Ripper, I remember you posting late one night about your wife a few weeks ago. I felt so badly for you then, when you didn't tell us about this awful additional news of your disease.

I'm humbled by your courage. I hope your 'grounded` friends will continue to sustain you and that when maybe they're not awake during the `nights of the long knives` you'll come online and draw on your TPM friends who've come to admire and care about you.

(I'm heartened that you no longer describe her as your best friend.)

Posted at June 30, 2008 9:11 PM in response to What a Democrat Believes

Yes. It seemed so obvious to me - why the hell couldn't he point out that you don't take on your party when, issue after issue, you agree with what they're doing and are opposed to what the other party's trying to achieve?

I think that's the problem with being so involved in a campaign - you get so you can't see the wood for all the damned trees - forgive the cliche.

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:49 PM in response to The Proper Response to Republican Meme: When has Barack Taken on His Own Party?

"The real situation is probably even more shadowy than any division, and it may be that Barack Obama chose the ethnocentric ideology of Jeremiah Wright's church in Chicago precisely because it resonated so deeply with his experience of Islam as a child in Lolo Soetoro's house in Jakarta."

For heaven's sake! The REAL situation is probably staring you in the face. Obama was working with the poor in Chicago and joined a church that was as committed as he was to doing something about their material conditions!

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:44 PM in response to The "Truth" About Obama's Religion

Brilliant post. Now how to get Axelrod to read it... sigh

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:36 PM in response to The Difference between Shifting and Floundering

I think it's sad how differently he came over this time from how he handled the interview on Morning Joe the other week where he made his argument in a far more detailed fashion: explaining how he'd been told when he was down the ranks in the military that whatever grade he was at was no preparation for the next one: only performing at each higher grade gave you that experience. Mika was so shocked to begin with but you saw her and the rest of the panel coming onside the more he explained what he was getting at.

I'm sad that Obama felt he had to throw him to the wolves - didn't use the opportunity to discuss the case Clark was making. The man was brilliant on Morning Joe.

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:30 PM in response to What Was Wes Clark Thinking? or Was Wes Clark Thinking?

Thanks for this.

It had me wondering how Michelle Obama's holding up?
This campaign and the media's coverage of it must be making her teeth hurt.

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:24 PM in response to The Left and the Right Agree: Obama Is a Sociopath

After watching and reading MSM & blog coverage this morning, this post of yours was the last straw.
I nearly burst into tears...

"Why is Mr. McCain invoking Mr. Obama's family when the question is about the man?"

When is the MSM EVER going to start doing it's job?

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:20 PM in response to McCain: Obama's Family

"They are grand moral crusades. He does not like economics because he cannot figure out who is the bad guy and so does not have the ability to make a conclusion."

I was so impressed by this when I first read it, but actually, thinking it through, I find I disagree.

McCain *does* know who is the bad guy: like all those Appalachian voters, he knows it's `the government', and especially Internal Revenue.

The reason he hates economics is the same reason most of us do: we don't understand it - we can't argue with economists because they bombard us with economic facts, theories & terminologies & apparent empirical consequences we can't make head nor tail of and that reduces us to feeling totally bloody inadequate and reverting to the only thing we *do* know: what we *feel*.

(And this is coming from someone who managed to scrape through Eco 1 & 2 at uni, rather than the man who was 894th out of 899 in his class in Annapolis, where I doubt he was even introduced to the Pareto equilibrium. LOL!)

Posted at June 30, 2008 8:17 PM in response to Obama v. McCain, The Significant Difference (or Why Even Conservatives Should Vote Obama)Obama v. McCain, The Significant Difference (or Why Even Conservatives Should Vote Obama)Obama v. McCain, The Significant Difference (or Why Even Conservatives Should

This is silly.

There isn't the same lack of knowledge. There's a body of work for many many years.

I can't for a moment wrap my mind around the idea that you would apply `faecal matter` to so much dedication to disabled children and victims of wars.

Each to his own I suppose.

Posted at June 29, 2008 10:02 PM in response to Cindy McCain vs Michelle Obama

I don't agree with your form of logic.

Anyone who dedicates their career to helping disabled children and starts up charities internationally to help victims of war is a lovely and humane person. I don't need to know anything else about her to know that: and I don't claim to know anything else.

Posted at June 29, 2008 10:00 PM in response to Cindy McCain vs Michelle Obama