… unfortunately, in my view, in the wrong direction.
The liberal in this case is another friend and former colleague of mine. (She lives in New York, so the fact that Sarah Palin has turned her into a Barack Obama fan is probably not so important Electoral College-wise. But her e-mail does reflect an interesting reality: There might be a downside for McCain in all of the excitement Palin spurs on the right; she might turn the Clinton-fan left toward Obama.)
Anyway, here’s her e-mail:

Joe,

I really, really, really tried not to write you an angry email. But I couldn’t help myself. … I read your posts on Sarah Palin and I wondered what got into you!
I’m not going to argue McCain should not have picked Gov. Palin. It’s obviously that he picked her so he could win the election by shaking up the Republican “base” and getting people excited about the ticket. But now that she has joined the ticket there is no possible way I can vote for John McCain.
I found Gov. Palin’s convention speech to be insulting (to me professionally and personally), condescending and divisive. I thought her delivery was excellent. And I’ll give her credit where its due…She actually did what no one (not even Hillary) could have, she made me a Barack Obama supporter and donor.
I’ve never felt comfortable with Barack Obama (and I can’t stand Joe Biden) and I’ve always liked John McCain because despite the fact that I disagree with him on almost every issue (with one exception: Iraq) I firmly believe he wants to do a good job for the country. I was wavering because I like McCain and think he has more experience, but most of his policies are shockingly misguided.
The post on your blog that inspired me to write this email at all was “Biden on Palin,” which I had to read twice because I was confused about your point of view.
If Biden is in the dark about Sarah Palins views and positions, he’s not the only one. I have NO idea what she believes in other than that she’s pro-life and wants to drill for oil. I searched JohnMcCain.com for 20 minutes, trying to figure out exactly what to expect from her. What about the issues that I care about? Shouldn’t she tell me what she believes? Isn’t running for office, kind of like interviewing for a job? And last time I checked she’s going to work for me.
How does she stand on health care and poverty and education? What does she think should be done about the state of our infrastructure and the fact that more and more children are dropping out of high school? And how is she going to fight for me and for my family (which includes a special needs child)? And what will she do to help the small towns AND the big cities (8 million New Yorkers are dying to know)?
What I heard from her on Wednesday night was: “I’m a woman and a working mother and I stopped the bridge to nowhere.” Hardly the stuff of global leadership…

And my response:

OK. Your confusion about my post about Sarah Palin’s stands on issues makes me realize that I left a key part of my argument unstated.
Here goes: The vice presidential candidate does not set policy; she or he follows the lead of the top of the ticket. (Although some believe conspiracy theories to the contrary in the case of Vietnam, this is exactly what Lyndon Johnson did on civil rights and the Vietnam War. Dean Rusk, secretary of state to both JFK and LBJ, says emphatically in his book, “As I Saw It,” that LBJ’s policy in Vietnam was a natural extension of JFK’s. Both saw communism as a threat and wanted to stop it.)
Joe Biden knows that the top of the ticket sets policy. What he was criticizing Palin for was her failure — surprise, surprise — to adopt Democratic talking points about the environment and the middle class.
Sarah Palin’s own views on things will count a lot more should she run for president. If McCain were to die in office, she would be bound, largely at least, to the stands that got McCain/Palin elected. She would have no mandate to do anything else.
Sorry for leaving all that unsaid. It just seemed so obvious to me.

So, there you have it. Palin switches a potential McCain backer to Obama. Oh, well.