Oh, for cryin' out loud!

Either Sarah Palin lied about being pregnant and her 5th child, her son, Trig, is actually her g'son -- or he's really her son.

What? Are we so hard up for challenging a candidate's credentials that we have to resort to this sort of garbage?

So, today, in the midst of that mud-fest, the family discloses that their 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and intends to marry the father of her child. You would have thought that Lot's wife had turned to look at the city and become a salt pillar. After all, Sarah Palin believes in teaching abstinence in the schools, and what does it say about her values when her own daughter becomes pregnant?

Yeah, and your point is what? Do as I say, not as I do -- or do as I do, not as I say?

We can tell teens 24/7 not to become sexually active, but the bottom line is that when they think they are either in love (girls) or in lust (boys), teens are probably going to have sex, regardless of what their parents and/or other adults preach about abstinence. That's both biology and theology because that pesky old Bible we selectively read does urge us to go forth and procreate, and it's pretty darned hard to keep people from doing just exactly that.

Thank you to B. Obama for telling the press that the families are off-limits. He has a couple of girls coming up and no one can say which decision will be made when it's getting hot and heavy on their basement couch: don't do it always sounds better in church on Sunday than it feels on that Saturday night couch!

I want to know about the candidates' stand on political issues. I'm not going to vote for B. Obama because he's black or not vote for him because he's black. Likewise, I'm not sold on voting for a 72-year-old man, regardless of his running mate. I had pretty much convinced myself that an Obama/Clinton ticket could have my Republican vote, depending on McCain's running mate, but that point is moot as Clinton wasn't offered the job and Palin is still an unknown.

I've heard Obama share his global approach to politics without specifics, but embued with lots of wonderful rhetoric aimed at assuring the American people that he's up to the task, whatever it is. McCain is pedantic and plodding, not much there to excite a crowd either for or against. Joe Biden is such a typical good ole boy politico that I wouldn't vote for him just because his type has been in Washington for far too long for all the wrong reasons. I've listened to Sarah Palin and I like what she has to say, although I'll admit that she's a whole lot more liberal about some topics than I, such as drilling in Alaska. However, I agree that if drilling in our own backyard lessens our dependence on foreign oil, that's a route we should vigorously explore, along with the development of alternative energy, mass transit, and fuel efficient vehicles.

I've told family and friends that I may not vote because I cannot select a person, party, or platform that warrants my support. I'm still back at the betrayal by the Republican party when all the viable candidates jumped ship way too early in the process to allow the majority of Republican party members to have a voice in choosing the candidate. That truly pissed me off and has totally soured me on this election.

When a Republican is willing to vote for Obama/Clinton, you know it's going to be an interesting election.