Surely the American people are smarter than that. Aren't they?

Ok, so we Dems are nervous. But as Salon's Gary Kamiya points out, it's not without reason:

[After the latest round of polls], the same Democrats who were crowing with glee a week ago about McCain's off-the-wall choice [of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president] are suddenly panicking. And you can't blame them. Four years after Americans looked at the first term of the worst president in modern history and decided they liked what they saw well enough to sign up for four more years, it's all too plausible that just when victory is in sight, the most crucial election of our time could be tipped by the 11th-hour appearance of a slick, unqualified, right-wing extremist and religious zealot in designer glasses....
And large numbers of Americans think she's hot.
This latter point cannot be underestimated. Iraq may be a quagmire, a new cold war may be looming, the economy may be tanking and the world may be heading toward environmental doom, but the presidential race may be decided by the perceived doability of the governor of Alaska.

The Dominatrix - Salon

Let's hope, as Kamiya does, that such Caligulan fantasies are confined to the adult adolescents in the GOP base. There's far too much at stake in this election for the outcome to be decided by the penile vote. Likewise, there's far too much at stake even remotely to risk a Sarah Palin presidency.