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They don't have to justify why they don't like her, but I'm asked to justify why I do...it's a snapshot of what the country is coming to...loss of freedom.

I wasn't asking you to justify your support for Palin. I was wondering: 1) why you accused Politicalmom of hypocrisy when all Politicalmom did was point out what a boneheaded political move Palin is making here; and 2) why you would imply that Romney, Huckabee, and Gingrich are our only choices besides Palin.

Meanwhile, everyone is railing over Romney with his major failure of an obama-lite socialized medicine, or huckleberry who released a convicted felon, or Newt who dumped his sick wife for his secretary and caved in everything he had built to date in the Republican revolution.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I haven't seen many people on FR lately pushing Romney, Huckabee, or Gingrich for President. The Huckster was never all that popular here, few here think Newt would be a good Presidential candidate, and most of the louder Romney backers have already been run off the forum.

There may be more people running that don't come to mind right now, but I'm sure if they were that outstanding, I would have heard of them by now, as I am retired and I'm on FR most everyday and I watch a lot of news.

There have been plenty of other names floating around; Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal, Mitch Daniels, Jim DeMint, Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and probably several others I'm missing. Now, I don't think all of them are running, nor are all of them people I'd vote for, but I'm pretty sure at least a couple will run and there are several on that list conservatives could get behind.

So far the only negatives I hear from the right is that she endorsed McCain, and she should control her daughter; of course, I realize there are people who won't like her because her makeup is the wrong shade, or she says "you betcha". That's fine.

I can't speak for anyone else on this forum, but I can say that I don't care about her daughter, that I don't care about her makeup, and that I don't care if she says "You betcha" except when she uses it as a catch-phrase. I fully understand why she endorsed McCain - it would have been foolish for her to do otherwise if she is planning to seek office in Washington.

However, I am not impressed with Palin's experience and I am not impressed with her ability to articulate coherent positions on the issues. I was disappointed in her decision to resign from the governorship of Alaska less than one term in, and I don't buy the excuses set forth by her supporters. I was not impressed when I saw her speak in person during the 2008 campaign, and I was not impressed with her performance in the debate with Biden. And now, with her decision to do a TLC reality show that will feature Kate Gosselin as a guest, I am even more suspicious of her dubious political judgment than I was before.

While I don't think Palin would be a very good President or Presidential candidate, I don't have a problem with her personally. I do have a problem, however, with her deification in some conservative circles and on Free Republic, and with the populist and anti-intellectual tone of her personality cult. Some of the breathless comments I've seen from her supporters - such as "Sarah is the only one who can save America!", "Sarah is one of us!", "Sarah would have plugged the oil leak and cleaned up the mess by now!", "If the conservative movement rejects Sarah, it deserves to lose!", and "President Palin will make me proud to be an American again!" - are reminiscent of the personality cult surrounding Obama and are unbecoming of conservatives. Forgive me if I prefer to leave the political hero worship to the Democrats.

I'm not sure of any of the others who you listed as possibles, I don't know anything about them.

As for Sarah, I am impressed with her credentials and she has light years more experience than the goon we have up there now.

All of my opinion I am basing on what I have seen and heard out of Sarah so far. She has not announced that she'll be running, and most everything has been rah-rah America stuff-which I'm all for; but I'll agree the final decision will be IF she announces, and the campaign rhetoric after that.

It's all happened very fast for Palin, and it is obviously overwhelming at times...especially with the never-ending double-barrel attacks from the left. Nothing she says gets by without getting slammed, re-interpreted, and taken out of context, so I would imagine it gets frustrating at times.

But, so far as I know, few colleges offer a course called "Presidency 101"; whoever gets the job is in a learning mode about the mechanics of the job...at least for a while. Everyone who has ever had the job, had to learn the job, how to pronounce foreign names, and where the oval office is.

But that's just mechanics; I look for someone with the core values that reflect America. Someone I believe is a straight shooter and not afraid to tackle the hard issues or the assholes in Washington...out of the CURRENT field at the CURRENT time...I pick Sarah.

Someone may come along that I like better, but not yet. You're not impressed, I am impressed, we agree to disagree...so it's settled.

Have a good week.