McCain's disdain for women's issues has been apparent throughout his career.

Somebody needs to put together a commercial to hammer this point home. That 'air quote' thing bugged me at the time. It seemed was dismissing women's health concerns as being nothing more than a tactic by 'pro-abortion' forces. That moment showed McCain's (and the Republican party's) true colors on this issue. They see no middle ground that want ALL access to abortions blocked.

Obama hit that one out of the park.

If this crisis proves nothing else it should be that the worst people for managing money are rich white folks. Specifically people born rich and white. Self-made rich folks tend to be better. Its when the money has been around for a couple of generations that the stupidy really seems to settle in.

No wonder the founding fathers tried to prevent the creation of long term dynasties based on inherited wealth.

We can not be complacent. It may look good now, but a lot can happen in three weeks. And its not enough just to win. We have to win big. Give Obama a clear undisputed mandate. Even if you live in a 'safe' state get out and vote.

And don't forget the down ticket races. Not just the national ones for congress (those are important) but your local elections for governor, state representatives, mayors city councilors etc etc.

The Religious Right became as powerful as it was by focusing a lot of attention on the small races (where do you think Palin came from) where Democrats were not paying enough attention.

Don't let anyone you know it this election out because 'it doesn't matter' or 'Obama is going to win anyway'.

Turnout is key.

I was watching Fareed Zakaria on CNN a couple of weeks ago. He was interviewing foreign policy experts for India and other Asian countries and to a man they all agreed that the US was a key factor in CAUSING the crisis.

They pointed out how Bush has consistently ignored Russia and blown off their (quite frankly) legitimate concerns about NATO expansion close to their borders (How would we react if Cuba cut a mutual defenst treaty with Mexico?). And all said the US treats Russia like it does not matter and that its concerns are irrelevant. That kind of approach virtually quaranteed that Putin at some point would take action to prove he still mattered and needed to be dealth with.

They also were all amazed that nobody in the US acknowledged Georgians role in escalating the conflict.

Most American's have no idea just how much damage Bush has done to US standings around the world. More than that, how much damage he has done to the concepts of democracy, internaional law and open societies. Worse than simply not understanding, far too many American's don't CARE.

You're absolutely right. If McCain/Palin loose (It ain't over yet take NOTHING for granted) then I fully expect to see Palin exiting Alaska after her first term is over and heading for Fox News. Whether one likes her or not (and I don't) one has to acknowledge that she does have good charisma, does well on camera and can deliver an attack line as well as anyone in the business.

Someone associated with the McCain campaign utters the n-word. At the rate McCain is sinking into the gutter I'd rate the odds at around 1-20 of it happening before the election.

And I'd give the odds about 1-5 that we'll hear it shouted at one of Palin's rallys.

The goal of these tactics is not to change minds. It is to turn people off of politics. To make them stay home in digust at the 'process'. They fire up the base and turn off independents and swing voters. The base comes out, the independents stay home.

At least that is what McCain is hoping for at this point. He knows a huge turnout means he looses. That's why the Republicans are pushing the ACORN nonsense so hard and working to purge voter rolls. They want to intimidate new voters into staying away from the polls.

Turnout is key. The only way to end these tactics is with votes. Lots of votes. Make sure everyone you know is voting, even if you're 'safe' state.

Even less reported on is the fact that Palin hired a city manager to actually handle all the day to day operations of the city because it was too much for her.

So what will she do if she becomes President. Hire Cheney back as "nation manager"?

Unmentioned is that since the convention McCain has shifted to a delibarately hostile tone towards the media. He's denied access (most especially to Palin). He no longer pals around in the back of the bus or the plane. He's been railing against the 'liberal' media in his speeches. In other words, he's done a near 180 from the McCain of 2000 in how he deals with the Press Corp.

All this does have an effect on the media. They don't like the 'new' McCain. They don't like their former 'friend' attacking them.

And, to dispute a poster above, there is a group of bigger whiners than Republicans, its the national news media. You don't treat them as special and better than everybody else, they turn on you.

Is that most of these people are probably making what 10 years ago would have been considered a good wage. Between inflation, rising healthcare costs, increasing housing costs and wage stagnation even a job paying $35-40k a year can leave a family living paycheck to paycheck with no means to get ahead.