The "Daisy ad" showed a little girl picking flowers, and ended with a nuclear explosion. The message was that warmonger Goldwater would start a nuclear war.

America bought it, and elected LBJ in a landslide. As president, "peace candidate" LB escalated the unpopular Vietnam war until it brought down his presidency, and ultimately led to humiliating military defeat for the U.S.

But in Salon's alternate universe, it was Goldwater who smeared LBJ.

Hilarious.

Here's the original Daiy ad if you want to see what real dirty poliics looks like, 1964 style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg

The gov't is ten trillion dollars in debt. We're running two wars on credit. The unfunded liabilities from Social Security, the Medicare drug benefit, the private pension plan guarantees (that's right, the taxpayers are on the hook for GM's retirees when GM goes belly up); the FDIC, the massive military spending ... all of it bankrupting the country.

And you want more spending? Nothing expresses the total bankruptcy of liberal economic theory more than what Conason just wrote. This is insanity.

When McCain and Palin question Obama's character and associations, and whip up their crowds into mindless anger reminiscent of 1930's Germany; we recognize that as evil.

When the left does it it's also evil. Is nobody capable of seeing that?

Personal attack is personal attack. The left imagines that because they disagree with Palin's politics and persona, they are justified in making personal attacks.

Is this all there is? Mindless morons on each side hurling insults at each other and organizing hate speech against their opponent?

Feds buy stock in bank X but not bank Y. Next week, congress passes law favorable to X and unfavorable to Y. What's to prevent that? What is Y's recourse?

What makes anyone think the Federal government can make intelligent investment decisions?

If investing Social Security in the stock market was such a bad idea, then how is this plan a good idea?

At the time congress created DHS, I imagined the terrorists sitting in caves going, "Oh no! Not a bureaucratic reorg! Anything but that!"

Nothing exemplifies the moral, spiritual, and intellectual bankruptcy of the federal government more than the creation of a huge, ineffective, incompetent, intrusive, and inhuman bureaucracy in response to the actions of a handful of deranged and committed terrorists.

When it comes to "lipstick on a pig" coverage of politics, Salon is one of the worst offenders. Did you already forget the Palin dominatrix piece? Or the twenty other Palin cover stories? Only Glenn Greenwald does substantive political reporting on this site. The rest is fluff and Palin hysteria.

Powell not only went to the U.N and knowingly lied about WMDs; he was also instrumental in the coverup of the My Lai massacre. Powell must carry a boatload of gulit. Hope he feels better today. We're still mired in Iraq. Powell could have prevented that disaster with a word. He chose not to.

Let me tell you, a feedback problem on eBay can EASILY escalate to a real world legal dispute. That's because a) eBay's so-called dispute resolution policy is that the never get involved in feedback issues; and b) there is a lot of retaliatory feedback, or at least there used to be before eBay simply disallowed sellers from leaving feedback for buyers -- exactly because of the retaliatory feedback problem.

Maybe it's a slow day for news, but the online world does not consist of spirits floating in the luminiferous ether. The online world is composed of people living in the physical world. Surely the fact that an eBay feedback dispute is turning into a legal problem is not news to a tech journalist.

As you probably know, blacks are generally opposed to gay marriage. The high black turnout for Obama could help pass Prop 8. Be careful what you wish for, Salon. You may get that high black turnover and wish you hadn't.

This is a new low for Salon, which in recent weeks has been hitting new lows daily. Palin the dominatrix? Michelle Obama's ... black booty?

Salon is establishing itself as "Political news for hipsters too dumb to actually understand anything."

I clicked on Salon and for a moment thought I was on the wrong site. An intelligent, thoughtful article? How refreshing!

You mean the progressive platform of promising to filibuster FISA and then voting for it? Or do you mean the progressive platofrm of saber-rattling against Iran and Pakistan? Oh, you liked that "share the wealth" comment. Haha. Joe, for a political reporter, sometimes you're a little naive. For anyone paying attention, Obama ran as who he is. A manager, not a leader. A "centrist" who represents business as usual. A big-government type, beloved by both parties inside the Beltway. I mean, progressives don't get this yet? How can they not?

Owns an SUV, lays awake at night obsessing about other people's failure to "save the planet." This is unfortunatey what ecology has come to. Just another obsession for busybodies who never heard of Voltaire's maxim: Tend to your own garden.

The people at the top most definitely should have been tried and convicted. But "impeachment is off the table" per Pelosi, and nobody in this administration will ever be held accountable for anything.

But that doesn't excuse Graner. He was the ringleader and he's getting exactly what he deserves. If ever the punishment fit the crime, it's keeping this guy in solitary and making him suffer.

TV shows have always sucked. You're just starting to notice. You're a good writer. Find something more interesting to write about.

We're still in Iraq and we'll be there long after Obama's first (and likely only) term. Hillary "I'll obliterate Iran" is at State. Gates is retained at Defense. We're sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan with no clear mission and no end in sight. The Neocon policies that brought us to this point are still in place.

But yeah, Obama has nontraditional skin pigment. so for the Salon liberals, that counts as changing the world.