By "screen" I didn't mean this blog post, I meant the screen which appeared on the video clip immediately after I clicked on it. It says: "McCain: Don't give me that 'health of the mother' crap." When I first saw that I was astonished because I thought he'd actually said that during the debate. I think that screen does lead one to believe he said that and that it was intended to do so. It's misleading.

As to your statement that "it's no surprise that John McCain doesn't care about women's health," your response to my post simply proves my point. My objection is that you expand a statement he made about the health of the mother exception to abortion restrictions into a claim that he doesn't care about women's health. Indeed, as several posters have pointed out, he was talking about an even narrower topic, women's mental health. To pretend that that has something to do with women's health generally is nonsense, as I said.

So in your reply to me you further expand the concept of women's health to include equal pay for equal work and some undefined and unspecified human rights. Please. At that rate you'll be telling us McCain doesn't care about women's health because he supports offshore drilling, free trade agreements and the Wall Street bailout. Your argument is attentuated to say the least. You can't convert every policy disagreement you have with the guy into a slam on women's health.

And as to the burden of proof, it's on you. When you make a statement that is so obviously at odds with common sense, you need to back it up. Oblique references to equal pay and human rights are far from adequate. Tell us Sarah, what has McCain done that allows you to claim that, as to women generally, he doesn't care about their health.

With all respect, the quotation you posted makes no sense at all. If you'll recall, 8 years ago we were running a surplus. How do you imagine we did that if what you posted were true? The defense budget including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan amounts to about $600B far in excess of the deficit.

The idea that we could cut all federal spending except Medicare and SS and still run a deficit is just obviously false, as is the notion that 100% taxation of all wages, salaries and profits would be insufficient to meet current expenditures.

I don't know who puts this stuff in your head, but you need to read and listen with some degree of skepticism. Otherwise you end up with a head full of garbage.

no, we're not reading minds. The "health of the mother" exception to abortion restrictions includes mental health. And it's something that anti-abortion folks point to time and again as an easy way to get around those restrictions. McCain has been pandering to that crowd for some time now and his reference along with the "airquotes" was a reference to that. The right-wing base got the message, and that's who it was aimed at.

when are you guys going to pick up on the fact that "Joe the Plumber" isn't a plumber. He's not licensed in Ohio and therefore is not a plumber. He's never taken a training course, an apprenticeship course or any form of training to be a plumber. He works for Newell Plumbing and Heating, but he is not a plumber and certainly doesn't own a plumbing company. He also has an $1,100 tax lien against him. This is the guy that the McCain campaign made the centerpiece of the final debate before the election. Good job of vetting, guys.

All of the above is being reported by the Toledo Blade.

we'd do it in the Defense Dept. Counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we spend over $600B on defense every year. That's more than the rest of the industrialized world combined. How is it that UK, France, Spain, etc. manage to feel secure while spending a tiny fraction per capita on defense that we do? We could easily cut the defense budget in half, but, surprise of surprises, neither candidate even mentions that. In that way, it's kind of like the War on Drugs; both candidates agree that a wasteful, failed policy should be continued.

This political system is incompetent to deal with real issues facing the country. If anyone thinks President Obama is going to end the War on Drugs, I've got a bridge to nowhere to sell you.

As Monty Python said about the parrot, "It's only restin'."

That these sleazy tactics have no traction this year has everything to do with 8 years of George Bush and the fact that the country has rarely been in such bad shape. Bush/Rove are highly associated with the politics of sleaze and people see what it's gotten us. With the economy tanking, people demand real solutions to their very real problems, and "Obama is a Muslim" and "Obama is a Terrorist" don't cut the butter.

But just wait. In happier times after 4-8 years of Democratic misrule, those tactics will be back. Count on it.