Three Women: Nancy Pelosi (the leader), Hillary Clinton (the stateswoman), Sarah Palin (the demagogue)

Palin bids to be the titular leader of the hate wing of the Republican Party. She has gone from campaigning for vice president by suggesting some communities are less American than others to disqualifying herself from the presidency through either the immoral propagation of a lie or the ignorant rantings of a demagogue, for the vile purpose of dividing this nation and creating fear promoted by falsehood among elderly Americans.

The Speaker is absolutely right when she warns about the rhetoric of hate that creates the rising danger of violence. Shame on those Republicans who refuse to condemn this rhetoric of hate from the right-wing extremes, and even worse, in some cases, endorse or defend it. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) should be ashamed of himself for attacking the Speaker for raising this issue. He should join her in condemning those who espouse hate, but in the modern Republican Party, leaders treat the hate wing as part of their coalition.

The Speaker is the leading voice of the true values of the Democratic Party and is the leading champion of what President Barack Obama was elected to accomplish. From the public option to fighting for working people, the Speaker stands tall.

Hillary Clinton was liberated in the presidential campaign, not from men, but from the culture of insiders, and she became a great voice for working people in the heartland and now a voice for women, and diplomacy, around the world. It may well be that her greatest days are ahead.

For those who think about race, the hatred that Republican leaders do not condemn, and often endorse, is about partisanship and hatred toward opponents, not about race.

They hated the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). In fact, they hated Bobby, and the tone of debate today sounds eerily similar to the tone of Nov. 21, 1963, when they hated Jack. They hated Bill Clinton, and those who desperately oppose prosecution of Bush personnel for serious matters today are the same people who tried to impeach Bill Clinton for nothing. Shame, shame; their hatred knows no colors.

As someone who has been critical of the president as well as Republicans, his popularity today stands double the popularity of Republicans in most polls, including the latest Gallup poll. Republicans never learn. The haters might achieve prominence in the 24-hour news cycle, but the real death panel in American politics is the haters who have a death grip on Republican leaders, who cannot bring themselves to condemn them.

Three women. Two of them, Speaker Pelosi and Secretary of State Clinton, achievers and survivors with long histories and a vast body of important work. The third, Sarah Palin, a quitter in her only important job, who chose the politics of demagoguery and division, because she concluded she could not make her case through a long history of hard work.

Pelosi and Clinton stand with the best of them, Palin with the long list of forgotten footnotes who are more remembered for why they ultimately quit than for what they ultimately did.