Was actually pretty charged up after Democratic Convention and Obama’s acceptance speech; it felt full of possibility to me, a return to sanity in politics after these dismal Bush years. But then immediately McCain nominates this unknown woman Palin, and the odd thing is the conversation changed, as any good looking woman can change the heaviest philosophical investigations, at least for some of us. But now we have it that this VP nominee’s 17 yr. old daughter is pregnant. The humor has been building, one blogger offering that now McCain and the NRA could throw a shotgun wedding, and the happy couple could live in a double-wide FEMA trailer near Washington. But talk about no family planning—how does that really play with women? Richard Cohen in today’s Washington Post put it this way:

Probably the most depressing thing about Palin is not her selection but the defense of it. It has produced a parade of GOP spokesmen intent on spiking the needle on a polygraph. Looking right into the camera, they offer statement after statement that they hope the voters will swallow but that history will forget. The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people -- a contempt that will be justified should Palin be the factor that makes McCain a winner in November.