The leftwing blogosphere - quite incredibly - is now driving this US presidential political campaign. I'm serious.

Just look at how McCain told his supporters to cut out the stupid hate-filled screams at rallies. Would that have happened without McCain's poll numbers tanking? No.

Would the poll numbers have dropped without the mainstream media reporting on this ugly trend? No.

Would the mainstream media have reported on this trend if leftwing bloggers had not taken the issue to heart? No.

It's all about Teh Credibility, stupid. Nobody now trusts Bush, the GOP, the Congress or Senate, the military, Wall Street or the media. Suddenly everbody realizes that credibility matters.

Being right matters.

Reality matters.

"That parrot is not dead, it's just resting!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTSAFcLXqYY

But you'd better keep shooting fast before they all eat each other up! Did you see Bill Kristol slamming the McCain campaign, and then getting slammed back? Hilarious! Huffpo has video at my sig link.

Now Palin the crazy pit bull bitch is turning on her own supporters! GRRRR!!!!

The misunderstanding arose after many of the 20,000-strong crowd gathered at the Richmond International Raceway had difficulties hearing what she was saying and began chanting "Louder! Louder!"

As the cry spread across the crowd to Palin's left, some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased.

However, Palin hit back and said: "I hope those protesters have the courage and honour to give veterans thanks for their right to protest."

What a sadly comical farce.

"We have 22 days to go. We're six points down. The national media has written us off. It's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHa_jqxnn4o

Andrew Sullivan has some interesting analysis:

There's a fascinating little subplot in the McCain campaign right now with McCainiacs of the old school turning on the Palin-Kristol-Schmidt machine. Kristol and the neocons are grooming Palin for 2012. Many of them have already discounted 2008, and are using this campaign as a platform for an even more extreme Republican future.

I have speculated before that the post-Bush GOP might fracture into two or more parties. If the neocons cannot seize control of the GOP, I can well imagine Palin headlining a new Neo-con Ultra-right Trickle-down Sh*t-heads party (aka "N.U.T.S.").

The Crooked Timber blog (link at sig) has a funny thread reviewing outraged wingnut reactions to Krugman's Nobel Prize, and the sudden upturn in the markets after Europeans adopted policies such as Krugman has been espousing.

Is it Accountability Time yet?

No, there will be zero accountability for anything on Bush's watch. Because the Reagan-Thatcher "trickle-down economics" fantasy has another component that adherents are still desperately clinging to: "never, ever admit you are wrong." Or as Thatcher famously put it:

"The lady's not for turning."

Compare that with the sage advice of a famous economist:

"When the facts change, I change my mind."

I don't know if the facts have "changed" or merely been revealed, but the harsh reality is now staring us all in the face. Here's George Soros:

Soros blamed the turmoil on the faith in market forces that began under President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher a generation ago.

The notion that markets are self-correcting led to a massive expansion of debt financing that culminated in the sub-prime mortgages that epitomized the easy-money mentality at the root of the disaster, he said.

"This belief became the dominant creed. And this, then, led to the globalization of markets, the deregulation of markets and the increased use of leverage and all the financial engineering," Soros said.

"This whole enormous construct is built on false conceptions," he added. "You can go a very long way. But in the end, reality rears its ugly head and that's what happened now."

Jeffrey Sachs agrees:

"The age of Reaganism is over. The no-regulation, low-taxes (philosophy) has broken the back of our economy. We now have to get serious about reconstructing normal government that pays its way and a normal financial sector that's properly regulated."

So who is going to be the first major US politician to spit on Ronald Raygun's political grave?

And how would the ideologically blinkered US public, conditioned to worship Reagan as a god, respond to such heresy?

And when - O, when! - will anyone in this disgraceful Bush administration ever be held accountable for anything?

Jeebus Glenn, you are obviously reading waaaaaaayyyyy to many of these rightwing tossers for your own mental health.

PS: Did you see the post at Atrios about a suspicious powder (turned out to be brown sugar) being mailed to an Obama campaign office?

And I always thought it was Condi's husb- err.. whatever - who like that stuff?