Not really: read/listen to a succinct description of them here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89338743

Warning: it's going to make you even angrier than you are already.

This is where Obama *has* to become a populist--the rhetoric is readymade for him-- --gstadler

....in which Obama says there will be no Democratic support without a complete abandonment of 'severance', or 'bonus' or any other funnybunny payments for any of the former Masters of the Universe who created this mess?

Talk about getting the people on your side. And meanwhile watch the Republican pitbulls devour each other. Lipstick or not.

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@ bigmacha

America has a history of appealing to the lowest common denominator and as a people we are singularly proud of our anti-intellectualism; in fact we revel in it. Palin is simply a continuation of this long-standing political tradition and Mccain has become the classic example of one who exploits this common thread for political gain.

Nicely put.

And there have always been filaments of these phenomena, in every society. But I suspect their hypertrophy in so many aspects of American life has been informed by, or infected by, the evolution of marketing communications over the past 60-70 years. Borrowing heavily from the techniques of show business, sellers of every stripe have found more and more sophisticated ways to deploy fear, excitement, suspense and drama in pushing every product and service known to humanity.

Simple experiment: get a pencil and paper, watch every commercial screened on a major network for a few hours and judge how many of them use the excitement of fear as their fundamental tactic. I did it the other night and the count came to over 50%. What this threnody of anxiety is doing to the American subconscious, is anyone's fearful guess.

The success of these methods has long been recognized by the political classes: in an age of mass media, and throughout the wired and wireless society, they are being relentlessly pressed into the service of the candidates and their handlers.

Thus politics, like the media, is increasingly subsumed into nothing more than a subset of the entertainment industry. Anyone who cares about the future is duty bound to find ways of fighting that.

Surely Joe Sixpack and Hockey Mom deserve their minds to be returned to them.

on the radio, because I've gotten tired of the compulsion to analyze every facial tic and eyebrow movement in these encounters. And while undoubtedly Sen. Obama prevailed in both style and substance, the dialogue seemed more evenly matched than heretofore.

But beyond the specific scoring points, I heard something that is surely important: two intelligent men, with political power, debating America's problems in a civil fashion, with coherence and sincerity. (Accuracy and relevance, as in all mature political discussion, being open to endless analysis).

It can only augur well for America, if it's a mode of discourse that can be re-introduced into the culture and sustained. Because it surely has been missing for a long time.

In that respect, I credit McCain for returning some decency into the political atmosphere. Yes, I know, he was watching the polls too, but I still feel, his glaring flaws aside, he is more naturally at home in the honorable school of political service.

Not having to obsess about the visuals allowed me more time to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates and of their ideas. One can't help perceiving the fatal challenge Sen. McCain faces, that whereas Sen. Obama has just one opponent to grapple with, John McCain has three: Barack Obama, George Bush, and Sarah Palin, all of them formidable in their various ways.

It's too much for anyone to cope with, and it has crippled his ambitions irrevocably. When you hear a candidate (correctly) decry 'the past eight years', years which were dominated by his own party!, it sums up the impossibility of his task.

He should now conserve his energies for a few final tasks: One, to compose a dignified, patriotic, and inspirational concession speech, two, to strangle the handlers who suggested Palin for his ticket, and three, to do the same to those dirty Republican colleagues who ruined his presidential ambitions with smears and innuendo, back a couple of elections ago when he genuinely had a chance.