Palin, using a line of reasoning that i'm sick of:

After her Dover speech, Palin went outside to speak briefly to a crowd of people who couldn't get into to the gymnasium. Holding a microphone in one hand and her son Trig in the other, she addressed someone who appeared to be heckling her.

"Sir, I don't know what you're saying, but if you're protesting, that's cool, too," she said. "My son's over in Iraq fighting for your right to protest."

Help me with this. Was Iraq dangerously close to developing intercontinental anti-free speech missles? Does her son being a soldier make criticism of her off-limits? If not, why bring it up? Joe Biden's got a son in Iraq as well; should she not be allowed to criticism him?

She's used this line reflexively, even accidentally against her own supporters. Even here she's not sure what they're saying. It seems a little pathological to shout "My kid's in Iraq!" every time you don't know what someone is saying. But even beyond that, the reasoning just seems screwy to me.