Like I said, better the devil that I know...

Yeah, the devil that wants to go to war with Iran so bad he can taste it. The devil that wants to increase defense spending and stay in Iraq indefinitely, at the same time, cut taxes. Don't even get me started on social security, the economy in general or abortion rights.

No thanks...I know this devil too well.

As much as I am disappointed in Obama lately, it's still an easy choice to vote for him.

BTW, not ONE single Republican stood up against the ridiculous FISA bill. Not one. Specter talked tough, but as always, caved.

That's the devil I know all too well.

p.s. AKA, I'm glad Hillary voted the way she did, the same with Dodd, Boxer, Feingold, etc.

I'm beyond disappointed that Pelosi and Reid seem to not be able to manage their majorities to the point of not even being to set the agendas in their control. I must say that a Republican minority is so much more effective than the Dems ever were as a minority..and now still manage to be in control.

Not one Republican in the Senate....

Thanks for keeping up the good fight and bringing light to issues that do not get all the attention they deserve form the "serious" pundits.

My gut feeling is that McCain is lazy. He had other things to do, so that is probably an easier explanation. He's missed quite a few votes over the years.

If the media wasn't as friendly to him as it is, we'd see alot more of the gaffes and incredibly stupid things he and his team are saying.

He was dissing social security the other day and now says what he said was misconstrued.

His top economic advisor just said that there isn't a hint of a recession right now, it's all in our heads and Americans are just a bunch of "whiners".

Well, to be fair, Gramm is McCain's economic advisor. McCain who professes no great knowledge of economics will rely on his adviser's for advice.

Advisers are picked for their views. Jackson was just spouting off.

When Ahhhnald was running in CA for governor, he had Warren Buffet giving advice. Buffet said for CA to get back on track, property taxes would have to be adjusted...up. Schwartzanegger promptly told Buffet to shut up that he wasn't being helpful, albeit in a friendly, though very public way.

If McCain has a clue (which I doubt) he will have to do similar.

I agree with your point on elitism. What's funny is that McCain and Gramm are clueless to a major shift that is occuring.

A while ago when gas prices were going up and Exxon first started to rake in record profits, RW blogs and radio hosts were all about saying that gas here in the US was relatively cheap...that we had it good. They also would point out that many Exxon stockholders were American and again, a profitable oil company was a sign that America was a great thing overall.

You rarely hear Rush (or any of the Rush wannabe's) saying that today. They know that many of their listeners are hurting. Now they just resort to the old time tested theme of blaming the Dems. They don't pretend there isn't a problem, just want to deflect any responsibility for it.

Gramm and McCain obviously aren't as tuned in, and that's amazingly tone deaf.

"America already has one Dr. Phil"

It doesn't work that way.

Every time a psycho white woman kills her kid/boyfriend/husband/whatever, I don't have to stand up and decry that I as a white woman, am opposed to such things. In fact if I did do that, people would wonder about me and why I'm so defensive and wonder about my intentions.

The same holds true for Christians. The anti-abortion Rudolph planted a frigging bomb at the Olumpics for God's sake. How many Christian leaders had to declare that they were opposed to that kind of action? Even if they were hard core anti-abortion advocates themselves. Yet, there were sympathisers. In parts of North Carolina you could wear a "Run, Rudolph, Run" t-shirt and not attract undo attention.

I daresay all the Muslims that come out and say that they are for peace are trying to show that they are opposed to the actions of the terrorists, without apologizing for actions that abhor them and that they are NOT responsible for.

Phil Gramm is McCain's campaign co-chair. Gramm is McCain's economic advisor.

He's not some random Republican. If my Republican neighbor or even my idiotic Republican congressman says something offensive tomorrow, I promise I won't blame McCain.

I won't use the term surrogate if you want, but initially the McCain camp stood by Gramm's statement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/mccain-campaign-initially_n_111929.html

I stand by my statement that this was amazingly tone deaf.

I just read the article about Gramm standing by his statements over at the Washington Post and I hate to say it, but I agree with him (on this point, not on policy).

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/10/gramm_stands_by_recession_comm.html

His quote "When I said we've become a nation of whiners, I'm talking about our leaders. I'm not talking about our people," he said. "We've got every kind of excuse in the world about oil prices -- we've got speculators, the oil companies to blame -- but too many people don't have a program to get on with a job of producing."

"If you listen to our leaders, we can't compete against Mexico, for God's sake," Gramm continued. "If they don't think we can compete against Mexico who can we compete against?"

On this point, I can't disagree, but in general, he's still a schmuck.