I think Obama needs to continue the meme that Supply-side-Trickle-Down-deregulation economics is a massive failure and hang it around McCains' neck. The facts are there and he should not be shy about implicating McCain in the current fiasco. McCain's got a very prickly demeanor and Obama should exploit it. Again "the Republican Experiment has been a failure" and Free Market economics is a feel-good notion but not a science. I also think that there was a real cringe-worthy moment where McCain trumpeted his self-proclaimed "maverick" status and mentioned his running mate (she who he dare not name), as a maverick as well. It may serve Barack to bring up Mccain's maverick status and match it against his actual record. I think McCain's hair-trigger temper is waiting just beneath the surface.

Thank God. Rebecca Traister nailed it. The heretofore smothered outrage some of us have felt at this cheap stunt masquerading as a Republican attempt at advancing the cause of women in politics. I admit for 2 seconds there I was embarrassed for her, until I remembered the callow dismissiveness and contempt that she displays for Barack Obama and the cavalier way that she traipsed into this opportunity as if it was just one more rung on her ladder toward success. Some people study. They understand finance, geography, history, politics and the Law. Some people are motivated to move into the political sphere by notions of wanting to do good(Obama). Some of them actually have some sense of ethics left after years in Washington (Biden). And then there are some who are simply ambitious without a core set of beleifs that have been tempered by education and real world experience.

I've seen some pre-debate comments by Palin which tell me that they've forgone attempting to stuff her full of actual facts and are simply filling her with attack lines in order to put Biden in the position of having to respond angrily.

It's nice to see that the overall polling seems to favor Biden. Perhaps people are seeing through this munufactured appeal and have, (along with recent events), convinced them that "enough IS enough!" I myself might see a seasoned Washington "insider" on the stage in Biden but I also see a decent and sincere person. That's worth it's weight in gold compared to all the forced folksiness and "boy Howdy" grinnin' 'n twinkling.

interesting strategy from the folksy homily-spewing sniper-mom. The problem with that tactic, (and it's something the Obama campaign should consider using to their advantage), is that the past Palin was referring to is actually the uhh.. present and not only is it nipping at our heels, we're scraping our shoes from wading in it. They should also point to the fact that careening from crisis to crisis like a pinball while calling yourself a maverick is no substitute for a comprehensive understanding of the problems themselves. Similarly Palin's reluctance to admit where Global Warming is the result of is symptomatic of the McCain campaign's overall "reactive" strategy to problems in general.

I see that there are a few posts crying "hypocracy" for admitting to the same attraction to Biden's qualities as the Palin groupies. But I have to admit as a long time admirer of Joe, when you add an actual historical relation to the facts and knowledge, (as opposed to canned responses), and add to them a smidgen of charisma (that mega-watt smile), and a sense of general decency, you have an overall portrait of an individual that simply outshines MS Palin's regular gal sniper gambit. This is the meme that will be played out over the next few weeks; McBush and Palin will appear small, crass and manipulative, alternately lobbing spitballs from the sidelines while alternately thumping their chests in the kind of gross triumphalism that we've come to expect from the Right, and Obama and Biden will appear strong resolute, knowledgable and presidential and ...this is the thing the Right so wants to discredit, authentic. Because they have something that McCain and Palin don't. They both are self-made, working their way up against tremendous odds. THey didn't marry rich or start from money or as in Palin's case, take the fast track to the top by having the right "profile" and ideology (if in fact you can call blindly adhereing to standard right-wing talking points as ideology), and lookin' "purdy". That's her appeal and it's all she has. That "scrappy, can-do" attitude is no substitute for the real thing and the Repugs know this. Otherwise there's no reason to keep showing Todd Palin standing around in the background forever like an extra from a Travis Tritt video.

The only good thing coming out of the Bush Presidency is the destruction of the Corporate Nanny State and the public starting to get wise to the phony populism of the Right that pretends to have average America's interest at heart as they bankrupt the treasury while purposely destroying our faith in government. Our government has been reduced to legislating the interests of BIG business and our president is simply an affable figurehead and our elections have become a corrupt, sad joke. Our 4th estate nothing more than a profit-based, ratings-grubbing reality show where our politics are stage managed, art-directed and totally scripted and our candidates sold to us like dish soap and corn flakes. All of this started with Reagan, our first commedian-in-chief who presided grinningly over the first dismantling of the safegaurds that heretofore had kept the esteemed free market from replacing the constructs of democracy with it's anything-goes ethos while confusing the notions of greed with patriotism. It's been a purposeful paradigm shift but I feel that the tide is shifting. But at what expense!