This is a bit too tawdry to have on the front page, frankly. But also, I believe, important to note at this time, especially in terms of the bullet-we-dodged sense. Read on below the fold.

It’s getting sad, really. Remember how the wingnut email smear machine claimed that Obama’s family was a collection of criminals and reprobates who would soon all be “running around the White House”? All completely false, of course. The ironic part? These same people loved Sarah Palin, just thought she was the cream of the crop. And yet, Palin’s real-life, no-embellishment-necessary, honest-to-god family is just as bad as the most ludicrous smears dreamed up by the wingnuts about Obama.

The latest in the Wasilla soap opera comes from the MySpace page of Mercede Johnston, sister to Levi, the high school kid who knocked up Palin’s teenage daughter out of wedlock, daughter of the woman who got arrested for selling Oxycontin, often called “hillbilly heroin.” She complains that the Palins are being snooty, consider them “white trash,” and won’t let them near the new baby:

Do we need to go over everything else–the husband the secessionist, Palin’s $150,000-plus shopping spree, the bizarre Trig childbirth odyssey, and all the rest? Or the fact that right-wingers still love Palin, and are completely blind to all of this?

A day before we see a man of strong character and elegance, a man with a loving, well-adjusted family take the oath of office, we are reminded–yet again–of the bullet we just dodged.

Oh, and Cindy McCain is all ticked off because John (whose brother called 911 to complain about traffic) didn’t let her go on Dancing with the Stars. Strange, he was very supportive of her entering a topless beauty contest.