GETTING REAL ABOUT PALIN  —  I've noticed some people who should know better claiming that bringing up Gov. Palin's troopergate scandal is tantamount to making a victim of or defending her slimeball ex-brother-in-law who allegedly once used a taser on his stepson.  —  That's awfully foolish.

McCain: Palin a “soulmate”  —  John McCain, in his first television interview since his shocking vice presidential pick, said that he saw in Sarah Palin “a partner and a soul mate.”  —  “This is a person who will help me reform Washington and change the way they do business,” McCain told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

Sarah Palin's mother-in-law uncertain about how she'll vote  —  WASILLA, Alaska - Sarah Palin's hometown rallied around her as mayor - now Republicans wonder if the rest of America will warm up to the surprise pick from cold country.  —  Though her mother-in-law has doubts.

Palin electrifies conservative base  —  ST. PAUL - The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate has electrified conservative activists, providing a boost of energy to the GOP nominee-in-waiting from a key constituency that had been previously had been lukewarm - at best - about him.

Cindy McCain: Palin knows foreign policy because ‘Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia.’  —  Today on ABC's This Week, Cindy McCain tried to rebut the criticism that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) has no national experience by taking a talking point from Fox's Steve Doocy.

Palin Made an Impression From the Start  —  Fellow Maverick Survived McCain's Thorough Vetting Process, Aides Say  —  Their first encounter was last February at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington.  Sarah Palin was one of several governors who met privately with Sen. John McCain …

Palin: Surge?  What Surge?  —  Among the tiny number of occasions on which Sarah Palin has expressed even an opinion on foreign policy, one of the most recent bears putting out there one more time.  It's from a critical moment in the war in Iraq, December 2006, which John McCain has made the centerpiece of his campaign.

PROXIMITY TO RUSSIA IS IRRELEVANT.... On Friday, my friend Kevin Drum came up with a clever little way to preemptively mock Republicans' claims about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience.  “Isn't Alaska a central front in the new Cold War?  That's foreign policy experience right there!”  Kevin joked.

Sarah Palin: conservatives find the girl of their dreams  —  The Alaskan governor's family life and political views press the right's buttons  —  When Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight as John McCain's running mate in Dayton, Ohio, and promised that women could “shatter that glass ceiling once …