Thursday night was incredible, amazing, historic, overwhelming... pick an adjective. 38 million people tuned in. A bounce in polls was already noticed before the speech. New citizens swarmed the Obama voter registration tables at naturalization ceremonies at the Miami Dade Auditorium.

But the McCain campaign hit back in full force, celebrating the Senator's 72nd birthday by nominating the Mayor of Mayberry to second highest office in the nation. Introducing Alaska's Sarah Palin - beauty queen turned PTA mom, turned City Councilwoman, turned mayor of Wasilla, turned Governor of Alaska. She's anti-choice - even in cases of rape and incest, anti-polar bear, anti-equal rights for all, thinks global warming is NOT man made, had a parent who was a science teacher but thinks creationism should be taught in school, was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against the bridge to nowhere, and oh yeah, she likes to shoot things and then eat them.

It was a Rovian Hail Mary Pass of a pick. We'll see how she holds up on the campaign trail. At 44, she has five kids, the youngest a special needs infant with Down's Syndrome. We'll see how she holds up in a debate on foreign policy with Joe Biden. She's Commander in Chief of the Alaskan National Guard but has been on record saying she has no idea how we will ever get out of Iraq, and also has said she hasn't paid attention to the Iraq War, though her oldest son is shipping off there on Sept 11.

She would be a heartbeat away from being President of the United States, but don't worry, for the next two months she's going to stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

There are still people, like the cashier I registered to vote last night, who haven't been paying attention. People, like the kid I met yesterday at Office Depot, who don't fact check before they forward. People who, for whatever reason, can't see the obvious difference between what has been and what could be. They rely on tabloids and Ron Fournier's AP wire stories for news. And the GOP thinks the People Magazine human interest element will outweigh the fact that John McCain has still voted in lock step with George Bush 90% of the time. It's up to us to see that it doesn't. This isn't a student council race. As Dennis said in his speech last week, Wake Up America.

No one knew Palin was McCain's pick because even McCain didn't know McCain's pick. He met her twice. Does Karl Rove also pick out McCain's pants? John you're wearing the blue ones today. Obama thought long and hard about who his Veep would be. He knows Joe and trusts him. McCain got a mail order bride. And I am not belittling Palin. She has to wrestle her conscience that she is not only being used as the replacement kitten for the much loved family cat that got run over, but that she will be leaving everything she loves so dearly - small-town America, the nature and wonder of Alaska, ice fishing, snow mobile racing, and wolf hunting to swim with sharks in Washington.  

In their consistent patronizing manner, the GOP thinks American's should buy into this choice because there is no difference between negotiating with hostile youth hockey teams and hostile nations. Loose nukes vs. loose moose - is there really a difference? Apart from the tundra and melting ice caps, Alaska is right next door to Russia, that's their response to her foreign policy experience. Hello? If living next door to a country gives us foreign policy experience, then everyone in Key West should run for President.

The McCain campaign has run it's campaign on two messages: POW and experience. They hung their hat on Obama not being experienced so does the whole marketing campaign attack get thrown out the window? Who knows? Blackberries to breast pumps is girl power story, and we shouldn't underestimate its appeal or her drill here, drill now, kill the bears drill drill drill stance, but Sarah Palin stands for everything that Hillary Clinton has fought against. They are Polar Bear Opposites, and the GOP, who brought you the same brilliant nomination of Harriet Myers, hopes that women will see feminism before philisophy. I for one see through it. Hillary fought tooth and nail for every vote, so I find the insertion of Palin and her glass ceiling references an insult to my intelligence. It's pandering. Pandering to the conservative guns, g-d, gays base. Pandering to ego bruised women and pandering to disenfranchised Eskimos. But not equal pay pander because John McCain opposes that.

The RNC is starting their convention on Labor Day... And Gustav is barreling his way up toward New Orleans to kick it off.  The evangelicals prayed for rain. And they will get it. One week late. Gustav was just upgraded to a cate-freaking-gory 4. Hold onto your hat. Fierce winds from the Gulf are about to collide with a mass of hot air descending from Minneapolis. Yeehaw.  

The Republicans are considering a makeover for their convention, and plan on turning it into a relief telethon with the Red Cross. A bit of schadenfreude. McCain might be making his speech from a disaster zone like Bush did at Ground Zero. And it is up to everyone who supports Obama to remind the world that for all his finger pointing, when Katrina hit and New Orleans drowned, it was McCain standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush, holding a birthday cake and smiling pretty for the camera.

There may be a ground swell for Sarah, but the swell for Obama is hard to match and in the two months she has, she not only has to capture voters' hearts and minds, she has to study geography, national policy, foreign policy, debate Joe Biden, deal with an abuse of power investigation against her, and prove to us that she wasn't chosen as window dressing.

Will people suddenly start taking cardboard cut outs of Sarah and bring them to Denny's creating such an ear-to-ear grinning frenzy that everyone rushes over to have their photos taken, grabbing bumper stickers and buttons and checking to make sure they're properly registered to vote? Four of us did that with Barack yesterday - Barackfast - Breakfast with Barry - Bagels with Barack. *

Do women as a whole want the party that continually votes against EQUALITY FOR ALL to be the party taking credit for shattering the very glass ceiling that it installed? Give me an 18 million cracks break. We might have the lowest ranked schools in the world, but I am not that stupid.

This race is not about gender. It's not about race. It's about policy.

  UPDATE

While people argue over who has experience and who is ready to lead let me point out a fact: Sarah Palin got her passport in July 2007. Her very first passport. She needed it to visit troops in Kuwait. Yeah, I know she is from Alaska and the family didn't have money to travel just like lots of other Americans. Except those other American's aren't running for Vice President of the free world.  

Palin it seems was a member of the Alaska Independence Party prior to becomming mayor. A big member of the group got her elected Governor. She addressed their convention in a video. Their objective? Alaska first. (not Country First.... but.....Alaska First) Their platform: To seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution. They want to secede. If you are shaking your head in disbelief, don't worry. You aren't alone. You can read about it on Kos. 

New Orleans dodged a bad one. The storm has been downgraded. And the candidate who thinks family planning should not be taught in school and abstinence is the way to go.... Sarah Palin, just announced that her 17- year old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant  and will be marrying her boyfriend. (McCain insists he already knew which is doubtful since he didn't even know Palin before he chose her.) There is much speculation behind the suprise news as it comes out only after DailyKos began questioning the birth of Palin's son in April. Rumors began circulating around the internet that Palin faked her pregnancy and the baby is actually that of the now pregnant daughter -- who was withdrawn from school for the last five months of Palin's pregnancy. They say she had mono. Now I had mono in college. I was written up as one of the worst cases my doctor had ever seen. I was out of school for three weeks. Not five months. Who knows what is true or not? But they claim the daughter is five months pregnant, which means she couldn't possibly have been pregnant when her brother/son was born. It's all so Desperate Housewives.

 And China also insists its gymnasts are 16 and showed passports as proof. 

Barack Obama has come out asking that people leave this matter to the family. Family's are off limits in the campaign. His mother was a teenage mom and had him at 18 and it's none of our business. OK, I can appreciate the idea that it's a family matter. Christian Coalition conservatives have called it An American Story and they says it is a private family matter. 

But what I want to know is why is Bristol's pregnancy a private family matter, but Terry Schiavo's private family matter was everyone's business? Including the President? And while the children are off limits, doesn't this say something about the failure of an abstinence only program and a dire need for family planning education? Palin ascribes to the former and not the latter. 

If you haven't already done so, please visit www.barackobama.com and donate to the Red Cross to help hurricane victims.  

* details to come on a Barackfast near you.