The Republican strategy for the last three elections is simple: portray every one of your opponent's strengths as a weakness. Kerry's a war hero and Bush was a draft dodger? ... why, Kerry didn't *earn* those medals. Obama is popular, and the people of the world are cheering him on, making them realise there's

hope for America and generally, to coin a phrase, welcome him with open arms as a liberator? Why ... he must be a mere celebrity.

Obama's strategy here, as elsewhere, is much better - take the fight to the Republican heartland. He's not going to swing that many evangelicals to vote for him ... but he'll get some, he'll keep some others at home, he'll keep the debate about McCain's faith open. Most importantly ... he'll force McCain to keep spending time and money shoring up his base.

Obama does, regrettably, seem to be a man of faith. But don't let that mask the ambition and calculation that's gone into this move. He's fighting the Republicans over there, in the red states, so that he doesn't have to fight McCain over here.

I believe it literally both existed and didn't exist, no more than six thousand years ago. I spend my Sundays singing His praises. Whenever I have a decision to make, I think 'What Would Schroedinger's Cat Do and Not Do?' and I'll vote for anyone who says they do the same, even if they blatantly don't believe a word of it. And I heard Obama was a secret Einsteinian, so I won't be voting for him.

That's utterly crazy, of course. And what half of Americans do, with a different brand name.

Anyway: yes, there are big and complicated and counterintuitive ideas in science. There are, in fact, bigger and more complicated and more counterintuitive ideas than were ever made up or hallucinated by the bronze age loonies and chancers and politicos who cobbled the Bible together. As an atheist and a scientist, my universe is an older, larger, richer, stranger one than that of any literalist Christian. And that can be scary, but the solution to that is striving to find out more, not cowering with a comforting lie.

Amen.

Sarah Palin energized the Republican base, but she's had exactly the same effect on everyone else - everyone I know from moderate Republicans leftwards has leaped over to Obama in the last couple of weeks. Not because they're scared she might be President, but because they won't vote for a guy with judgment so poor that he'd select her.

Let the Republicans champion Palin and feel they were stitched up by the 'mainstream media' and that people like her are the future ... it'll keep them out of office as long as they think that. The Republicans have spent a generation building up an army of supporters who are Fox News inspired, Bible literalist, hate-fueled cretins ... and now that generation is going to lead the Republicans for decades and that means game over for a Republican President for the foreseeable future. If they read the book instead of bashing it, they'd know that you reap what you sow.

The idea of Palin running 2012 is something, I feel, that plenty of Democrats can get behind.

The thing to try to get your head round ... Candidate Palin won't want her running mate to appear wiser or more experienced than she is.

Palin/Fetus 2012? Y'all know it makes sense, you betcha.

Hmmmm. Fuel for the Palin debate.

I think this balances out in her favor. Clearly, one

problem the Republicans had this time was making sure

their guys got out and voted. Clearly, Palin energized

the Republican base - or at the very least some factions

within it.

Using Rove logic, the problem was what they're saying

on Fox - not enough Palin. Because on those numbers,

if the Republicans who voted last time had voted

this time, it would have been a fight. As with the

UK Conservatives in 1997, the landslide wasn't people

rushing to switch sides, it was people sitting on

their hands.

It would be very interesting to see precisely in which

parts of the country the Republican base did get out

and which they didn't. I'm guessing that it breaks

down pretty neatly by education and income ... the

smart, rich Republicans ran a mile, the poor, dim

ones thought she was great.

Run the numbers, and Palin/Cheney 2012 might well

be competitive when compared with Romney/Jindal.

Find out which parts of the country went for Palin and

then come up with a vaccine or distribute free condoms or

something. Or, y'know, just build some schools there.

No ... America's a center right nation. Only in America is the word 'liberal' ('tolerant, wanting free trade') an insult, giving healthcare to people who are actually likely to get sick (the unemployed, poor, old) seen as 'communism' or using tax income to address social inequality 'Marxism'. None of these are even debating points in most other developed countries.

Virtually every European country has civil partnerships or marriage for gays, abolished the death penalty, enacted equality legislation for all minorities, regulated industry, enshrined employment rights (five weeks paid holiday, equal rights for temps, sick pay, *paternity* leave), a working minimum wage ($21K a year in the UK, $12K in the US), liberalised abortion, enacted affirmative action.

Obama's platform, every part of it, would place him comfortably in the right wing of every mainstream right wing party in Europe.

Those things aren't necessarily good or bad, there are certainly advantages to the way that the US operates compared with Europe ... but they are facts, and the only possible standard for deciding where the US is on the political spectrum is looking at the spectrum. The US is a center right country.