and that 3% made the difference between losing and winning the presidency. Even the massive voter suppression and fraud in Ohio wouldn't have worked for the GOP had he not lost so much support in the aftermath of the attacks on his military recrd, especially from independents, because of his reluctance to fight back. I spoke with a neighbor of mine this morning, he's an independent voter leaning toward Obama and he told me how disappointed he was that Palin had been allowed to brutalize Obama and the Democrats and that in response Biden praised her speech. His words verbatim were:"how can obama&Biden be entrusted with protecting the nation when they are unable to defend themselves against that woman?"

There's a reason American football is more popular than any other sport in this country. American psychic is enamored with fighting-the frontier spirit and all that crap, and consider those who try to avoid a fight as wimps and cowards. Fighting back shouldn't mean going after an opponent's family or personal life, the right wing's method. Remember the Republican goons who forcibly stopped the recount in Dade county in 2000? There was never any Democratic response. Remember the road blocks that prevented black Floridians from getting to their voting locations? The Democrats allowed it to happen. Swift Boat liars claiming that Kerry faked his Vietnam war injuries and didn't deserve his medals? Kerry is totally passive till it's too late. Impeachment, despite war crimes and attacks on the Constitutions by Bush/Cheney are met by "impeachment is off the table". Why was there no mention of the Keating Five in Denver? Or of McCain's othe corruptions ever mentioned? Why isn't the DNC, at least indirectly supporting the POW who present a very plausible case that McCain had never been tortured in captivity and betrayed his country? One of them is extreme right wing former Rep. Bob Dornan(CA) for crying out loud! A refusal to go toe-to-toe with the right wing will not be rewarded by admiration for staying above the frey by the electorate, it will be rewarded by another defeat and the end of our democracy, such as it is.

Contemporary GOP rhetoric and mentality is eerily reminiscent of the National Socialist Party's rhetoric and mentality circa 1929. Back then, it was all about being anti-cosmopolitanism, Germany against the decadent world, Germany as the protector of western civilization, back to nativity, the militarism, the longing for a mythological past:the Nazis longing for their Aryan roots, the GOP for the frontier days. The Democrats should start forcing the electorate to face reality-the GOP is now a bona fide fascist party, so the Democrats should start using the word fascism each time they mention the contemporary GOP and McCain&Palin-it's the very scary and unavoidable truth. Those who think that the US cannot become a fascist state are deluding themselves. The large cities in pre-Nazi Germany were very liberal and sophisticated, yes, even decadent, but rural Germany, just like the rural US was isolated, very conservative, xenophobic, religious and suspicious of the "elite" of the big cities. Remember how that turned out. Our Constitution is not nearly powerful enough to protect us from becoming a fascist country, and we are certainly already on the way.

When speaker after speaker at the Democratic convention, especially Obama, Biden and the Clintons, kept praising McCain as war hero and a nice person, I kept gasping in disbelief. Presidential elections in the US are never about issues but about tearing down the opponent. It shouldn't be that way, but this is not an electorate that's capable of nuance, rationality and making decisions based on intellectual comparison based on knowledge and analytical thinking. Most of the electorate now perceives McCain as a maverick war hero and one of the few honest politicians in Washington. That perception is a total fallacy, but the Democrats refuse to attack him on all fronts and again, after so many defeats, believe that rationality, fair play and campaigning only on the issues would win this election. In reality, they are headed for another defeat, because they are incapable of an all front relentless attack against the GOP.

Transcending the issue of a pseudo-journalist like Helprin, the much more important issue is that right now, near the end of the first decade of the 21sth century, in the age of modernity and globalization, the USA electorate is the only one among all western and industrial countries, that's backward, dumb, hubristic and ignorant enough to elect a senile lunatic like McCain and a fundie militia type wacko like Palin. The rest of the world is in the 21st century, and the red half of the US public regressed to 1700.

O'Reilly, a lifelong asshole, will surely ask Obama if he has ever attended a madrasa in Indonesia. Obama will have to admit that he had indeed. Then the asshole will say:well sir, how can you deny that you are a muslim when we know that only muslims are allowed to study in a mudrasa. Obama will try to explain that this isn't true and it's a much more nuanced situation, but O'Reilly will cut him off and say:so you deny being a muslim although only muslims are allowed to attend madrasas, may I remind you that this is a no spin zone, so I'll let my audience reach their own conclusion, let's move on.

Obama will not peel off even one vote off the fuckheads who watch shrillbill, but the buzz will be that Obama fumbled on the are you a muslim issue.