i don't even need to read the article, but i couldn't agree more. not only is mccain's promise to "freeze all spending" a wrongheaded idea, it's incoherent when taken in the context of his concurrent promises to "buy up mortgages" and pursue "victory" in iraq. with what money, sir?

what he really means is that he'll finish the generations-long conservative project to completely dismantle any and all new deal social networks such as s.s., unemployment benefits, welfare, etc., while continuing to slash taxes for the rich and funneling what money's left into the war(s). he'll squeeze what little money is left out of the public school system and health care -- because, hey, the private sector knows best, right? -- leaving inner city school children and those on the margins to sink or swim.

the problem for him is that so many people are already afraid of sinking that he has no choice but to propose cuts with one side of his mouth while making promises he can't keep with the other.

To anyone who has relatives who are rabid Rush Limbaugh listeners and party line koolaid drinkers -- not to mention gun-nutters, xenophobes, etc. -- this should not come as a surprise. In response to good-natured joking or honest questioning about matters near and dear to their hearts, I've come damn close to immediate family members send me scathing e-mails and threaten to end our relationship. And that was in the early Bush years, when the bloom was still on the rose and there was no prospect of one of "those people" taking office!

I can very easily imagine the hate worked up at some of these rallies. It's very real, and very scary. I'd feel sorry for these people -- trapped in layers of hate and fear of some mysterious "other" they really know nothing about and so are able to project their worst fears onto -- if they hadn't more or less been running the country for the past eight years.

My fervent hope is that decent, hard-working people are watching this at home and realizing that mccain-palin have nothing to offer them other than this.

you guys -- and i'm about 110% sure you're all white guys -- are (deliberately) missing the point.

number one, as somebody else pointed out, no one in this thread to my knowledge has accused mccain / palin of being a "terrorist" or threatened to "kill" them. we're voicing disgust with the mob mentality that's taken over at repub rallies, the ugliness laid bare by the prospect of "that one" winning in november. the idea that racial hate and religious fear based on identity issues don't exist and aren't operative here is idiotic in the extreme.

two, it's rather remarkable to watch the contortions you guys are willing to put yourselves through to defend / explain this. there is no defending it; there is no explanation that reasonably reaches to the obama campaign. to propose with a straight face that democrats -- enjoying an ever-widening lead in polls -- would bother to toss gasoline into an already volatile race, not knowing how it would affect things and so on, is just mind-bogglingly stupid.

sorry fellas -- probably best for you to go back to your caves and wait this one out.