In 1972, World War II hero George McGovern had to drop his VP nominee, Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton, 17 days after newspapers reported Eagleton's self-hospitalizations for physical and mental exhaustion, which included two eflectric shock treatments. (McGovern is still upset about Eagleton's failure to inform him.)

That was before the Internet. This week, Sarah Palin is being vetted by a virtual army of online researchers who are poring over every news story and rumor. In only 4 days, researchers have already dug up a mountain of evidence that Palin is neither qualified nor fit to be one (old) heartbeat away from the Presidency.

So how many days will it take for Palin to drop out?

If she drops out today, McCain will have a chance to present someone more qualified to his convention. But if she waits until Wednesday, the convention will turn into chaos. And if she waits until Thursday or the weekend, the convention will be an absolute farce. It's a lose-lose-lose situation.

And to make matters worse, who would replace her? South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, another "attractive" rightwinger, isn't interested. The Palin-loving conventioneers would riot if McCain picked a pro-choicer like Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge, or Rudy Giuliani. Mitt Romney and Mike Pawlenty, who were conspicuously passed over for Palin, would look like pathetic self-hating chumps.

Who's left? Grandpa Fred Thompson, Tommy "The Other" Thompson, and the ultimate paragon of GOP family values, thrice-married Newt Gingrich. And when all else fails, there's always rightwing nutjob Alan Keyes.

What's the only issue Republicans care about? Outlawing all abortions.

That's why John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his Vice President - the only reason. And that's why every single Republican, from U.S. Senators to ordinary voters, believes she's an outstanding choice.

Isn't that extraordinary?

Of course the Republicans won't say this out loud. Instead they're pretending McCain chose Palin for other reasons. But every one of those other reasons turns out to be false.

She opposed the "bridge to nowhere." Then why did she run for Governor as a supporter in 2006?

By Dave Lindorff

Sarah Palin and I may not have much in common, but we do share an early history of bloodlust.

We both got guns before we were teenagers. According to a report in the British Times
newspaper, Palin took a shotgun at age 10, crawled through the grass in
back of her house with it, took aim at a bunny “and blew its furry
little head off.”

For my part, I got my parents to let me buy a single-shot .22 rifle
when I turned 12, and proceeded to go out in the woods, alone and with
friends, to shoot at targets, trees, and the occasional animal. A crack
shot, I remember picking off what I thought was a dove perched at the
top of a tree a good 200 yards away. I nailed it, but when I went to
the base of the tree, what I discovered was a dead robin. Oh well.

Is there any basis for comments that Gov Palin may withdraw from being nominated VP to spare her family and her husband any further intense scrutiny?

As we recently noted, John McCain's age is no joke - no matter how many times he goes on late-night TV to joke about it.

And since McCain's father (70) and grandfather (61) both died suddenly of heart attacks, the idea of a Vice President being "one heartbeat away from the Presidency" isn't just a slogan.

If John McCain and Sarah Palin win in November, the odds of "President Sarah Palin" are very high - 1 in 3, according to actuarial tables. Isn't that a terrifying thought?

Thanks to George Bush and Dick Cheney, America is facing profound problems on every front: two hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and two cold wars with Russia and Iran; mortgage and dollar meltdowns; and an energy/environmental crisis.

By Dave Lindorff

There are many reasons why most Americans should be turned off by
Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s last-minute choice of
Sarah Palin as his running mate.

She’s an evangelical Christian who believes in creationism and
thinks this fantasy belongs in the school science curriculum alongside
evolution. She’s opposed to the right to abortion. She thinks global
warming is not a proven phenomenon. She favors drilling for oil in the
Arctic Refuge and damn the environmental consequences. This supposedly
family-centered “hockey mom “is happy about sending her 18-year-old son
off to war in Iraq, even as Iraq is trying to shoo us out of the
country and even as the president is tacitly admitting that the whole
thing is a bust by agreeing to a timetable for withdrawal.

It's a cliche that the Vice President is "one heartbeat away" from the most powerful job in the world.

But in John McCain's case, it's more than a cliche: both his father (70) and grandfather (61) died suddenly of heart attacks.

So who did McCain choose to be "one heartbeat away"?

The 44-year-old first-term governor of the second smallest state who is embroiled in a corruption scandal and has no experience in Washington, in military affairs, or in foreign policy. What on earth was McCain thinking?

1. She's not a Mormon. Sorry Mitt, but the GOP's Southern Baptist and evangelical base just wasn't that into you.