What does Palin's approval rating have to do with her alleged "qualifications"? If that's all you can whip out ... They're hardly the same thing.
A jaw-dropping article from last week by Tim Wise: (I'm an Obama supporter, and this made ME think long and hard about a lot of things) --- also gives great insight into the TRUE masters of spin (and it ain't the left, baby).
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
> By Tim Wise
> 9/13/08
>
> For those who still can't grasp the concept of white
> privilege, or who are
> constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of
> it, perhaps this
> list will help.
>
> White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen
> like Bristol Palin
> and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of
> your family is a
> personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you
> or your parents,
> because "every family has challenges," even as
> black and Latino families
> with similar "challenges" are regularly typified
> as irresponsible,
> pathological and arbiters of social decay.
>
> White privilege is when you can call yourself a
> "****in' redneck," like
> Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if
> anyone messes with
> you, you'll "kick their ****in' ass," and
> talk about how you like to "shoot
> ****" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible,
> all-American boy (and a
> great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
>
> White privilege is when you can attend four different
> colleges in six years
> like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out
> of, then
> returned to after making up some coursework at a community
> college), and no
> one questions your intelligence or commitment to
> achievement, whereas a
> person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for
> college, and
> probably someone who only got in in the first place because
> of affirmative
> action.
>
> White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a
> town smaller
> than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a
> state with about the
> same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of
> Manhattan, makes
> you ready to potentially be president, and people don't
> all piss on
> themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator,
> two-term state
> Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're
> "untested."
>
> White privilege is being able to say that you support the
> words "under God"
> in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good
> enough for the founding
> fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be
> immediately disqualified from
> holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in
> the late 1800s
> and the "under God" part wasn't added until
> the 1950s--while believing that
> reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights
> (because, ya know, the
> Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law
> school requires
> it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy
> liberals.
>
> White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and
> not make people
> immediately scared of you.
>
> White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a
> member of an
> extremist political party that wants your state to secede
> from the Union,
> and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
> questions your patriotism or
> that of your family, while if you're black and your
> spouse merely fails to
> come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on
> the first day of
> school, people immediately think she's being
> disrespectful.
>
> White privilege is being able to make fun of community
> organizers and the
> work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right
> of women to
> vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end
> to child
> labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough,
> but if you merely
> question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month
> governor with no
> foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in
> college--you're somehow
> being mean, or even sexist.
>
> White privilege is being able to convince white women who
> don't even agree
> with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your
> running mate
> anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket
> has inspired
> confidence in these same white women, and made them give
> your party a
> "second look."
>
> White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't
> support your
> political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your
> power or being a
> typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being
> black and merely
> knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in
> Chicago means you
> must be corrupt.
>
> White privilege is being able to attend churches over the
> years whose
> pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely
> criticize George
> W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an
> explicitly Christian
> nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian
> theological
> principles into government, and who bring in speakers who
> say the conflict
> in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for
> rejecting Jesus, and
> everyone can still think you're just a good
> church-going Christian, but if
> you're black and friends with a black pastor who has
> noted (as have Colin
> Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist
> attacks are often
> the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the
> history of racism
> and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who
> probably hates
> America.
>
> White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is
> when asked by a
> reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for
> asking you such a
> "trick question," while being black and merely
> refusing to give one-word
> answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means
> you're dodging the question,
> or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
>
> White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a
> POW has anything
> at all to do with your fitness for president, while being
> black and
> experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a
> "light" burden.
>
> And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could
> possibly allow
> someone to become president when he has voted with George
> W. Bush 90 percent
> of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people
> are losing their
> homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly
> isolated from world
> opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about
> that whole "change"
> thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined,
> unlike, say, four more
> years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
>
> White privilege is, in short, the problem.

May I slightly tweak/correct your comment a little, Dragoness? "Hopefully, Mirror is wrong this time. It will be a tortuous 4 years and the economy is going to fall face down if they get into office."
Ummm - How bout: It WILL CONTINUE TO BE TORTUROUS AND THE ECONOMY HAS ALREADY FALLEN FACE DOWN...!
What makes anyone think 4 years with McCain-Palin would be ANY different/better than the past gut-wrenching, debilitating 8 years with Bush-Cheney? WHAT TRUE qualifications does Sarah Palin have? Every time the woman opens her mouth, nothing but moronic, stupid comments flow out (women, is that REALLY the kind of female you want "representing" you?!). We've had to put up with 8 years of George W.'s embarrassing gaffes and utterances, (not to mention, the decisions that have put the country in a near depression and mired in war; and facing so much debt our grandchildren won't be able to pay their way out of it) do we REALLY want to continue to give the world the impression that the bulk of Americans believe that someone like Palin is the BEST and BRIGHTEST and whom we want in charge and making life-changing decisions for us? Lord, people! WAKE UP!
OK, pardon the rant ... it's the first one I've had on this topic - I guess there's something to be said for feeling free to speak your mind among strangers. (I hope I didn't offend anyone...but I imagine I did.)