A pair of pieces from The Washington Post demonstrate in detail the dilemma the Republican ticket faces and how Gov. Sarah Palin has set about solving it. In “Politics at the Five-and-Dime,” reporter Anne Hull describes how life in Farmington Hills, Mich., has flatlined along with that state’s economy, leading folks who might not otherwise cast ballots to plan on voting for Democrats:

To understand why — and to understand Obama’s widening lead over McCain in a crucial state — is to see an American worker pushed to desperation. A Wall Street bailout for $700 billion dollars? After six years at Dollar General, Fleck earns $10.35 and hour and receives an annual raise of 25 cents. She gave up Fantastic Sams and now cuts her hair over the sink in the bathroom.

Today, columnist Dana Milbank makes graphic the GOP response in a piece called “Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame.” At a rally in Clearwater, Fla., where Palin promises to get “kind of rough,” ugliness abounds:

Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

Video from the Florida rally after the jump.

A Palin supporter has posted the Florida rally in four YouTube clips. Here’s Part III, in which Palin calls out Obama as a “Chicago politician” at the 3-minute mark, and the crowd jeers the mainstream media at 5:25, and The New York Times (”Toilet paper!”) at 6:30. Interestingly, the YouTube poster inserts a note at this point in the video that a shout from the crowd which Milbank reports as “Kill him!” is really “Tell them!” Judge for yourself:

Here are the other Florida Palin rally video clips from that series, which is labeled as “Tampa Bay Sarah Palin Rally” but is indeed the Clearwater rally Milbank describes:
Part I
Part II
Part IV