Well, he gave us back that reason to hope – seemingly neglected in the past few weeks – and he handed the Democratic Party its most effective bumper sticker: Eight is enough! Maybe some brilliant graphic artists out there can be torn away from their snowboard doodling long enough to put an eight ball and “‘nuff” together in a layout both esthetically pleasing yet brutally dismissive of the Bush Era and its would-be successors.

Pat Buchanan was right – again – pointing out that Obama’s speech last night was his most centrist – almost to a fault. It also placed him solidly in a white working-class background, a formula that reflected as much political calculation as it did accurate accounting of his upbringing. In truth, his maternal GI-generation grandparents were an indelible part of his early life, and he movingly spoke of the tenets of tolerance and responsibility imparted to him by his mother.

Nevertheless, it was Obama’s reference to that genuine historical synchronicity – accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Washington Memorial – that stamped the night with inescapable historical resonance. He is, a daunting 143 years after slavery, the first African-American likely to be President. On a purely emotional level, King's seemingly elusive dream seems closer to its promised valley.

Also, Chris Matthews on MSNBC made the point that the speech sought from Americans their most decent responses. Matthews proposed that the country is profoundly sick of the twisted, “Rovian” politics of division and viciousness - and he's right.

Wisely, Obama has begun to map out his economic recovery plan, tying it directly to the households most in need: America's bread-and-butter working families. Drawing-board projects for ending our foreign oil dependence and reducing global warming are... wonderful, sure... and necessary... but politically they play more to an educated, affluent electorate. Middle America needs to know their much-ridiculed white picket fences - the boundary bastions of their humble sanctuaries - won't be snapped off in foreclosure because of seemy schemes in boardrooms far away.

On national security, Obama merely reminded America that he's been right - and proven so - while Bush's princeling has foundered in fulmination and tantrums. The Mideast seems to be moving to Obama's template, through Bush Administration's policy "adaptions" and in spite of them. And regardless of anything else, the Iraqis have given us the date they want us gone.

Obama needed to deliver a lighting strike to a convention notable this year mostly for a mechanical, listless quality. That he did so, with gusto, enhanced the power of the evening. And that’s the only way it can be described: power. Even the GOP was dumbfounded and in danger of soiling itself, issuing press releases that almost begged for merciful surrender terms and some plow mules.

Before his appearance, Joe Biden was the only genial spark in the evening. Al Gore ran through his speech at such a clip he seemed fearful that a global-warming typhoon might drown Mile High Stadium before he got in his best applause lines.

Throughout these past four days, the Democrats have seemed… drained. Draggy. As if the cataclysmic (if ultimately cathartic) primary bloodbath had sapped them of all energy. When speakers weren’t limping to the podium, world-weary and worried about their own chits with the oil and telecom industries, there was a disturbing, jagged feel; Nancy Pelosi’s bug-eyed channeling of that suicidal Heaven’s Gate guru was downright frightening.

There is nothing the GOP can do in the Twin Cities to cap this. McCain's choice of a female vice president may divert the faithful over at Fox for a few days, although Alaska Gov. Nancy Palin seems known mostly for being knee-deep in scandals chronically wracking the 49th state. There were even reports last night that Republicans would use the “national emergency” on an impending Gulf Coast hurricane to delay the convention, stopping the clock to avoid revealing the inescapable paltriness of their platform, their deficit of effective reply.

Eight years! Enough!

Well, he gave us back that reason to hope – seemingly neglected in the past few weeks – and he handed the Democratic Party its most effective bumper sticker: Eight is enough! Maybe some brilliant graphic artists out there can be torn away from their snowboard doodling long enough to put an eight ball and “‘nuff” together in a layout both esthetically pleasing yet brutally dismissive of the Bush Era and its would-be successors.

Pat Buchanan was right – again – pointing out that Obama’s speech last night was his most centrist – almost to a fault. It also placed him solidly in a white working-class background, a formula that reflected as much political calculation as it did accurate accounting of his upbringing. In truth, his maternal GI-generation grandparents were an indelible part of his early life, and he movingly spoke of the tenets of tolerance and responsibility imparted to him by his mother.

Nevertheless, it was Obama’s reference to that genuine historical synchronicity – accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Washington Memorial – that stamped the night with inescapable historical resonance. He is, a daunting 143 years after slavery, the first African-American likely to be President. On a purely emotional level, King's seemingly elusive dream seems closer to its promised valley.

Also, Chris Matthews on MSNBC made the point that Obama sought from Americans their most decent responses. Matthews proposed that the country is profoundly sick of the twisted, “Rovian” politics of division and viciousness - and he's right.

Wisely, Obama has begun to map out his economic recovery plan, tying it directly to the households most in need: America's bread-and-butter working families. Drawing-board projects for ending our foreign oil dependence and reducing global warming are... wonderful, sure... and necessary... but politically they play more to an educated, affluent electorate. Middle America needs to know their much-ridiculed white picket fences - the boundary bastions of their humble sanctuaries - won't be snapped off in foreclosure because of seemy schemes in boardrooms far away.

On national security, Obama merely reminded America that he's been right - and proven so - while Bush's princeling has foundered in fulmination and tantrums. The Mideast seems to be moving to Obama's template, through Bush Administration's policy "adaptions" and in spite of them. And regardless of anything else, the Iraqis have given us the date they want us gone.

Obama needed to deliver a lighting strike to a convention notable this year mostly for a mechanical, listless quality. That he did so, with gusto, enhanced the power of the evening. And that’s the only way it can be described: power. Even the GOP was dumbfounded and in danger of soiling itself, issuing press releases that almost begged for merciful surrender terms and some plow mules.

Before his appearance, Joe Biden was the only genial spark in the evening. Al Gore ran through his speech at such a clip he seemed fearful that a global-warming typhoon might drown Mile High Stadium before he got in his best applause lines.

Throughout these past four days, the Democrats have seemed… drained. Draggy. As if the cataclysmic (if ultimately cathartic) primary bloodbath had sapped them of all energy. When speakers weren’t limping to the podium, world-weary and worried about their own chits with the oil and telecom industries, there was a disturbing, jagged feel; Nancy Pelosi’s bug-eyed channeling of that suicidal Heaven’s Gate guru was downright frightening.

There is nothing the GOP can do in the Twin Cities to cap this. McCain's choice of a female vice president may divert the faithful over at Fox for a few days, although Alaska Gov. Nancy Palin seems known mostly for being knee-deep in scandals chronically wracking the 49th state. There were even reports last night that Republicans would use the “national emergency” on an impending Gulf Coast hurricane to delay the convention, stopping the clock to avoid revealing the inescapable paltriness of their platform, their deficit of effective reply.

Eight years! Enough!

Well, he gave us back that reason to hope – seemingly neglected in the past few weeks – and he handed the Democratic Party its most effective bumper sticker: Eight is enough! Maybe some brilliant graphic artists out there can be torn away from their snowboard doodling long enough to put an eight ball and “‘nuff” together in a layout both esthetically pleasing yet brutally dismissive of the Bush Era and its would-be successors.

Pat Buchanan was right – again – pointing out that Obama’s speech last night was his most centrist – almost to a fault. It also placed him solidly in a white working-class background, a formula that reflected as much political calculation as it did accurate accounting of his upbringing. In truth, his maternal GI-generation grandparents were an indelible part of his early life, and he movingly spoke of the tenets of tolerance and responsibility imparted to him by his mother.

Nevertheless, it was Obama’s reference to that genuine historical synchronicity – accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Washington Memorial – that stamped the night with inescapable historical resonance. He is, a daunting 143 years after slavery, the first African-American likely to be President. On a purely emotional level, King's seemingly elusive dream seems closer to its promised valley.

Also, Chris Matthews on MSNBC made the point that Obama sought from Americans their most decent responses. Matthews proposed that the country is profoundly sick of the twisted, “Rovian” politics of division and viciousness - and he's right.

Wisely, Obama has begun to map out his economic recovery plan, tying it directly to the households most in need: America's bread-and-butter working families. Drawing-board projects for ending our foreign oil dependence and reducing global warming are... wonderful, sure... and necessary... but politically they play more to an educated, affluent electorate. Middle America needs to know their much-ridiculed white picket fences - the boundary bastions of their humble sanctuaries - won't be snapped off in foreclosure because of seemy schemes in boardrooms far away.

On national security, Obama merely reminded America that he's been right - and proven so - while Bush's princeling has foundered in fulmination and tantrums. And that's all he needed to do. The Mideast seems to be moving to Obama's template, through Bush Administration's policy "adaptions" and in spite of them. And regardless of anything else, the Iraqis have given us the date they want us gone.

Obama had to deliver a lighting strike to a convention notable this year mostly for a mechanical, listless quality. That he did so, with gusto, enhanced the power of the evening. And that’s the only way it can be described: power. Even the GOP was dumbfounded and in danger of soiling itself, issuing press releases that almost begged for merciful surrender terms and some plow mules.

Before his appearance, Joe Biden was the only genial spark in the evening. Al Gore ran through his speech at such a clip he seemed fearful that a global-warming typhoon might drown Mile High Stadium before he got in his best applause lines.

Throughout these past four days, the Democrats have seemed… drained. Draggy. As if the cataclysmic (if ultimately cathartic) primary bloodbath had sapped them of all energy. When speakers weren’t limping to the podium, world-weary and worried about their own chits with the oil and telecom industries, there was a disturbing, jagged feel; Nancy Pelosi’s bug-eyed channeling of that suicidal Heaven’s Gate guru was downright frightening.

There is nothing the GOP can do in the Twin Cities to cap this. McCain's choice of a female vice president may divert the faithful over at Fox for a few days, although Alaska Gov. Nancy Palin seems known mostly for being knee-deep in scandals chronically wracking the 49th state. There were even reports last night that Republicans would use the “national emergency” on an impending Gulf Coast hurricane to delay the convention, stopping the clock to avoid revealing the inescapable paltriness of their platform, their deficit of effective reply.

Eight years! Enough!

Well, he gave us back that reason to hope – seemingly neglected in the past few weeks – and he handed the Democratic Party its most effective bumper sticker: Eight is enough! Maybe some brilliant graphic artists out there can be torn away from their snowboard doodling long enough to put an eight ball and “‘nuff” together in a layout both esthetically pleasing yet brutally dismissive of the Bush Era and its would-be successors.

Pat Buchanan was right – again – pointing out that Obama’s speech last night was his most centrist – almost to a fault. It also placed him solidly in a white working-class background, a formula that reflected as much political calculation as it did accurate accounting of his upbringing. In truth, his maternal GI-generation grandparents were an indelible part of his early life, and he movingly spoke of the tenets of tolerance and responsibility imparted to him by his mother.

Nevertheless, it was Obama’s reference to that genuine historical synchronicity – accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Washington Memorial – that stamped the night with inescapable historical resonance. He is, a daunting 143 years after slavery, the first African-American likely to be President. King's seemingly elusive dream seems closer to its promised valley.

Also, Chris Matthews on MSNBC made the point that the speech sought from Americans their most decent responses. Matthews proposed that the country is profoundly sick of the twisted, “Rovian” politics of division and viciousness - and he's right.

Wisely, Obama has begun to map out his economic recovery plan, tying it directly to the households most in need: America's bread-and-butter working families. Drawing-board projects for ending our foreign oil dependence and reducing global warming are... wonderful, and necessary... but politically they play more to an educated, affluent electorate. Middle America needs to know their much-ridiculed white picket fences - the boundary bastions of their humble sanctuaries - won't be snapped off in foreclosure because of seemy schemes in boardrooms far away.

On national security, Obama merely reminded America that he's been right - and proven so - while Bush's princeling has foundered in fulmination and tantrums. The Mideast seems to be moving to Obama's template, through Bush Administration's "adaptions" and in spite of them. And regardless of anything else, the Iraqis have given us the date they want us gone.

Obama needed to deliver a lighting strike to a convention notable this year mostly for a mechanical, listless quality. That he did so, with gusto, enhanced the power of the evening. And that’s the only way it can be described: power. Even the GOP was dumbfounded and in danger of soiling itself, issuing press releases that almost begged for merciful surrender terms and a few plow mules.

Before his appearance, Joe Biden was the only genial spark in the evening. Al Gore ran through his speech at such a clip he seemed fearful that a global-warming hurricane might drown Mile High Stadium before he got in his best applause lines.

Throughout these past four days, the Democrats have seemed… drained. Draggy. As if the cataclysmic (if ultimately cathartic) primary bloodbath had sapped them of all energy. When speakers weren’t limping to the podium, world-weary and worried about their own chits with the oil and telecom industries, there was a disturbing, jagged feel; Nancy Pelosi’s bug-eyed channeling of that suicidal Heaven’s Gate guru was downright frightening.

There is nothing the GOP can do in the Twin Cities to cap this. McCain's choice of a female vice president may divert the faithful over at Fox for a few days, although Alaska Gov. Nancy Palin seems known mostly for being knee-deep in scandals chronically wracking the 49th state. There were even reports last night that Republicans would use the “national emergency” on an impending Gulf Coast hurricane to delay the convention, stopping the clock to avoid revealing the inescapable paltriness of their platform, their deficit of effective reply.

Eight years! Enough!

For a party that needs to be a badass dishing out some hard licks, the Democratic donkey is becoming a sad ass with no kick.

So far in this convention week, we've had little but summer-camp hand-holding and affirmations that - gosh darn it! - Democrats trump Republicans as feel-good political Pollyannas.

Where, as none other than Pat Buchanan put it, is the "red meat"?

After its convention opening night Monday, the party started taking flack from know-it-all pundits, who complained that it had burned through key television time without taking chunks out of GOP hide. It's not like they lack ammo: Transgressions and misrule by the Bush Administration lie stacked before us like bales of toilet tissue in a big-box store.

As the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson declaimed on MSNBC last night: "Where's 'torture'? Where's 'Iraq'?

Up to now, the Democrats have done exactly what they needed to do: Dominate the news cycle. Last week, when the big news should have been McCain pulling ahead in some polls, the punditry was yapping about Barack Obama's vice presidential choice instead. Perfect! When bad news can't be countered, obscure it with theatrical suspense. That's good politicking, baby!

Despite what most critics say (and it's a narrative trafficked mostly by GOP operatives), this convention isn't about tearing up John McCain; it isn't about McCain at all.

But the lack of any spark, any show of force had TV anchors scratching their heads for anything worthwhile to report. There is just so much nerf warfare the public can take.

In desperation for spectacle, the media tended to fall all over Sen. Hillary Clinton's elegant send-off. She did what she had to do - economically, energetically and with style. In fact, it was in her speech - urging her crowd to take up Obama's cloak - that the best slings and arrows were sent at the GOP. But cable-news wrap-up waxed a little too poetic at her appearance. It was, after all, expected: Clinton is a pro, whatever else you may think of her. She wasn’t going to gob-smack Obama – and thereby herself – with anything less than a ringing endorsement.

The other main speaker of the evening, Virgina Governor and Senate candidate Mark Warner, talked… about himself… about… little mining hamlets in Virginia. There was something in there about health care. I think... Anyone listening to his gummy rhetoric could be forgiven for expecting him tear into a thunderous explanation of why Gandalf is his favorite “Lord of the Rings” sprite.

There seems to be a deliberate strategy of passive aggression among the Democrats so far. It’s as if they don’t want to stir things up… too early? At all? Are they holding off their best shots for the fall, when heavy artillery will be needed? (It's that matter of ammo bounty again: McCain has more skeletons in his closet than John Wayne Gacy.) Or are they side-stepping our tenuous reality for other reasons?

The more the party soft-sells itself, the more the public will see it as merely a user-friendly version of the remote, contemptuous status quo that's spent eight years shredding the Constitution and draining us of blood and treasure. That's a summary not altogether incorrect. In truth, Democrats are in thrall of the same lobbies and deep-pocket interests as Republicans, but at least have given lip service to the lowly everyman's welfare.

The country, at that 40-hour, bill-paying level, has been against the war for years now. They are nettled and peeved at higher and higher prices in the face of stagnant wages. The ballyhoo'd causes of the pompous elite - Georgia, Iran and the New Imperium - mean little to them.

The issues that do matter like health care and immigration are twisted and refabricated to again benefit the already comfortable. These mutations can get downright insulting:  Mom-and-pop America are concerned that open borders immigration policy would fill the country with low-expectation workers willing to do anything at any wage to escape origins that offer even fewer prospects. Such an economically pliable workforce is a boon to the economically well-off, depressing operating costs and inflation, as much as it is devastating to low-income Americans - but if those "disadvantaged" dare protest, they're branded "racist" and worse.

The more the American political herd shifts to the greenest grasslands to sniff out richer money thickets, and the more this year's campaign strategy moves to a "safe" middle ground to assume  the broadest possible priorities, the more the Democratic Party's focus softens, and it's platform becomes adulterated.

But that shouldn't stop it from showing a little fire.

As Buchanan said last night, calling for shots at the sitting Vice President: "Cheney's at 18 percent. C'mon - it's an easy shot!"

When it comes to our nation's position on West Bank settlements, it appears our intentions are bedeviled by putting money exactly where our mouth says it shouldn't be.

A story in Reuters today notes that American tax breaks on charitable donations help settler groups fund new enclaves, despite the fact that the U.S. Secretary of State has called the settlements an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinean peace.

This bit of bad news hurtles down to us in a week when Sec. Condoleeza Rice is in the Mideast to help shore up at least the concept of achievable peace.

The story notes: "The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent.

"But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organizations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone."

According to Agence France-Presse, Rice admitted today that both sides in the seemingly never-ending conflict have a long way to go if they're going to meet a Bush Administration deadline for an accord by the end of the year.

Uh... yeah.

"We continue to have the same goal which is to reach agreement by the end of the year," Rice told reporters travelling with her on the plane from Washington to Tel Aviv.

"We have a lot of work ahead to do that, and obviously it's a complicated time, but it's always complicated out here," the top US diplomat said ahead of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Jerusalem.

Both the Palestineans and the Israelis are getting pressure from an American President troubled about the legacy he'll leave behind after his second term ends in January, although that concern seems little and late coming from a Chief Executive who's all but scorched the region. Other than serving a ration of endless war to a corner of the world starved for peace, Bush had done little to stem Israeli/Palestinean antagonism prior to a cursory photo-op "summit" last November. In a commitment as open-ended as the black hole centering the Milky Way, both sides agreed then to talk - at another time, another place.

So... that's the latest news from the Levant: No news.

And, no, that's not necessarily good news.