What I mean, Carol, is that to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket would be to endorse what amounts to a continuance of the past 8 years of the Bush legacy, and most people here are are dead against that, including me....and that's the main reason for attacking Sarah Palin...rather than her bangs or her high-pitched voice or whatever.

Whereas Doug's main reason for supporting her is that he would like to see a continuance of the Bush legacy... ;-) So he likes her and everthing she says sounds great to Doug.

Ake is right that Mrs Palin is simply a tactic...one designed to appeal to certain types of voters (small town and rural conservatives and older people and some women) while Mr Obama is a tactic designed to appeal to urban progressives and young people and those desirous of "change" and some minorities.

Both parties have opted to follow a certain tactical plan and that's why they have chosen certain individuals.

It's the old, classic divide between the natural conservative and liberal demographics.

The same thing happens in Canada. Young people and urban people and minorities and arts people tend to vote for the Liberals and the NDP and the Green Party. Older white office and blue collar people in rural areas and small towns tend to vote for the Conservatives.

The hilarious thing is that when the Conservatives get into office they economically shaft most of the little people who voted for them (with the exception of the upper income echelons) but it seems to go unnoticed by the poor sods who troop out dutifully election after election and vote for them...imagining they will get a "tax break".

That natural conservative base, however, only amounts to about 35% of the Canadian public, and if we only had 2 parties here, they'd probably never win an election. It's a much higher percentage than that in the USA.

I'll give you an example of how it works. They hold a mock election in my small town at the high schools when there's a national election, just to see what the students think. They just held one here in Orillia. The Conservative Party came in DEAD LAST among the high school students. They will, however, win this seat in the real election when the students' parents, the older folks in this town, go to the polls later this month, because that's what always happens in this small town riding. They could run a moose or a dog for the Conservatives and he'd still win in this town.