Uncle, I participated in every election since Humphrey/Nixon, and as many conventions. This one is eerie to the max. Starting with the preposition that Obama should be blowing this one out (and please I know all the arguments) as the horrific conditions bequeathed to us by the prior “R” administrations mercifully won’t be duplicated for a long, long time. Whatever the polls, they’re too damn close, and at my age and experience level, I had a foreboding that wouldn’t quit….even before Palin. I certainly don’t want to argue with you (friendly, of course) as I hope and pray my “guts” are just malfunctioning. But you know what, misery does love company, so I thank you for that little “fist bump.”

And Red, I hear you. The problem is, the future sometimes just won’t play its part like it’s supposed to. Do you really believe “the Dems will come to their senses?” Do you even believe that “those Dems” even have the same goals and motivations that we have? Why did Kennedy, Pelosi, Daschle, Kerry, Richardson, etc. jump to the “kid’s side” and not be even a little bit ashamed at their treachery? The answer is, of course, they each had certain goals (personal, certainly not the country’s) in mind; personal ambitions that they knew would be easier to attain with Obama than Clinton.

But, in any case, I’ll still hope (in private), so here’s a little “fist bump” for you too.

Thanks guys (I think)

Better yet, work on making her BE boring. I believe she's a natural. Charm can be tedious.

From Real Clear Politics:

"ST. PAUL -- The McCain campaign must be giddy with this news, just out from Nielsen: Sarah Palin's speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers fewer than watch Barak Obama's Invesco Field acceptance speech. As Nielsen notes, only six networks carried Palin's speech compared with ten for Obama's."

People better start getting serious. Palin is a player and Dems better get smart about how to deal with her. Whining about "mean girls" and enaging in grade school snark is not going to cut it.

A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

Obama backers hated the speech. Republicans loved it. In a week or so, the polls will give us an idea what the majority of the public thought.

But love it or hate it, the speech and its delivery indicate Palin will be a formidable campaigner.

The strategy of the Republican party is, ostensibly, something they learned from Joseph Goebbels; not a positive course at all. So the question that must be asked is why so many successful Jews have bought into this stratagem. Are the Liebermans, Wolfowitzes, Perles and Brookses so blind? Is the appeal of money and power so great? Or have they come up with a new (to them) way to run a society....into the ground?

Sorry, we are no longer the greatest nation on the planet...just the one with the most nuclear weapons. And since the Republicans have found that hitting below the belt gets the votes, the rest is the spiral downward.

I hate to hold out the Nixon administration as a high water mark, but I don't think the republicans of that era would have given the same rubber stamp that the current batch has given to Bush 43. I don't think the media would ignore the outright misstatements either. In order words, we have fallen.

I'm not convinced that Hillary would be doing better than Obama either, though I think that she, like him, could prevail. Her negatives are still high, though I predict they will decrease over the several months. That argues against a wide spread in the polls.

I agree that Pelosi and others all have their agendas, and they aren't always goal aligned with the best interests of the public.

I think the essential problem is that a lot of Americans remain duped. Their financial literacy is low, they don't follow politics and they have problems finding the state of Georgia, let alone the republic. The last eight years may not have inflicted enough pain yet We'll see.

I'll take that fist bump now.

Could we talk about something substantive? We don't need any more polemics.

Candidates should be asked what they see as their role when they take an oath to defend the Constitution. What do they think about the bill of rights. What is the best way to defend the freedoms of the people they serve.

This campaign is about who will best serve the people who elect them. It is not about rights they can give (the rights are not theirs to give). It is about the rights they will defend. It is not about commentators, or journalists but about protecting the rights and liberties of the people they will setrve.

Beginning with your first post on Jan. 6, 2008, you have expressed strong affection for Hillary Clinton and her candidacy. At the same time, you were skeptical of Barack Obama's qualifications and abilities then and you continue to be.

ncawley, my question to you is this: How do you go from supporting Hillary Clinton and her agenda to supporting John McCain and Sarah Palin?

Most people who have compared the Clinton and Obama on the issues point out that there isn't much difference. If you make the same comparison between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin, there is very little in common issues-wise. To paraphrase Hillary's speech at the convention, "it's not about me...it's about what we care about".

It's been 9 months since you first posted on Salon. Do you really think that Obama has shown nothing since then that qualifies him for the White House? Does it count for anything that he started from nowhere and organized a campaign that knocked-off a very effective and formidable foe...one who was the odds-on favorite for the nomination before the primary season even started?

A vote for McCain is a vote to put an untested person with some extremist right-wing/fundamentalist views and some "interesting" ideas about science one office away from the big chair.

Are you as sure that she's ready as you seem to be that Barack Obama is not?

Perhaps your preferred candidate will have an opportunity in 4 or 8 years. I don't know. However, she is no longer in the race and we need to stop contesting the primary.

Republican rule is making this great country harder to recognize every day. If you care about progressive issues, you have a responsibility to vote accordingly. This could be a close election and every vote counts.