Actually, what has impressed me most about Wesley Clark are the two things you say he is deficient in:

He IS quick on his feet (and, not only that, he has a helluva lot of facts at his finger tips).

He is NOT afraid of taking a tough position and sticking with it. The whole faux flap over what he said about McCain's service was an excellent example; he had the whole media, the GOP noise machine -- and his own candidate Obama -- 2nd guessing what he said, and he didn't back down. What's more, the man is seriously media savvy. The MSM, for all their desire to have conflict and gotcha moments, clearly respect the man.

To me, he's Jim Webb without the unpredictability and chauvinism. Not only that, the main is really quite progressive in areas where even Obama is timid.

He's an impressive man and -- he has the most important qualification for VP -- he's ready to serve as president should it ever come to that (and it has come to that 7 times in our history).

Wes Clark all the way!

Another great interview Glenn, as usual. Now this probably isn't your decision, but why does salon.com employ the annoying "pop-up blocker-defeating" pop under/pop-up ads? It's such a tacky ad technique that has never been shown to be effective (and this is furthered by tremendous sophistication that the pop-up creaters employ to defeat pop-up blockers - again, clear evidence that most people hate these). The site pass, the banner ads, etc. are all just fine (I know this is a business after all), but most respectable sites have long abandoned the annoyingly ineffective and intrusive pop-up. Just my 2 cents. Keep up the great work.

Actually, what has impressed me most about Wesley Clark are the two things you say he is deficient in:

He IS quick on his feet (and, not only that, he has a helluva lot of facts at his finger tips).

I agree. It's true that the Wes Clark of 2004 left a lot to be desired as a candidate. He was meek, unsure of himself, and just generally uncomfortable. But like many people subjected to the right-wing slime machine, he became radicalized, aware of what that faction is, and much more aggressive and articulate.

I think people underestimated the difficulty of going from a lifelong career in the military to a presidential candidate -- much different skills are required. But in those 4 years, he's vastly improved as a speaker and a politician.

Together at last. I tell people that if they love America even half as much as I do, they must read Digby and Greenwald every day.

(And this is the only place where those blasted netflix popups get past my defenses, but it's not as annoying as that bidet ad with all the naked butts that used to be on this site.)

For a different take Wesley "I can kill foreigners too" Clark for VP...

[url]http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2008/08/thats-ticket.html[/url]

wesley clark.....yeah, great idea

For a different take Wesley "I can kill foreigners too" Clark for VP...

This is what I said: "They make a compelling case as to why, of all the prospective choices, Clark is far and away the best."

So if Clark is a homicidal killer, who is on Obama's actual list of potential choices who you think is better?

The so-called "dumbing-down" of political discourse is a result of basic laziness in a newsroom that wants to make the news look like ESPN Sportscenter.

After reading the transcript, Digby needs to work on the excessive use of the phrase, "you know". It makes Digby sound less like a thoughtful analyst, and more like a professional basketball player. Perhaps Digby was nervous and a little out of the comfort zone.

Something is wrong with the site. It's not taking copy.

Why aren't Glenn and Digby talking about the cultural issues involved in this election?

I'll keep it brief before it goes down again. The most remarkable election in possibly the history of the Republic and they fail to bring it up.

A half-black son of an atypical immigrant vs. the scion of one of the great WASP military families and it's not worth mentioning?

Come on guys--lets get real before it's all over and then everybody is a genius.

I don't even understand what "of all the prospective choices" actually means.

Who says?

Couldn't Obama choose any adult born in the "Homeland"?

Speaking as a eurabian resident, this constant need of liberals to appease the toxic militarism and imperial expansionism rampant in the U.S. really pisses a lot of us people off out here overseas. I just don't see the democrats as any real alternative

foreign policy wise, which I wish they were.

Out of Iraq (but not really), into Afghanistan, Pakistan...Iran,Somalia etc.?

Real existing american liberalism = imperialism light?

I'm afraid thats what democrats stand for and a quick look in the history books certainly doesn't convince me otherwise.

political discussion is vapid in the usa because the electorate is frozen out of the political process. celebrity politics fills the space, as much in the blogosphere as in msm.

that's what 'representative democracy' is for, and it has been protecting property very well since day 1.

real democracy is not necessarily socialist, look at switzerland, but the founding fathers were taking no chances on slavery being ended by referendum.

politics in the usa is like the weather: important but uncontrollable. because uncontrollable, little regarded. it wouldn't hurt also if people in the usa got a decent education instead of the jingoistic "gott mit uns" that allows military action with the ease of conscience in accepting 'preventive invasion' that previously only appeared in 'lebensraum'.

Pete, you know, maybe, you know, you could take it, you know, easy on the you-knows next time, you know.

As an older blogger, I find some of these insights quit naive.

The republicans have run negative campaigns for decades. McCain took advantage of Obama's communications capital being spent on his world tour. However Obama is saving his advertising budget for when it counts. The general election has not yet started. We are paying attention because we are political junkies. Most people are not. The majority of voters make their decisions in the last week before the election.

When I was young we were mostly exposed to more educated and well travled politicians like Obama, both on the Democratic and republican side. Today we have many very conservative politicians who have hardly been outside their own state and are suspicious of worldly people.

Yes Obama is modern, but he projects the same kind of modernism and intellect we experienced in the early 60s.

I do agree about the media is not focusing on the issues. They try to find sensation instead of substance in every story. Since I was around in the days when we had decent News on TV, I have seen a great transition in TV media. Much of this has happened since the FCC ruling on Fairness and Accuracy in the media was discontinued. News operations at the networks used to operate independently from other programming and the networks depended on advertising and other programs for revenue to pay for top news people. Now media news is entertainment. Aside from PBS there are very few decent interviews conducted in the media. Instead media 'news stars' ratings are based on sensation, and their own agendas, whether they are right wing or left wing. They interrupt the people they interview to push their own point of view and entertainment value. The make promote a 'BIG' story then give us a snippet of it.

Also the attention span of American's is less. We also did not have TV 24 hrs and news like CNN cycling all the time in the 60s & 70s with distracting captions at the bottom of the screen. More people read the newspaper daily and there were more good newspapers. Besides the conventions were not covered the entire primary. The primary season has gotten longer. it used to start in May or June. Each election cycle states have moved up their caucus or primary.

People my age in their 60s and older, still do read the newspaper everyday, and now we blog too. However, It's a good idea to check conservative blogs also to get a reality check.

P.S. I still like Maureen Dowd. Her commentary on Obama keeps us grounded. Besides you must view her commentary from a sarcastic point of view.