You lost me at "Ron Paul" (well, actually before, but no matter). You style yourself as someone who is not afraid to look reality in the eye unlike we starry-eyed optimists who support Obama. Please. You do not get anymore pie-in-the-sky than Paul and his supporters. Ron Paul is a fringe character who simply re-hashes the libertarian/Any-Randian/Miltonian (as in Friedman) nonsense that so appeals to adolescents (yes, I am embarrassed to say I was one). (Love the moronic bumper sticker you see in a picture of him at his desk on his website: "Don't steal - the government doesn't like competition.") The vast majority of Americans do not accept his views. I consider myself a moderate (slight left of center) liberal democrat (small "l", small "d") who believe that there is a role for government and for free markets. The failures of free markets are to numerous to count.

In the late-80s (when everything was about de-regulation) I was a lawyer at the SEC, in the office that "regulated" mutual funds and other investment companies. My office granted exemptions from the Investment Company Act of 1940. An application for exemption came in - requested to be able to sell "Collateralized Mortgage Obligations" (bundled mortgages sold off in pieces to investors). Sure, we said. They started with a bundle of good mortgages, than asked to add less good mortgages and, finally, total junk mortgages. No problem, we said. Well, the rest is history: bundled mortgages made it easier for mortgage lenders to write risky mortgages because the bundles contained good and bad mortages; riskier mortgages allowed consumers to buy homes they couldn't afford; demand for housing boomed; investment companies started adding more bad into the mix; then these investment vehicles got more and more complicated - to the point where no one knew WTF they were selling or buying! This bit of de-regulation was a disaster. The SEC granted these exemptions but provided for zero oversight. At the time we were working on this matter remember thinking that I must be dumb because I never completely understood what they were trying to do - now I realize that it was all smoke and mirrors - no one understood. Some people became very rich, some people lost a lot.

"Attack" is a word you don't understand but you come back again yapping and nipping at my heels like an angry chichuahua. Believe whatever you like and please be kind enough to let me do the same. Once upon a time, important men wore powdered wigs and if they had a heated argument their wigs were likely to have been knocked off - hence the expression "wigs on the green".

Unfortunately, you're like so many of the Obama supporters I've seen in Salon: nobody's opinion is worth anything but yours, anyone who finds Barack Obama unconvincing is a racist and so it goes on and on and on. I find this reactionary hysteria quite frightening on what is supposed to be a forum. There's also something quite sinister I've noticed. Those who are critical of Obama don't seem to need the endorsement of others of like mind but what I've now decided to call the Halleluia Chorus (the Change and Hope people) are constantly running on to a thread to support each other in a stupidly unsubtle way. Now I wiah you a good day and all the best. If you wear a wig, that's up to you.

Right wing whacko, Laura Ingram, commented today on her radio talk show on how many emails she received about the dress Obama’s daughter Malia wore at the convention!!

Quote: “What kind of Mom let’s her daughter ware a dress like that? It had spaghetti straps with a plunging neck line!”

Check the photos; the Obama family looked great and perfectly age appropriate!! But now all the neocons, who obviously did not watch the convention, will think that Michelle dresses her young girls like streetwalking prostitutes!!!

WTF, are these people NUTS!!!

I do not think you watched the speech or if you did you totally missed the point. Michelle's point was that, given where they came from, they have achieved much and have been able to make a very good life for themselves and their daughters because of that. Nothing in there complaining about her life now - the speech was entirely upbeat and expressed gratitude for what she and her husband have been able to achieve. The point is that only in America could Barack and Michelle Obama achieve what they have.

After getting my upbeat positive dose from Oberman, I turned to Fox to see what their reaction was.

Juan Williams, responding to an almost speechless Brit Hume, was truly touched and got the historical significance of the moment. Then there was Bill Kristol. Ah, Billy boy. After smirking and stammering all he could come up with was how disappointed he was that Michelle didn't mention his alma mater, Harvard.

Then I was 'lucky' enough to catch Ben Stein on Larry King, where he feigned being indignant about the lack of mention of the troops.

I don't know how the rest of the convention will go. I don't know if the Dems will get a bump, or change any minds. What I do know is that the Republicans witnessed a force they have no idea whatsoever how to reckon with.

I bet you dollars to donuts the hideous system that grinds down the poor... etc., etc...

If you seriously think the only choice is between the status quo and some ideal world in which everything is miraculously perfect, you're even less discerning than you appear to be. The almost-universally acclaimed "worst president in history" has managed to decimate the system that cares for the most needy in our society, make our educational system even worse than it was, spend enormous sums of desperately needed tax money pursuing a needless war which has cost thousands of lives, destroyed U.S. credibility in terms of human rights and political clout internationally, and even in its last days has managed to pull off what the former U.S. ambassador to Russia calls "the worst diplomatic blunder since the end of the Cold War".

This is not run-of-the-mill stuff... sure, many of the issue you mention will continue to suck under any president. Sane people generally prefer to make the choice that at least gives hope of it sucking a little less. In my opinion, there's only one political choice that offers that hope now.