McCain's selection of Gov. Palin as a running mate is a good choice, voters say 55 - 38 percent, and Obama's selection of Sen. Biden is a good choice, voters say 52 - 32 percent.

But by a 49 - 42 percent margin, voters would rather see Biden as President. Women pick Biden 52 - 37 percent while men go 46 percent to Palin and 45 percent Biden.

The economy is the most important issue in the election, 51 percent of Colorado voters say. Obama better understands the economy, voters say 47 - 41 percent, while McCain better understands foreign policy, voters say 63 - 29 percent.

I bring this up because my fear is that while Obama can talk about the economy, his affect is more Kerryesque than Clintonian. Ironically, McCain, with the umpteen cars and houses, projects more empathy for the average American--even if he has absolutely nothing substantial to offer in terms of policies that can improve our lot.

Bush "out-connected-with-the-people" Gore in 00 and Kerry in 04 even though both presented economic plans that benefited the middle and working class and Bush did not.

I'm troubled in part because I caught a glimpse of Obama and McCain on 60 Minutes. I was working, and the tv was background, but I noticed that McCain's affect was much warmer than Obama's. When presented with an opportunity to truly connect with the audience via an elderly black woman who wanted to get his attention ("just a minute, young lady. I'll see what you want when I finish this interview") because her husband had recently died and he had hoped to live long enough to see Obama elected. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." And he gave her a hug that was more formal than warm. He seemed personally unmoved by this woman. How that could be, I don't know....

Because, I think, they have been afflicted with an overpowering case of "bad conscience". Palin has hit them precisely where they hurt. They can't stop trashing her because of what she reminds them of: the shame they feel, and have been made to feel, over their treatment of Hillary.

Even before Palin entered the race, Obama supporters had been embarrassed terribly when people brought up the sort of misogyny they and their fellow had either engaged in or tolerated when Hillary was attacked. On some level, they knew that their behavior was reprehensible, and that in any previous situation like it they themselves would have been outraged over such vile conduct. They readily excused Obama for not choosing, or even considering, Hillary as VP, despite its obvious disrespect toward her. But when McCain -- a Republican, of all things -- chose himself a woman as a running mate, it was a moral slap in the face. The unspeakable, unregenerate Party, the forces of the Night, had chosen to do what they and the Democratic Party had refused to do: show women and Hillary supporters the basic respect of selecting a woman for such an elevated position. This was intolerable to them. They had been shown up by the people they hated most in the world, and whom they practically regarded as subhuman in their morality. This was more than a prick to their conscience -- it was a dagger through its core.

Who was it who was always most "insulted" by the choice of Palin, and the notion that women might find something in her selection appealing? Why the very people who had also excoriated Hillary -- rarely was it a fervent Hillary supporter. (The rare exceptions when former Hillary supporters commenced in vicious attacks on Palin were cases in which they essentially embraced Obama as fervently and uncritically as any other Obama supporter, quite effectively and hypocritically denying all the many criticisms they had heaped on Obama before. These people, I think, have bad consciences all their own.)

What these people feel the need to do now to assuage their own bad consciences is to lash out and destroy the symbol of their own immoral behavior. This is always the way of people afflicted with bad consciences.

I won't vote for McCain/Palin because I don't agree with their ideology. But the more those on the left, in the media and the blogosphere, indulge in this kind of personal over-kill, the harder I find it to "identify" with the Democrats. I can't help but ask: Can a party supported by people with the attitudes and bias revealed during this campaign actually represent the working people it claims to represent? And, can it effectively support the policies it claims to support?

Frankly, Keith Olbermann, Sandra Bernhard, Josh Marshall, Andrew Sullivan, Arianna Huffington, Marty Peretz, Joe Klein, Michelle Cottle, Frank Rich, etc., etc., etc., and their various fans and website posters, don't at all share my economic and political interests. I am not actually part of their "tribe." And, increasingly, I am uncomfortable being associated with them through my politics. The more they appeal to me to hate Palin and the tribe they believe she represents, the more I doubt the party they think they are promoting could really respect and represent me.