Re: "This is why Obama should take as many debates, in whatever format McCain wants. "

In the upside down logic that permeates modern American campaigns, if Barak Obama totally humiliates John McCain in debate after debate, and makes him look like a total fool, Americans will feel sorry for John McCain and hate Barak Obama for picking on an old man.

Add to that the 100% loyalty of the Christian Right/Republican Party (to the extent ther eis a difference) to whomever The Party nominates

and

Add to that the absolute refusal of a significant number of Americans to ever vote for a non-whtie candidate.

and

Add to that the Karl Rove smear ads that will permeate the coutnry.

All of that would be enough to get John McCain elected. The last three are out of Barak Obama's control. But he can, at least, not get people to vote for John McCain because they feel sorry for him.

What makes anyone actually believe that "President McCain would actually keep his word to not run for re-eleciton? Especially when the media, his Base, can be counted upon to provide him with every possible alibi.

Re: "The really serious shit will hit the fan during the next president's term."

And, if the President's name is "Obama", count on FoxNews to scream it is "All Barak's Fault!" every single day.

However, should the president's name be "McCain", they will have to continue declaring, "It's all Clinton's Fault!"

I'm sure Regency Press would pay him a seven figure advance to get a book out BEFORE election day. And he can count on days and weeks of Foxnews air time to promote it... as long as it reflects badly on Barak Obama.

Not a chance. There is no way that the Obama campaign could ever outbid the American rightwing, especially with all the iraqi contractor money that would be behind them. If Rev. Wright is willing to write a Swiftboat book then there is no limit to how much money that the Bush Administration will not funnel through its no-bid contractors and government contractor think tanks (such as the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute) to get it out and on Fox.

Actually, it does.

What John McCain hopes to accomplish by sending his proxies to the war zone is to "look presidential"

We can count on the news media to have a daily report from Georgia by Joe Lieberman. Each one declaring what a "Great job John McCain would be doing about this crisis if he were President, and how badly Barak Obama would be handling it if the United States were cursed with him as president".

The media, being too lazy and spineless to actually analyze what they said for truth, or even sanity, will just fill the air with these declarations, enhancing John McCains satature as a "Great President".

This is exactly the kind of "attack" that John McCain's campaign manager was asking for several weeks ago to aid his campaign. And this is exactly what John McCain is getting.

Unless our reporting media actually wakes up and examines what is being done by the McCain campaign (doubtful) we might as well start playing "Hail to The Chief" whenever John McCain walks into the room right now.

Maybe after the convention, Maureen Dowd can hit the campaign trail... with Joe Lieberman.

They should be very happy together.

Of course John McCain will get off on a violation of the law. This is, after all, the Bush Administration that we are talking about here.

When President Jimmy Carter put on a sweater and spoke of sacrifice, he lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, who sneered at it: Then proceeded to put everything on the credit card.

Republicans have used that tactic ever since, winning five of seven Presidential Elections (counting Reagans). Senator McCain is telling us that drilling on the continental shelf will easily get us out of high energy prices this year.

And, should Barak Obama use tha language of shared sacrifice, we will be playing "Hail to the Chief" to John McCain come January as well. But somehow pundits demand that Barak Obama be "pure" about it anyway, while John McCain Panders away.

Unless it appears on Foxnews first, the Mainstream Media never even knows it exists.

Because he is a fundamentalist Christian and dead certain to campaign and vote for John McCain this Fall. That gives him the automatic Republcian Free pass on anything he says. Just like John McCain himself.

I have been encountering another set of behavior when confronting lies spread via e-mail. The sender knows that the story is false, and doesn’t care.

I have often sent back full documentation, including references that conclusively disprove the story. The response I get back is that the sender does not care that the story is a lie: Just as long as the message is something negative about Barak Obama. We are no longer seeing a situation where ignorant, uninformed senders (or bloggers for that matter) are unintentionally sending lies. The know full well that the story is a lie, but they hate Barak Obama so much that the only important matter is that bad stories about Barak Obama be spread around, both for political purpose and for personal enjoyment.

This is the ultimate triumph of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and the other Conservatives of America. It is not longer a matter even of political power. Hate is all that matters to Conservatives and, as long as the messages serve to propagate, hate that is all that matters: Nothing else.