How disappointing it is to see how easy my hometown natives are to hoodwink. Jim and others here have fallen for the mean-spirited, low blow that Palin's speechwriter tucked into her presentation at the convention. Isn't it obvious to you folks who has more grey matter as soon as they open their mouths? Isn't it abundantly clear who has the genuine human interest simply by looking at their track records? Obama is brilliant; Palin is an idiot. Obama is a public servant; Palin is a me-first, corporate interest, big money hog. Obama was inspired, diligent and naturally endowed enough to rise from the humblest of beginnings to become an ivy-league educated attorney; Palin is a beauty pageant contestant with a very unimpressive background, just amoral enough to let savvy, Karl Rove-traine dadvisors prime her for this role specifically to answer the threat of vote losses to Hillary Clinton. Obama doesn't tell lies; Palin is constantly getting busted in lies, and then her campaign managers go into spin overdrive (e.g. - she claimed she didn't approve the hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for her state, which has been known for some time as a bastion of far-right Republican corruption a la Frank and Lisa Murkowski, for the now infamous "bridge to nowhere", but even if there's some technical truth in that, we know she kept the money anyway). Obama comes from the deep south and the lower 48; Palin comes from the crystal meth capital of Alaska, namely Wassila - now with that many druggies and such a tiny population (2,500), is it any wonder how she won the mayor's office? Does anyone honestly think such an office holds more responsibility than bringing about concensus and forging new opportunities in a downtrodden, major metropolis with a mess so complicated and ugly that no one else would or could touch it? Besides, Obama's stint as a community organizer was simply his first, brief job out of undergrad. The ever-duplicitous Republican right seized on that to try and downplay his very genuine, effective credentials, which scare the hell out of them. Sarah Palin is about as qualified to be a governor (even in a lightly populated, addiction-addled, remote state) as Maggie Stock. This woman should be nowhere near the office of the Vice President of the U.S., especially after Slick Dick Cheney so radically expanded its powers (from his underground bunker and with the backing of his private armies).

America the beautiful, I weep for you.