As a European I am not only astounded by the audacity the GOP displays by nominating a complete nitwit as candidate for the vice-presidency, but perhaps I am even more astounded that so many Americans believe all the BS which comes out of her mouth and that of the GOP. Apparently ‘enough is enough’ does not apply to 50 % of the American people. To them it does not matter how bad George Bush was and the alternative the GOP is now offering.

Concerns about the health of McCain are legitimate and the chance that Palin may have to take over is much higher than the chance that Biden has to take over from Obama.
Being the president of the USA is more than just being president of the American people. Especially in times like this, with a world in turmoil after 8 years of George Bush’ policies, wars raging in many parts of the globe, nuclear terrorism looming on the horizon and the world economy in shambles etc, the world deserves a president who is able to bring enemies together.
The world does not need a ‘hockey mom’, who has never set foot outside the USA, has probably never had any decent lessons about the history of the world and whose understanding about world politics, as well as diplomatic skills, do not surpass those of an average high school kid in Europe.

If the GOP thinks it respects the free world by nominating Palin, the free world should perhaps distance themselves completely from these United States. We cannot afford another 4 years of disastrous foreign policies.
It is not a surprise that most Europeans favor Barack Obama, who displays the reason and diplomatic skills needed in this highly divided world.
Most Europeans have recognized that Obama does understand that you cannot go around this planet bullying every country or leader you don’t approve of.

Unfortunately, the way it looks now is that the religious fanatics in the USA will elect another ‘George Bush’ into the White House.
If the Democrats lose this election they should really consider leaving politics, because it is completely unexplainable how you can lose an election after 8 years of GWB.

I am in full agreement with the Republican Senator Chuck Hagel who has openly questioned whether Sarah Palin has the experience or qualifications to effectively serve as president. Also, Hagel’s not buying the argument that Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives Palin any particular edge or special insights about U.S.-Russian relations. “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said in an interview. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.” Sarah Palin has cited the proximity of Alaska to Russia as evidence of her international experience. Hagel scoffed at that notion. “I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’ ” he said. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin wants to rewrite history about the Georgia-Russia conflict and considering the possibility of a U.S. war with Russia. The vice -Presidential nominee is so inexperienced and unaware that it was Georgia, in fact, that upset the status quo by first attacking South Ossetia. In a dangerous world, Americans need a President who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation. It appears Republicans want Sarah Palin to win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications. The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate poses a serious problem for the United States at such a dangerous time in US history. He has chosen as his running mate, on the basis of of the most cursory vetting, a first term governor of Alaska with a population of 670,000.  She is the most inexperienced candidate for a mainstream party in modern history. She has absolutely no record of interest in foreign policy, let alone expertise. She once told an Alaskan magazine: “I’ve been so focused on state government; I haven’t really focussed much on the war in Iraq.” It does raise serious questions about the 72 year old Senator John McCain’s lack of judgment. McCain’s appointment raises serious worries about his party’s fitness for government. According to New York Times, “It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness. One of the many bizarre moments in the questioning by ABC News’s Charles Gibson was when Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, excused her lack of international experience by sneering that Americans don’t want “somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state. The ABC interview made it abuntantly clear why Americans should worry about Palin’s lack of experience”. The New York Times Editorial has rightly concluded that, “This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis. In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.” In the final analysis, the selection of Sarah Palin will ultimately cause the Republican Party lose the Presidential Election.

Louis Phillips—

Hagel is, in my view, an advanced thinker. Please read this from Brookings:

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2008/0626_hagel.aspx

Hagel got into the Senate through a miracle. Though he was projected to lose he won. The respected Washington, DC publication The Hill has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska.
But as former combat soldier he viewed the Iraq misadventure much more like Senator Kerry and became a Bush-critical Republican. 
Let him be the first Republican with credibility who shouts that the empress has no clothes.
We should see the Republican game much more as a play on the subconscious level. We humans are hardwired for certain archetypes as demonstrated in fairy tales or Shakespeare’s dramas. The evil organizers of the McCain campaign sell Palin as the poor commoner girl, suppressed by her step family (the corrupt Republicans), the Cindarella and McCain, in spite of his 72 years he is marketed as Maverick; a strutting man, as the Prince who had the golden shoe and looked for a match to live happily ever after. End good, All good. Americans like to elect some kind of King or demi-god for a 4 year period and that allows them to go back to a slumber filled with Nascar, Hunting, passions, friends, beer, drugs and whatever diversion one can think of.
If Hagel can wake his fellow Republicans even a little bit up, he serves the cause. I just feel that the Republicans are sleeping and curled up in some kind of fetal position, sucking their thumbs and afraid that when they open their eyes, they will see a black man as the new deity.

As flabbergasted as I am that anyone could rave about Sarah Palin for president of the U.S., I am speechless that anyone with a brain could welcome a Palin presidency.

I listen to right-wing radio hosts go out of their way a 100 miles to prop up Palin—“gee, I don’t even know what the Bush doctrine is,” or “there is no such thing as the Bush doctrine.” 

We all know they are a lying sack of s…!  If Obama, Biden, or Clinton had said any of the stupid comments Palin did, they would be ridiculed into an early grave. 

This should go down as one of the most despicable and unAmerican acts of electioneering in modern history.

What?

Chuckles not impressed that Saracudakins can see Russia from her back porch, huh?

How long has Droopy Hagel fed at the public trough, and where has he led us? No matter who wins this election, the country will be bitterly divided, and partisan as always. At least Sarah is pretty.