Is it just me?

Or does Palin look like Bessie Busybody from "Lazytown"?

That's no PUMA; That's a HOUND!

It has been a great contribution to our family's political perspective having belle-mere around. First of all, she watches the news. I mean, hours and hours of it. So, she's up on things.

But, more important, she's a real-life example of these boomer women everybody's been talking about. She worked for Head Start before Reagan choked it to near-death. Though a college grad, she accepted preposterous under-employment because she was on point with the kids. Even working two jobs, she never rallied financially after her divorce. She saved what she could, but she doesn't have a pension. In short, she is precisely the type of pink-collar, old-school, Great Society liberal you would think would be a PUMA, a hold-out for Hillary.

And, indeed, I think it took some doing before she was comfortable with Obama. The choice of old stand-by Biden may have been a turning point. But, the PUMA turns out to be nothin' but a HOUND dog, after all.

Here's the thing. When I hear her and her peers talk. Oh, they'll vent over how the press did Hillary wrong and they'll shake their heads at how Obama needs some more years on him. But, I don't know how the press keeps finding these weepy boomer women sitting vigil for Hillary. My experience of boomer women is they don't base their voting decisions on whether they personally feel dissed by the process. This is not their first dance and they are not looking for love. They will get on board with the Democrats, not because Obama inspires them. Not because of Obama at all. And no, not really because of Bush either. But because, duh, they've been around.

What? You think they've never seen a fat-cat Republican masquerading as a maverick cowboy before? Never seen a Democrat leading light dismissed as a pretty-boy celeb? They can't decipher the code words? Can't follow the money trail?

Watching the press scrutinize Hillary's wardrobe choices may have been condescending, but y'know what else is condescending? Tokenism. Stunt-casting a woman who was not on anyone's shortlist as your running mate? They've seen that play too. So, it should come as no surprise that early polls show them unimpressed with McCain's choice.