I'm a working class guy, always have been, and all the women I know are working class, too. I come from a long line of farmers and workers, and I wear my blue shirt proudly.

The ladies I've known all my life, with their hair wrapped in bandannas and worn-out cotton gloves on their hands, wear their working class badges with as much pride as I do.

You do great disservice when you say Palin speaks like working class women... none I know, or have heard, sound like Palin, even when English is not their first language.

It doesn't take a college education to be able to communicate effectively with others- just some careful thought and common sense works pretty well most of the time. There are women working on production lines, farms, and offices all over who speak clearly, effectively and thoughtfully every day. Comparing these ladies to Sarah Palin is a deep insult to their intelligence.

Not so, Buckeye... There is a huge difference between day to day  governance and Sanford's foreign trip. The Governor of any state is like the President- essentially on the job 24/7.

If Sanford's staff truly didn't know where he was, it was due to his purposeful deceit.

As an Idahoan, I feel sorry for the citizens of S. Carolina. I know how it feels to be betrayed by one of your elected officials. Even though I never voted for Larry Craig and loathed his policies, he made all of us here look like asshats.

Sanford had better learn from Craig's idiocy if he wants to ever spend any time in his state again.  The best thing for him to do is resign the Governorship immediately and get out of public life for good. Craig is still despised here for his refusal to leave office.

Just more preaching to the decaying base.

So far, none of the contenders for the Republic party chairman have a clue. Enjoy 'em while they last- they won't be around much longer.

I am a Rebel soldier
and that is what I am
and for the Dear Old Union
I do not give a damn...

The politics of opposition first is very ingrained into the Republican thinking. Their vaunted party discipline,which served thems o well in the 80's and 90's gradually ossified, and now works strongly against them. It's much deeper than just knee-jerkery.

There is going to be a lot of squirming in their camp, and a lot of practice will need to go on before they get it. I think the best approach for the Repub leaders to take is to enforce civility first- once they grow used to being civil, respect may follow.

Are they capable of accomplishing the changes they need to make, and then capable of practicing them? I dunno. For me the answer is a definite maybe. They have a lot of proving up to do.

I think a lot of voters adopt one party or the other as young adults, and then stick with that party.

I come from a state where families are still mostly large and extended, where religion is important, and prosperity or poverty still depends on forces largely outside our control. In this environment, conservatism pays practical dividends in most of life, not just politics. And because this is so, conservatism is easy to accept and adopt politically for most folks. While Idaho is changing and growing fast, it remains a place where it's easy to travel for hours and see only a few people along the way. It remains a place where self-reliance is a physical necessity as much as a political philosophy, and the  physical requirements of living here make us all more conservative.

This is true with most of the Intermountain West, and isn't going to change. In fact, folks who move here become changed more than they change the natives.

I became a Democrat after being deeply offended by comments made by then-VP Spiro Agnew regarding the protest turmoil that boiled all over the Viet Nam war. As a young man, recently discharged from the military, I was an eye witness to both sides, and Spiro was just wrong, wrong. He's long dead and forgotten, lying in fading disgrace, but my distaste for the Republicans has remained with me almost 40 years later.

The reverse is true with one of my closest friends and a former Navy buddy. While in the service, neither of us was political at all, and if anything, he was more liberal in outlook than I, but after his business failed due to Carter's 20% interest rates on operating loans, he became a Republican, and remains so to this day.

But we agree on many things from both parties. He is distressed over the neo-con takeover, and I'm distressed by the recent Democrat thirst for revenge. I don't agree with any of the "Break Their Backs' statements at all.

I find that voting for the 'other side' requires a lot. A lot of dissatisfaction, a lot of overcoming family traditions, close community traditions, one's basic beliefs, church, and basic views of the world. Depending on how these things are mixed, and how one sees the mix as a success or failure, requires more than a lot of experienced voters can manage when it comes to crossing over from one party or the other.

I expect the Republicans are just beginning the hard and troubling process of realignment. It took a new generation of Democrats to break down the gates, starting in 2005 with the young militants who dragged our party's pundits back to thinking like true liberals and convinced them to quit trying to out-play the Republicans by their rules. We didn't lose time after time for the past 28 years without good reasons, and we were just as prone to sticking to our failing ways as the Republicans are now.

While the Republicans are just starting to sort themselves out, they are as capable of swift change as we are, and I'm not convinced they will remain in the outer reaches for long. Sarah Palin wasn't the right person, but there are many other like her, but who are better and smarter, in the West. We haven't seen them yet, but they're there. All it will take is a newcomer with the same aspirational qualities Reagan and Obama had, combined with the right conservative philosophy. I expect to see a new person arise soon, and that person, because the West is changing so fast, may well come from my neck o' the woods.

A good attitude!
I'm not gay, but I firmly believe that any couple who wants to marry should be allowed that right as human beings. From any way I see it, marriage should be a civil right to all, and the best of any other alternative.

It's not my fight, but I think some of your boycott targets are unreasonable. There is simply no way supportive Americans can avoid doing business in S. California, and it's unrealistic to think that tourism there will be affected much.

The most troublesome event in the Prop. 8 vote to me was the Mormon Church's interjection into California politics. This seriously challenged the state/church seperation, and should be vigorously opposed. I know that there are a lot of gays taking the fight to the Church and to Utah, and I hope you stick with it. You can slap the hurts on Utah tourism, and you can challenge the California missionaries. Don't let this fade from your priorities- a boycott only works when some economic hurt results.

The LDS Church is already being buffeted from within over it's gay policies. Give your support to gay Mormons. Take the high ground and challenge their beliefs. Always remember that no church can marry a couple without a government marriage license, but a marriage can be done without any church. The Mormons, Catholics, and the other faiths that seek to deny a civil right to all need to be worked on until those rights are fully won. Take on all races and cultures who would deny your rights. Do it fully, and don't concentrate on just the most egregious.

We just got ourselves a President who is living proof that it can happen- if not for you, for your children. If not for them, for your grandchildren.

Like our African-Americans said: Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on. For as long as it takes.

Whooo. lt seems half of the respondents to this post got it, and the other half didn't. This guy only mentioned fear- nothing in his post said he was afraid- but for about half of you, just reading the word brought out the hornet swarm.

We are ecstatic, and naturally so, but I hear his warning. Don't let this election become a political rapture. Take a break and enjoy it, and give Obama some time to go to work. Then it's time for the rest of us to go to work changing the minds of a lot of fearful and uncertain people. We won some of them over, and we need to win more. That's not done by slapping anyone who calls themself a Democrat around, and it's not done by snarking on the other party.

I've always seen myself as a moderately liberal voice in a vastly conservative state- Idaho is among the reddest of the red.

There is much to core fiscal conservative principles that is necessary to good governance, and are seen the in much same way by moderates of either side. Clinton understood them. And so does Obama.

As a party, we got used to accepting all the social groups who were, or are, divisive to the conservatives.  We have grown used to understanding the folks who are gay, for example, can be just as conservative in their governmental beliefs as straight folks. We didn't build up our big tent easily; we overcame a lot former social divisions over a 40 year span.

During our party's last days as a social power, we blew it economically. Now, we have the perfect chance to get it right this time. As a party, we need to curb our militant instincts while keeping them intact for the vital fights that lie ahead. We must beware of becoming the blue version of the red Taliban the Republicans became.

I read Kos every day, and I'm not leaving Kos. But at the same time, I don't like Kos' bugle call to break the Republican Party's back. We need them, just as they need us... otherwise, the country will end up just like my beloved Old Mother Idaho, where the Republican party has been in control so long it has rotted at the stump. With all Idahoans, there is a natural tendency to conservatism; this is the way of Mountain West. Idaho was once solidly Democrat, back in the day when Democrats were generally more conservative.

If a Democrat is mostly Republican but says he's a Democrat, that's good enough for me, and should be for us all. We need conservative Democrats to man the heavy artillery and go after the most entrenched and most divisive institutions that have counted on public support. The ones that we have given up the to fight. Outfits like the NRA. Democrats who deeply understand these guys, and are the ones who can best confront their weaknesses.

The only way we will turn the country to a workable balance is to select our targets carefully. The Republican social agenda is all they have left, and the only way that will change is from within the Republican party itself. It we go for the roots of their social thinking, the rest will fall over all by itself.  We have to  accept our many shades of blue, because that's where our strengths truly lie.

Inch by inch. Old Mother Idaho just elected a Democrat again to Congress. He's not from my district, but I'm going to do my best to make sure he gets a second term if he proves up, and I belive he will.
All of us have to prove up on what we got this time. We need Democrats of every shade, and we have 'em. Don't pull the same purity tests that ruined the Republicans.

She has black and white values, while the reality lies in shades of grey. In her world, there is only good and bad, and she thinks she gets to define them. She can't allow a 'bad' guy accomplishing anything good, or vice versa, so she bends the truth into what fits with her world view.

If Sarah enters a grey room, she can call it white all she wants, but she'll still knock herself unconcious when she bumbles into that wall in front of her, because she can't see things in shades.

While watching Palin's interview with Katie Courick, I was struck with an insight: Sarah Palin speaks like a beauty pageant contestant. Those girls all speak in a very coached manner that all boils down to Keep Talking. No Matter What You Say, Keep Talking. It tends to work on contest judges when they're asked questions that go over their head; to the judges, a lot of speech often equates to poise under pressure.

Palin did just that, even as she disintegrated into nothing but babble. It's her old training coming back out during the stress of the moment. McCain is between a rock and a hard place; he can't keep her in the closet forever, and he can't trust her if she's off the leash.

I think that beauty queen aspect is something that so many of her supporters find attractive; for them, it's more important how she looks than what she says, and she sure knows which angle makes her look best to the cameras.

Joe Biden has decades of listening closely and critically to opponents. He will politely and quietly chop her into sushi in their debate, and it will be something to watch.

architek...
I sure hope so. I don't see any lack of Palin enthusiasm around here yet. But we must remember that she was completely unknown 3 weeks ago. From here, I'm holding my breath and hoping Repub perceptions of her will change.

The most troublesome thing to me is how she is seen as being fresh and likeable, especially among women. It is shaping up to be another personality contest here, just as it was with Bush. Even though I'm a native, the way Idaho Repubs think still baffles me.

banjomike

Wow! What good observations!

All those Repub emotions were upside down! Another sign of their disconnect. What a surly bunch they were!

A little kicker that didn't get screen time; Tom DeLay attended and was treated like a hero outside the hall.

What I saw coming from both conventions was one party moving into the 21st century, and the other still mired in 1992, as if nothing ever happened after that year.

I'm starting to believe I'm a witness to a party's collapse. If the Republicans can't shake off the 20th century, they'll soon be as viable as the Whigs.

Dang. In talking about the small stuff, I missed one- an important one.
Those big screen fireworks. They were loud, because the hall's p.a. was turned up, but they were just a projection. A flat screen projection, and the crowd wasn't impressed.

The fireworks in the stadium after Obama's speech were the real deal. They were quiter because they were actully up in the air when they went off. The crowd there just kept hollering.

The old lady Repubs didn't wear nearly as many silly hats this year as in the past. Old lady's silly hats always add to the color and gaiety of it all. I saw plenty of them in Denver.

I also didn't see any young Repub rockettes this time- they always used to have a big line of them, kicking out the lights. Where were all the kids?

I also didn't get around to the sum of all this:
The Republican convention had an odd disconnect going on everywhere. Like the fireworks, there was a lingering aftertaste of phoney baloney to it all. Everyone there sensed it andthere  was an uneasy feeling that drifted out of my tv screen.

To me, it simply looked like a severe case of communal flop sweat. They knew they had a lot to answer for, and it showed.

I watch for the little details.

The Repub convention was the flattest they have thrown for as far as my memory goes back. The house was only 2/3 full on the main deck, and the gallery was occupied by more floodlights than people. The stage was too far from the crowd, so all the long shots caught the sparse crowd every time.
When McCain had the stage built, in actuality it was done to make the house look better- the long camera shots caught more people than empty seats, and it helped fill the gallery more, but they couldn't be seen through the lights. Maybe it worked for the audience, but not on tv.

That huge screen made the speakers look like urgent mice on stage- it was overwhelmingly large, and that perpetually waving flag background must have induced seasickness from the looks of the crowd.

All the speakers meant to light the fire for Palin flopped.

Thompson really needed a drink of water- there was as much throat clearing as speaking.
Mitt was obiously trying to do some positioning for 2012, but it wasn't working. He kept saying 'Thank You' long after his tepid intro applause stopped.
Guilani was a little better, but he had nothing to hope for, so why not?
Huckabee's wit was there, but he was flatter than he was in the primaries.

Palin brung it, but she sounded very rehearsed, and she was very tense. She growled several times at the first, and clamped her lips tightly shut at the end of every sentence... I think that when we see her on the trail, she will have a runaway mouth, as she did when we saw her speak for the first time after McCain's announcement. She's smart, but I don't think her handlers will be able to give her enough catch-up to keep the hold on her initial interest. I expect she'll go back to speaking like a hockey mom.

McCain looked and sounded like a once powerful car that now has 200,000 miles on it and the suspension is gone. He's an old pale shadow of his former self, and he'll tucker out again once he hits the trail. It was sad that he had to apologize for the Repub mess, but I think he's now leader of the party... Bush lost his final chance at some redemption from his own.

My last impression was the contrast between the two conventions. The Democrats' excitement grew and grew, culminating in that huge stadium crowd. Palin gave the Republicans some heart, but after listening to McCain and the balloons finally dropped, they were ready to leave and turn out the lights. At the end, they were as dispirited as they were in the beginning.

If the Repubs get a bounce, it's not going to stick. Too many people want positive change, not more mud. And whatever bounce comes won't be as big as Obama's was.

Middle class Conservatives usually vote their philosophy over their self-interests until they are in real financial pain. Even then, most are willing to sacrifice all the way to the poorhouse if the issue is strong enough.