While the "no-Hilary so vote for me" aspect is important I don't think its crucial.

I see the values Palin espouses in buckets - God, Guns and Guts making America Great - to be most important. They reinforce McCain's own thin claims to the Presidency.

Sarah Palin deserves unlimited power based not on merit, knowledge or experience, but electoral carnival. With God, Guns and Guts on her side she answers the well-known needs of that surprising beast, the American voting public.

McCain? An old unpredictable man.
- He was middle ranking US Navy BUT as Commander in Chief he can be senior to his Daddy and Grandpa who were Admirals.
- Horribly tortured by Communists - his understandable mental scars (feelings of revenge?) may yet be revealed (WWIII?).

Another US odd-bod ticket to rule the (Free) world and put the rest in fear.

Pete

Ye Gods, talk about gender confusion! A bit of editorial attention and a tad of biological knowledge would help this light weight piece of piffle. Does Tara have a Y chromosome? I'm sure Hilary and Sarah would each proudly claim to have two X chromosomes. Joe Biden would likely object to the following lack of proofreading as well. "Ensuring there was no doubt about her key campaign target, Biden’s opening speech at an introductory rally in Ohio made reference to everything from her"

It's all a waste of cyber space and innocent trees, we can't vote anyway. Who cares?

This article is superficial in the extreme.

Here is the guts of the current campaign taking into account the current crash of the US Finance and Investment system looming depression.

The election is about change. Not about changing the fundamentals of the US economy but changing the way the US economy has been abusd and manipulated.

McCain and Palin represent change wanted by US voters.

Obama and Biden represent more of the same old same old.

Doesn't make sense does it? Well take into account the following facts.

Sub prime loans affair was the start of the current crisis: These loans were instigated by companies taken over by Fannie Mae. The Clintons were involved in those companies. Bill Clinton in 1998 relaxed the regulations regarding loans so as to allow the Sub Prime type loans...and the parcelling and selling of these loans. This occured under the Fannie Mae management of Franklin Raines who paid himself $90 Million over 6 years. One of those corrupt CEO and obviouly an 'insider'.

The Sub prime market was 12-15% of the total housing loans market. The loans market is approximately $1.3 trillion

The Sub prime crisis ended in March. What is occurring now is the effect of the 1st level, Alt-A loans, of the Prime Loans market collapsing. It represents approximately 40% of the total housing market.

The only differences between Sub Prime and Alt-A loans:

Alt A loans were granted to people with no deposit, no assets, no verifiable income but with a credit rating.
Alt A loans low start interest ceased after 5 years. (Sub-Prime 3 years)
Repayment of principal kicked in after 5 years. (Sub-Prime 3 years)

Lehmann Bros collapsed because of their exposure, not to sub-prime, but to Alt A loans.
The vast bulk of Alt A loans have been sold worldwide as Prime Loans.

I don't know if there are Alt-B, Alt-C or Alt-D or their conditions.

Cont.

Now here is Obama's problem.

'Obama had received nearly $10 million in contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector through October, and he's second among presidential candidates of either party in money raised from commercial banks, trailing only Clinton. Goldman Sachs, which made $6 billion from devalued mortgage securities in the first nine months of 2007, is Obama's top contributor. When asked if Obama would hold these financial institutions accountable for losses incurred by homeowners and investors, his campaign refused to comment.'
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080211/fraser

Published on 24 January 2008. Try to understand the significance of this date.

Fannie Mae former CEO Franklin Raines is now Obama's Campaign Financial Advisor.

McCain co-sponsered a Bill to regulate the activities of unscrupluous lenders ... it was defeated in the Democrat controlled senate.

McCain's right, the US economy fundamentals are still pretty good ... it's Wall Street greed, speculation and manipulation that is the problem.

Any US citizen with $100,000 or less in any bank is fully protected from any bank failure ... unlike Australia and I wonder at the exposure of our Banks, Governments and other Institutions to Alt-A, not Sub-Prime, loans

If keith's facts are correct, and I see no reason that he would fabricate them, then with impeccable logic drives his argument home.

Obama is a fraud! And the Democratic Party is pulling a con on the American electorate betting on the HATE that a large part of it has for the Republicans. And the cynical attempt of the writer of this article with third rate cheap satire to denigrate Sarah Palin, is intellectually demeaning.