This is why Obama should take as many debates, in whatever format McCain wants. Obama proved in the primary debates that he is a master at the firm rejoinder and the "shame on you" retort. I think he nearly always gets the tone just right when he tells someone to their face that they're wrong: forceful without condescending.

" . . . I'm a condescending former elite athlete . . ."

Which comes through in just about every post we've seen from Ms. Sey. She spends more time grinding axes than Henry VIII's executioner. Bitter washed-up jocks are dime-a-dozen.

For all those afraid that Obama is not prepared to fight back, remember Sean Connery's line from The Untouchables: "he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue--THAT'S THE CHICAGO WAY" Obama knows this, and Axelrod definitely knows it and lives it.

They'll put up with people calling him out for "playing old fashioned politics" but what they won't tolerate is someone getting the upper hand in the street fight that is the modern American presidential campaign.

God forbid a candidate and his staff actually have a sense of humor, eh? Or are you afraid the "rubes" here in flyover land won't get it?

Um, I'm pretty sure we don't want to continue the Bush effort to completely shred the First Amendment. Whether it's government action or private action, attacks on the freedom to say what you want, no matter how abhorent it might be, are anathema to a healthy democracy and to progressive principals.

Obama didn't have to thump harder on the Bible than McCain. He won, in fact, just by appearing.

Since so much of the Right's effort is devoted to ad hominem attacks and demonizations, Warren helped Obama merely by showing that this vastly white Orange County church would not collapse as he stepped through the door; that Obama does not, in fact, have horns; and that Obama is moderately comfortable talking about Christianity.

Actually, all matters of faith and religion are above the President's pay grade, and any Christian with a shred of intellectual honesty would admit that. In fact, that's the heart of the separation between chuch and state: the government does not pronounce on matters of religious doctrine.

"And by elevating Gore to final night, is it not also a coded semi-rebuke to the Clintons?"

Stick to using your tea leaves to make tea.

No question that Gore was going to address the convention, given his status in the Party. When else would he speak and NOT overshadow nearly everyone else that night? About the only bigger (and god I hate to use the word) "celebrity" is Obama himself; he's the only one Gore wouldn't upstage. I'm guessing the Clinton's didn't want to take that chance.

What this shows, I think, is that most Americans are a lot less concerned with the minor details that the pundits, political junkies and blog freaks obsess about (and I count myself among at least one of the above groups). The bulk of the voters still solidify their impressions based on what they see on their network news programs and in their daily local papers, and at no time is that coverage more intense than during the Conventions.

We Americans are a superficial lot, on the whole, and while we political junkies may like to think we're brighter than the average, we really just have a different hobby and are no better at sussing out the political tea leaves than the average Survivor viewer is at picking that show's winner. And the Survivor viewer probably thinks we're dolts for spending all our time worrying about who's gonna get to live on Pennsylvania Avenue for the next 4 years. (I'm not trying to slight Survivor fans; I picked it because I actually have watched it a few times and have a better idea of how it plays out than something like Big Brother, Amazing Race or any of the others.) In short, there are an awful lot of our fellow citizens who don't think it matters much who's in charge. (A look at how much of an impact a Democratic congress has had on Bush's actions suggests they might not be completely wrong.)

Most people haven't been watching intently since last fall, and won't watch much more closely after the conventions are over, absent something major.

And I understand that the Foo Fighters have nothing against Foo.

I'm sorry. Long day.

The reason McCain's status is important is because his campaign has been trying for some time to paint Obama as "an elitest" (taking a cue from the Clinton primary campaign). THAT is the counterpunch.

McCain's reaction to the blowback on his confusion is a counter to the counterpunch, and of course resorts -- as these things always do -- to innuendo. As others have noted (and as Obama has admitted) the Rezko deal was an example of bad judgment, but not a shred of evidence has been introduced to show any quid-pro-quo or anthing else improper. In fact, all of the evidence to date suggests that the entire transaction was completely on the up-and-up, with only the fact that it was a guy already suspected of being hinky being an issue.

Now, if McCain wants to make this about "judgment" in selecting people with whom one associates, I think Obama should welcome that, as McCain's list of cringe-worthy cronies is long and well documented, starting of course with one Charles Keating.

One more aside as to Rezko: I think we are right to assume that if Paddy Fitz couldn't find anything substantive and crooked linking Obama and Rezko, it ain't there. Fitz has shown no reluctance to go after big fish.