I think that the moderators in these past two debates have been mediocre at best.  The McCain attack on tough questioning has turned what should be a tough interview into a series of interspersed stump speeches where both candidates have been allowed to dictate the discussion, to everybody's detriment.  If I went in to a job interview, and told the interviewer that I wasn't going to answer his question I would be immediately rejected for that job.

These tickets have become so studded with hero worship and cushy bipartisanship that the moderators seem to be sitting in admiration rather than providing the harsh scrutiny that's needed to dig deeper than the rhetoric.  This has allowed both candidates to stick strictly to their talking points and has not addressed anything but poise and ability to speak.  If a candidate doesn't answer a question you don't move on, you keep asking the question again and again until they answer it.  It lacks any good journalism.  Nothing has been revealed about these candidates that we didn't already know, it provides no incite but what the campaign wants us to believe.

I'm not suggesting that the moderator should be bullying the candidates into a corner, the candidates should be doing that to each other, but when they aren't it's the moderators job to keep picking at the truth until its revealed.

She's a freakin' squirrel when it comes to this debate.  She's so fast that she's debating questions from other debates.  It's like she split into three time-shifting Palin's.

My wife was watching the Obama video they used prior to his convention speech on YouTube, and I hadn't noticed this when it aired but they used the INTO THE WILD soundtrack at the end.  I thought that was pretty potent.  Just thought I'd share that for anyone who has the same soft spot for that movie/soundtrack that I do.

The giddy excitement of Democrats waiting for the Palin train wreck at tomorrow's debate has reached a pitch that we haven't seen since...well, since a month ago prior to the Republican Convention.  And we made the same mistake then.  We underestimated Palin's appeal.  If I were the Obama team I would be extremely worried about this event.

It's very easy to believe that the majority of the public sees things exactly your way.  I was sure after seeing previews for Meet the Spartans that there wasn't a chance in hell any rational person would subject themselves to that type of punishment.  But they did.  It made over 100 million.  Well over.  Perceptions vary greatly depending upon what you want to see in something.  For Palin supporter's, it's all about her.  They like her lack of experience, they like her hokie nature.  They like that she's this simple gal from Alaska with an accent a bunch of kids.  These are women who are sick of having been told that Hillary Clinton is the independent woman's archetype.  They see Palin as representing who they are.

Nobody expects much from Palin tomorrow.  In fact, they expect so little that nobody is even bothering to wonder what her strategy is.  That might be fine if she were debating somebody with the steady cool of Barrack Obama, but she's debating Joe Biden, and let's face it.  He isn't the brightest Crayon in the box when he speaks.  He's kind of a jabberwocky.  If I were coaching Palin I would tell her to give short answers, to allow Biden to dominate, and to pick one key social subject to wait for to strike a blow on.  And that's all it would take.

It doesn't matter if Palin answers in hums and josana's, if she gets one good shot in that's all it will take to rile her base up again.  They don't care about the economy, they care about her.  They don't care about Pakistan, they care about her.  In a way, it's kind of like the movie Rocky.  If she proves she can sustain until the end, even if she gets banged up, it will be considered a moral victory for her group.

The bailout is going to stop dominating the 24 News cycle very soon.  This leaves a huge gap in issues for Palin to squeeze through with a victory tomorrow night, and would create the exact same condition for the shift in polls that saw McCain on top for two weeks.  Seriously, stop underestimating Palin.

In mythology the "Harpy" was a winged death spirit which resembled an eagle with a human head.  Seen in 19th century wood carvings, this tusked beast was known to roam the countryside snatching food.  (check out the film Jason and the Argonauts, great example).  And the moment that Bush created this bailout scheme, Pelosi curled her little talons around it and carried it off to Congress.

I'm absolutely ashamed of this party right now.  Democrats.  Yes, you!  Here is a bill, another classic piece of George W. Bush garbage which the vast majority of Americans, Democrat and Republican, see as being Iraq in the form of a bailout bill, and she polishes it, adds a little spit-shine, and suddenly we're supposed to admire her support of it because Democrats spent a few days adding some basic common-sense provisions to it?

Progressives should not be supporting this bill.  They should be outraged that this party would even consider signing their names to it.  But because this is an election year, and because it gives this absolutely useless Democratic congress an opportunity to appear as if they got something accomplished, Democrats are supposed to suddenly support it because it will make Republicans look bad?

I'm glad the Republicans smacked this down.  I'm glad that most free-thinking Democrats still don't support it.  I'm proud that the American people are finally wise enough, after 8 years of being sheep-herded into hasty decisions with lies, have finally come together and told their leaders that they won't be scared into believing that 2+2=5.  We have back bone and we won't be intimidated by talking heads and economic terrorism.

I'm a voter first and a Democrat second.  And it's absolutely SHAMEFUL the amount of spin that the Democratic party has put on this bailout to better themselves.  It's shameful that at the end of this president's term, one of the worst in our history, that they would side with him against their own constituents, and it's shameful that the party would, after having failed on everything from Iraq to Children's Health Care, would ask us to co-sign this pack of lies with our support.

Any Democrat that follows the lead of this harpy as she attempts to help the President snatch this one does not have my support.

Stop War In Iraq: 0
Restrict Presidential Power: 0
Pass Children's Health Care: 0

Pass FISA: 1
Bailout Wall Steet: 1
Offshore Drilling: 1

Can we just abandon Pelosi out in the woods like a pet we don't want anymore?