Obama's naive if he thinks the Republicans will respond to his pillow talk when he's elected. Now is not the time to extend the olive branch to the Conservatives. Like it or not, Rush is only articulating what most Conservatives believe with all their hard, black hearts. They will always behave as strong partisans because they truly believe they are morally right and that anyone not parroting the Conservative line is endangering the country and their children. The reality is that Conservatives love to declare war on everything and they view their (ab)use of power as the execution of a war on liberal ideals. And they will not be even close to negotiating in good faith until they have been beaten down in that war for a very long time.

Listen closely to John Edwards because he seems to be the only Democrat who understands the reality of this relationship with the Conservative zealots. He's ready to take the fight to them, which is exactly what we need to do. A sharp trial lawyer is equipped to beat the Cons on their own field.

8 years of Dick Cheney have shown us that the office of Vice President can be far more powerful and far-reaching than any of us thought before. Obama’s VP decision wisely acknowledges that reality while McCain’s decision reflects his apparent inability to grasp reality.

Obama and his team need to fight and they need to fight now. With The Reds, you cannot underestimate the power of a corrupt manipulator like Palin spewing down-home, and empty, clichés – the Republicans won the last two elections with that strategy.

I’ve been wandering the red parts of the map for the better part of 40 years now and I can assure Obama’s team that they aren’t going to convert many of The Reds. The Reds are superstitious, not rational; emotional not logical. They are insular and not interested in the welfare of their brother. They have a subtle bigotry rooted in ignorance of the world beyond their county line. They react with violence when faced with ideas that challenge the fantasy they have created their reality upon. They will never respond to Obama’s vision because they can’t comprehend it.

To have a shot at winning this, Obama needs to focus on locking down the few Red states that can be turned - it's already clear where they are (Colorado, Montana, Virginia..). And he needs to focus on generating an unprecedented level of motivation among the youth vote and the minority vote. Focus there. They get it and they would respect you taking the fight to The Reds. They want to know that those who "get it" are really not a minority among those who "don't get it". Make them feel like they're part of the fight and you get them to the polls and the good guys stand a chance. Keep fighting over the chubby, rural, white men and women who still aren’t sure how to vote and we lose again.

We all need to remember those late nights of going to bed with a "10" and waking up with a "2". Believe me, the only people who will be screwed in this relationship are people like you and me.

"There's a difference between racist and prejudiced,"

...tells you all you need to know about The Reds.

And they try to make us think they can't grasp nuance!

...I'll bet their mayors and governors can describe the Bush Doctrine.

I think you're missing the point of the dialog. It's not about which group is more racist than the other group (or for that matter which group is more sexist, as in the "hockey moms" who have suddenly cast their lot with the Red ticket because a woman is on the tickey). The point is that they need to be focusing on which candidate will do a better job of protecting our country, creating jobs, improving the health of our citizens, caring for our veterens and our aged...in other words working for all of us regular citizens instead of for a cabal of corporate donors and war profiteers.

When the people in this article speak to us about their voting decision-making process they deserve our "straight talk" back: casting a vote based on who you think is prettiest or nicest is what you do for high school homecoming. Doing that as an adult is hurting us all. As nice and good as I know (most of) these people likely are, they need the tough love from their brothers explaining the negative impact their votes are having on this country and our fighting sons and daughters. Help 'em out a little and buy 'em a subscription to Salon.

You trolls getting paid by the post now? Give it a rest.

I love the sober, serious and well reasoned arguments that you and (too) few of your peers are starting to publish about Palin. We really need you to continually encourage those peers to get back (quickly!) to serious journalism, convince them there's a market for it, and steer our national dialog back to important issues and away from the vapid topics (lipstick on a pig) that have been dominating of late. By doing so you will all take some heat from the right-wingers, and a few of you will sustain some serious career damage from them, but it's for the good of the country. Get the truth out.

I'm not sure whether to apply this to the Republicans, as Obama did so effectively during the campaign, or to the Democrats acting like prison-bitches to their corporate Daddy's.