Which is why, among other reasons, he is more qualified to lead this country. John McCain has proven by his lack of action this past week, his apparent inability to control the message of his campaign, and his abrogation to Sarah Palin that he is completely unqualified to lead this country. There isn’t a more compelling case for his defeat than this past week.

Seein’ as how you’re so religious and all, Gov. Palin, I thought you might want to hear what the Word has to say about your recent behavior:

24 A malicious man disguises himself with his lips,
but in his heart he harbors deceit.

25 Though his speech is charming, do not believe him,
for seven abominations fill his heart.

26 His malice may be concealed by deception,
but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

Proverbs 26:24-26, NIV

Now…I know it says “man”. But it applies to women too. And it even applies to mavericky straight-talkin’ wolf-shootin’ witch-chasin’ women like you. Cuz after all, Gov. Palin, if you’re such a straight-talker and all, you should know better than to tell lies like you’ve been telling.

But you know you can tell lies and get away with it, don’t you? That’s the fault of the ignorant, booing, cheerleading pompom-wearing idiots who like their facts covered in a big pile of bullshit tailor made for their appetites.

What you and your war-hero-turned-dishonorable-demagogue running mate need to know is this: When you incite threats, hate and violence by telling lies, God doesn’t like it. He’s not inclined to be on your side.

When you and your hate-mongering dishonorable running-mate say things like this:

“This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America,” she told the Clearwater crowd. “I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.”

…you expose your wickedness in the assembly.

God’s got some stuff to say to you, but I doubt you’re listening, Governor Palin. So my friends and I are going to say it instead, as plainly and straight-talky as we possibly can. Only, we have the sense to leave the hate speech at the door.

Here’s what my Twitter friend Zik says:

When you drive a crowd into a racist froth, and incite them to want to kill the next president you don’t get to seperate yourself from them.

That’s right, gun totin’ gal. You don’t. And let’s be clear — you and your dishonorable running-mate associate yourself with some of the most destructive domestic terrorists of our time. Not just associate — SUPPORT.

That’s right, Governor Palin. Your running-mate voted to PROTECT domestic terrorists.

Let’s be clear on where I stand on this:

When you and your dishonorable running-mate look the other way when death threats, slander and hate speech are shouted out at your rallies, it is the same as doing it yourself. There is no difference.

when you and your dishonorable running-mate choose to tell outright lies about Senator Obama in an effort to stir up hate and fanatical nationalism, it is the same as if you had done it yourself. There is no difference.

When you and your dishonorable running-mate make sly racial references intended to send a dog whistle to the hate groups in this country that you are willing to be as racist as they, you ARE as racist as they. There is no difference.

IF you and your dishonorable running-mate succeed in whipping the frenzy to such a state that violence is threatened or carried out against Senator Obama or anyone associated with his campaign, volunteer or paid…

I will. not. rest. until I have done everything in my power to make sure you have no power ever again. Or that anyone associated with you has any power ever again. I will not rest until I have found a way to reach as many churches as I can and convince them to denounce your unpatriotic, dangerous and violent acts of treason on our country with your lies, malice and ‘abominations’. I will spend every last dollar I have making sure that the truth comes out about you and your dishonorable and dishonored running-mate.

Those things I will do because I’m human. God, on the other hand, may hold you accountable. You have one option to mitigate that.

Repent.

Today.

Repent.

Turn away, confess how wrong you are, and…

Make it right.

Otherwise, you’re accountable and responsible, and I will exercise my right as a citizen of this country to hold you responsible.

One of the reasons I love talking to strong women older than me: They don’t mess around with the truth. They call it as they see it, probably because when you’re 82, you don’t need to worry about what other folks think. Life is, after all, too short.

82-year old Helen, over at Margaret and Helen blog has a few observations about Sarah Palin:

She leads with this:

Governor Palin is a stupid, conniving bitch. And it’s not because she is a strong woman – I like strong women… worship them… It’s actually the opposite. She is a weak, pathetic woman who thinks big hair, winking, baby talk and self deprecation is somehow becoming of a woman who wants to lead the free world.

See, that’s it, right there for me. Well, that and her complete lack of qualification to step in if John McCain can’t finish his term. But Helen doesn’t stop there…she goes on to really put truth to the lies:

Fact: Sarah Palin is stupid. Maybe not stupid by Alabama standards but stupid enough that she managed to get herself elected Governor while never bothering to educate herself on little things like the Constitution, foriegn affairs or appropriate debating practices. She is stupid enough to have accepted a VP nomination for which she is completely unqualified and stupid enough not to admit it – even though the future of our great nation could be irreversibly damaged by the decision.

Go read the rest. And then leave her a comment, answering her question:

When exactly do we all get to call “bullshit”?

I’d like to know that, too, especially in light of Palin’s reckless, ugly, crap-filled comments yesterday.

(h/t Culture Kitchen)

The results on this one are more accurate than others I’ve seen. Click here to vote.

Watch Jack Cafferty call out Sarah Palin as “pathetic” after playing one of the “most pathetic pieces of tape [he's] ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in the country…” from the Palin/Couric interview:

When Wolf Blitzer tries to make an excuse for her, Cafferty comes back with “Don’t make excuses for her. That’s pathetic.”

Preach it, Jack.

Wow. On the day Palin attends a deployment ceremony for her son, she advocates for war with Russia. This is just so wrong on so many levels…

GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.

The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep… GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Sarah Palin on Russia:

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Now, let’s unpack this just a little bit. Russia was not unprovoked. As much as McCain/Palin want to paint the conflict in Russia as the big bad wolf eating the innocent Georgia, it didn’t really happen like that. In fact, following her logic about protecting smaller democratic countries, she should pay due respect to South Ossetia and acknowledge that Georgia was annexing them even as they expressed desire to be independent of Georgia. There was plenty of provocation.

Of course, it’s much more convenient to dumb down the argument to RNC talking points and argue that Georgia was somehow being punished by Russia for joining Nato. It’s also more convenient to ignore the fact of the gas pipeline crossing Georgia that the neo-cons desperately want to control.

Oh, but then I forgot. John McCain says Palin knows more about energy than possibly anyone else in the US.

Those gosh-darn Republicans sure are given to knowing everything, aren’t they? Just ask Meghan McCain.

Democrats cannot afford to be complacent about Sarah Palin, nor can they afford to be shrill. I mentioned on Twitter over the weekend that I thought it was a horrible idea to even repeat the rumors that were flying around in high number and force. Nor could they be judgmental about her parenting skills, her daughter’s pregnancy, or any other personal issues that might arise.

This, despite the fact that Republicans have traditionally used those issues to undermine Democrats’ candidacies, and especially Barack Obama’s.

Here’s why. Framing this election one around personalities and personal attacks will benefit the Republicans. They know this. From Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager:

“This election is not about issues,” said Davis. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won’t ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has “ultimate faith” in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do.

Davis understands that if Democrats make this a contest of personalities, they’ll lose. Barack Obama gets that, too, which is why he so masterfully shouted out yesterday for the press and his supporters to step back from attacks on Palin and her children, while tying it all into his own past as the child of a single parent who got pregnant at age 18.

George Lakoff understands this, too:

But the Palin nomination changes the game. The initial response has been to try to keep the focus on external realities, the “issues,” and differences on the issues. But the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call “issues,” but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind — the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can’t win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse.

If bloggers and twitterers and the media focus on the personal side of Palin, they miss the larger picture, and in so doing, allow the McCain campaign to frame the election in terms of personality — in the ‘gut factor’. The gut factor involves all of those things which the right trumpets as “their” issues: family values (with a twist of authoritarian bent but still, family values).

What Palin represents is the symbol of the Republican base: solid, conservative, religious, towing the line for those “traditional family values”. Even her daughter’s pregnancy will be viewed in that light, make no mistake about it.

So we have a choice. We can speak to the family values that we hold dear or allow them to be hijacked in a petty debate that misses the larger picture in favor of nonsensical pissing matches over whether Palin should have stayed at home, whether she should have kept better track of her daughter, whether she parented right. Those are non-issues. NONE of us ‘parent right’. Or correctly. We all just do our best in the circumstances we have.

What Palin does is validate McCain’s rapid turn to the base. No longer the darling of independents, he has taken one large step to the right and turned in that direction as he moves ahead. But without Palin, who is standing there already, that turn doesn’t have much credibility. WITH her, it’s a much more powerful case for McCain’s candidacy with the base.

Democrats didn’t stand much chance of winning that base anyway. But they do have the opportunity to frame the debate around what matters to independents and the majority of Democratic voters, and that frame has to be in the context of family and family values.

• It is a family value to want your loved ones to be healthy and have access to health care when they need it.
• It is a family value to aspire to home ownership and expect to be able to not only achieve that goal, but not lose it after the fact because of greedy mortgage companies.
• It is a family value to want your children to be educated and have access to higher education.
• It is a family value to have the opportunity to work at a decent job with a decent wage.
• It is a family value to enable parents to adequately care for their children in situations where both parents must work, and for laws to protect working women and give them equal pay for equal work.
• It is a family value to expect your country to send our sons and daughters into wars worth fighting, wars over principle or security, rather than wars for oil and greed.
• It is a family value to expect our returning soldiers to be cared for and given respect not only in tribute, but in investment in their futures and their health

These are all planks on the Democrats’ platform. If we want Palin to be neutralized and for Obama to win the election, the dialogue should be all about family values, but family values as seen through the eyes of real people suffering all around this country as the result of the last 8 years of failed “family value” policies.

With that in mind, I would challenge you to go to the Momocrats’ site and read their post series entitled “Palin in Comparison“, where they look at what she represents to the Republican base and then answer with the Democrats’ position on those same issues. Then talk to family, friends. Remind them that the Republicans have had eight years to demonstrate even a small regard for the family, but have only shown an amazing tendency toward greed, avarice, and the destruction of just about every value we hold dear in this country.

The election is certainly not about personality. It is about values. It is about who voters feel will stand up for them as we face some of the hardest issues we’ve had as a nation, while cleaning up the Constitutional and economic mess left behind by the Bush Administration. When it’s seen through that frame, it’s no longer McCain’s election to win.

In a nutshell, it is all about the fierce urgency of NOW.

This was the topic of our discussion today on NewsGang Live. I recommend downloading today’s episode. Well worth the listen.