I love Digby and look forward to the audio clip of your program, Glenn.

On the other issue, I love Wes Clark and would be thrilled to see him as the VP nominee, but is it a good idea for the net roots to try to encourage one nominee over another? After all, assuming that the VP candidate would have to work closely with the President, I would trust that the presidential nominee would choose someone based not only on qualifications, but also on personality and compatibility. I'm afraid that when Obama doesn't choose Wes Clark (as it seems unlikely that he will) it will be yet another moment when thousands of people will blog their disappointment when it is really essential now that everyone come together for the cause. It really is getting to the point where we must all "fish or cut bait" in the sense that we either are going to support this nominee, or he's not going to win. I choose to support Obama. I've been and aremain an enthusiastic supporter, despite the fact that he's made some pronouncements and decisions that I disagree with. Even if I weren't enthusiastic though, I'd try to muster whatever single minded dedication I could for this cause, which is after all a war that we are fighting to save this country from four more years of unmitigated collapse.

There's great video of McCain (literally) embracing Bush and saying how much he loves him. The Obama campaign should just run it over and over again with reminders of facts like these:

McCain was gung-ho to invade Iraq.

It's okay with him if we stay there another 100 years.

McCain admits he doesn't know much about the economy.

He wants to keep Bush's tax cuts for the rich.

I like some of the overall themes of the interview, especially the "dumbing down" of political discourse. But I found it odd that she was attributing this solely to the Republicans. The dumbing down seems to me more about the "southernization" of politics. Most of the "blue dog" Democrats are from the south or states that were "slave states," like Missouri. A few are pro-Israeli and pro-security people from the coasts like Jane Harman from California, but most are what I think of as Southerners who could only be Democrats if they were very conservative, since the Democrats lost the south after LBJ signed civil rights legislations.

There was a blog posted a while back on salon.com about the legacy of the southern politician who died recently--why am i blanking on his name?-and I think that blog got it exactly right. He traces it back to Jimmy Carter, who was the first Democrat able to be elected after Johnson. Then there was Clinton who in my mind really transformed the Democratic Party from the days of Roosevelt to what it has become today, which is not a party of "liberals" or "progressives."

Obama is from Chicago, but he sounds like an evangelical preacher when he gives speaches--why is that? I think it's the southern style and substance of politics that has inflected general political discourse in the U.S. And that can't be laid entirely at the feet of the Republican party, even if people like Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott dramatically symbolize it.

Here's an example of it--Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Dem) who is from Florida would not criticize Ileana Ros--Lehman (she is about as right-wing a Republican as they come), because they're "friends." Shultz said the same thing about another Republican from Florida. What on earth does it mean

I think this "southernization" is more important than any right/left grid, which Glenn has written about before, as somehow not quite capturing the shifts occuring in the bodypolitic. I think he's right, and I think the distinction that explains the "dumbing down" is more about region than Democrat vs. Republican.

The 2000 election and which voters were screwed in Florida--those Democrats mostly African American, who were not going to vote for George Bush and some retired Jewish voters, many of whom are probably originally from places like New York or major urban centers in the north, who would never vote for Buchanon. It is true that Al Gore's campaign took up the cause of their voters, but not like Jesse Jackson or Black leaders who continued to complain about Black disenfranchisement in precincts in Florida.

I think we're still feeling the repurcussions of the southern political class's reaction to civil rights. That's why Bill Clinton used race during Clinton's campaigning in the south. Can you imagine her or him saying what they did in New York? No, Bill Clinton would not have done that.

The issue of race still matters in America, but particularly to southerners.

Interesting discussion but some serious disconnects for me. ie. "The media is in the tank for McCain"? Really? You mean like the NYT? MSNBC? Or were you talking about that reporter that showed up the last time McCain went to NH?

Or when is Obama going to go after McCain? Like stating that McCain of wanting to be in Iraq for 100 years? Or trotting Wes Clark out for a quick hatchet job? Or accusing McCain of being Bush the clown? What could be worse that being just the same as Bush? Unless of course it's being a racist.

You guys really thing this campaign is uglier than the Clinton - Obama campaign?

I gave money to Wes Clark's campaign in 2004 the moment he announced.

Alas, we learned that Wes Cark cannot campaign as well as he looks on paper.

Like John Edwards did running for VP in '04 and Bill Richardson did this past campaign, Wes Clark stammers, chokes and second-guesses himself when it's time to deliver the sharp, smart rhetoric.

Clark is just not fast enough on his feet. In fact, Barack is the only candidate out there who, when off script, speaks clearly, intelligently and as if he's addressing grownups. May he bring that art back into fashion.

See me comments ("TLB") at these locations for my take on Digby's thought processes:

digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/this-makes-me-sad-by-digby-have-we.html

digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-gotcher-commpassionate-conservatism.html

digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/moat-by-dday-this-came-out-few-days-ago.html

digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/fitting-in-faster-by-digby-one-of.html

See my name's link for a good topic Greenwald could discuss with her. Of course, to some people having such a foreign link is a good thing.