Turn on and dial in the "WAAAA' meter, the Dems have already started crying. Sarah Palin kicked their butts this evening and they have not one mentally competent thought to respond with. Whining about "it's not high-minded, issue oriented"? What would Joe Biden do for a living if he were not slinging nasty, mean spirited mud at conservatives? Mrs Palin served notice to Vicious Mouth Joe and smooth, measured talking Obama that they are in for a battle and their presumption of the Coronation has been canceled. Issues? Please.....the only issue comment Dems ever say is "you are just voting for George Bush again!" God help them, a high school sophomore could have come up with that lame tactic. By the way, only sophomores would bite on that in the first place.

This blogger report is Clearly Not Neutral. Of course, the ageist comments by so many of the Democrats against McCain go unnoticed by CNN all the time. Now that Sarah Palin is exposing the cover of a polished veneer filled with toxic gas that Obama is, the left (and vicariously the media) cannot handle it.

I thought that Mrs Palin was erudite and accomplished in both content and her modus operandi. Her speech in my view won the election and has rattled, even maddened the Democratic elites by helping them realise that their policies and candidates are dooming them to repeat past failures and LOSE yet another presidential election. Palin is impalin' the Democrats!!!! Go McCain-Palin 2008!!!!

I was just watching the CNN coverage of Governor Palin's speech, and I was intrigued, and irritated, by the fact that several shots of her giving the speech showed the teleprompters with the speech text, as if to remind the viewers that she is reading from the teleprompters. I don't recall the same kind of camera shots when Obama was giving his speech. Perhaps it was an accident, but considering how carefully cameras are placed these days, I have a strong suspicion it was done deliberately. If that were the case, I would be very disappointed in the CNN coverage of the two speeches. The media coverage has been put under the microscope for what some people would argue is a sexist nature of the coverage of Governor Palin, and this incident with teleprompters does not help.

I am a Democrat that will vote republican this time so they clean up their own mess for a change. Go GOP and have a great time cleaning up the disaster that is called the USA

The world got to see what an angry white woman looks like. Gov. Palin sent clear messages to three groups: TO THE RIGHT LEANERS: Come! Embrace my values! If another culture war is ignited then so be it! TO THOSE IN THE MIDDLE; Issues? I wasn't hired to deal with those things. TO THOSE LEFT LEANERS; Get ready for the freak show to show up in your neighborhood for a rumble.

hope you guys wouldn't be crying sexism when the Dem reply blow for blow... hope so.

I do strongly believe most of the attacks were way too personal...It doesn't take much brain to do that. And again She lied about the bridge to nowhere. She supported it and got the money even though the bridge was not built.

Mihael McCoy: I doubt CNN did that on purpose... anyway, we all knew it was not written by her though, so what's the sense?

I want to see her answering questions from the press unguided before I make up my mind...but what I saw today was terrible.

Wonderful! Another presidential election soley focused on degrading your opponent.

This blogger is so partisan it is unbelieveable. Obama spends 80% of his acceptance speech attacking Bush and McCain and that isn't nasty? What planet is he on??

Since when has it been that when Democrats attack Palin's alleged lack of experience, it is a valid issue and not a personal attack. And when the Republicans do likewise to Obama's lack of experience, that becomes personal. I am totally perplexed.

Need I even mention about the gutter politics and reporting by the media on Palin's daughter? It is utterly shameful and disgusting. They are no better than the tabloids.

When will the Republicans come up with any solid economic or strategic plan? It's all about picking on others! Sophomores do learn that every discussion needs solid arguments and every project needs a masterplan. Every person with a brain, Republican or Democrat, should have realized that the Republican candidates have nothing to present, but personal attacks. This might have worked in 2004, but this time it will not, and you don't even need to be a sopohomore for that!

Some of the comments here are ridiculously partisan. Lots of mudslinging going on, and the Republican hacks try to excuse it by repeating the mudslinging, just adding "but they ARE..." in front?

When we spent six weeks in the US earlier this year, I was gob-smacked by CNN's one-sided partisanship; in its fawning support of Barack Obama, and in its unrelenting criticism of his female Democratic opponent – so what's new now?

The current snide, sneering, sniggering denigration of Sarah Palin and her family by Democratic operatives and Obama supporters is far nastier (and much more unfounded) than anything heard at the Republican convention.

It is surely time for Senator Obama (really, when are US journos etc going to start giving him his proper title?) to give the instruction to take the gloves off. Anything is now fair game.

As a woman I was hoping that Sarah Palin did good with her speech. In fact I felt sick to my stomach about the whole scenario, everything seemed incredibly oldfashioned and staged for a certain type of voter. The introduction of the big family, including a poor Baby that surely should be sleeping instead of being carried around on a stage, the whole "holier than thou" approach, the overdone pathos as regards the son (and nephew) going to Iraq, all quite awful. A glorification of all oldfashioned and one had hoped soon to be outdated right wing ideas in the book. I know there are a lot of Americans that such rethoric still very much appeals to. A shame it comes from a woman.

I think it can only in America be possible that people not only enjoy politics as national entertainment and vote candidates in to some of the most powerful positions on this planet who are former actors or some local governors who have never left the U.S. but they even seem to believe the speeches written by some speech writers.

Certainly, also Mr. Estrada in the Philippines was a fromer actor turned president. Though, I would not use this as a very fair comparison. But to now vote a "Hockey-Mom" from nowhere into the VP position? Mr. Bush, so it seems to me and many other people living outside the states, has already shown enough insensitivity and lack of understanding of different cultures. Also, what is it with Americans and their obsession with wars and "heros"? Stepping back and looking at what the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq has brought those two countries, the U.S. and the world should probably leed to a broader rethinking of "heroes" and their executive leaders...

Seeing the 2 conventions, one can come up with a conclusion.

Democrats definitely have the better product in their candidates, but Republicans sure how to sell. They did not need a word of any issue to get the polls in favor of them. Some of the things that they say were mean and outright lies (like Obama raising taxes on flip-flopping), but it would still help them.

Lets see what effects would this have on the race...

Mr Mc Cain – where was your lapel pin of the U.S.A.?

Sarah Palin missed her calling, she'll be a wonderful stand-up comedienne

Palin read the muck dished out by Schmidt and his team. The way she was behaving says that she has not travelled outside America much. Well the same can be said of Obama, at least he is dignified in his behaviour and knows what America can and cannot do. It is saddening to note that many republicans will buy her sound bites as they did for Bush. America is in deep economic crisis and I cannot see where republicans have answers

Look folks, we have been lowering our standards for so long that we are not actually conidering putting someone a heartbeat away from the presidency whose resume is so light she actually talks about her experieince running the local PTA !

We used to have decent and educated Democrats and Republicans vying for the Presidency. I mean, can you honestly see someone with absolulet zero experience like Sarah Palin (forget the gender issue) running in the 40s, 50s, or 60s.

This isn't TV or a movie. This is reality and the US presidency is the most diffcult and important position in the world.

The last president we elected based on negative attacks on the other party now has a 28% approval rating.

Don't you get it yet?

This is typical GOP strategy since the GWB bulldogs have been on the prowl. It will only serve to furthur polarize the nation.

The GOP of the last 16 years or so plays up to the most simple-minded middle-class and lower middle-class Americans. They eat it up. Strange, since GOP policy favors the rich.

I now expect we'll be seeing racists undertones in the upcoming GOP smear campaign.

What took McCain so long to chose his running mate. And if u want to chose the running mate last minute, u cant make a mistake and chose someone only known in a state like Alaska with 500,000 people. When will u sell her to the public and when will the electorate come to know her. Do u think this lady can run around the country campaigning leaving her 5+1 kids (including the unborn) to her working husband at home? Thats funny. Americans are going to dig deeply into her. Lets stay cool.....

I have to admit, I am concerned that with this ticket we may be getting a pig in a poke.

First you have John McCain, and call this "age-ist" if you want, but it's really more "health-ist". He is the least likely candidate to actually be able to serve the four years as president than we have put up in my lifetime, and I go back to Kennedy.

Then you have Sarah Palin. Healthy, articulate, but with the most sympathetic built-in excuse to abdicate as possible. "I regret that I have found that I must tend to the needs of my family...." Graceful exit line, little or no political fall-out. All it needs is timing to do this 2-3 months before McCain bails. (Can you really see the GOP powers that be allowing her to actually assume the presidency?)

And we end up with a President and a Vice President that we did not elect.

Kinda like 2000.

Could this be the Margaret Thatcher "Iron Lady" of America?

I was surprise that not one time did she mentioned healthcare. All she did was attack, attack, and attack. I was expecting more from her in regards to that issue. She really didn't say much about how they would bring this country together. You have to do more than just attack your opponent.

As an independent voter and professional working mother of two young girls, I certainly appreciate the determination of Sarah Palin to run for office while mothering her 5 wonderful children. Her speech giving abilities are truly first class, as we all saw last night…..HOWEVER…..as a John Mc Cain supporter in previous years and mother of two girls I unfortunately cannot bring myself to vote for a party that does not respect a woman’s right to personal choice, wants to teach abstinence as opposed to sex education in our schools, and refuses to acknowledge science and the future problems for the entire planet as well as my children’s lives when it comes to global warming. As a professional working mother I will not allow Sarah Palins outdated values to return American women back to the dark ages. I will be voting Democratic this year.

Sincerely,

Brenda Johnson

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

Should Palin's speech be described as "excellent" , or really more accurately as "slick"?

If Obama is derided as a "rock star" why is Palin lauded as a candidate with whom Republicans "fell in love"?

Why is being "just a community activist" negative, while being "just your average hockey mom" becomes positive?

When does "empty rhetoric" morph into "good communication"?

The role of those in media should be to pay more attention to the meaning of words. If Tim Russert were alive he'd have done his homework and asked the hard questions and insisted on answers.
I see Soledad trying. I hope it becomes more widespread.

I have no problem with her as a person and I believe that she will add to the spice in this election, but I believe that Palin as well as most other speakers should make factual statements and not bent the truth. Here are some examples which are accessible to the public, so I do not know why in the time of internet etc one would think he or she couldget away with bending the truth.

The below was reaserched by a member of the Associated Press.

In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

I have never blogged but I was a young democrat at 16 and have been ever since, I am now 53. I have watched carefully, read all I can and listened to others. I am now ready to speak up. I will not vote democratic and I will not consider voting for Obama. He is a wonderful speaker but has upset me many times with comments about small towns, his wifes patriotic comments were shocking and his change seems to be changing his mind when he finds out he is wrong or unpopular. The news is too opinionated and giving biased info with laughing commentators and lop sided comments that do matter. People are following Obama much like Billy Graham. I am one of the women the news says won't change their mind. I am a small town member with important issues. I am a 32 year veteran teacher of special children. The democrats cheated me and others with pushing Obama through. I am still disappointed but they think people like me will forget. My brothers and brothers in laws are war heroes. I do not trust Obama, his associates like his minister and business associates. People do not change after so many years. I have always loved CNN but have been disappointed in the coverage. I do not know if anyone really reads this but I am now a McCain/Palin supporter. I feel there are so many wrongs in this. I hope someone is listening to us. We are here and we do disagree with Obama. We are not forgetting and we are educated enough to know the difference between politics and issues that matter. Good luck democrats and Obama, I am now going to work for McCain.

You say it went down the drain wensday? Are you insane? The democrats and their eran boys the left wing media have been lying about, insulting women in general, and attacking Sara Palin for 3 days before she started to tell the (TRUTH) about Obama. Only someone from the left could twist the truth so badly. Obama and his hit squad have been scandalizing thier oponents all through this race while never offering one not even one solution to our real problems. You the media never say to the American people the economy only went bad after they gave control to the democrats. Two years ago the economy was great. I know you care little for the truth and maybe Sen John McCain can get through all the lies you tell all the suport you give Obama the empty suit, and actually bring real goodness back into politics. I doubt you in the media wiould be happy with that. War for you is always better than actual prosperity and peace. It sels better right?

"They are taking the fight squarely at him, even if it means demeaning service he provided in low-income urban centers of Chicago."
What utter garbage. Obama and his pit bulls have been attacking through misrepresentation of his opponents since commencing his run before he even arrived in Washington. I give you the following quote :
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies - that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.
It is clear you are aiming your comments to Obama supporters. The mentally challenged, and bitter losers (not a criticism – most ly not due to their own fault) in society.
John McCain preeches AND practices INCLUSION, and healing. Obama preaches class warefare and hatred. JFK : "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" . Obama demands the first, McCain LIVES the latter.
You will NOT post this comment – but if not it will be posted many places elsewhere. I no longer watch CNN, not due to who you support, but because you do support someone, and in such a biased, intellectually and morally indefensible way, when you are supposed to be neutral, and report honestly, and provide a forum for honest discussion. PS. I am a Democrat, but am not stupid! Clinton was a viable candidate. Obama is an egotistical fraud with NO life experiences other than internetting with the corrupt corner of the Democratic Party – the Daley Chicago Democrats. Shame on you. Ted Turner must be so embarrassed.

How come the Republicans hardly mention the state of the economy??? What else do they have in their bag apart from fear-mongering,name calling and running their opponents down??? Is that all they've got???C'mon voters wake up and smell the coffee.They seem to have absolutely no idea how to get America regain all she's lost in the last 8 years under the Republicans !!! Under the Democrats we had a budget surplus and the economy was good,America had a good image internationally .Now all we're left with after 8 years of Republican rule is a tarnished image of America and our coffers empty because of a war based on lies and an economy in trouble.We need to face the facts and wake up and choose a leader who has the capability to get all of us out of this mess created by the Republicans and their crazy ideas.We the people of America need to be wise as to who we choose as our leader and it is in our hands to save ourselves by going out and voting the right and sane people in office instead of voting for people who have no plans to take care of the mess that we are in but are busy getting all shrill and nasty and all they can do is talk about fighting and attacking and making nasty comments about their opponents.

I for one, am really afraid of Obama. I am a middle class housewife
that is finding it harder and harder to raise my family and keep the
mortgage up.
Obama is a smooth talking guy with a silk tongue which alot of people
are calling Messiah and has the black community believing he will
make them all rich and peace will be in the world just by electing him.
I for one would like to see all of God's children get along!

I'll take experience for 20 months? No. I don't think so. The Twin Cities citizenship should know this: their population together as Minneapolis and St. Paul is larger than the number Sarah overwhelmed. WOW! Just elect her with McCain, huh? Think of that on the job training program. Health care? No there! Manners? No there. Ethics? Not there! Investigations about her watch in Alaska? There on the way for Sarah.
I'll take experience with Obama for four years, Alex!

does not matter what Obama or McCain say. the most important is the ideologie behind of each party they represent.Watch or happened
in these last 8 years of bush's party.can we afford 4 more years?look what clinton left behind.a surplus in the budget of u.s.government.where is the surplus of mr.bus?words .just words.
only words.the wind take the words to nowhere.look the deeds.the results are the most important.we never vote for the front runner but
for rear runner(for the ideologie behind front runner).we need another
party in the us-we say independent party.why not?finish with this
dictatorship of two rule party.