As we speak, I've got cans of Bud next to some bottles of homebrew in my fridge. I like the Bud for when i'm working out in the yard on hot days. My financial situation prevents me from being too much of a beer snob anyway.

As for A-B, what they're doing to St. Louis sucks, but anytime a company goes public, it opens itself up to these possibilities. It's a mistake for communities to depend too much on publicly-held companies for anything. Any allegiance the companies might have to their local community is easily swept away by the promise of making more money.

Salon, this is an important development:

A draft security agreement calls for US forces to withdraw from Iraqi urban areas by June 2009 and leave Iraq by 2011.

BUSH is following OBAMA's Iraq plan.

Obama should immediately air negative attack ads and drive this point home.

To all of the alleged "PUMA"s posting here on Salon: please go over to Rush Limbaugh's blog and post there.

There are no PUMA's, people, these are Republicans who are impersonating disgruntled Democrats. No one in thier right mind would go from supporting Hillary to supporting McCain.

We get it - you're not happy about Obama winning the primaries. But now it's time to get over it. The primaries ended months ago.

The real opposition is John McCain now, not Obama. Maybe you should channel your anger into exposing the many weaknesses of McCain instead of trying to undermine the Democratic nominee.

Think big picture...would you rather a Democrat or a Republican be elected president?

btsock, your post called "If Democrats don't start taking this pick seriously" is right on the mark!

People, go visit some conservative blogs (such as LGF) and see what the commenters are saying about the Palin pick. Eerily similar to the smug comments here, only in reverse, like, "Obama just lost the election."

The "american taliban" contingent of Republicans can now get on board with McCain...she's pro-life, creationist, gun-nut, etc. And being good-lookin' don't hurt!

Which all means that Republican voters will be more energized.

This is no time to be confident about Obama winning!

Boy they can dish it out...

I hope Obama really starts to go on the offensive. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see him lose his temper and go off on one of these Republican ass hats?

As a lifelong Ohioan, I cringed when I saw that map. The people here are friendly enough, but they just don't value education as an institution.

School levies are always failing because many people (who don't have kids in school) oppose having to pay for other kids' schoolin'. And even though the Ohio Supreme Court ruled THREE TIMES that Ohio's method of paying for public education is unconstitutional, the Republican-dominated legislature has IGNORED the rulings altogether. Well, what can you do, sue your state legislature? No, you could vote in Democrats....but Ohioans haven't done this so far.

The results of all of this are that the majority of voters who live in the red counties - - the counties that are generally poorer - - are so, uh, stupid, that they think the Republican party is actually on their side.

As a political movement, you have to admit the Republicans hav e been pretty good at pulling together portions of the population who normally wouldnt identify with each other.

Think about it, the party of wealthy CEO's (and it really is!) has widespread support from some of the poorest, least educated (often rural) places in the country! (at least here in ohio..)

Anti-intellectualism has been around for over two hundred years in the United States and it will never go away. So you just need to figure out how to play it. This is what the republicans do.

As a party, they have strayed far, far from the Republican ideals (individual freedom, economically conservative , etc.) but they sure know how to play the game of politics well.

And that's how they maintain support....even if Palin does some day become president, fully 50% of the country will think she's just great - - because she will continue the ultra-partisan approach of Bush/Rove. (she's already in that mode...which is funny, since she calls herself awashington outsider!)

So no, I don't think Repubs. are disgusted to get some low-information voters to vote for them. I don't think Democrats would object to getting some of theose votes either, they just need to continue getting smarter as a political organization.

Didn't Bob Dylan also speak out in favor of Obama a few weeks back? That can't hurt, either...

Still, i do find it funny that anyone would be swayed by a celebrity endorsement. On the other hand, i also don't understand how there can be any "undecided" voters.

Many of the posts i'm seeing here, there is a kind of smug attitude as if everyone in the country will just see through the McCain sleaze campaign. I hope the obama campaign is not underestimating how effective attack ads can be at turning things back around for McCain. A lot can happen in a month, especially in a year like this one..

Personally, i'd love to see Obama hold a news conferences every time a new McCain ad is released, and start them out by playing McCain's ads on a video monitor - like showing a video during a courtroom trial. Talking directly to the American people , he could then rebut every lie and distortion with straight facts and with no bullshit.Something lke this will be needed to counteract the crazy e-mail campaign that's got a lot of gullible people beliving all kinds of garbage..

This is not to say he shouldn't also, at the same time be creating some really nasty attack ads of his own. : )