why what you consider an obvious hoax was so believed. By the time this came out the story really wasn't whether we considered Palin intellectually lazy (the consensus was pretty much set that her knowledge about world and even national affairs was abysmal) but instead that this was leaking out of the McCain campaign.

One thing a satirist needs to be aware of is when their satire is not too far off the truth. In this case the things they claimed she said fit perfectly with other highly documented views of her talking. The riffs and infighting within the McCain campaign were also well-known.

For most of us, this episode had it been true, only served to reinforce things we were already fully aware of. It was very amusing as well much like the Michael Dukakis riding in a tank shot.

What's not amusing though is that there are seemingly intelligent people that seriously believe an intellectual lightweight like Palin with fundamentalist leanings and major ethical lapses in her history should still have a shot at any of the highest political positions in our land.

As always you search through sources until you find some overreach on the part of the opposition and somehow that is supposed to make us believe that the aberration cancels out the overwhelming amount of evidence that truly does exist. You did that for 8 years of Bush by trotting out the Bush Derangement Syndrome theory to somehow invalidate the overwhelming incompetence we were witnessing daily. Obviously your message didn't get through to the over 70% of Americans that hold a negative view of his presidency and feel the pain daily from his horrific leadership.

What this amounts to Tom is lying even if it's clad in snippets of the truth. It's become a staple of the Republican Party and I'm hoping Americans are waking up to it. What's truly reprehensible though is that you're obviously smart enough to know you're distorting the big picture to advance your cause.

Art