Tom, I very concerned that the majority of Americans still don't know what the Bush-Cheney nomination, election and administration was really all about from the get go, and therefore are missing what Palin's nomination was all about, and what the promotion of her now is all about. The Bush administration was all about enacting the "Wise Use Agenda", which anyone can google, but basically calls for opening all public lands to oil, gas, coal, mining, logging, etc. and rolling back environmental protections they see as standing in the way of free enterprise, i.e. the Endangered Species Act.. It started with the Sagebrush Rebellion, a western state backlash to the progress of the environmental movement and conservation in the '70s. Reagan was a Sagebrush Rebel. He nominated James Watt. Watt's understudy was Gayle Norton. Ron Arnold wrote a flattering book about Watt in '81, and then authored the "Wise Use Agenda" in '88. The 2000 election was all about keeping Al Gore, a known environmentalist promising to address global warming and other environmental problems from winning. That's why campaign contributions from extractive and polluting industries rose 350% overall, and some by up to 582%. Bush's first appointment was Gayle Norton. He first act, on Inauguration Day, was to suspend all Clinton's last minute executive orders regarding the environment. We always here that they missed many warning signs leading up to 9-11. That's because they were so obsessed with enacting the "wise use agenda". But they blew it and it cost them the Congress in '06 and the WH didn't look good for '08. Gas prices were driven up in part to influence the election. Bush meets secretly with McCain in May when his campaign finances are dwindling. Less than a month later, big Oil execs hold fundraisers for McCain in Texas. Then comes Palin, seemingly out of nowhere. I've always believe she was picked for McCain, not by him. That would explain a lot of the animosity between McCain's staff and her. What her promotion is all about is regaining the WH to get the "wise use agenda" back on track, and stall action on global warming another four or eight or more years. Too many write her off as a ditz but they shouldn't underestimate the ability of the people behind this latest Manchurian Candidate to sell her to the American public. After all, they sold half the country on Bush, not just once, but twice. And the woman has a huge ego and likes to be a star, and they're using that against her by inflating her sense of importance to herself, and will later make her a puppet, in many ways like Bush. Someone needs to bring this out in the open, what the real hidden agenda is, and what it could mean for America and the planet if they pull it off. And don't think banks not lending is an accident. The less they do, the more it stalls the job recovery, and the more it hurts Dems in '10, and Obama in '12, not to mention any chance for the green revolution he's called for.