This was a fascist rally.  I'm not calling John McCain a fascist, but his base, his followers...  Holy Christ, what a bunch of fascist lunatics.  When these people shout, "USA!  USA!  USA!", it makes me sad to be an American.

We're fifteen minutes into McCain's speech, and so far, he's offered ZERO substance.

On CNN a few minutes ago, Barack Obama responded to the attacks from Palin last night by walking past her.  He told CNN that he was running against John McCain, not Sarah Palin.  When asked how he felt about the ferocity of some of the attacks, Obama replied, "I've been called worse on the basketball court."

John McCain promised to run a respectful, dignified campaign.  Obama's already running one.  Perhaps John McCain, Sarah Palin and the Republicans would like to join him.

Forget Sarah Palin.  Forget the Republican attack machine.  Forget John McCain.  Forget right wing evangelicals.  If you want to help Obama win this election, think only one thing from now through November: public financing.  From now until November, John McCain has $84 million to finance his campaign.  Obama has no such limit.  This will prove to be one of the defining elements in this race.  We Democrats have an opportunity to swamp McCain financially.  All we need to do is donate to Obama's campaign like we were doing during the primary season.  We can literally buy the White House for our Party.  Is that fair?  WHO CARES?  They're REPUBLICANS!  Let's beat the bastards!  Go donate some money--right now.  Do it every day.  Let's use this massive advantage to drive the Republicans out of our White House.

Let's go buy us a White House.

As you would expect, TPM's servers and message board software are among the best in the industry but, as with all high-quality technology, you need to learn to walk before you can run.  Here's how to submit a post without seeing it appear multiple times in the list:

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Trust me: once you've become accustomed to using the TPM system and its high quality posting software, you'll never be satisfied posting on a "quickie" message board again.  Previewing posts is for newbies.  OK, I'm hitting Submit--see you in 30 minutes or so!

It is normally considered extremely poor form to step on an opponent's acceptance speech.  John McCain certainly didn't do it to Obama, although he came pretty darn close.  Tonight Obama will step all over McCain's speech.  I'm interesting in hearing how others think this will play in the media.  Will this end up being a net negative for Obama, or is it a good idea?  Are the lefties going to go apoplectic on him for appearing on Fox, or are they finally beginning to understand the stakes and come to terms with what it takes to win election?

OK, I didn't come up with that line, but it's good, isn't it?  Found it on the boards over at Huffington Post.  But it raises an excellent point.  What the Republicans offered last night wasn't a vision for America.  Instead, they put forth the same sort of negativity and division they've been selling for the past eight years.  Will it work for them?  Possibly, but I believe they're misreading America this time around.  I think most Americans are sick to death of this sort of campaigning.  If McCain delivers a solid policy speech tonight, clearly laying out a clear vision for where he wants to take this country, I'd say we've got a race.  But if we get more schoolyard level heckling and negativity like we saw on Wednesday night, people are going to compare the two conventions and the two candidates and, I believe, overwhelmingly go with Obama's clear, positive vision for a united, strong America.

The change we need in America is not the sort of "reform" Palin promised last night.  No, it's far simpler than that.  What we need is fewer Republicans.  Do McCain and Palin really think Americans will buy the notion that two members of the party that created this mess have the solution for getting us out of it? In McCain's own words, he voted with George W. Bush 90% if the time.  In McCain's own words, he is going to do away with the sort of earmarking corruption that his own vice presidential pick hired a lobbyist to pursue.  Are Americans really this stupid and gullible?  As Mitt Romney used to remind us, Washington is broken.  McCain and Palin are two of the people who broke it--McCain by supporting the policies of a corrupt administration, and Palin by taking full advantage of the corruption in order to enhance her own town and state to the detriment of the rest of America.  Will Americans give McCain and Palin a pass on their complicity in creating the situation we now find ourselves in?  We'll see.  Once the excitement of the conventions wears off and the drooling buffoons of the press pull their pants back up and the rebuckle their belts and adjust their skirts, we'll see.

Clearly, Palin's job last night was to divert attention away from her own problems and refocus it on the fear and anger and suspicion and doubt that have served the Republicans so well over the years.  When the Republicans chose to run, in their opening video, a mugshot of Dr. Martin Luther King rather than one of the thousands of uplifting images available, they said far more than all of the empty words that rolled across Palin's teleprompter last night.  Their job is to kill hope and raise suspicion and doubt.  Their goal is to maintain their hold on power.  Their way is to smear and ridicule and belittle and attack.

We shall see.

What do you think, gang?  Could it possibly be time for TPM to finally get serious about FIXING THIS CRAPPY, HORRIBLE BLOGGING SOFTWARE?  Perhaps they could find something that was written post-Stone Age.

Please rec if you agree.

I'm not going to be able to provide a whole lot of detail here, but I just spoke with a friend who has connections with some high-level GOP insiders, and he told me there are serious discussions currently taking place about how to ease Palin off the ticket.  These are not people within the McCain campaign, but higher-ups within the Republican power structure.  The discussions are quite serious, although they're focused more on how, rather than when or if.  More if I hear anything...

Watching the Republican convention this evening, I'm struck by how intensely vapid these people are.  It's like Night of the Living Dead.  There's this half-hearted jingoistic spirit that drives the entire party, but there's little real enthusiasm for it this year.  It's as if they know that what they're supporting is little more than an empty slogan.  Palin is a sock puppet.  McCain is a marketing gimmick.  There's just nothing substantial there.  And the politics of hate and fear that they've employed so successfully for so many years just seem completely empty this time around.

Look for the Republicans to play the fear card, the racist card, the sexism card and every other negative campaign tactic from now until November 4.  None of it will work.  Barack Obama is a gentleman.  These people are farm animals.  Barack Obama will win.  John McCain will lose.

Tonight, in a despicable appeal to racist hatred, the Republicans included the following image in their video during the opening ceremonies of their convention:

http://static.mywire.com/web/spy/imageset/large/2008/1/10/2262.jpg

They'll claim they "honored" Dr. King this evening, even as they ran his mugshot on national television.  Even as they appealed to the racists within their own party.

This Republican campaign is not about the issues.  It's about slogans.  It's about phonies like Fred Thompson giving carefully scripted perfomances that appear to be endorsements of the worst candidate the Republican Party has fielded since Calvin Coolidge.  It's about pretending that they believe in what John McCain stands for.  It's about putting Party before country.

The same microcephalic nitwits who clapped their sandals together and shouted "Flip Flop!  Flip Flop!" over and over during the last election will enthusiastically cast their vote for John McCain.  The rest of us will vote for the next President of the United States of America: Barack Obama.

Interesting, isn't it, that of all the images available of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Republicans chose a mugshot taken after his arrest in Alabama?  A subtle appeal to the racists in the Party?