JONI: The election. There are so many angles here, I’m going to let you all decide which one you want to discuss. But here we are. I mean, at the end of the day the choice is really John McCain vs. Barack Obama. But, you wouldn’t think that today. You would think, well, all we’re doing is talking about Gov. Palin. And I guess every day talking about her is a bad thing for Obama, because we’re not talking about him. And another angle on all of this is about how the press has been so dismissive of her. And then yesterday you had Maureen Dowd completely turning around and saying she’ll probably be president in four years. So, the whole wrangle of vilification. Cynthia, since you’ve been to the Republican Convention, perhaps you’d like to start. Where are we on this election today?

CYNTHIA: There is no question Sarah Palin changed the conversation. And I think that’s exactly what John McCain hoped would happen. You know, we can debate her merits but, I mean, John McCain has achieved what he wanted politically, at least so far. Coming out of Denver and Obama’s Invesco speech, you know, the general feeling was "nothing can top that," and on Friday McCain did — by announcing Sarah Palin. And he and Palin have dominated the news cycle since. There’s still an awful lot we don’t know. And I’m not so sure that all of it, all of the vetting, has been terribly attractive. I think her daughter’s pregnancy – I’m not saying it’s off limits – but I don’t think it really matters very much and I don’t think the American people think it matters very much. And the sort of glee with which the mainstream media jumped on that seemed to me to be rather unattractive. Whether or not Sarah Palin is competent to be Commander in Chief has little to do with whether or not she is or she isn’t a good mother, which seemed to be what the debate was focusing on last week.

JOAN C: May I interject that I think it was focused as much on hypocrisy, Cynthia, as it was on anything else that she has – for purity balls and abstinence and all of that good stuff, and would not have sex education in schools and that’s why it was gleeful, I think, more than —

CYNTHIA: But you know, Joan, we like to gossip about it all. I just think that, you know, boy do we have more important things to worry about than whether or not her daughter’s pregnant.

JOAN C: But she uses her family politically a great deal in Alaska. There’s a very good piece – I think it’s in The Washington Post. They’ve done a lot of digging and her family is — her husband sits in on almost all the meetings in the governor’s office, and as her chief advisor; and sits in meetings with oil companies, even though he works for one, and advises her. And the children are everywhere. She takes them everywhere. And they’re very much part of the package. And so she’s in … that has invited some of this. But I’m telling you, it’s got to be news when someone brand new comes along to be one of the four major figures in the election and announces their teenage daughter is pregnant.

LESLEY: And not married.

JOAN C: And it was circulating on the Internet that her latest baby was really her daughter’s baby.

LESLEY: Can I step back for one second, step back about a mile, and just look at what’s happened from a distance because, Cynthia, I didn’t go to the convention so I was watching it, you know, at home. And what strikes me today is how brilliantly skillful the Republicans have been through all of this. They had no idea when they … when John McCain chose Sarah Palin at the very last second because he realized, or they forced on him that he couldn’t have his first pick, Joe Lieberman. When he picked Sarah Palin, and all these stories came up because she hadn’t been vetted very much, that they’ve handled all of this with just remarkable shrewdness and political genius because this really could have blown up in their faces.