I would like to see Palin, Pelosi, and Hillary together on one of the late night shows.

Sarah Palin’s staged descent from airplanes holding her baby, her skirting questions with memorized scripts, her studied folksy language, her going for the jugular while smiling sweetly, the barracuda glare behind her spectacles—all this might charm and energize the social conservative base, but it’s not going to sway most independent voters. Her shallow grasp of the substantive issues aside, the more independent voters get to know Sarah Palin, the more she’ll turn them off.

Interesting comparison. I've often thought McCain looks and acts more like a guy proud of his "arm candy" than someone proud of his candidate's vice-presidential capabilities.

Diana, of course, was picked to be a traditional wife, mother and publicity tool in the service of the Windsors. Sarah Palin has been chosen for--well, chosen for what we hope are sterling leadership and intellect qualities. Such as knowing all about Russia because she can see it from Alaska. And living up to her barracuda name by being vicious and vindictive to those who dare to challenge or say "no" to her. And having all the speaking presence of a high school junior running as next year's president of the student body. Things like that. Oh yes. Vote for Sarah everyone. The dumbing down of America continues.

Give me a freaking break who even started this silly stupid article.Palin is a woman hater she clearly wants women to suffer. Diana didn't and I never saw Diana kill an animal like Palin ENJOYS doing.This is like apples and oranges Di good Palin a demon with glasses demented looking secretary.

I guess a woman of HER OWN convictions and not a POLICALLY CORRECT remnant of the 60's is indeed a problem for the lestists. The double standards and do as I say not as I do are now being examined a little more closely. It is all well and good to engage in grievance politics for the "liberation of women" but only under certain terms.: Bella Abzung, Gloria Steinham etc.

But a woman of her own principals should of course be denigrated at all costs, because she is not one of us. This from the liberal chattering class of those who pretend to speak for "ALL" women. Those self serving hypocrites, the do it all, have it all crowd.

Now (not NOW) a woman who has succeeded in her own right WITHOUT preferences is indeed beyond the comprehention of the "Libbers". NOW you deal with the new reality. Good luck.

Your comparison of her supporters' relationship to Sarah Palin with the celebrity-worship of Princess Diana's followers is condescending and completely off the mark. This post reminds me of an op-ed essay Tim Rutten wrote confidently predicting that McCain would see his decision to pick Palin as a huge mistake and that he would jettison her the way George McGovern jettisoned Senator Eagleton. Of course that is what they were predicting at Daily Kos and Democratic Underground at the time, but it so completely misread right-wing sentiment that it was immediately apparent that Mr. Rutten has never stepped out of that echo chamber long enough to meet any real-life Republicans or libertarians. Likewise, you seem to be grasping at straws to explain a sociological phenomenon you utterly fail to comprehend.

Dont't look for help in understanding Ms. Palin's supporters to Mr. Rutten (of course), nor to Mary McNamara, James Rainey, Rosa Brooks, Peter wallsten, Meghan Daum, or the Times' editorial board. The LAT hive-mind is clueless on this issue. Please allow me to draw your attention to two undercurrents below the mainstream media discussion. If you limit your reading on politics to the LAT you may be excused for your ignorance of the first one, since the Times has gone out of its way to ignore it: The full-throated roar of hatred from the left-wing blogosphere that greeted the announcement of Palin's selection, and the continuing lunatic attacks from the left against her. This savagery has provoked the right to defensively circle the wagons around Palin.

The mainstream press occasionally writes articles for the uninitiated on the nastiness of the blogosphere, (invariably citing only conservative blog commenters as examples), but any fair-minded person who has spent enough time on both sides of that aisle knows that there is a huge difference in the quality of the vitriol on the right and left. Whether it is because the left side of the blogosphere skews younger demographically, or because of the pent-up frustration from eight years under Bush, or for some other reason, the left side of the blogosphere has developed an angry, hyperbolic, and uncritical style that occasionally devolves into the internet equivalent of a mob riot. Tony Snow's death precipitated one such event, but few people outside the blogosphere noticed it. People HAVE noticed the left's anti-Palin riot. At the Times, various writers (all except Jonah Goldberg being politically indistinguishable) have taken notice of the right-wing's defensive wagon-circling around Palin, but they have disingenuously refused to note the true source of the provocation, and instead insinuated that the defensiveness is caused by an insecurity over Palin's readyness for higher office. This defensiveness on the right has only increased as lies that originated in places like Daily Kos have begun percolating up into the mainstream media. (See, for example, Maureen Dowd's recent column repeating a viral e-mail hoax claiming that Palin believes dinosaurs are Satan's lizards).

The second cultural phenomenon causing the right to embrace Ms. Palin is more amorphous. I believe that there is an undercurrent of "folk Americana" pride and insecurity that has been challenged by the media's sneering dismissal of Ms. Palin, (such as your post comparing her political supporters to Princess-worshipers). The terms used to discuss Palin in the media remind me of the way the media treated Paula Jones. John Edwards was selected to be a Vice Presidential candidate in 2004 with only a partial Senate term under his belt (which he largely served in absentia as he campaigned for higher office). If the Times could smother Edwards with gravitas gravy and ask us to consider him as viable VP material, why is the newspaper treating Palin, a state governor, as a light-weight celebrity? Is it because Edwards is a a lawyer? A man? A Democrat? Also, it is very apparent that the media is attempting to portray Palin as a fanatical extremist simply because she refuses to deny her personal Christian views with weaselly evasions like "above my pay grade." I am neither a Christian nor a social conservative, but I can clearly see that Palin's political identity is pragmatic, not religious. The way the media has attempted to use Palin's Christianity against her is shameful, and would never be done to a politician of any other faith. The disproportionality of the media attack on Palin (compare to LAT coverage of Biden. What coverage? Exactly) comes across as contempt for her middle-class image and values.

Oh this such a lame article. What a stupid comparison. The problem is these days just about any kind of trash makes it into newspapers online. That's why paper editions will live on forever so readers won't be waylaid by such trash.

John McCain is a hero and would take a bullet for you. Would Obama? Or would he run for cover? Sara Palin has proved her loyalty to Americans. We can NOT afford to elect someone who can turn on America. IRAN is cheering in the streets for Obama to win for goodness sake! John McCain and Sara Palin will pull all Americans out of this mess. And would somebody tell the Dems to come back to office so we can get on with the business? We MUST vote this time for an HONEST man and that man is JOHN MCCAIN!

America are really stupid! They are obssessed with beauty and fame even if the person is an idot. How can you support Obama since past two years and now you don't because of miss congeniality? Even if Obama is inexperience, he has been veted for two years now, travelled to all those places to prove himself that he can do the job. I really think he can. I am a white woman and I'm telling all the white woman in America to think about theses issues and let not be deceived by the beauty of Alaska governor. We are all forgetting that McCain belongs to Repulican party, and we also forgeting about where the economy is at this time. You dump people, you are forgetting about the stage of our economy. Are you guys nuts? I think if Obama is all white, he will be leading McCain by 20% at he moment. If your blindness will let American bypass a good candidate just because of his skin is really stupid. Wake up ladies, Sarah does not share what you believe in. Think about it ladies. We cannot elect McCain because Of Sarah, we would all be in trouble. That's all I have to say.

REAGAN CONSERVATIVE PALIN FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE; NEO-CON PUPPET INSANE MC-CAIN FOR HER BUTLER

Palin can be the Queen of mid-Amerika. I just hope that she's never POTUS.

Sad_Lib - please explain what you mean by "What is being done to Palin is noting short of discraceful [sic] and an embarrassment to the Domocratic party [sic]." The first thing the Obama campaign did was to declare her daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy out of bounds and off-limits for discussion. How disgraceful! They've paired her with John McCain as being "just more of the same". What an embarrassment! As for support of strong women, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and many other strong, Democratic women -- indeed, Hillary Clinton -- would take extreme exception to your statement.