Once the immediate passions were unable to generate referenda and politicians did not want to meddle in this issue just then, the whole thing essentially blew over and is now considered to me a normal state of affairs.

Since at its core it is a remarkably boring issue, it is no longer even discussed at the water cooler, which is exactly how it should be.

I thought that this was another small step toward an Obama election (I hope, in spite of stock index surge), which would be a historic and surely welcome step for America. As well as beneficial for us all!

My daughter thought that the clips underscored that McCain is clearly a bad man, since he has falsely attacked Obama.

Running away from the ebmarassment you caused to yourself? Par for the course...

I am upset with how fake your declared "civility" turned out to be. After advocating understanding and respect for your republican opponents, you immediately savaged your democratic ones with attacks based on their ethicity, attacks based on nothing more than stereotypes and your own lack of knowledge.

Not even to mention the patronizing and utterly stupid advice to let "American political culture" seep into someone who has lived most of his life here and who has been educated here since the 8th grade. Whey you even intimated that my parents are responsible for my "unamerican" political behavior!

Are you sure we did not see you at a Palin rally, yelling "traitor"? You sure sound just like that kind of ignorant and bigotted fool.

It is logical to assume that you are a snide and disrespectful fool, whose "civility" is skin deep and who will immediately reneg on their vow of "respect" and use even opponents' ethnicity to score a semantic point.

As I said before, great majority of ex-Soviet citizens living in America are hard-core right wing Republicans.

My comments are exactly "out of line" with what I hear from my compatriots. They, in fact, welcome more government surveilance, more government control and no racial integration. They are "base" McCain voters. And they are FAR more aggressive in their treatment of "commie democrats" than I have ever been in my mild push back against Republican outrages.

You say you don't want to endorse power through alienation. However, you don't provide examples of what consitutes alienation for republicans as a result anything specific that occurs here at TPM.

You talk about Powell at length, but he really is not a very typical Republican at all, and cerntainly no longer represents the center of power in the Republican party. McCain has laughed off his endorsement of Obama.

I agree that we should be civil and not use curse words and epithets. But beyond that, what exactly is your plan of action?

With all due respect, you might try to let some of our culture and approach seep into you. There are times for more stringent measures -- but those come later down the path, not earlier.==

I have lived in America since 1977, having come here as a 13 year old - citizen since 1982. I was educated here and am as much of an American as anyone. I certainly take my RIGHTS more seriously than the majority of the native-born Americans. Thanks for the nice "civics" lesson as how thing are done stateside - it was priceless.

Most of my "compatriots" are, in fact, fairly rabid Republicans and hate Obama, because they consider him to be a socialist. Many are quite racist and they will vote for McCain in large majorities.

Your assertion that I should let "American culture" "Seep into me" is both insipid and insulting. Given your patronizing attitude, however, it is far from suprising.

In fact it is only recently that a majority of Republicans actually give President Bush unfavorable ratings.

For great majority of his tenure, he was VERY WELL liked by great majority of the Republican voters, even while his adminstration successfully dismantled several Constitutional provisions and safeguards, destroyed American economy and embarked on a series of grave war crimes. In fact, it is only the recent collapse of the stock market that really began to eat into Bush's Republican support in a serious way.

You assertion is simply wrong.

That's the choice made by Congressional democrats for years - remaining largely silet in the face of outrageous attacks against our laws and our way of life - you know, in order to make small things happen, in order not to rock the boat, in order to remain "on good terms" with the President.

I think their rating is now even below Bush's histroic lows in the 20 percentile range.

Obama supporters here do not attack or insult Republicans.

We do note and voice our disagreement with utterly false political propaganda disseminated by the Palin/McCain campaign.

We do strongly react against verbal violence and threats Palin/McCain have been stoking at their rallies, until they have finally been exposed by the MSM.

The folks here, who have been very active promoting the idea that by exposing lies and resisting violence, one "alienates" the other side, clearly have a deep lack of historical perspective and a certain relativistic sense of right and wrong.

We do no favors to the "opposing side" or to the nation by tolerating bigotry, acquiesing to the lies and "discussing" hatred.

Once in a while one must actuall take a stand for what one believes, even if, horror of horrors, it upsets people.

I am sure we can find comments very similar to the one above appearing in the intellectual press of a certain west european country in the early 30s.

I don't "call McCain names" (as if it is the true reflection of anyone, anyway), but do refer to the campaign as Palin/McCain, to underscore the unequal appeal the two candidates have to their party base. It is a sign of disrespect, and is meant as such, as I don't respect McCain or Palin, consider them to be dangerous for the country and sincerely hope they loose.

If you are agonizing over such things...well, I have no comment.

It is two weeks before the most consequential election in modern history, Obama is up by 5% and has to be up by at least that in order to win, counting the latent racism in the voting booth the the ultra active GOP vote suppression efforts this year. Our aggressively impolite opponent is blanketing the country with ads and robocalls essentially declaring Obama an enemy of the state. If you are not incensed by the above, you should be.

The time for polite navel gazing IS OVER.

This is the election we MUST WIN.

The whole point of a canvass visit is to encourage the prospective voter to vote for Obama.

TPM is a discussion, forum, a very different venue.

Obviously, when working for the Obama campaign, you have to abide the protocol they have chosen. Presenting your view of McCain's campaign as full of code words and hidden racism would simply not be allowed.

But why should I censor myself at TPM, ostensibly a forum for free political expression?

Your position, very similar to the absurd position of MSM is to deny the right and wrong. Is it not wrong to incite hatred at rallies as Palin and McCain have done? Is it OK to support by your silence screams of "Kill Him" emanating from the very supporters you court? Is it fine to absolve McCain of responsibility for a blizzard of outrageously lying robocalls, painting Obama as a terrorist?

I certainly am not willing to be silent in the face of this outrage, the core of which is a form of crypto-fascism.

Your choice may be, when spat upon, to have a scholarly discussion with a offending party as to why he has so much saliva or perhaps is there anything you have done to provoke him.

It is not my choice. Troughout history, authoritarian movements have risen to power because of the acquiescence of the majorities around them. Palin/McCain represent such a movement in American today and MUST be defeated in the upcoming election.

Your personal concern as to the civility of the debate is immaterial. It shall not be noted in history.

I have criticized Obama on policy any number of times throughout this campaign.

In the last two weeks of the campaign in this extremely important election, I am setting the criticism aside.

I find the "both sides are guilty of campaign deterioration" highly disingenuous. Obama's negative ads call attention to McCain's erratic leadership and declare him "out of touch". McCain used to have similar negative ads, calling Obama "inexperienced" and "naive". Fair enough. The recent blizzard of negative ads and robocalls from McCain, painting Obama as a dangerous, manchurian unknown, with a hidden socialist or even America-hating terrorist agenda are way out of line and are completely different and completely unacceptable. Obama's responses to these have been quite polite and straighforward. One can't criticize his campaign for being overly aggressive. TPMs verbal discourse vis a vis Palin/McCain has been quite standard for an American election and frankly is much less aggressive than similar conservative forums.

The bottom line is this is the time to win. So lets go out and donate, canvass, call and drive people to the voting booths.

We have elections as a way to decide political differences. You can talk all you want and try to convince anyone of anything before, during and after the elections.

But on election day we vote. That's my point.

Two weeks before a very close election, hand-wringing about the "tenor" of the campaigns is, frankly, irrelevant. Especially, in this case, when a blizzard of robocalls and ultra-negative ads are painting your candidate as a dangerous, terrorist supporting unknown, a likely manchurian socialist candidate. The comparison is not even close, and attempts to "blame both sides" is dishonest.

Basically, the other side is spitting you in the face and counting you to wipe it off and blame youself for the "resulting impoliteness".

Are you that much a self-doubting fool?

It sounds like you are unclear as to what your point really is. There are lots of people who support McCain, whose proffessional judgement I trust - but not their political judgement. In your mind, it would appear, that if a good cop supports McCain it raises doubts about your own political position.

Most people who you mention are classic low information voters - don't know much about McCain or Obama, made up their mind usually from their old half-knowledge about McCain and that's it. No magic and no misterious issues-based appeal one can attempt to repeal. See it all the time.

That's the same logic Palin/McCain use when they claim "Obama doesn't support the troops" when he votes against the war funding with no end date. I don't support McCain and hope he loses the election. If my local firefighter wants Obama to lose, then certainly we are on opposing sides of a political decision. That doesn't mean I don't support the firefighter - I vote for and pay taxes for the firefighter's budget, I support his retirement and his equipment, I may need his help in the future.

We must aboslutely respect Palin/McCains race-baiting campaign and NEVER comment on the obvious stench of racism and violence at their rallies, least we stand accused of "liberal race-baiting". Taking note of this is verbotten, because this may result in victory "we may not be proud of".

I guess the only racism McCain/Palin apologists will accept as "real" is McCain calling Obama a "nigger" on national television, with their favorite trusted reporter taking the video and sound. Anything short of that is dismissed as "figment of liberal imagination" and as unwarranted attacks agains the honorable John McCain.