"In the future I think it will be difficult to explain why this happened, perhaps even more challenging to explain why this key national decision was left in the hands of lame duck senate Republicans. "

It's an easy answer here Josh. Unless we tie them up and stash them in a basement somewhere, the Republicans in the Senate have votes.

On a side note, the New York Times reports "The Senate voted 52 to 35 with 10 Republicans joining 40 Democrats and 2 independents in favor." Where were the other 7 Democrats? This still wouldn't have gotten us to cloture, but it would have been nice to see the Democratic senators united FOR ONCE!

The Obama campaign made a serious error with their negative campaign ads. There has been extensive blogging about the MSM creating a false sense of  "balance" by equating Obama's ad and video about the Keating 5 with McCain's ads about the "Ayers connection". This is because the blogs have been focusing on the content of the ads. The MSM, on the other hand, have been putting the focus on the style of the ads. Look at any report on CNN. Both ads are shown side by side or one after the other. But the commentator is usually talking over the ads, making the presentation of the ads purely visual. No content, no substance. So what we as viewers are left with is two ads, both dark, somber, and meant to be scary. Imagine now if the Obama ad was done by Jon Stewart's writers, or the guys at JibJab. Imagine putting an ad made of cut-out animation, singing and dancing about the Keating 5, next to one of McCain's "Oooooh, scaaaarrryy" ads. Now imagine trying to say that they were the same. Think anyone would buy it? Same content. Different package. We know that the electorate has a large percentage of "low information voters". People who gravitate to anything that makes them go "ooooh, shiiinnnyy". Let's start attracting those voters, instead of putting them off with gloom and doom.

At this point in the election, it seems surreal to me that there could be anyone still undecided. This may be because my own knowledge of these candidates is formed from reading about their policies, their histories, reading their own writings, examing their records, and listening to their words. While occasionally listening to the various talking heads, I weight their bloviating somewhere at the bottom of the information scale. Consistency of word and action is the best indicator of integrity and truthfulness, the foundation of character. As we've seen in the past month, events sometimes move too quickly to govern strictly by a long term policy, so the judgement and, yes, character are extremely important in the chief executive of this nation. Again, judging by those standards, it seems obvious who the best, indeed, only responsible choice is: Barack Obama. Reading "The Audacity of Hope", examing his record in the Illinois state senate, and the U.S. Senate, and reading his policy proposals, one is hard pressed to find any inconsistancy. McCain, on the other hand, has a record of hardly anything BUT inconsistancy. To take one example, his refusal to call for the removal of the Confederate flag in South Carolina in the 2000 primaries, was obvious pandering to the base. His apology afterward, which some people point to as proof of his integrity, was a political shift back toward the center, and an attempt to maintain his "maverick" (god, I've come to hate that word) image. If he truly had any integrity in this case, he would have called for that racist symbol to be removed DURING the primary, or reversed his position while it still meant something.
So why does over 40% of the country still cling to the image of McCain as a straight shooter? Why do people still say they don't know Obama well enough? Who ya gonna believe? Me or your lyin' eyes?