This is a good thing. It's hard to stay calm in the face of the storm~ we have all made mistakes. All one can do is try to do better.

Almost everyone here has been rash at one time or another. Good for you for admitting your mistake and moving on. A good example for all of us.

 The original pit bull story was about Soccer moms. Palin didn't make up the little story, her speech writer just adapted it.

Never-the-less she self describes herself as a pit bull.

I thought pit bulls were wild, crazy and unpredictable.

Not sure that is a good resume' for a VP in line for the President.

Maybe she meant she was tough?

Tough not only means you can throw a sucker punch.

But that you can also take a strong right upper cut.

With out going wacko-scitzo....

Now that is Obama tough

Excellent post.  I've been guilty of the same thing.  Really, it's still hard to seperate fact from fiction in this election cycle with all the internet information floating around.  It's sometimes hard to know what to believe.  Your post reads like a list of personal promises that we should all follow--me especially! : )

 I appreciate your humility. I needed an example of maturity :o)

Not to be terribly cynical, but the stories about banning books and banning creationism were part of Palin's planned rollout.  No matter how many times it is debunked, there is a portion of the electorate who believes that if they vote for a Republican, this will be the time they ban the books and abortion, stop teaching evolution in schools and on and on.  The McCain campaign wanted to roll her out as a hardcore social conservative to grab that part of the base and then roll back her beliefs over the next month.

It's also why she's not doing interviews.  They need her to be all things to all people since McCain isn't much to anyone.

I've seen facts backed up with evidence, and then refuted with more evidence (not just about Palin, but in general.)  I've seen polls posted showing the election swinging one way, and then other polls posted showing the election swinging the other way ( and they aren't even remotely close to each other.)  I've seen exit polls turn out to be wrong and I've seen obvious distortions made by anyone and everyone over the same "fact," interpreted to suit their own agendas.  Truly, Tom, it's getting to where the only sane thing to do is to wait for the debates.

sage, you repeated the facts as they were told to you and accepted them as such. That's me too. In fairness, your retraction is based on finding the truth, not what the slandered candidate clarified. It's not like fundie-girl does not have equal time to appear on a national syndication and state her position.

I don't have an issue with her religion. I do have an issue of her applying it to policies that run the country. Thus far, she has said nothing to make me think her agenda is not a religious one.

Saber, I thank you.   I think a lot of people bought into the media/blog feeding frenzy and for those of us who tried to invoke a little reason, it was like the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dike.

I broke my resolve to not post on any political blogs other than my own because I finally see some sanity and reason here on this one.    Disagreeing with a candidates political stance is one thing, buying into the destructive hate filled rhetoric is another.

Give then all hell on the issues, that's what we do to try to assure we get the best we can get. 

Here's an interesting tidbit I just ran across. Apparently Alaska is planning on selling a whole bunch of natural gas to Japan and other pacific rim countries rather than keep it in the US to actually lower our energy costs. They had to do it in secret, because frankly doing this completely screws us all over and that might look kinda bad. This is only one of the reasons why I don't think drilling more will help us. They just send the product where they can get the most money for it, which of course drives up the price for the US. Drill baby drill. . . and send it off to Japan.

http://wyden.senate.gov/new...

I liked the way the commenter summed it all up, too:

What's the difference between a Hockey Mom^TM and Enron?

Yeah, it turns out that's lipstick too.

I'd like to encourage everyone to read the link I posted above. It is not a partisan attack by any means. It actually could effect all of us.

Yeah, I saw it, Pete.  It seems credible, but going back to what I was saying before, it could be a "fact" backed up by evidence, which will be refuted with other evidence.  I've seen this happen before.  Someone will post a comment something to the effect that selling oil to Japan was never a concrete plan, but only a suggestion, and back it up with another link.  Or someone will say that, as their included link proves, selling oil to Japan is merely a smart move and will help the economy or alternative energy resources because the market for oil in Japan is so high, the profits can be reinvested into [whatever.] 

Maybe I have too much interest at stake in the debates, but I think they'll seperate the wheat from the chaff.  Both candidates will have to state unequivocally where they stand on the issues, and if their opponent is worth their salt, they will refute any lies or distortions of records, etc.  That's my hope, anyway.

I see what you're saying Catherine. It just illustrates how I feel about investing in more and more drilling when all of our natural resources, that belong to the US, end up being handed to the oil companies that sell it for profit overseas. Sure Alaskans get a little bit of the profits, but do the rest of us? No of course we don't, we just get to help pay for the exploration. It doesn't do me a bit of good to see all of our natural resources profit fewer people than currently live in Kern County.

I know, Pete.  Frankly, it seems lately that the federal government is having a conscience crisis in terms of what should be under the "government umbrella" and what shouldn't (ex: Fannie and Freddie.)  I think the main thing that separates the Republican from the Democrats on this issue is who or what should be the beneficiaries.

Yeah kozy, Obama's tough like you -- What an endorsement!!!!     ROTFLMAO!

Thanks folks for the nice comments concerning my confession, but it's just a matter of acknowledging my error.

For that, one doesn't get to be a hero.

I also bought into the misinformation that Palin had cut the budget for special needs children by 62 percent when that budget was actually increased from about $25,000 per child to about $75,000 per child, an increase nearly triple.

Not to offer an excuse for myself, I actually heard that from several mainstream news sources including CNN's  trusted political analyst David Gergen.

I'm not sure how they were so mislead, but the fact remains that you just can't completely trust even the most respected media sources to provide accurate information.

the erroneous and totally unfounded accusations regarding alleged book banning

The accusation was hardly erroneous or unfounded.

She asked the librarian how she (the librarian) would feel about banning books and when the librarian answered in the negative, Palin tried to have her fired.

Coupled with the fact that Palin is a religious fundy, and the fact that Palin has fired others who didn't share her world view, her intention was crystal clear.

Palin's faith and personal beliefs should not disqualify her from public office

And they should not be a PREREQUISITE for office, which they clearly were. She passed the religious test and all you have to know is that Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is no more. Equal time for the Democrats. Because of the emphasis on religion, NO candidate for office can ever hope to succeed without passing the religious test.  I don't think it's a bad thing to be religious and I say that as a card-carrying atheist. But Sarah Palin, and Yes, Barack Obama, both had to conform to a religious test to even be considered a serious candidate.

What I understand is that Senator McCain was DEAD in the water until he chose a fundamentalist Christian as a running make. Don't think so? Then you IGNORE what CONSERVATIVES say. It was no accident that McCain's campaign account got not just a "bump" but a Windfall of contributions, but only AFTER he named a fundamentalist Christian to the ticket.  Forgive me, my fellow Democrats, but I have followed the career of John McCain closely for the past 15 years and, God help me, admired him for his courage in saying things like "We can't afford to pay for THAT!"  Shades of FreddieMac and FannieMae. He ONCE had integrity. He REVOKED it yesterday over making an issue of the "lipstick" thing, a common expression every adult with a mind knows the meaning of. He EMBRACED the politics of Karl Rove unequivacally when he did that.  It is to his utter shame that he did so.  The ONE hope that centrists had on the Republican ticket just signed on to disgrace.  Obama? I still have hope for him and I'll vote for him because he has focused on domestic issues from the word "go". There are unknowns about him, too, but at the very least I have enough information on him to judge whether he is focusing on the right thing, the thing that matters to Americans - America, not Iraq. We've dumped billions into that God-forsaken country and right now we have a financial disaster beyond comprehension in our own front yard. McCain TIED his OWN hands by bending to the will of the fundamentalist Christian Republican Party.  We now have nearly 50 TRILLION in debt and that means we are not only addicted to foreign oil, but also addicted to Chinese currency, and the Republicans keep chanting "no new taxes". How, may I ask, will we pay our debts?  Barack Obama might as well forget about universal health care because we are so loaded with debt, it would be irresponsible for him to push through that project, even if just and needed. We are looking at a catasrophic debt that will destroy the future of our children.  Republicans and Democrats should be chanting "Pay The Bills!"