The New York Times has published a spot-on editorial discussing exactly why Gov. Sarah Palin is the wrong person for Vice President of the United States of America. The second-in-command needs to be prepared and needs to be an able thinker. "Not blinking" on "the mission" is nowhere near good enough for this most important role.

Suddenly, John McCain is no more than a series of rehashed sound bites and overworked talking points. Why has the straight talker gone mostly mum, letting the likes of Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin do his bidding? Could it be that even McCain doesn't have the stomach for the level of negativity being dictated by his campaign managers? Could be -- it was Cindy McCain, after all, who said that her husband would never engage in negative campaigning.

John McCain may have said that he'd rather lose an election than lose a war but I think what he really meant was that he'd rather win an election and lose all self-respect.

The following letter was written by a friend who is a respected physician in his field. It is chilling. If the likelihood that John McCain would survive one term as President is this grim, we have to take the prospect of Sarah Palin's ascendancy as Commander-in-Chief that much more seriously.

Sarah Palin as President is no punch line, folks -- it's the kind of thing that could signal the end of America as we know it.

Feel free to copy and circulate this letter -- the author has given his express permission for same.

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Dear Colleagues and Friends,

John McCain is a 72 year old man with recurrent melanoma, hyperlipidemia, degenerative joint disease, and recurrent difficulty with certain efforts at recall. These are the limited facts the American people have had access to. Over 1000 pages of medical records were shown to selected journalists for 3 hours with less than 48 hours of notice. The only medically trained journalist was Sanjay Gupta, MD from CNN. This is the extent to which the American people have been informed.

While I am certainly sensitive to the confidential nature of medical records given the anxiety expressed by many of my patients regarding the risk of lost coverage or lost jobs in this current health economic climate, there are certain exceptions for disclosure regarding public safety. As John McCain knows, a pilot's records are comprehensively available for review by a certifying agency (the FAA, I believe) to insure the fitness of the pilot and the safety of passengers and the public at-large. In the election of the President of the United States of America, that certifying body is the American electorate.

A recurrence of metastatic malignant melanoma would essentially destroy John McCain's capacity as the Chief Executive and the American people have yet to receive a full accounting of the facts regarding his actuarial risk. If he has had regional metastasis, his risk could be 30% or greater for distant metastasis to the brain, bone, and lung. As you all know, melanoma is one of the most insidious, pernicious, and aggressive malignancies our patients must deal with and that we attempt somewhat pathetically to control with interferon, interleukins, and dismally active and terribly toxic chemotherapeutic regimens. In addition, we lack the simple data to sensibly evaluate his cardiovascular risk as we would any septuagenerian in our exam rooms.

John McCain should be held accountable by the American people and its agents, the free press, to release without restriction the entirety of his medical records. Any hesitation to do so would clearly imply that there are significant medical concerns about his ability to fulfill the duties of the President.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Fratkin, MD
Internal Medicine
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Eureka, California

If feminist icon Gloria Steinem and renowned playwright Eve Ensler have both taken Sarah Palin's positions to task in the past week, why hasn't Hillary? I mean, Hillary is one of the pre-eminent women's voices of our time -- we need to hear what she has to say on the Palin selection. And I'm not buying that Hillary's debunking of the Palin myth would sound shrill, unladylike or anything of the sort. Both Steinem and Ensler made their case with tenacity AND tact.

I fear that the elephant in the room is that Hillary is still trying to figure out what's in it for her. I said it was all about Hillary TO Hillary during the primaries and it appears that's still true. Prove me wrong, Hillary -- please.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took the gang of three -- Bush, McCain and Giuliani -- to task for trying to capitalize on the tragedy of 9/11. By suggesting we must give up our civil liberties in order to be safe, these men dare us to behave like cowering, compliant sheep.

Folks, the Republicans don't own the franchise on keeping the American people safe -- let's not forget, after all, that 9/11 took place on George Bush's watch and AFTER he had received an intelligence briefing only weeks earlier indicating that Osama Bin Laden was looking to stage a major attack on U.S. soil.

The American people owe it to themselves to support the candidate, Barack Obama, who is looking to get us out of a misguided war in the Middle East, a war that is leaving us far more vulnerable to attack since most of our fighting force is bogged down in Iraq. With a sensible foreign policy in place, one that seeks to hunt down terrorists where they actually WORK and LIVE, we shouldn't have to give up the freedoms and rights that we have cherished since the republic was born.

I've just finished watching these two videos:

1. John McCain talking to a reporter in Portland, Maine and sounding absolutely clueless about most everything. When asked about VP nominee Sarah Palin's experience in the area of national security, McCain zigged and zagged and said something to the effect of "Energy. She has more experience on energy than just about anyone in the United States of America." Huh? Living in Alaska alone doesn't make you an energy expert, and the questions was about NATIONAL SECURITY, not energy. On follow-up, McCain AGAIN said something to the effect that Alaska is close to Russia so Palin really knows Russia and foreign policy. What?! Geography alone doesn't make you an expert on foreign policy -- hey, I KNOW people in Alaska and being close to Russia hasn't made them experts on Russia, not even close.

2. Excerpts from Sarah Palin's recent interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson show Ms. Palin chomping at the bit to get into a fight with the entire world. She indicated we might have to go to war with Russia to protect the republic of Georgia (WAR WITH RUSSIA? over GEORGIA??) and thought nuclear strikes by Israel were okay (there goes the WORLD). Palin has clearly not thought about the implications of her responses or the ridiculousness of her world view. I mean, geez, what happened to USE YOUR WORDS? It's what we preach to our kids all the time so they don't spend all THEIR time fighting with their friends. We need to TALK to people in other countries, not just blow them to bits...know why? Because before long, we won't have ANY friends and the entire world will be blowing US to bits.

With easy targets like this, why isn't Barack Obama calling it like it is? Obama needs to get out there and CALL these people on their stuff. Neither McCain nor Palin is ready to lead, nor do they offer any kind of sensible change, which is exactly what this country needs. Obama needs to go on offense and make it CLEAR to the American people that McCain and Palin are neither credible nor ready leaders. He needs to say this LOUD and CLEAR, to as many people as he can reach, and Obama's reach is usually pretty big. He needs to point out just how whacked out the thinking of McCain and Palin is -- and INSIST to the American people that the country cannot stand for this. Obama needs to come out firing, and he needs to do it NOW. The stakes are far too high.

When someone says something to ME that is unfair, ridiculous or an outright lie, I call them on it and FAST. I expect no less from Barack Obama. It's okay to be Mr. Nice Guy some of the time, but the circumstances here don't call for Mr. Nice Guy, they call for Mr. Tough Guy, a guy who will call you on your stuff loud and clear. We need a lot more Mr. Tough Guy before we get back to the business of discussing sound policy positions.

In February 2004 I watched the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels that chronicles the evolution of the women's suffrage movement. The women became known to their guards as "iron jawed" because of their fierce determination to NOT be force fed during a hunger strike while imprisoned.

It made such an impression on me that I immediately purchased the DVD and have loaned it out to many of my women friends. I was never taught this story in school and my feeling is that many Americans do not really know the full history of the struggle that took place to ensure that women were given the right to vote.

As the mother of three adult daughters, I hope I have impressed upon them how important it is for them to vote -- not only because their voices need to be heard, but also to honor the generations of women who fought so valently to secure this right that so many of us now take for granted.

Recently many people have sent me the following excellent email that is obviously over 4 years old as the author refers to having just watched "a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie, Iron Jawed Angels." The email did not credit an author so I went on a "Google hunt" to see if I could ascertain who indeed had written it. It appears that it was written by Connie Schultz, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. So, I've posted the email below giving credit to Connie Schultz.

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE (by Connie Schultz)