Glenn, as much as I love your analyses, the comparison between Dukakis and Obama is strained. Dukakis failed because it was easy to portray him as a douchebag, or at least douchebaggish. I just don't think Willie Horton had all that much to do with it.

Obama clearly is not a douchebag, and with this speech he demonstrated with shocking clarity that he, and only he, has the ability to inspire this country in 2008 -- and Lord knows most Americans are craving us some inspiration these days. I mean, who wants to turn on their TV or radio and hear Hillary or McCain droning on about political crap when they know they could be hearing Obama saying something that makes us feel like a Great Nation again? I'm serious. This is the reason Obama will win, and win big.

Just thought I'd mention his name, as I haven't read it in recent months. All the rationales being bandied about for why we can't leave Iraq are pathetic rehashes of Viet Nam. The Best and the Brightest is one of the most entertaining and educational history books you'll ever read. I can't recommend it highly enough. The parallels to our present quagmire are so self-evident you'll marvel and despair. We, the people, truly learned nothing from Viet Nam, at least with regard to the depths that political and military egomaniacs will sink to in order to convince the citizenry that an overseas war is critical to addressing America's geopolitical situation. Will we ever learn to be appropriately skeptical about war?

One of the more striking aspects of the book is that, back then, politicians seemed to have been extremely troubled by the prospect of making such a serious blunder. There's little evidence of that today (see Cheney's recent "So?" remark, for example). We'll be left with unreadable tracts like that of Doug "stupidest f***ing guy on the planet" Feith. Feh.

$50 to the ad campaign. This has got to be the most effective use of political donation money -- aimed directly at the most vulnerable traitors to American ideals. Thanks for taking the lead on this, Glenn -- it's easy to imagine that the travesty of amnesty would have already passed were it not for your intelligent and tireless efforts to shine light on the cockroaches. Now let's see how they like a bit o' Raid!!!

"The president should pre-empt any long-term investigations," said Victoria Toensing, who was a Justice Department counterterrorism official in the Reagan administration. "If we don't protect these people who are proceeding in good faith, no one will ever take chances."

Isn't that the point? Isn't that why Qwest Communications refused to take part in what was clearly a violation of federal law, on the chance that they might actually be successfully prosecuted? Are we through the looking glass yet?

I don't read much on the intertubes that I regard as profound, but this is a rare exception. Thanks for stating so clearly what should be obvious, but which most of us had forgotten. Your new adjecitvehood is well deserved!

Shooter, I'm impressed -- 1671 comments in a year and a half! That's 255 pages of your genius, all inspired by Glenn's thoughts and original posts. When do you think the time will come for you to leave the nest and start your own blog so that you're not limited to simply arguing against whatever Glenn has written that day? I say unfetter that brilliant mind of yours and let's see where it takes you.

Same as the old boss. That goes back about four decades. I'm starting to see that the only way this shit changes is through a literal revolution (not the BS "revolutions" marketed to us on TV). If housing prices continue to crater for another year or two and a lot more Americans lose homes, it could happen...

My own personal opinion of Palin's performance took an identical dive at that point -- glad I wasn't alone!

BTW, this typo is confusing: ". . . Americans would once against [again] Love the War . . ."

Vapid reporters are more interested in, and capable of understanding, titillating sex scandals than they are dreary, boring matters like lawbreaking, torture, surveillance, and pretexts for wars.

There must be some truly idiotic reporters out there for whom this sentiment is basically true, but Glenn you're often quick to censure your commenters when we express these types of assumptions. In this case, I sincerely doubt that many reporters are incapable of understanding the issues -- they just have people above them telling them what they can and can't pursue. You know the top MSM executives have been taking lots of notes on the spectacular successes of Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity, Drudge, etc. They also learned early on that the Bush Administration was going to punish non-compliant reporters by cutting off access. And they were also very leery about coming across as unpatriotic as Bush led us to war -- then once we were in the quagmire they were obviously leery about being exposed as the propagandists they had turned into.

Anyway, I just think the primary culprits responsible for our pathetic media system must reside at the top of the food chain, not with the reporter holding the mic or pen.

Amazing that these little primers are necessary to rebut the morass of fuzzy thinking and quasi-moralizing put forth by our nation's anointed opinion-leaders.

Can I defend myself and my family from threats without being accused of narcissistic exceptionalism?

Sorry, tempting though it may be, you can't legitimately equate your own responsibilities as head of a household with the responsibilities of the president of a nation that controls half the world's military firepower. Apples and oranges baby.