one that he/she shows to the "public" -- this is the one that Sarah Palin displayed at the Veep debates and to Katie Couric, apparently reasonable, just like every other citizen, respectful of democratic institutions -- like the media -- you know she reads every paper put on her desk -- and democratic processes...Then there is the face that s/he shows to the mob, signalling, with a wink that the law is meaningless and that she is willing to countenance violent solutions, racism, illegal suppression of dissenters, hate crimes, etc. This technique worked well in the 1930s...not only in Germany, but in Father Coughlin's radio addresses to the nation. Coughlin expressed a visceral hatred for Roosevelt on the airwaves and suggested that the New Deal was evil incarnate. The aggrieved, like himself, he suggested, would have to take violent action.
Palin and the mob she inflames have reactionary tradition to draw from. I've read on the comments here that Obama rallies might have equally inflammatory talk back. I don't  think so. Bloodthirsty threats against one's adversaries would not be tolerated and is not part of the admittedly and admirably liberal agenda. We allow our opponents their views and argue to show that they are wrong, not that they are evil in need of extirpation. Moderate Republicans should be shuddering. The extremists have taken over the podium there....

This year,  the smokescreen of fake populist outrage and fake outsider authneticity  is  not going to fool ordinary, working Americans paying $4.00 a gallon for gas, sending off their sons and daughters to fight in Iraq, struggling to pay off usurious student loans, fending off creditors while battle terminal illness, struggling to keep the house, when the mortgage payments balloons. We're getting over the shock of the meanest girl routine and the fake populism, the ridiculous anti-elitist stance is not going to work this time time around. We need to imagine a better America, a more thoughtful, more just and more hopeful nation. We cannot afford to live with crony capitalism disguised by an "aw shuck" demeanor for another four years. And we won't have to. 

When Bush compared the "angry Left" to the Vietcong and decided that they posed no threat to John McCain, he had obviously not previewed last night's speeches by Huckabee, Mittens, Rudy and Sarah Palin. For if he thought anger an unattractive emotion, he might have consulted first with his Right-wing colleagues, all of whom felt no compunctions about becoming publicly exercised, once again, by Washington elitism and its abuse of power. Perhaps they had forgotten that for six of the last eight years, their Party has controlled every branch of government. Perhaps they didn't get the memo from GAO since all Federal agencies have seen their budgets stripped, their operations out sourced at premiums rates.

  Filled with false populist outrage, Mittens', Huckabee's and Rudy's speeches pointed folksy, ordinary fingers at liberal elitists again...who can't seem to point back since their digits are always curled around crystal stemware. Strangely enough, the Republicans have decided to run as outsiders in this election Many have pointed out the utter speciousness of this position...But the Right wing has always wanted to have its populist cake while eating it too, by diverting a good chunk of everyone's social security into the hands of Wall Street money managers.

But what about the anger issue? The Right is extremely angry -- not least about "the liberal media." They try to characterize the liberals as whiny, but then whine themselves into a snit when their candidate gets intensive scrutiny. Their speeches last night were filled with mockery, curled lips, down home humor at the expense of the expensive suits, many of which have been worn by their own brethren. Sarah Palin has now set up Obama to dare to attack her back, at which point she will no doubt inflame our fears of male violence (take back the night Sarah, you go girl!).... The original Populists of the People's Party were outraged by robber baron strategies and banks that had saddled them with crippling mortgages. These pseudo-populists channel that anger and enrich their cronies and private contractors by attacking government and government regulation, that since 1896, was meant to protect the weak and the stalwart, who could not protect themselves from predatory lenders and monopolists...

The one thing I have to say for this crew of pseudo-populists is that they're vicious, they can be charming and in the case of Huckabee, they can be funny. But the joke, sadly enough has been played upon the very "ordinary Americans" this crew has flattered and fleeced, all at the same time.

Palin -- an acronym for plain, one of the qualities heartlanders believe in, was a genius choice on the part of the McCain campaign, and it worries me to see all the blogosphere gloating about her lack of experience, and her beauty pageant past.
This is just the kind of crypto-sexism that gets the female vote enraged. 
When W. chose Cheney, the Gore campaign thought they had the 2000 election in the bag. Hubris will be punished, especially in this situation.
Palin represents the "strong conservative woman" who stands by her hunter/worker husband and is the very image of competence and hard work. I don't think we should try to insult her real qualities and her potential appeal. 
She gave a pitch perfect acceptance speech that her audience lapped up -- son deploying to Iraq on September 11, her children are "blessings," her husband works on an oil rig. She will go for after the average Joe voter, and cast the Dem tickets as out of touch elitists and insiders. Just watch...intelligence and eloquence will be denigrated in the name of fishing and drilling, militarism as patriotism. 

If I were a Democratic strategist, I would hit hard on one of the most moving points in Biden's speech -- a lesson and value inculcated by his mother -- she was fantastic by the way, just in her expressions, -- one of the most important American values... that we are all equal,  that no one is our superior, nor our inferior.
American values are democratic values...and these are values we can cherish, we can be proud of, and that the Republicans have betrayed. 
Overthrowing centuries of feudalism and aristocratic prerogative, the founders really did believe that this nation was a fantastic experiment in egalitarianism.
So, I would hit hard on the rise of a new oligarchy and economic inequality that Republican policies have enabled.
I would also so that every immigrant to this country cherishes these values, and yearns for the egalitarian promise of this country.
We were just in Europe to see my husband's family and my own parents are immigrants. Joe Biden's mother's ideas of equality would be extremely challenging to our ancestors...Egalitarianism represents a powerful new political order. The ideal of equality is essential to our national political identity -- and its realization is incomplete, even deeply flawed, but that means we have to work harder in its name -- Americans that can hail to the Mayflower and the newly sworn in immigrant do have something in common...the aspiration to greater liberty accompanied by the commitment to greater social equality at every level of the body politic.
Like a laser 

Headlines in the US may be reading: This News Just In!!! Europeans can't vote for the American President!
I say that this is the good news...
But is is a bad thing that Obama is popular abroad? I remember the aspersions that were cast against John Kerry precisely because he was more popular abroad than our beloved leader, W.
Will that kind of criticism stick to Obama? I am not sure...here we have a presidential candidate who may or may not speak French...that true sign of iniquity for pseudo-populists, but who can speak to a broad range of experiences, recognizable to broad swathes of the world's restless populations...This quality will be described as "superficial" -- or "insignificant" with regard to policy. Cynics may say, on both sides of the Atlantic that foreign policy won't change whether it's Obama or McCain in the White House.
Of course, I disagree. Already the trade negotiators are worried about Obama's protectionist tendencies and Europeans are urging him not to give in to "populist" temptations. There is a problem in Europe with that logic as populist sentiment has gone increasingly to the Right...and those left behind by the EU and globalization find themselves at the economic and cultural margins...Obama, in part hailing from the heartland at least gives some indication that he understands this problem.
We can only see if that understanding turns into something more negative with regard to liberation of markets and its alleged production of worldwide wealth!

There has already been excellent commentary by Greg Sargent on the content of Obama's speech on TPM, so let me give you all the on the ground view.
The security was intense, but the Germans managed to secure the area around Obama's podium and checked the bags and possessions of 200,000 (police estimates) of the attendees. We were asked to turn on digital cameras and telephones and the woman in front of me was asked to dispose of a tiny aerosol bottle. We waited forty minutes pressed against a fence and other people before we got through.
Berlin's population turned out in all of its diversity -- punks with pink mohawks, a Turkish family with veiled mother, business women with four inch heels, and a large number of English speaking Africans --Kenyans??? 
Once inside the security lines, there was beer for sale, warm up bands and schnell imbiss, or all sorts of grilled meats sold from tents. Berliners know, after the World Cup 2006, how to throw an outdoor party at the drop of a hat.
Unfortunately, The Rolling Stones' old favorite, Sympathy for the Devil was played, but no one seemed to notice because Europeans don't pay attention to English lyrics. 
Obama appeared at 7:15, and was eloquent, comfortable and relaxed. He was restrained in his address of the crowd, and emphasized the kind of liberal internationalism that made me think of the very best moments of the Cold War. He referenced the Berlin airlift a number of times, drawing a reaction from the older members of a very young crowd who had no particular memory of that moment in Berlin history. Obama, however insisted upon invoking that sense of place and history -- and the popular reaction was, I would say, hesitant, but positive. Perhaps it was because he gave the speech in English with no German translation...although it did seem as if everyone did speak a form of Euro-English or other. The crowd cheered his statements about cooperation and responsibility in dealing with situations like Darfur and global warming and were less enthusiastic when Obama invoked NATO and the war on terrorism. 
As the gigantic crowd broke up, one Scandinavian asked another behind me, "What did you think?" and the other replied, "He was very American." I couldn't help myself and said, "That is how we are, we Americans, we're very American." He laughed and said, "I guess the Swedish are very Swedish!" If the Europeans expected Obama to be European, then they must have been disappointed, but what he was, was something else, -- a poised, level-headed, powerful orator...an American, who could evoke his African roots in the same breath as his love of country.
My son, who was a real hero and waited through the steam security line, and then for two hours for Obama to finally speak, asked me why he didn't say, "Yes, we can!"I tried to explain that that was something that he did in America, and that the Germans didn't really understand the chant, and that that idea of infinite possibility and optimism didn't translate into other languages.
I would say, if there hadn't been two hundred thousand spectators that the Germans are reserved in their curiosity about and enthusiasm for this American, who is after all, so very American, but in this extremely international and cosmopolitan city, the very presence of African housewives, pressed against environmental activists, pressed again young professionals and the occasional football hooligan just goes to show how deeply Obama has resonated with all sorts of people, who find in his very public success as a US presidential candidate grounds for dreams of a different world. In that sense, Obama brought together one of the most diverse crowds I've ever seen in Europe and in his very presence at the foot of a monument whose historical significance he did not fail to cite, he is the very embodiment of that idea we call the American Dream. And in that sense, yes he can inspire us to imagine that we can be dreamers and thinkers, immigrants and fighters for social justice, black and white, Americans and Germans, looking for that critical slice of common ground that we have taken for granted and given up on....

By coincidence, we happen to be in Berlin right now, and are determined to make our way to the Siegesaule monument and park to see him speak there tomorrow. 
I will try to blog about it tomorrow night after the event...the Germans are enthusiastic about Obama, but their grasp of American politics is reflected in a liberal weekly's opening of an article on Obama with a quote from a Morrissey song about his feelings about the United States. The layers of transnational pop culture are difficult to fathom.
As for Obama's essentially post-68 politics of liberal centrism, I'm not sure how that would go over in a city where the public schools recently abolished grades because that would damage the self-esteem of their students.
What the city does have is working class culture and working class clubs...the Berlin hipster scene is essentially apolitical...so go figure...

As some one who spent a lot of time talking my female peers into voting for Obama, I have to say thank you to Hillary for being so tough in public. I found her that candicacy actually gave me license during these past six months to be tough at work. Nevertheless, I couldn't bring myself to vote for her. 
I do want to give credit where credit is due...but I wasn't to vote for her -- because I think the Democratic Party at every single level needs to rethink its structures, its politics and its ability to appeal to new voters, to working class voters, to minority voters...

on Friday afternoon, at our local pool, a Clinton supporter mistook my "NEVERRRRR!!!!! I hold a grudge!!!!!" (imitation of seven year old son's war-like cry) a the mention of the Obama Clinton ticket for a policy statement on the Obama campaign. She didn't seem to realize that I was not acting in all seriousness as an Obama spokesperson so she admonished me with, "You should be generous in victory." At that point, I realized that we had reached a level of absurdity I could only match with more mock attitude. "I only aspire to the Roman virtues: of COURSE I am generous in victory."
At which point she turned to her friend and said, "You see, that's what I mean about those Obama supporters. If she had won and we criticized him, they would call us racist."
I lost my good humor and sputtered something about "specious arguments." 
The next day, watching Clinton's concession speech, tears came to my eyes as she urged her followers to give their full support to Obama. But I'm chastened by the poolside encounter: some of them are so angry that there will be no reconciliation on their part unless "we typical Obama supporters" or Obama himself concede that both sides have played equally dirty during the past six months...and this concession would be simply untrue.
I've read many of the responses to Clinton's speech and all I can say to her supporters is, "listen to your leader," if you can...she is showing character in confronting the situation honestly and without Mark Penn's help!