Bill Whittle writes at National Review Online on Sarah Palin, writing an article with which I'm approximately 99.34% in agreement.

Go read the whole article.  But here, and below (click the Read More) are tidbits:

. . . John McCain . . . wasn’t my first choice (Fred) or my second (Rudy), . . .

And so — prior to this week — all we had was a grim determination to vote against a dangerous, socialized vision of the future. We were portrayed — largely accurately — as old, tired, out-of-touch, out of ideas, out of candidates . . . too white, too male, too square. It doesn’t matter how true or false that caricature was. That was the narrative, and there was enough of it that fit.

And then the earthquake came.

The world's oldest gorilla--well, the oldest one in captivity, named Jenny, has died at 55 at the Dallas Zoo.

Democrats immediately blamed it on Sarah Palin's opposition to socialized health care and cited her record of hunting cute furry animals.  John McCain said "I know what it's like to live in captivity for years" in a written statement.

A commenter on the lawblog The Volokh Conspiracy:

The emerging meme from the left is that she didn't write the speech. It seems to me that when that's the best response you can spit out, you're conceding it was a hell of a performance.

Via Althouse.  Freakin' funny (bad language...deal with it):

Yep, those Democratic Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates sure can lead their followers, can't they?

Obama:

"I have said before and I will repeat again: People's families are off limits," Obama said. "And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18 and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics."

Biden:

"The press has been asking me that question and I have not answered it for two reasons," Biden said at a town hall meeting in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "Number one, first of all, I don't know the governor. Everything I know about her, there's no reason not to respect her and believe she's qualified to be the vice president."

Emphasis mine.

A selection of what's on the front page of Daily Kos (no link--why bother?):

Hurricane Palin Might Finish What Katrina Started
McCain:  What Will You Learn at Palin's Feet
The Palin hypocrisy has made me an "angry" liberal
Governor Palin, You're A Disgrace
What books did Palin want banned?

It's even worse on other leftie web sites, such as the New York Times, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, etc., etc.

You know, I don't give to political campaigns as a rule, but all of this crap is starting to edge me toward donating to McCain/Palin, in hopes that it will shut up these pinheads.

Columnist Fatima Ali, in the Philadelphia Daily News:

If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!

If you want to know why elements of this country are "a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness" then go look in a mirror.

I for one have had enough of this gimme-gimme-gimme garbage.  Get off your ass and make something of yourself.  The only thing holding you back is you - - - well, that and your co-dependency enablers in the Democratic Party and in the mainstream media.  All you're doing is demonstrating your utter lack of comprehension of economics and human behavior.

If you want a race and class war, Ms. Ali, bring it on.  if however you want you and "your people" to be prosperous and successful, adjust your attitude, pull your head out of your ass, and start building rather than sitting around all miserable and waiting for some Messiah to deliver you from your 40 decades in the wilderness.

I'm sitting out here in Missouri, Ms. Ali, minding my own damn business.  I couldn't care less how much melanin a person's skin has, or what shape their eyelids are.  If you've got a product I want, I'll buy it, at a fair price.

So if you want my money, get off your butt and make something that I want to buy, instead of strutting around in the urban core talking trash, wearing bling, scribbling tags on anything you can find, and belittling those in your own community who actually are trying to make things better by starting businesses and getting educations.

If on the other hand you want a class- and race-based civil war--bring it.

Long-time movie trailer voiceover guy Don LaFontaine has passed away.

Coming soon, to a Paradise near you.  He will be missed.

The U.S. announces a $1 Billion aid package to Georgia;

Russian President Medvedev says that Georgian President Saakashvili isn't Georgia's President any more.

There will be a war.  It will be a big one.  It will be Russia's fault.

A seventeen year old girl gets pregnant by her boyfriend.

She goes to her conservative, pro-life parents and tells them.  They talk, and the girl decides not only to bring the child to term, but to go ahead and marry the father.

This, to some people, highlights the hypocrisy of the parent's pro-life, abstinence-only views of the parents, one of which happens to be a nominee for Vice President.

What?

Huh?

So, by analogy, we shouldn't go around telling kids to obey the speed limits and traffic laws, when we know that they're going to go out and break them?

WTF?

Yeah, I know Medary.com has suddenly become All Palin All the Time, but you know, she's really a fascinating American story.

This blogger met her at the New Orleans airport this past April:

We chatted about Florida and Barrow, Alaska and flying commercial. She said she really enjoys and prefers flying with people who either live in or are visiting Alaska. She even flies coach! She was kind enough to take several photos with me.

Emphasis added.  I can't conceive of another State Governor flying coach.  In my own limited personal experience with state chief executives, Governors tend to be "do as I say, not as I do" kinds of people.