If John McCain remains -- even from the mouths of Democrats -- the Honored, Honorable, Principled, Heroic Maverick, the GOP chances will be as high as they can be.

McCain is some of those things but not all of them. It would be foolish to attempt to deny McCain his hero status as a POW. Let him have that. The rest of it, though -- the most important stuff, his alleged independence from Bush/Republicans -- is now no more than historical legend. That is what matters. That is where the focus should remain: on McCain's policies with emphasis, as necessary, on McCain departure from his image now that he is the Republican nominee. There is nothing wrong with a bit of grace as long as you throw punches when necessary. I thought Obama did just fine in the immediate advance of the convention (I was getting worried for a bit, I confess), throughout the convention, and now. Frankly, it's pathetic that John McCain has shed his fabled independence and reduced himself to a shell (including with his VP pick) in order to get the nomination and secure his Republican base. Yes, he's a war hero. Lots of others are, too. They deserve praise but not the presidency.

"But I'll bet not the lot of you can "field dress" a moose, raise five kids, and govern the largest state in the union. And give a great speech with a malfunctioning teleprompter."

That sounded like it came right out of the mouth of a Republican press flunky--not many comedians have that kind of ear, not even on cable. I was trying to imagine myself in a situation where I would have to continue a speech I didn't write on a malfunctioning teleprompter, and then going out to the back lot behind to field dress a moose like one of "us". That's the kind of thing I do every day! Again, thanks for the laugh.

What would Mary Todd Lincoln think!

Someone, please! Fetch the First Lady her fainting couch!

I was watching Andrea Mitchell report that Obama received no convention bounce. I can't remember if it was on the NBC national news or msnbc, but Andrea Mitchell said Obama received no convention bounce. That was my source. I think those polls were conducted on Friday, while Andrea was relying on polls conducted after the weekend.

Besides, if they are smiling, its OK.

Besides, it is balance.

Besides, it is all Bullshit.

Both parties are war parties.

Whatever you may think about three day polling, the assertion is wrong.

www.realclearpolitics.com

Polls conducted during and after the weekend from Rasmussen and Gallup both show Obama with a four point or so increase from polls conducted earlier in the month with the same methodology. The bounce is copious, and it varied little throughout McCain's Palin theatrics.

There is so much that is ugly and destructive in the dominant culture that came out of the 60s. It needs to be oppose, needs to be fought hard, needs to be rolled back.

And what exactly would we be fighting? The freedom of expression? The marketplace of the mass media?

If you've got a complaint about that, take it to the Leftie culture establishment in academia, media, Washington, and the bureaucracy. -- ChanRobt

"Culture establishment"? You realize that buzzword has no meaning, right? You might as well be declaring war against "Fraunlaven" and advocating ethnic cleansing in Fredonia.

Did you have an actual point or are you just trying to outdo tiberius on the comedy circuit?

Glenn,

There's no doubt that one reason for Palin's selection is her appeal to the christian conservative base but she was also selected because of her gender. McCain wants to garner support from both independent women and disaffected Hillary supporters by deflecting attacks on Palin as sexist. Thereby, gaining women's sympathy votes like Hillary in new Hampshire when she claimed sexism (and rightly so). Do you think this is why Obama/Biden have backed off from their attacks?

However, there is a subtext to the Palin selection that might make attacks on her palpable to women. (I'm a woman so I bring a female perspective to my argument). She's was selected over several, more qualified republican women. Why? Because she is sensually appealing to men (especially old men). She's "hot" (a term my 21 yr old nephew uses to refer to attractive women). This is something women understand. While she touts her christianity and wraps herself in motherhood & flag, she attacks like a viper and masks her own hypocrisy. Women don't trust opportunists bringing high school tactics into adulthood. I know it is outdated and sexist to attribute her sexual appeal to her success. But women are rightly insulted by her selection. We worked hard to overcome sexual politics and Palin embodies them.

What do you think? Can she effectively be attacked on these grounds? Are we afraid to attack women when they use their sexuality to get ahead? Or maybe we don't want to talk about it.

I don't think it would be wise for Democrats to personally attack McCain nor Palin. It would generate sympathy for the old prisoner of war and the cute creationist with the pretty family. Rather, let the National Enquirer dig up some stuff on McCain and Palin. I suspect they will. Go National Enquirer! And another way of attacking them on an emotional level is to focus on the Governor's enthusiasim for killing wildlife..personally killing wildlife. There a lot of middle Americans who don't like the idea of shooting wolves from a plane. She's a primitive who believes we are doing God's mission in Iraq. How crazy is that? Go Enquirer investigate that affair..get genetic testing on that baby!

He's got huge flaws, the most notable being the fact that he is from a coal state, is an ardent advocate of nuclear energy, and is way too friendly with the financial con artists who created the subprime mortgage crisis. His energy policy is weak and caters to the established nuclear and fossil fuel interests.

However, compare that to McCain, whose energy policy involves putting more troops into the Middle East, and probably into Central Asia and Georgia as well. He'll also race to put missiles back into eastern Europe in an effort to ratchet up Cold War-era fears (in order to justify even more massive federal contracts to Hallinburton, KBR, Lockheed, etc.) The McCain energy policy is a good recipe for global conflict, even nuclear warfare. Completely and rabidly insane - look at Cheney in Georgia today.

How did this situation arise? Well, the U.S. press is mostly corporate propaganda, truth be told. If you want to watch real stories about the issues - the stories that are banned and censored by the U.S. propaganda system - you have to look to the foreign press. Here's a good place to start:

About Inside USA: Avi Lewis presents the weekly magazine show, Inside USA

This US presidential race more than any other will be about money, power and presentation.

Inside USA's mission is to strip away the spin, and highlight some of the real issues in America - poverty, violence, race, health, and immigration.

We will be speaking to people on the ground - not television pundits, but real people with stories to tell - a full spectrum assault of American voices -young, old, white, black, immigrant, rich, and poor.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insideusa/

He's also the only journalist that's covered the role of the coal lobby in the U.S. election in any detail at all.

You won't see Avi Lewis on CNN, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS - and it's not too likely that he'll show up on Stewart & Colbert either (it's hard to make fun of Al Jazeera - their reporting is usually pretty sober and straightforward, unlike the idiots that provide Stewart & Colbert with an overabundance of material to play with).

Yours, Ike Solem