Palin HAS to get the nomination. We need her to be a candidate so we can destroy her and discredit her supporters.

If she wins, we need her as President to kick off world war 3 and the collapse of America, it will all be beneficial for people in like 40 years.

You could mix it up a bit, sir. You do write well on topics other than just Palin and e-readers.

Little early to be talking about primary voting schemes. My instinct is similar to yours -- Palin as the Republican candidate basically guarantees a win for Obama. But, a lot can happen in a year...

Palin voters will vote for Romney when it comes down to it, just as Didier voters went for Rossi. They're stupid, but not that stupid. Gingrich voters will switch easily, because a Gingrich voter is almost by definition a cynic.

Jeb Bush or Rick Perry is going to get the nomination. Because Rove.

Didn't the Stranger encourage readers to caucus for Bush in 2000 employing the same logic? Remind me how that turned out.

The best approach for a Democrat is not to try to rig the other party's nomination process but to work earnestly towards the success of your own candidate.

There's plenty to do in early 2012. If Democrats can achieve 2008-level registration rates and turnout, no Republican candidate can win.

@4 Exactly. I think it'll be similar to 2004 where the Republicans aren't voting for their candidate as much as they'd be voting against Obama.

I agree with @7. That kind of attempt to game the primaries nearly always bites one in the ass. Rather than trying to queer the other party's pitch, work for a party whose platform you can actually support. Don't waste your time bringing ANY attention to the candidates of other parties.

Just because WE can't imagine the majority of American voters would vote for that brain-dead lunatic doesn't mean they won't. I remember mocking the very idea of people actually voting for Shrub in 2000. No one was ever going to vote for that loser, right? And we let the fucker get close enough to steal the Presidency, because we were too busy making fun of Bush voters to pay attention to getting our own candidate elected.

@9,

And because Gore ran a crappy campaign.

@5,

If a Bush manages to get nominated for any important office ever again, I will officially lose any last scrap of hope for this country and its people.

Um, wait a minute. It's duck season right now. And it's always wabbit season here.

That said, neither Romney nor Palin will get the nod. Round and round and round she goes; where she stops, nobody knows.

Everyone knows that Palin will be the VP choice for Ron Paul's nom.

Someone better challenge Obama in the primary -- it won't be a Democratic primary without at least one Democrat in the race.

I think we want is a good, clean match-up between the kind of leadership the O is presently providing and the kind Palin would provide.

No two candidates have ever better represented the Us-and-Them dichotomy. Obama's not perfect. But the kind of leadership we're getting from him is a nuanced, rational consideration of what's best for the country overall. I don't hold with him on every call, but I have faith that his decisions are those of the thinking man.

Palin's monomania is matched only by her sense of immediacy. Whatever's good for her RIGHT NOW! is good, whatever's outside her immediate interest is bad. She sees herself as the living soul of America. What's good for her is good for all of us gosharootie yes! She really is a creature of pure, absolute drives, just like the mama grizzlies she admires.

I fully intend to vote summer after next to give America that choice. It's what we deserve. The balance or the sword. The pipeline or the wind farm. The Lady or the Tiger.

Oh, God no.

Most voters pick based on objective economic conditions, not their perception of the challenger. If you engineer a Palin nomination and the economy goes further in the toilet then you have a Palin Presidency and that's VERY VERY VERY BAD for the country and the world.

Much, much, MUCH worse than a Romney administration.

I used to hope for Palin to win the nomination until someone painted the following unlikely, but not completely impossible, scenario: Palin wins the nomination, then the economy recrashes bigtime Sept 2012, then America "votes for change", even if it's crazy crazy crazy change.

Palin is way too dangerous to mess with. If she runs it will be fun to watch the other Republicans twist themselves in knots to run against her, but way too dangerous to actually do anything active to help her win the nomination. Makes me shudder. In my shoes.

Please list three SUBSTANTIAL differences* between the current Obama administration and a potential Romney(or Jeb Bush or Perry) administration. Basically a fourth term of GWBush, four more years of sliding into a kleptocratic shithole. We can adjust to that.

Palin is a real danger, if the economy is worse and she has the Republican nomination she WILL WIN and will try to accelerate biblical Armageddon.

*Passing the Republican/Heritage Foundation's 1994 healthcare plan doesn't count.

I like how the Republicans have no motivation to sabotage her. It must be because they see her as having some value as a bafflegab mouthpiece for the deluded electorate.

If Palin did win, are we liberals allowed to relocate and claim political asylum? I've always been curious about Russia.

@22: But Russia isn't even out of sight for the delightful Mrs. Palin! We need to go farther.

I have to disagree with ya, Paul. I desperately hope an actual progressive mounts a serious campaign against Obama (I'm lookin' at you, Feingold) because 1. I want to vote for an actual progressive & 2. it might scare him into learning what principles are.

Why the hell shouldn't there be a primary challenge to Obama? I'll vote for him if/when nominated, but why should we rubber-stamp a cowardly first term that continued the national security abuses of Bush?

Palin will lose the in GOP primaries, if she even participates.

The smart money is on her forming a vanity party, probably of Tea Bag origin, and running for herself. She'll get someone who is equally stupid & uneducated to be a running mate, and they'll run a reality show campaign.

Won't get a single vote in the Electoral College. It'll be 1992 all over again, except this 3rd party spoiler will be doing it to make money.

Actually IMHO the GOP running Palin against Obama would be a brilliant move - ASSUMING that they don't think they have a realistic chance against him - simply because it would galvanize their "base" like a cattle-prod, increase their turn-out, and solidify their chances of turning a significant number of Senate and House seats. She would be the proverbial sacrificial lamb. Remember, these are people with NO morals who make Machiavelli look like Mother Teresa; think Karl Rove. And remember there's an enormous block of women swing-voters who swung back Republican big-time this past election.

Why are we assuming Obama will be the nominee? I have a hard time voting for someone who sucks so much corporate dick (hurray Rapiscan!), who took all the troops that were supposed to come home and sent them into Afghanistan for nation building, who's continually giving up positions without getting anything for them. I know so many of our problems come from a shitty congress, but for what it counts, he's the one who gave the big noble speech as a "war as a necessary evil", and he's the one who's sending more of our soldiers into a battle we don't know what we're doing in. You're telling me a majority of democrats are going to support this? I'm so glad I'm not a democrat, I'd be so embarrassed. I know there's 2 more years, so I'd hate to count my chickens before they hatch, but as such a question goes, if the democratic primary was tomorrow, Obama would be the last politician I would support.

NO.

FUCK NO.

HELL NO.

Why, you ask? Because you never know - there is ALWAYS the possibility that a major scandal could occur and make Obama's reelection impossible. If Obama is caught in a Watergate-level shocker, I'd rather have someone who at least has an inkling of the national interest, like Romney, than a great bag of crazy like Palin. Pushing the Republican Party further to the right does NOT help us, it hurts us! We do NOT want to give the far right more legitimacy!