There are a lot of you hung up on Creationism. It's a non-issue. The President/Vice-President don't decide what is taught in the schools. This is done by local government in the U.S.

Give it a rest

Jeff, Denver, CO, USA

Who cares what Palin thinks about creationism or abortion? As VP, or even as president, she'd be in no position to impose those views on the country even if she wanted to, not least because Congress is controlled by the Democrats.

Geoff, Boulder Creek, CA, USA

Well, Gov. Palin has a less "palpably thin political record" than does Sen. Obama, a state senator while she was a governor, and who, upon election to the U.S. Senate, began to campaign for president. And remember, Palin is the vice presidential candidate, while Obama is the presidential candidate.

Walter, East Hampton, USA

Looks like Palin is running for President and McCain is for VP!
Isn't it?

Why Americans are commenting on the comments made by UK and World citizens in an UK Online NewsPaper?????

Do Americans know that there is something called 'Freedom of Speech'? Anyway Thanks you for your comments.

Uma Shankar, UK,

Let's face facts: Palin did to Obama what Jesse Jackson only talked about doing.

Edward, Jacksonville,

What a ridiculous idea, the new Thatcher.. as much as I dislike Mrs T, she had a brain on her shoulders and a grasp on policy. Sarah Palin just spouts sassy remarks and didn't even have a passport until 2007.

She's just a vehicle for the Republicans to try and grab some attention.

Owen, London, UK

a new Thatcher? Are you kidding? Small town Mayor and two years in a State the size of a medium population city?

No comprehension of how to operate in a "hard ball" place like Washington DC. She is a "soft ball player" from a 5th rate ball club, so to speak........

It is Scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mark, gordonville , usa

Murph, you're right, we are left speechless here. Speechless that someone who denies basic science can get so close to one of the most powerful positions in the world. Denies global warming, denies evolution, wants to ban science books, denies personal choice (unless that choice involves packing a gun).

Rich S, Barnsley, UK

Sarah Palin is a brilliant choice for Vice-President. She is smart, funny, real, sassy and has real executive experience. I have no problem with her having her finger on the button. I plan to vote for her in 2008, '12, '16, '20. Go Sarah!

laura, new jersey , usa

So being a social conservative nowadays means you encourage your unmarried pregnant teenage daughter to have the baby, while being a social liberal means you encourage your unmarried pregnant teenage daughter to have an abortion. "O tempora, O mores!" (trans: Oh the times, oh the morals - Cicero)

Guy Brown, London, UK

I'm sorely disappointed that the blokes from the UK conviently misses her ability to cut out pork barrells, her role as a whistle blower to others in her own party and very SUCCESSFUL elimination of wasteful projects. But then again, the UK has little interest in the health of America's affairs.

CarmeninCali, San Francisco, U.S.

She was always going to win thunderous applause. Sadly there is still a large number of Americans who think that owning rifles, forcing rape victims to have the rapist's child and banning the teaching of Darwinism is ok. Sorry but I just can't agree with that

Jon, London, UK

Guy, perhaps what you don't understand about the US is that we allow people be believe however they wish whether that belief is in politics, religion, etc. I don't have to understand their choices but I honor the right to express them. Hopefully voters will not elect McCain/Palin.

Stephanie, Baltimore, USA

Why anyone in the US stands for public office, I don't know... when your family becomes a media target and somehow it is justified as being 'in the public interest' I reckon you have to think twice - and then again.

Rod Bakler, Cape Town, South Africa

Could a little known woman/former beauty queen from Alaska who knows how to field dress a moose actually beat a harvard educated lawyer for the US presidency and vice presidency? I love this political race more and more each day.

Jenny, Austin, TX, USA

Wow, look at the reaction from the Upper West Side snobs. Tell us what you really think of actual, average Americans? You know, the people that feed you and build your mansions. Good thing the left is filled with open-minded people.

Paul, Hamburg, USA

Laura Roberts I completely agree with you. It is surreal.

Maria, London, UK

lauren, your government is already wasting your tax dollars on health care - the US government spends a greater percentage of its GDP on providing limited cover than the UK's does for universal cover.....you are being had

aaron, london,

Terrifying. It's like watching the characters from "Deliverance".

Candidate selection based on what section of society they come from, ticking the boxes from race to armed forces service to early marriage and evangelical Christian.

And not a principle or policy in sight. Insanity.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Obama is playing this all wrong. Palin is a red herring and any focus on her will only boost Mcain. Remember the VP is generally a redundant job. They need to swing the debate back to Obama versus Mcain because that's the debate they were winning....It's Mcain that's running for president...

stephen, china, china

I like the way Palin asks "What exactly is our opponent's plan?' when she has been holed up in a hotel room for the last 4 days receiving a crash course in Republican policy, and presumably having places like Europe pointed out to her on a world map.

Charlie Howard, London, UK

really?"Palin has not pushed creation science as governor" - i dont find that particuarly reassuring to be honest..in fact anything less than "palin insists creationists have no place in school" would be insufficiant.

aaron, london,

How refreshing this woman is. At last someone who actually seems to be normal, and common sensical. With Hillary you never know what she really thought, but you sensed it was bad. Palin is all there, open book. She has her personal ideas, but doesn't impose them, she just governes as well as she can

Rebecca, Swindon, England

She is no Thatcher, but a typical aggressive woman who said nothing of substance on any issue. (in any case the speech was written for her) Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, Housing, Health care, Jobs, Economy etc. Just instilled fear of Islamic Terror. We all know what McCain did 40 years ago.

Faqi, London, UK

" Deny it all you want. But last night Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin slaughtered Obama. "

Actually they were embarrassing ... to me as well as to themselves .

Can you see this women with her finger on " the Button " ?

David, Richmond, USA

Leave the US to its own politics. UK has made a horrid mess of itself. You took away guns, now you have terrible knife crime, a "nanny state". You are in no position to advise or pontificate on America. Where is your first black Prime Minister? 94% of blacks will vote for Obama, is that racism??

ghl, MDBY, USA

Hey, Rik of Welwyn Garden City, the people of the USA will decide who their president and vice-president will be, not the people of Germany.

Obama's a great speechmaker we know, but he has never run anything so small as a committee, and he's supposed to be ready for presidency! No backbone!

Sandeep, Oxford,

We are a two party system. Some people will vote GOP, others will vote for the Dems. I am a Christian, who believes in Evolution (true Creationism), and who will be voiting for Obama. When Mayor, Palin fired the librarian because the librarian would not ban books ... Librarians rule!

Marlene, Alexandria, VA, USA

I quite agree with Aaron in London. The reason we have such oddities in public office is simple. What sane person would want to involve themselves in such a circus as American politics?

Watts Taylor, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Love all those Euro comments . It must be nice to be superior .

Doug McPhail, Birmingham, Al.

Democracy is about the freedom to choose, how many children you have. Freedom grounded in truth and justice for all. Using religion to do what is evil and what is good equally applied depending on what is truth to each individual. Lies to Tax the poor infavour of the rich, & commit genocide for oil.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

You want these two at the helm, America? Look at that photo of McCain to the right of this column and imagine four years of THAT! He looks like he wants to sell you a used Nissan!

Scott Millson, Toronto, Canada

Guy..we dont love to hate you...we just dont understand why such a rich and diverse country as the US wants to despoil its image by giving so much credance to all this creationist type stuff - I promise to stop feeling superior the moment the US gets a rational relationship with religion.

aaron, london,

Why don't you people read a little? From the AP Yesterday.

"Palin has not pushed creation science as governor" Google It its not hard.

She says she believes we have a creator, pretty different than you seem to be implying.

Mike, Pasadena, USA

The election of McSame and Gov. Palin would make PM Gordon Brown look like a combination of Lord Halifax and Sir Winston in comparison. God help the United States & our citizens if this ticket is elected to what would, de facto, constitute the 3rd term of Bush/Cheney.

Edward B Ryder IV, Greenlawn, USA

Sounds like a "no-brainer" Lauren if you have to "worry" about Obama allowing people access to heathcare!
God forbid that a country should provide adequate healthcare for it's citizens!

Rich S, Barnsley, UK

Republicans don't care about people. They have failed to promise special help for many groups: the young and the old; rural and urban; workers and retired; blacks and non-blacks; immigrants and non-immigrants; the lofty and the vertically challenged; left-handed folk and right-hand folk; etc, etc

Edward, Jacksonville,

The Republican Party using who ever they can Palin, as long as it suits their evil purpose, of exploitation under a flag. I am smart enough to know, while the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer & Christian Fundamentalist collect money to line their pockets & Tax excemption, the crimes go on.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

Guy Thompto - most, if not all, would agree that killing a child is wrong. The debate isn't that though, it's about abouting a foetus and whether there are circumstance (e.g. rape) when that should be allowed. And please believe in god - just don't push it on the rest of us!

Rich S, Barnsley, UK

If a week in Politics is a long time---what does 36 minutes in front of a friendly Conference say?

It's wrong to compare Mrs Palin to Mrs Thatchers as Thatcher had already cabinet experience and was a skilled barrister.

Obama has been under the media for 1 year...watch this space

Keith Mullen, Easington, UK

I either have to sacrifice my pro-choice/evolution beliefs or I have to worry that Obama will put nationalized health care into effect and waste my tax dollars because the government doesn't do anything right. It's not as simple as many of you would like to believe.

Lauren, Wichita KS, USA

Obama had this election in the bag if he would have chosen Hillary as his running mate. He has gambled and it looks like he is going to lose because of it.

gary, Dallas, Texas

Great speach. Maybe we're seeing the start of a great poiltician. However, in reality we also have someone wanting to have Creationism taught in schools. To paraphrase the Devil's words (Karl Popper) said in Goethe's Faust, "Science and Logic you despise, you are the profits of my enterprise" .

John Kingsford, Arundel, Norway

This just got interesting.

Simon, High Wycombe, UK

My brothers loves Sarah, all 10 of them, 3 of them are my husbands, and my cousins love her, and my ma and pa and everyone one who lives in my cabin in the woods with the bears and the mooses.

mary lou, manchester, uk

Given her views on evolution and global warming, it would appear that this lady is a serious threat to future generations of Americans and indeed the entire world. I’m very concerned by a potential McCain presidency, Im sure much of the rest of the world is as well.

Ryan, Perth, Australia

Palin illustrates HL Mencken's observation on our government -- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Right now the media is busy unpeeling the skin on this onion. The next few weeks will be interesting.

Keith Schmitz, Shorewood, WI, United States

She's not meant to capture Hillary supporters, her views are polar opposite from Hillary. We've seen exactly what I thought would happen, Obama's ratings jumped to 50% when everybody on the fence realized how far to the right the McCain ticket went when it brought Palin on.

Liz, Chicago, USA

I'm one of those neanderthal conservatives that Europeans love to hate. I do think that killing a child is wrong. I do believe in God. I don't care what the world thinks about my country -- what does that do for me? You just go on thinking that you are superior, that there is no higher authority.

Guy Thompto, Cedarburg, USA

So this woman wants all young teen girls to face pregnancy rather than use birth control? Look what happened to both her and her daughter and you can see what that policy would do.
Add to that her belief that the Iraq war was doing god's work and heaven help us if she isn't removed from the ticket

Tim, Toronto,

Was no one worried that Romney called Washington now liberal? If this is liberal, then we are really in trouble with McCain.

Anna , Boston, USA

It seems what worry people most is that a woman can be strong and succeed without submitting to the angry feminist myth.

John, Delta Junction AK, USA

Deny it all you want. But last night Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin slaughtered Obama. They asked searching questions of his candidacy that can never be satisfactorily answered. Why did he vote 'present' over 180 times? Why write 2 memoirs and no legislation? Obama is not qualified for the job.

Ben, Newark, NJ

She's one scary lady.

Fiona, Paris, France

In Germany Obama gave a speach and had 200,000 people enthusiastically waving American flags, if McCain/Palin gave one there more than that number would be enthusiastically burning them, and I'd be joining them!

Rik , Welwyn Garden City, UK

While I think Thatcher's politics and character were rather disadvantageous for Britain, likening this intellectually challenged person to her is nothing but a grave insult.

Matt, Berlin, Germany

Many of Hillary Clinton's supporters, rather than do the honorouble (and entirely sensible) thing and vote for Obama, now have another fiesty, steel-willed female to support. It's not suprising that the Republican camp has siezed on the opportunity to grab Clinton's dithering supporters. Clever.

Charlotte, London, UK

How can the US seriously hope to retain its standing in the World if it's going to appoint a lady who believes Creatonism deserves equal standing to Evolution and should be taught in schools? On the back of 8 years of Bush, I really do feel for the US should she be elected.

Simon, Liverpool,

So Palin is a Creationist and the world could be a heartbeat away from the Leader of the Free World believing that the world is 3,000 years old and God planted the fossils for a laugh. I'm not laughing.

Simon, Chessington, UK

Her speech was designed to inspire the far right of the party. The message of where they want to take their country, seem very dangerious. Where global-warming egnored, excessive spending, and more wars. Running up huge deficits, creating a global economic crisis. Very dangerious time ahead.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

I agree with Alice Mills, loathe her policies, find her the very antithesis of a feminist - advocating women should return to a past sans choice about abortion. However, between her and Obama, American politics has some enviable vitality. It is a Divided, not United States: but voters will turn out.

Tania , Somerset, UK

This whole affair reeks of made in Hollywood or showbiz for ugly people. It looks as if the lunatics really will take over the asylum.

Ray, Emsworth, Hampshire,

whatever her views, she seems to share some of the trials and tribulations that us normal people do. good luck to her whatever the outcome in november.

tim, NSW, AUS

No comments yet? Maybe you're like me....left speechless and kind of wishing the signs read "Palin/McCain" instead of the other way around.

Murph, Madisonville, USA/KY

Mr Huckabee then hasn't realised America has already been wrong just once - George Bush.

Michael Laughton, Runcorn, UK