Just got done watching the Democratic debate -- thoughts? I know this is pretty off-topic for a Glenn thread, but what the hell, it's a significant event.

I warmed a bit to Senator Clinton, which surprised me. Obama was good too, but not as fluid as I'm used to seeing him. Edwards was also a standout, very polished, with solid answers.

I was perhaps most impressed by how well most of the candidates held back from attacking each other. I wonder how long that spirit will last.

What's-his-name from Alaska was a hoot.

This concludes my threadjack. Thank you.

I'm watching Moyers' Journal, and Jon Stewart is the guest, with Josh Marshall from TPM to follow. It's caused me to reflect on the fairly recent past, and I am getting an almost cellular sense that something very profound is beginning to bud.

I have to say that a remarkably intimate, yet expansive, community of thought seems to be forming across television, film, and the Internet. There's a rather quiet, yet intense, movement of thought and expression building. It focuses not so much on any particular ideology ("right" or "left"), but on a common, critical-mass thirst to dispel the deception, irrationality, and utter hubris that has been corroding our proud country for what seems like an eternity.

An undeniable intellectual and social confluence is rapidly gaining momentum and solidarity. This solidarity is amazingly organic, not hierarchical -- its only guide is the sixth sense of skepticism, outrage, and, yes, reason. It transcends party. It is oceanic, atmospheric. An intellectual, moral, societal, and psychological gestalt as ancient as humanity itself, kept underfoot by a long winter, but indelibly germinating once again with the thaw.

It is literally everywhere now. The voices of blindness and rage cannot shake me anymore. I haven't felt such hope in a very long time.

Thank you. I really feel that way, at my core. I don't want to sound too blithe, but there really has been a gravitational shift that I feel has crossed a rubicon of sorts.

But of course, the midway point is not the end of the journey, just the revitalization we need for the final sprint.

Glad to have lifted your spirits. I have been prone to random thoughts lately, and this is the only blog I ever post on anymore.

I saw the program also, with similar but likely a more muted reaction. I believe that's smoke you're smelling. It's a prairie fire.

In my view, it is not expansive yet. But there is smoke in the wind. I've always liked the smell of smoke.

I definitely appreciate cautious optimism and restraint of judgement. Anything but bleak hopelessness that the stupidity and ruin will continue into perpetuity.