought that her being female would be all the disaffected Hilary-istas needed to swing to his side. She winked and blew kissses and set women in politics back ten years.

Had McCain actually used his brain, he might have chosen women whose intelligence and political acumen would have made even the most liberal of feminists give grudging respect: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, Susan Mollinari, hell even Condeleeza Rice would have made far more suitable VP's than the Caribou Barbie from Wasilla.

Nevermind that Palin's stances on everything from the Iraq War to equal pay to reproductive freedom was against EVERYTHING feminists have been fighting for all these years. This is a woman who asked a librarian about banning books--then FIRED HER when the libararian said she'd have an issue with that. Palin nixed the budget so that rape victims would have to pay for their own test kits. She upholds "abstinence-only" sex education, which obviously failed for her daughter Bristol--knocked-up at seventeen.

So excuse me ladies while I sit and enjoy the mayhem! It's what she deserves. Hopefully that little lying guttersnipe Ashley Todd of the backwards "B" will get her comeuppance as well...

oh wait, Obama's her NEW PRESIDENT!!!

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Let's be clear, they never thought they were getting someone smart and well-informed, only to be duped at the last minute by Gov. Palin's idiocy. They knew they were getting a moron. In fact, they wanted someone clueless and obscure that they could mould to their liking; a second George Bush Jr. that they could train and make a good little puppet out of. But Gov. Palin didn't turn out to be the empty vessel they thought they were going to get. She's full of shit, yes, but not empty.

Basically, they're pissed off because Gov. Palin...acted like herself. That was the last thing they wanted; a candidate with opinions, especially where those opinions are horribly misguided. They chose someone that they expected would be easy to overpower and control, and the reason they're attacking her so viciously now, regardless of whether or not the accusations are true, is because she wouldn't conform, insofar as she probably believed she had been chosen on her merits. Go figure, the "maverick" from Alaska actually did play by her own rules.

What more can I say? The vetting process was probably a stupidity test. When they heard her say, "What is it exactly that the VP does?" in that interview, they must have thrown their hats in the air with glee and shouted, "Eureka!"

They wanted style without substance. They didn't count on the fact that Gov. Palin had her own style and personality, and wouldn't be as easy to manipulate as Sen. McCain, who I honestly think lost all power within his own campaign and got completely blindsided by this outrageous selection. Blaming her for the loss is just displaced bitterness; the staff are refusing to admit they fucked up.

The campaign aides got precisely what they deserved for pursuing this dishonest strategy and disrespecting the intellect of the electorate. Picking somebody who, from the get go, they view as the equivalent of a trained seal or a marionette that dazzles the crowd by performing a few tricks isn't going to cut it anymore. From now on, maybe they won't rely on using mindless figureheads to hijack the party.

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I was listening to Thom Hartmann today, and he had an interesting theory about this implosion.

He argued that this is nothing more than Huckabee's insiders defecting in an attempt to secure his 2012 run over Palin.

Hmmm....

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I would hope that someone in the GOP was bright enough to realize how totally poisonous this evil woman is... I would hope...

On the other hand, given the GOP's need for power and willingness to do ANYTHING to get it, that explanation (pre-smearing palin) doesn't work... Which leaves us with the probability that they are in fact blaming palin for all the woes of their recent loss.

As for myself, I feel no sorrow for this hate-filled, totally self-absorbed person who's only strength is in her apparent appeal to the smaller of the two heads of many of the males in the repugnacan party... The ones who say things like "Yeeeee Ha, Mother F***er!" as they drive around in their gas guzzling 4 wheeler, AK-47’s displayed proudly in their rear windows with "They can have my guns when they pry it from my cold dead hands" sticker on their bumpers.

Personally, I hope to god this smear campaign works. I don't want to Ever see this atrocity again on any political ticket. “Pit Viper Palin” is not to be pitied she is to be buried as deeply as possible lest she infect our country further with her poison of white supremacy.

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Everything written herein, I'd have to agree with, but trying to enjoy this recovery from the past 20+ months of constant campaigning intellectual assaults and media abuse and now because the media will not let us rest (my TV and radio are OFF; thank God for PBS/NPR), I'm climbing back in here because this mess with the election has to fall right at the feet of the U.S. Government, which "my friends" is us. In truth, at my age, this election scared the liver out of me; I will do anything I can, at any level to bring an ethical election process to America; yes, it's nuts in others countries, but we aren't other countries.That being said, I’m profoundly grateful for our world-neighbors’ greetings to our new President-elect, and Vice-President-elect, regardless of how “DC” feels.

The excuses for outlandish behavior of candidates' that was perpetuated upon the voters, "stretching the truth, lying, hurling insults, and ridicule at each other, was chalked up as de rigueur for elections and besides, all those in our history did it—I don't care if they did, we also worked children in factories; we have evolved, "my friends." We now know we are how we speak—words matter.

All future election abuse on voters has to stop. A citizens committee must be established to re-vamp this very non-system of elections. Let's face it, had we not had 1 candidate with a modicum of intellect, and determination who knew something about strategic planning (the actual processes thereof), and knew how to launch a civic program, the voter turnout would have been far less, and the elections would have ended up in the courts—again—make no mistake about it.

The whole election process would be laughable, were it not so seriously faulted, which only opens us up to another totally incompetent president, senators, and house members—just look at our history. In each election, if we hadn't had an exemplary candidate we ended up with a totally inept individual or marginal personality "at the top" and/or . . . or an illegal election that had to be settled in the courts, which now is like going to the KKK over a racial prejudice.

Palin would never have been brought to the fore were it not for the entire Republican party’s complicity. Their emotions took over any and all aspects of reality, just for a win! Many women’s serious lack of self-esteem identified with Palin as proof that any woman with a sport and kids could be a success, yet so many women did not integrate the fact that Palin is a public servant, not a movie star. Fawning over McCain’s blatant manipulation of all Americans, the laughter rolled on in a one-upsmanship manner, and the Presidential Election Committee decided to let things roll on; the Republicans consented—all for the "Party;" how in the name of anyone is that any different from Communism?

When not one person, in leadership, will step forward to wave a white flag, to save the country from inept, ill-qualified candidates, in this case also McCain, something is seriously wrong with our system. It has to be fixed, and fast.

No, it's not Palin's fault; in truth she appeared incapable of understanding right from wrong, without a conscience, worse it appears to permeate throughout her family; sociopathic tendencies’ do just that. That does not make the Republicans any less responsible. The Presidential Elections Committee, and the party itself, should have had more ethical and legal control over the mess they perpetuated on America, even the so-called debates, were not debates, only manipulation of the classic format many Americans understand.

Look at the other candidates, not one came forward to speak up, and everyone marched along in step to the lowest common denominator, in both parties. Who is responsible in America to stop such crimes against election process?

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The GOP is the party of projected blame, the party that never assumes responsibility. Much has been made of McCain's character and goodness. I found McCain shallow, mean, and narcissistic. McCain had no respect for the education and the legacy he was handed when he graduated at the bottom of his class. And this showed when he didn't have the intellectual discipline to run a campaign based on issues.

He picked Palin, a cardboard cutout of who Hollywood would cast in the role of Vice-Pres, probably in an attempt to make himself look better. She turned out to be as light weight, superficial and anti-intellectual as he is. Palin ran on blame and name-calling, and didn't have intellectual discipline either. Palin accepted the call to be Vice President, but never boned up on geography or civics, focusing more on her clothes and image of Hockeymom, and Carabou Barbi.

I don't blame McCain or Palin, but thank them both for their wake-up call to the American people. If the GOP wants to blame either of them for not hiding their flaws better, they have a good point.

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How on earth does this woman who represents herself as a woman of God account for the half-truths she told, the incentiary wretched attacks on Obama that she recited, the feeble excuses she made look herself in the mirrow? I hate it that Hilary made a way for all of us women and Sarah single-handily destroyed that path!!!! Of course, McCain's horrible mistake at chosing her to begin with was amazingly stupid.

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In that fateful interview with Katie Couric, Palin was insistently pressed by Couric to name one magazine or website she had recently read that gave her any kind recent news info. Palin had attempted to dodge the question a couple of times but Katie kept at it.

Palin could not name one.

That particular aspect of the interview was the most talked about in my neck of the woods and in the general media.

That, among other reasons, is what deep-sixed Palin and McCain's campaign.

The thinking voters did not another Bush who, when asked before to name one media source, he too could not answer. And, of course, the miserably poor conduct of his "presidency" reflected that.

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Melissa, nobody cares about John McCain, he may well resign his seat in the Senate and retire.

Sarah Palin has a huge following, and a future in national politics. What she said and did in this campaign matter.

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Fiona is definitely on to something. One can already feel the buzz among the GOP over the evil liberal media trashing poor Sarah and blaming her for McCain's loss.

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The stories are now beginning to come out. They are not good. They make Palin look like a total loser. But it is important to remember that the blame for being so close to becoming president of the United States is not Palin's fault. And the real problem is not by any means the amazing amount of money she spent on clothes - we need to forget that and focus on the important part.

To a substantial degree the fault is John McCain's. He screwed up. Bad. This means he was even LESS qualified to become president than even I thought he was. We can only infer from this that had he been elected, Palin would have been only one of many incompetents placed in positions of power to play games with, to irritate and try to outsmart each other. At least most of those others - cabinet members and department heads would have been subject to approval by congress.

That brings us to that problem referred to earlier: the REAL problem. And that is the constitution itself. It has never known how to handle the vice-president. The founding fathers awarded it to the person who came in second in the election. If that had endured, today Obama would be the president and McCain would be the vice-president. That would not work. Apparently George Washington - first president - and John Adams - first vice-president - did not get along much better than Obama and McCain would. That was taken care of by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. But the result of it all now has become that the person chosen by his or her party to represent them as their choice for president can simply pluck out of the bucket anyone who strikes their fancy. Hence Palin who did not know the VP did not "run" the Senate, or that Africa was a continent, or . . . well, let's skip the rest!

So, what to do? Well, the whole process is badly screwed up. Neither the president or vice-president of the United States is required to pass any type of mental or physical examination. You can't drive a bus or fly an airplane or practice medicine or be in the military without passing a series of qualifying standardized examinations. So if you should fail any or ALL of those, you could still become president. There is not any kind of a review board who can examine There is not any kind of a review board who can examine the legal history of the individuals selected by their party to represent them for the most public of all positions.

There is more. A LOT more. But this is a blogpost not a completed paper. Yet it remains for a fact, that no military officer can have any kind of access to nuclear weapons without EXTENSIVE medical, mental, background checks, while the person who might tell them to "bomb, bomb, bomb" some country could just fly in off of a wall if he or she could temporarilly lie to or somehow fool enough people. Plain's problems only serve to shine a bright light on this problem.

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We stop trying to assign blame and get to work behind President-elect Obama and start working to fix the country.

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I'm beginning to believe that Republicans believed they were not going to win. They also were not willing to engage in the same type of illegalities and blatantly immoral acts they've previously lowered themselves to carry out, given the disgust of Americans over their finances, and threw Palin in there to play the Chaney role. McCain would then reap the rewards if she helped his chances but they could blame her if they lost the election.
They and their media cohorts are setting themselves in position to become paid obstructionists, just like they did during the Clinton Administration and blame Obama for Bush's and their failures and for taking this country down into the gutter, as far as most of the rest of the world is concerned. Remember, their voluntarily gullible and self-serving constituents get abnesia when it comes to fault and distinguishing a country from the people making the decisions {the rhetorical "anti-patriotic" foolishness}.

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Palin was chosen to play the Chaney role in this campaign. Republicans are too manipulative and controlling to have not known all of the information that they, themselves, ultimately leaked to the media, in cooperation with their favorite media operatives. He was willing to sell his soul to extremists, all types of bigots and people willing to destroy this country with their win at all costs attitude, while skirting the truth anytime it served his purpose.
This was his campaign. If he didn't have the willingness and veracity to run his campaign on a moral and "Christian" basis (since he and his media cheerleaders have nominated him to be among the "perfect" Christians led by the "God" president}, imagine the damage he would have done as leader of this country.
The more we hear about McCain and the more we see of him just confirms that he was the wrong choice to be president.

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"Bomb, bomb Iran" and picking Palin. No need to say anything else.

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If I applied and got a job I wasn't qualified for I wouldn't blame my boss when I got fired like Sarah and a few of her supporters are doing.

Don't worry,we're not done with Ms. Palin. When she appoints herself to Stevens seat. We'll see and hear plenty from her.

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1866 U.S. Supreme Court Decision: Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad. This decision is the one that supposedly granted "personhood" on corporations. Problem is, the court never even addressed that issue in it's decision! That ruling was done on the basis of a summary of the court's decision by the court clerk which is contrary to the court's actual ruling. See Thom Hartmann's book "Unequal Protection---" Overturn it and you overturn the very heart of the corporate Facism we are getting today--including the financing of elections. People, this is an important and very doable thing to accomplish. Roe v Wade and Brown v The Board of Education were both reversals of 1800's legal decisions.

I am not an attorney. Anyone with any kind of connection to the ACLU should ask about this thing. Carlos

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Let's not forget a MSM press/media group who held back on their own vetting, not really taking seriously their role in requiring her to engage in a press conference in a timely manner and not hustling in gathering (and exposing) facts about her record in previous positions she held. And they did it for the same reasons that McCain did; sloth. Simple sloth.

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The problem with the McCain Palin ticket was NOT Sarah Palin.

The problem is that the Republicans chose the WRONG candidate.

Anyone of the nominees would have been a better choice that McCain. I would have voted for Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, or any of the other nominees. I said in my blog months ago that I would vote for Hillary or McCain when hell froze over.

I am sick and tired of insignificant states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and others choosing our candidates before 80% of the country gets to vote.

It is LONG past time that America ditch this broken primary system, and go to a national primary.

Myself and other conservatives told the Republican leadership that we would never vote for McCain. I have voted thrird party for the last four presidental elections. I was just not able to hold my nose and vote for McCain, OR George W. Bush or Bob Dole.

At one time John McCain was a great man; but he was broken duting his stay in the Hanoi Hilton, and has not been worth a damn since.

I hope the conservative leadership looks long and hard at their devastating loss, and see that we will NOT vote for someone just because they tell us to.

If the Republicans want to regain power they need to stop turning their backs on the conservatives. We WILL stay home.

We are sick to death pf having to vote for the lesser of two evils!

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Why question why the GOP let Sarah Palin be the VP candidate-- they are the party who twice nominated and elected George W. Bush, whose qualifications are basically equal to hers, except for his family and their money.

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