OK, I agree with almost everybody who regularly posts here that Sarah Palin as Veep would...well, it would make Spiro Agnew look like a distinguished elder statesman. But over the weekend I overheard a lot of conversations in grocery checkout lines and the like of women saying how excited they were by her speech, how they now felt they could support McCain, and the like. And this is in a county that voted Democratic the last two presidential elections.

The moral is that her Washington-written anti-Washington speech may be crap, but people are buying it. I guess it's a case of style over substance. Again. I've been wondering if during the vice-presidential debates she'll blurt out that all those foreigners ought to learn English, or label the Democrats the party of rum, Romanism and rebellion. But I'm starting to think it wouldn't matter.

smoke and mirrors to be sure ... willing to tell any lie to make the sale ...

In contrast, Team Obama appears to be sitting on its hands and talking softly.

Is it really true that Americans love to see their "lovable" mediocre "underdogs" triumph?

Welcome to the working week.

Better get a food taster. From what I have been told so far Obama is going to give me more money than McCain is and that is what sold the last two elections so he better up the ante.

By "distancing" himself from his party, he loses not a single GOP vote, because Republicans watched the convention and fell in love with Gov. Palin. How many independents he picks up cannot be known now, but it's a good move. Can Obama distance himself from the less popular wings of the Democratic Party? I thought so.

What scares me is that there are so many female voters who have never lived in a USA where abortion was illegal. They take it for granted as an option of last resort, and I greatly fear that they think being"pro-life," as they so misleadingly term it, is just a nice-sounding "spiritual" philosophical position. They should be asked to think about how long women who terminate pregnancies should spend in jail. Some of them really don't understand what they would be voting for if they cast their ballot for the "mavericks." I know the Obama campaign is trying to reach them with radio ads on this issue, but they must do more.

It seems clear that to the Republicans, power is everything, truth nothing.

As much fun as it has been to look upon the polls and see Obama ahead, we should have known that in time all polls balance in our devided country.

There is enough ignorance and fear in this country to keep elections close in the comming years, at least until we get another boom economy.

But fear and ignorance, which is what McCain is running on isn't enough.

I still believe, and hope, and pray, that the majority of the American People in every state is not an idiot. I still believe they can see through the flimsy argument of John McCain and his little echo chamber might have filled many with good spirits, but most will awaken from that dream soon enough.

As floods continue to batter the south, as more and more homes are lost due to the deregulation the Republicans championed, and unemployment rises higher, and the dollar remains stagnant, as all these things come to a head John McCain will not be able to erase the Elephant next to his name on every ballot around the country.

And for John McCain that elephant on the ballot is his elephant in the room. He can not talk about it as much as he wants, but it's still there, and that is what will defeat him in the end.

So long as Obama keeps hitting the issues, offering real change, and challenging the American People and his own party to be better than it is, McCain cannot and will not win.

James Garner, a long-time Democratic supporter, really needs to do an ad to let the Repubs know who the "original" Maverick is. The TV series aired way back in the late '50s when McCain was just, you know, a middle-aged guy.

Cue TV theme music and a rolling montage of "Maverick" images with Garner's voiceover:

"I knew Bret Maverick; Bret Maverick was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Bret Maverick."

Hey, Obama's even a poker player.

Your are "reporting" on it as if it were news.

You are a "BS journalist", or Journalsimist.

Keep defining your turf.

BS.

Keep shoveling.

If he's a maverick, he isn't very good at it.

By any chance, did they intend this to be a play on the term "original gangster?"

Are street hoods going to drop the phrase: "Hey dude, I'm OG" and start saying "I'm OM?"

Are there going to be "OM" hats and tattoos?

Just asking.

I've got to remember just what a "clicks whore" this place is ... not good for my peace of mind, not good for my blood pressure ... They'll be declaring Obama's unelectable before the week is out, followed by tentative sightings of his ressurection ... yeah, I feel played.

Joe Lieberman would be vice presidential nominee. If John is lucky, he gets to choose his own dark sox in the morning.

One would have to have been dead to the world for the past eight years to believe for a moment that John McCain is at all a "maverick".

If he's such a "maverick" why did he act as a rubber stamp for the worst policies of the George W. Bush administration 90% of the time?

If he was such a "maverick", why didn't he work to change his party during the two and a half DECADES he was in the senate?

Palin flip-flopped on the "bridge to nowhere". Not only that, but the great "bridge to nowhere" idea was brought to you by...you guessed it...a GOP senator.

McCain and Palin are nothing more than hard-right extremists trying to paint themselves with a populist brush, hoping that the majority of Americans haven't looked at their records.

Sorry, John. Just because you say "maverick", doesn't make it so.