If McCain picks Romney, he probably also picks up Michigan's electoral votes (which will be disastrous for the state whether or not McCain wins in November--Republicans don't help this state when they're in power and Obama will have no reason to love Michigan if they don't deliver electoral votes for him).

But if McCain picks Romney, he also alienates the religious right, who can either do as they're told and vote for him anyway (and lose power and influence if McCain wins without doing much of anything to court them), or stay away from the polls because they won't vote for a Mormon. You could get the same result by attaching Joe Lieberman to the ticket, for more or less the same reasons.

Yes, but Michigan went for Romney in the Republican primary, and Romney's dad used to be governor of Michigan (back in the 60s, before I was alive, and when the Michigan economy reportedly didn't look like the Hindenburg crashing into the Titanic).

I'm fully aware that there are a lot of black people in Michigan, and that there are a lot of union people in Michigan. There's also a lot of right-wing talk radio in the state, and a vast amount of long-simmering resentment against the (Democratic) governor and the (black) mayor of Detroit. Never underestimate the power of resentful lower-income whites who are given the opportunity to vote against a black guy.

I wish I could agree with you, honestly, but I can't. This is "the reddest blue state I've ever seen", to quote a mass communications professor from Eastern Michigan University. If McCain picks Romney, it's got to be at least partially because he thinks he can grab some electoral votes from Michigan.

I haven't read all the comments, so I don't know if I'm repeating what someone else said yet, but here's my suggestion:

Hold the debate with Obama standing next to an empty podium. Stick to the same format as it would have been WITH McCain, but every time it's McCain's turn to speak, just cut to an empty podium for his minute, or 30 seconds, or whatever the length of time is. Show the country that in times of crisis, you can count of John McCain to want a do-over after he fails to show up to fix the problem.

McCain is such a maverick that he doesn't even go along with what HE says.

1) I already liked reading Klytus

Because his poems were really groovy

But I like the dude quite a bit more now

Because he's a fan of some great B movies.

2) No love for "Carnival of Souls" or "Jacob's Ladder" as atmospheric horror movies? I'm a little upset. Also, "Mr. Vampire" is a Cantonese "Evil Dead 2", with a perfect blend of martial arts, creepiness, and slapstick.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!"

...by saying "These are the same people who, let me suggest, are not so much concerned about how they live their own lives as they are with forcing other people to accept how they live, to validate the lives they have made for themselves."

And he's not talking about himself.

Sorry if this point already got made; I see there are already 109 letters at this point. But I really wanted to say this.

I don't believe in Odin, Zeus, Huitzilopochtli, Cthulhu, Allah or JHVH. There are probably a thousand gods I don't think are real. And yet it's always just about the Christian one when people write books.

For that matter, I imagine that I believe in one fewer deity than Terry Eagleton does. He's very nearly an atheist himself.

...If a losing contestant in a nationwide beauty contest said she was against mixed-race marriage, and some people "rose to her defense" for making those comments, would you say that segregation was an American value supported by a majority of American people?

...is forty percent a majority? By your own statistics, sixty percent of Americans call themselves something other than "conservative". By adding self-described "moderates" to the "liberal" category instead of the "conservative" one, we wind up with a 3-to-2 majority of liberals in America.

...that "Glenallen Walken" ever got hired? Shitcan him, hire this guy for "Ask a wingnut", and the world will be a slightly better place.

She was for using bullshit fearmongering scary lies to cripple health care reform before she was against it.

This could be the "Man Bites Dog" of the religious-themed-violence-story for this century. I can't remember the last time one of the cracker Taliban got shot.

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2003/09/365-Days-Project-09-15-j-and-h-productions-tape.mp3

It's a guy who made a demo tape to become a booking agent rather than a singer. And it's completely amazing.

...pig-ignorant, toothless, inbred, cousin-fucking, bigoted, child-molesting white trash.

I mean that as a compliment, of course.

...Can you either post the comic at a legible size or code the page so that clicking on the "Click to Enlarge" link enlarges the comic?