She could, in fact. She could vote for a candidate she neither likes nor agrees with, with the insane hope that the candidates' party will read her mind that she does not like the candidate, and run someone completely different next time.

The First Amendment does not exist to protect you from criticism. If somebody libels or slanders you, presenting non-facts as facts, you are free to sue them, as is your opponent if/when it happens to him.

Not entirely true.

A politician cannot sue for slander, nor can he be sued for slander.

Just ask Harry Reid.

I'd say something to disagree with Amy, but she'd just question my motives. Rah rah, Amy. Rah rah.

Newt lost me the instant he supported Hillary's idea of health-care reform.

I find the idea of an Obama presidency far more repellent than I find a Palin presidency (never mind vice-presidency).

I think the problem is less with what Palin said and more with the way it was reported. I listened to the Chris Plante show and he made the point again today that she was not talking about *her* free speech as a candidate. Which is how it's been reported.
Rather that she feared a climate in which speech is stifled and government then becoming the censor of speech. Which is is exactly on point to the First Amendment.

Just when I thought it couldn't possibly get worse there's this - a Montreal comedian calling Sarah Palin's office and pretending to be Nicolas Sarkozy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4aHL12vtEM

You think thats funny cats?
Check this out

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2008/11/02/pranking_palin.html#comments

"Ms. Palin...do you notice any Congressional initiatives to stop your free speech...or simply people who, like you, are exercising their First Amendment rights?"

Um.. Fairness Doctrine ring a bell? You know, that thing that Speaker Pelosi says she supports, and generated the introduction of new legislation to restore it just last year?

Anyway, here's what was really said, with full context. (Note that ABC misquoted her second statement.)

(Question and answer about LA Times holding on the Khalidi tape, plus Palin slipping in some campaign talking points)

Plante: And of course Rashid Khalidi is not the only radical that Barack Obama has associated himself with over the years, and you also have been kind of out there on the pointy edge of the spear talking about William Ayers and Bernadine Dorn, to a lesser extent perhaps, but Williams Ayers, and once again, the role of the news media in this campaign when it comes to Barack Obama's relationships, over the years with Rhashid Khalidi and William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and father Pfleger, and all of these other people that is, is the news media doing its job, are you getting a fair shake, are the Republicans getting a fair shake this year?

Palin: I don't think that they're doing their job when they suggest that calling a candidate out on their record, their plans for this country, and their associations, is mean spirited or negative campaigning. If they convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of first amendment rights, and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media. Look at Joe the plumber, good old Joe the plumber from Toledo, Ohio, he just asked a simple, straightforward question, and the media started investigating and attacking him. So, you know there is some fear there, and in those terms, no, I don't think they've been doing their job, in that kind of context.

(Question and answer about Obama mocking the idea that he's a socialist)

Plante: Now, you've obviously gotten the royal treatment from the so called mainstream news media, and when I say royal that's a euphemism because we're on the radio. Has it left you with a bad taste in your mouth, do you have a sort of a new appreciation for what the world is like in Washington DC, after your experience with these guys?

Palin: Well, it's obvious to note that I'm a Washington outsider, and perhaps that's been a part of the issue here, is being an outsider, not.. it's sort of perplexing to me because I'm a practical person, and plain spoken also, but just, cutting to the chase, calling things like I see them, just like most Americans. But, this has not left a bitter taste in my mouth, even as the political shots taken by our, by this mainstream media, and by some of the elitism there in Washington. What this has left me with is a very energized and positive feeling about America, because there are enough Americans who are desiring the positive change that John McCain's gonna usher in, getting the economy back on the right track by doing these practical, common sense, common sense conservative movements that must be made to let people keep more of what they earn and produce, so that they can reinvest, and hire more people in their businesses; and to win the war. There are enough people out there and we hear from them and we see them, that I have great faith that on Tuesday there will be no need to feel negative, or downtrodden at all. I think we're going to be lifted up, our nation will be lifted up because John McCain's gonna be elected.