That's how long I give Obama/Biden to come out swinging with force, fire and creativity on issues like this and others--not just playing defense and being reactive, but playing offense and defining their opponents. If they can't get themselves moving by then, they're going to lose a huge portion of their base, who will become discouraged as they see another John Kerry/passive/clueless/tin ear debacle developing.

Two weeks, guys. Better suck it up, start savaging Palin's record and inexperience, going after McCain as a loose cannon, a hypocrite and a Bush lackey, and making your own bold statements about solving problems for people, or you're screwed.

Can you imagine what the McCain campaign would be doing with the story if Michelle Obama turned out to be a former member of a separatist group dedicated, say, to establishing an Africans-only colony in the South? They would bombard Obama with ads and speeches about how his "traitor" wife made him unfit to be president. So why in hell aren't the Democrats making political hay with this? Don't they realize they are in a political knife fight? Where is their ad showing Palin telling the AIP what a wonderful job it's doing? Come to think of it, where is their ad showing that former Vietnam POW talking about McCain's terrible temper?

Barack? Joe? Somebody? Where's the fight? Where's the killer instinct? What's with playing defense and fucking around defending a lipstick comment? Don't you guys realize you're about to become John Kerry circa 2004?

I'm disgusted and astonished at the passivity of the Obama campaign, especially when you look at the ammo that the McCain/Palin ticket is giving them. There's the story of how her husband was a member of an Alaskan separatist group and video of her telling them what a wonderful job they are doing. Imagine how that would be used by the GOP if that had been Michelle Obama. Where's the ad running in the South questioning whether Palin can be trusted if she supports a group that "hates America"?

There's the great video of the Vietnam vet and former POW who was locked up with McCain who talks about McCain's hair trigger temper and how he wouldn't want his finger on the button. Where's the ad questioning McCain's mental and emotional fitness to be POTUS because of his POW experience (not to mention his health concerns due to age and recurrent melanoma)?

Where is the offense? Where's the knife-fight attitude that dealing with the GOP demands? I, too, would love this election to be about hope and high-minded ideals, but again we let Karl Rove set the rules, and it's about dirt, pandering to base emotions and controlling the news cycle. So where are the Democrats who understand that? You don't have to surrender the South if you get out the right messages and go on the offensive!

Are you guys TRYING to lose?!?!?!

MEMORANDUM

TO: All you trolls who beat the living crap out of Alex, Joan and every other Salon writer for their political coverage.

FROM: Me and others who are sick to death of it.

RE: WTF?

If you loathe the coverage here so much that you must waste your time posting obnoxious, useless and barely-literate drivel on the comment threads, why the hell do you read Salon at all? Go away and leave it to those of us who actually appreciate the work done here even if we don't always agree with it.

Smart, solid opinion mixed with some gripping detail and reporting. Well done. This is what I've been missing more and more from Salon, which lately (and not just in political coverage) seems to run pieces for the sole purpose of heating up the comment threads.

Of course bin Laden's freedom has been calculated by Bush and the Neocons; he's far more valuable as a fright mask they can pull out every four years, wave and say, "Booga booga! If you elect Democrats, Osama will get you!" Just like the TSA and empty talk about border and port security, the pseudo-hunt for bin Laden has been all about political theatre to make Americans "feel" like we're being protected while we're actually far less safe.

Even if you're not a huge Obama fan, it's time to run the party that perpetrated this obscenity (and was in control on 9/11, after all) out of town on a rail and give the Democrats a shot to get it right.

Methinks it's time for an ad morphing her face with Bush's with the caption, "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

...by the level of discourse here, especially from our erudite friend who posted the first comment and suggested that Alex is suffering from rectal-cranial inversion. How droll. Nice to see the commentarians remain as classy and well-spoken as ever.

To the issue, this is a BIG deal. She clearly had no idea what Gibson was talking about and she looked like a fool. The major underlying national defense policy of the last 8 years and she had no idea what it was? Are you KIDDING me? Palin is deeply, dangerously unqualified to be VP in the reality-based world. Let her go back to Alaska and preside over her church and her sparsely populated state. Maybe Joel Fleischmann can be her lieutenant governor.