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No, abortion is not a huge issue for me with regard to Palin. I am concerned about her intellectual and educational capabilities for this office. She seems to lack some basic knowledge and thus far cannot manage herself in even relatively simple interviews at the level we should expect from a Vice Presidential candidate.

She would never have been chosen without pressure from the religious right. That is my issue: that many other, far more qualified candidates were passed over purely to pacify the fundamentalist segment of this Party. It is a recipe for disaster, and McCain will likely lose on Tuesday because of it.

I vote on strong defense and a conservative fiscal policy. I am doing everything I can locally to help ensure that conservatives return their focus to these core issues.

I am not at all surprised at all by what you tell me. There are all sorts of Republicans in the Party, and that is the way it should be. I did not leap to conclusions about you. You can certainly see by all the accusations in this thread (I have already been accused of being a troll, an atheist, a homosexual, and an Obama voter!) that people are leaping to conclusions about me.

I vote on strong defense and a conservative fiscal policy. I am doing everything I can locally to help ensure that conservatives return their focus to these core issues.

The fact that Sarah is a conservative Christian is a plus in my opinion. That aside, you say you look for someone who is for strong on defense and has a conservative fiscal policy. Well Sarah Palin certainly fits that bill. You obviously feel she will drag the ticket down on Tuesday. I say, "hogwash"...she is the sole reason that McCain will win. IMO, the other choices were losing choices.

I believe leaders are born, not made. You either have the judgment to surround yourself with good advisers and make good decisions, or you don't. Based on what I have seen and learned about Sarah Palin, she is a born leader and is capable of making wise decisions. At the risk of being called "the religious right", I think that is a very good quality to make even better decisions. I'm sure you probably disagree.

I do not understand why you see Governor Palin as a “lesser choice”.

To me, she is far more qualified for the Executive Office than any of the Senators running. She has run a small business, and understands those challenges. Her husband is a union member, and I am sure she understands that side of the business environment.

She has been on a local school board, and has first hand experience with the issues involved in public education. She has been the Mayor of a small city, and knows how state and federal budgets affect our towns and villages.

She has been the Governor of one of our largest states, and understands state budgets, the problems of states relating to federal mandates, etc., and finally, she has a good understanding of military issues from her role as Governor of Alaska, which placed her in direct contact with all the branches of the military under her jurisdiction.

Besides, she can field dress a moose!

Compared to her qualifications, the Senators have only endless “speechifying” as their qualifications, with Senator McCain having fighter pilot experience and prisoner of war experience to put him on a higher level than Biden or Obama.

I am a pretty intelligent woman, and know how to recognize intelligence, common sense, integrity, and character in other women. (We women are pretty good at sizing up each other, just in case you didn’t know)

Sarah has it all. And, I ‘ll “betcha” she is a quick learner on the job. I actually can’t think of any other candidate that McCain could have picked that would be better, and I preferred Romney in the early primaries.

Think it over, Columbo. You do know he was prone to ponder things, when presented with interesting information, don’t you?

I do not think Palin's appeal is just to the religious right. She is what 0bama PRETENDED to be -- a Washington outsider (who, unlike 0bama, doesn't care if she's an insider), a person who wants to represent the people, someone who will not kowtow to the media, someone who has had a significant degree of success. You can't argue with her approval rating in Alaska.

The media has gone out of its way to corner her, at the same time giving a pass to 0bama and Biden. For as many people that are turned off by Palin, there are many, many more who are energized by her. You don't have to agree, and you don't have to like her. It is, at least until Inauguration Day, still a free country.