If you want the truth about Sarah Palin, these are must reads.
“Sarah Baraccuda.” That’s what a woman who has known Palin since their schools days says many of her neighbors call McCain’s running mate because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness.
In an article in the LA Progressive, Anne Kilkenny, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska (where Palin was mayor) chronicles the unethical shenanigans of GOP’s VP choice over the course of her career.
If you want to learn the honest truth about Sarah Palin, it’s a must-read, and I thank Susan from Tampa for pointing me to another LA Progressive article (this one by Charlie James, an American journalist who lives in Toronto), which led me to Kilkenny’s.
James’ article begins thusly:

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively

James goes on to report:

…. many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.

“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”

“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.

and

“Palin is a conniving, manipulative, a**hole,” someone who thinks these are positive traits in a governor told me, summing up Palin’s tenure in Alaska state and local politics.

“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a businessman in Idaho.

Go and read both articles, and then wait and see what Hillary Clinton has to say when she speaks in Tampa later today.
AND, as an added bonus, read this article that is a link from the LA Progressive.
In it, a fellow student of McCain’s at the Naval Academy tells why he will not vote for the GOP ticket:

John was a wild man. He was funny, with a quick wit, and he was intelligent. But he was intent on breaking every USNA regulation in our 4-inch thick USNA Regulations book. And I believe he must have come as close to his goal as any midshipman who ever attended the Academy. I could tell many midshipman stories about John that year and he unbelievably managed to graduate though he spent the majority of his first class year on restriction for the stuff he did get caught doing. In fact, he barely managed to graduate, standing fifth from the bottom of his 800-man graduating class. I and many others have speculated that the main reason he did graduate was because his father was an admiral, and also his grandfather, both U.S. Naval Academy graduates.

People often ask if I was a Prisoner of War with John McCain. My answer is always “No, John McCain was a POW with me.” The reason is I was there for 8 years and John got there 2 ½ years later, so he was a POW for 5 ½ years. And we have our own seniority system, based on time as a POW.

This article sheds much needed light on McCain’s celebrated POW status and war injuries he sustained.

John was badly injured when he was shot down. Both arms were broken and he had other wounds from his ejection. Unfortunately, this was often the case; new POW’s arriving with broken bones and serious combat injuries. Many died from their wounds. Medical care was nonexistent to rudimentary. Relief from pain was almost never given and often the wounds were used as an available way to torture the POW. Because John’s father was the Naval Commander in the Pacific theater, he was exploited with TV interviews while wounded. These film clips have now been widely seen. But it must be known that many POW’s suffered similarly, not just John. And many were similarly exploited for political propaganda.

The articles linked to above are must-reads, especially for anyone who is even thinking about voting for “an infamous…hothead” and a “vindictive and mean…racist,” because that’s what the Republicans are offering in this year’s presidential election.