One of the downsides to McCain's selling out his former "maverickness" and derailing the "straight talk express" in order to get elected to the presidency is that it may cost him more than just losing the presidency. It may cost the Republicans seats in the Senate and House and give President Obama a filibuster proof majority to get Democrat-sponsored bills through Congress. Still, there is some poetic justice if that happens. Republicans in California have been pushing to make gays second-class citizens with Proposition 8, which would make gay marriage illegal in the California constitution, so Republicans may very well find themselves second-class citizens in Washington. If McCain had picked someone more qualified than political lightweight Sarah Palin, we may have had a much different situation. Why else would the conservative talk radio shows and Faux News be hammering away at the ACORN non-story while McCain hires people with real voter-at-the-polling-place fraud connections onto his campaign staff? DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?