I'm considering donating, but could you explain to the neophytes like me more precisely how you see this working? This vote is imminent, while the elections are months off, presumably. Is the idea just to scare these targets with the specter that the sum raised will be used against them in the future?

Thanks!

Gus

"Supervillain" line=Not funny, not good writing, and a lame appeal to the always already caricatured terms in which Americans tend to think about the Mideast.

I just need to add my voice to the many calling out the trite hackery of this "discussion"--i.e. the recycling of the already million-times recycled lines on each candidate. To be honest, I couldn't finish it, so maybe it got substantive later on, but I doubt it. The bottom feel out with the early discussion of Obama needing to address his "weaknesses" as a candidate with white voters. Um. . . actually, the "weakness" is to be attributed to whites who won't vote for a black candidate, or who won't allow themselves to see how race is impacting their vote. And that weakness, and therefore that racism, is reinforced by pieces such as this one.

Gus Stadler

I'm a longtime Obama supporter and I thought it was a great speech. Really, she is one of the best speakers I have ever seen. During the Harriet Tubman part she was just *on fire.* And the line about "are you in this for me or for them" was *perfect.* I actually think she would have made a good VP choice.

Not to turn to the negative, but I was shocked by how weak Warner's speech was. There was a lot of buildup to it, that he would be igniting the charge against McCain, but he rambled on about his cell phone company so much I felt like I was at a cell phone salesmen's convention. Also all that VA stuff. On the other hand, Schweitzer of Montana made a name for himself tonight.

i wasn't going to get involved, but. . .

Four years of McCain is enough to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices who will sit for years and years to come. Stevens is on his last legs.

I know you'll have some retort, and I understand that you love Hillary, but please just keep this somewhere in the back of your mind

The Palin pick seems to me all about fear of Biden's willingness to show anger. It's an attempt to mute him during the debate and elsewhere, anticipating that if he overdoes it toward Palin (a la that guy who ran against Hillary in the first senate race) more of the Hillaryites will come over to the McCain side. I'm still trying to figure out if those sorts of Hillaryites even exist, though. I sure hope not, because if they do, they are dumbasses.

CNN: "Convention Security Plan Going Well"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/31/rnc.security/index.html

He wants to attack and not stand responsible for the attack, not have to deal with its ramifications. Seriously passive aggressive, dude.

This is where Obama *has* to become a populist--the rhetoric is readymade for him--the true "elites" are those who live in a world with no risk or accountability. McCain's position on CEO compensation is wafer-thin. Ask him to make a commitment to a specific policy in a debate and he'll falter. The Obama campaign needs to turn this into the major *moral* issue it can be, because that is the only kind of issue most Americans pay attention to anymore.

Writes with such a self-satisfied, mild-mannered comfortable moderation it makes me prefer William Kristol. Hate it, hate it when DB throws in those pointless references to Edmund Burke and other figures he read as a freshman at U of C. I think he is a machine, or else mildly retarded.

Suck. On. This.

So this discussion has become repetitive in the way all such discussions do, but what you really need to answer to is the way your post enables amnesia in our culture and lack of accountability in our leaders--exactly what cable news, etc., have been doing for at least a decade. Your appeal to "top liberal bloggers" in your addendum only seems to confirm that you are looking for some broad journalistic consensus with which to join your voice, rather than looking at the issue squarely. Will you dare to respond to these points?

There is no dirtier word for American journalists and commentators than c***s. Fuck it, I'll just say the damn word: class.

I dunno, I still really like that "I'm a loser, baby" song.

Kristol is a walking exhibit of the most extreme, yet almost mainstream, affirmative action program in existence: straight white guy nepotism. Nothing he *does* can hurt him because of who he *is.* (i.e. who his father *was*.)

Interesting worldview! Can you tell me a few books I should read to learn more about what should be obvious to everyone? Especially your understanding of the terms socialism, communism, Marxism, etc? Thanks!

"Incurious has-been"= best description of Camille P I've ever heard.

if anyone will ask him about this tonight.

Dear Ms. Pelosi,

What's it like to live in Manhattan? I grew up intending to, but now I can't because only trust-fund kids can afford the cost of living there. Wait--maybe I'll do a documentary on how you're all misunderstood!

the problem is when nonmuslims use stories like this to affirm their belief in their own innnocence. The two big US religions, capitalism and Christianity, have played a mighty role in the culture of violence, domestic and otherwise.

I agree almost totally, except that the patriarchal mindset that drives domestic violence _is_ a religious and culturally inflected practice. It just happens to cross all too many religious and cultural contexts.