This canard has been going around among global warming deniers for a month now since NASA instruments found that Mars was exiting an ice age because of abberations in its orbit. The "thinking" goes that since Mars is warming and has no people then our own warming cannot have anything to do with people or CO2. These folks find a kook in Russia who blames the sun (without research or data but, hey, it sounds true in his head) and next thing you know it winds up among the further reaches of the neo-con fantasy land. The scientific consensus is that human induced CO2 is the cause--how Paglia can say that this is not true displays either ignorance or stupidity--and stupid lasts forever. I guess the National Academy of Sciences and the IPCC possess insufficient expertise compared against Paglia's desire to believe otherwise. The issue is not that there are inane people like Paglia in the world, the issue is why would Salon give her valuable space to air such inanities.

Good article. While I think it is important to understand how the Republican propaganda machine will attack Democrats and while it is true that some of them such as Kerry have not been effective in responding to such attacks, it is also important to note that times have changed.

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I can guarantee you that the MSM's love affair with Mr. Straight Talk War Hero will be turned against him. I envision questions being raised regarding whether he is both too old and slightly crazy, having been so psychologically damaged from being a prisoner of war that his knee jerk reaction for aggression and war could very well cause a confrontation with Russia and a nuclear holocaust. I can't wait until the tapes of the man he has not denounced, John Hagee, being played in October predicting and hoping for Armageddon, with McCain's photo next to Bush and Cheney with a parting shot of Slim Pickens from "Dr. Strangelove" riding the bomb, cowboy hat and all to the finale of a mushroom cloud.

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The crazy old man story plays well and McCain was not well vetted during the primaries. I can't wait until the Republican 527s fire the first shot and are hoisted by their own petard. 2008 will be a sea change election--the Republican and conservative brands are poison.

It is bad enough when the likes of Chris Matthews and Tim "Cheney's Mouthpiece" Russert perpetuate fake issues regarding liberals but the current wave of uncivil war among progressives has been truly depressing. It is hard to pinpoint now where this started. After Iowa and the sexist comments and behaviors by Hillary bashers perhaps it seemed to the Obama camp that they should manufacture racial guilt as a trump card and so there were all of the fake controversies regarding the "fairy tale" comment, etc. Saturday Night Live effectively skewered this hysteria so there is no reason to go into it. It seems to me now in reflection that Obama invited this controversy and scrutiny. I say this as someone who contributed to his campaign but now feeling some buyer's remorse.

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The speech was an amazing one but it does not go to the heart of the issue. The dialogue that he invites, as Joan has pointed out, is probably more painful than the country would like to admit. It is a dialogue that would be invited by someone above the fray as a non-partisan political leader or statesman, or someone already elected and secure in the trust of the nation, but not by someone running for office in the heat of a campaign.

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The two Democratic candidates have been running a zero-sum game now for a couple of months and are virtually making themselves unelectable against McCain (Bush III) of all people, who is the craziest of the right wing crazies. Clinton's 3am phone call gambit, President Clinton's comments of including McCain as one of the candidates besides Hillary who loves their country, Obama quietly and cynically disenfranchising Florida and Michigan voters by blocking a revote knowing full well that he has yet to carry any state that is both significant in the electoral college and would most likely vote Democratic (aside from the stupidity of the Democratic National Committee's original determination), Hillary including McCain as the only other candidate qualified as "Commander in Chief", the apparent bad blood as indicated by Pelosi and Obama going negative after his self-inflicted gaffes caused by, need I say it, inexperience, are only having the effect of making Democrats and Independents tired of both candidates and looking for an alternative--and if you don't believe me look at the latest Zogby poll with Nader in the mix.

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I think many reasonable people who like an end to the Bush and neo-con excesses are wondering why the candidates took this long to "vet" one another when they started their formal candidacies so much earlier than at any other time in history. Had the Wright matter and other matters been made an issue last year when Edwards and the other candidates were in the race perhaps we wouldn't be in the position of having two candidates with high negatives this late in the campaign. Perhaps Obama and/or Clinton would be the candidates in the tail lights--nice try but no dice--(oh wait, I said 'dice,' there must be a racist meaning there somewhere) or perhaps these peripheral but highly charged issues would have long since been settled.

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It's time for Howard Dean to knock heads and show some leadership. It's time for the superdelegates to do what is best to win in November regardless of the whining of the Obama and Clinton crybabies including, if need be, the drafting of a dark horse like Al Gore.