Ok here's where I disagree on the Supreme Court flap. All she had to say was Baker v. Exxon. A case that directly effected her state and was just completed in June and that she came out in disagreement with the Supreme Court's decision.

After the Supreme Court ruled, Gov. Palin was critical of the outcome. “I am extremely disappointed with today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court,” she was quoted as saying. “While the decision brings some degree of closure to Alaskans suffering from 19 years of litigation and delay, the Court gutted the jury’s decision on punitive damages.” She also said, “It is tragic that so many Alaska fishermen and their families have had their lives put on hold waiting for this decision. My heart goes out to those affected, especially the families of the thousands of Alaskans who passed away while waiting for justice.”

http://conservationreport.com/2008/09/05/exxon-shipping-co-v-baker-sarah-palin-was-critical-of-supreme-courts-exxon-decision/

Shit yeah. Anyone referencing TPI gets a 'commendation.

Also, rat fuck.

In an odd way, Obama's race makes the cultural attacks irrelevant. People who can overcome the racial hurdle aren't going to be scared off by Ayers and Rezko.

Not to sound elitist -

But anyone who cannot come up with at least 5 famous Supreme Court cases (including at least 1 or 2 they disagree with) cannot be said to be well-educated.

yet another flag to the inanity of our campaign discourse, liberal edition.

Thank you for this. I doubt it will help with this new invention called teh blogosphere, but appreciated nonetheless.

And frankly, it has become tedious to hear McCain raise his incarceration in irrelevant contexts

This is an interesting phenomenon for me, someone who comes from a generation who remembers the whole "America, love it or leave it, support our troops" blowback, and had the resultant guilt for quite some time. I believe this has gotten to the point where it already negatively affected not just you and me but a lot of voters paying attention. If he continues to do it to such a ridiculous level, that will allow the late night comedians to pick up on it, and the negative affect will spread to the less informed. I therefore think that Obama, Biden and the Clintons gently playing along rather than challenging is a very wise course that I think is quite intentional.

The times they have indeed changed, along the lines of "enough already with the Vietnam." People support the troops by wanting them home from Iraq, not having them under threat of capture and torture and not having them involved in torturing. Perhaps some of those people might unfortunately want them patrolling the streets of the U.S. during possible forthcoming civic unrest, but they still want them home, and one takes what one can get in that vein. :-)

Sorry, but I think it's quite a stretch to call anyone with Palin's weak command of her native language's syntax smart.

I can imagine pure nervousness causing her to choke. Possibly another indication that she's not ready to be president.

It's off the thread but Kerry was enough of hero to justify his attempting to use that in his campaign. The guys from his boat wouldn't have stuck by him as they did if that weren't true. And the swiftboaters claim that he had not rescued another officer under fire in the water was confirmed by the guy himself - a Republican who had intended to remain silent but surfaced to rebut the lies.

I've always assumed that Kerry's use of that part of his history was an attempt to head off the expected attacks on his War Resistor period. "Not Fonda Kerry".

And of course the fact that he first volunteered for service and then volunteered for Vietnam is in pretty stark contrast to ,say, Hank Paulson
whose service to his country was as an assistant to Ehrlichman.

And I'll amend that to say "only service" since I deeply resent his being praised for trying to manage of the recovery from a crisis which he could have,but failed to , prevent.

The sanguinity of Joe Six Pac's racism, homophobia, xenophobia, chauvinism--facing foreclosure and unemployment, soaring gas and food prices and the unavailability of affordable housing and health care--is has been crushed.

Having hitched a ride on the non-reality based community (twice) and gotten beaten to a pulp they "don't talk so loud and proud these days". They still viscerally can't see themselves "voting for a N*****" even if he is one of them most intelligent candidates to have emerged on the national scene since Bill Clinton who promises to help them out. The stupidity of people ruled by primal fears knows no bounds but this time it was just too much.

Here they are living in McMansions with half a million dollar mortgages that have some nasty arms, driving huge pick-up trucks that guzzle at least 100 dollars a tank and get maybe 10 or 15 miles to the gallon, paying $300/dollar-a-month car payments in perpetuity and to top it all off their construction jobs have evaporated in thin air. They’re facing the street. "Now they don't talk so loud having to scrounge for their next meal”. They can't quite bring themselves to admit they got hustled like a three card monte chump.

No they don't have any enthusiasm for more of the same, but darn they can't seem to grasp that the royal screwing they got is by the very people they so enthusiastically supported for all these years.