I thought John McCain said he was suspending all campaign activities yesterday.  I just saw one of McCain's "original maverick" ads on the Today Show not three minutes ago (it aired at 8:08 am CDT), the one about how he had taken on guys tougher than the ones on Wall Street.

Gee, was McCain not being truthful about suspending his campaign?  I'm shocked...

ArchPundit correctly notes that stuff that isn't even on the Republicans' radar screen, such as the Civil Rights movement, was built on community organizing.

Sarah Palin really is opening herself up to some serious salvos in the coming days and weeks.  This scripted dimwit is going to be fun to watch if the McCain goons ever let her out of the cage.

Though I might be missing something, is there some reason we're not talking much about this?

Seems to me that this stuff makes the overreactions we saw in New York during the Convention in 2004 seem like child's play.  I'm not one to cry "Gestapo tactics" every time law enforcement seeks to keep order, but this seems WAY over the top.

Aside from the bits and pieces I've read on TPM and elsewhere about Sarah Palin's trooper-gate, I knew little or nothing about the new Republican VP running mate.  There's still lots to learn but it's already pretty apparent that this is just another example of how, to use Barack Obama's words, McCain "just doesn't get it." 

I'm having trouble deciding whether the choice of Palin is cynical, stupid or both.  I tend to believe it's both at this stage.  If you look starkly at Palin's history, it's very hard to come away not asking the question, "How the hell is she possibly capable of facing down a Putin, an Ahmedinejad (sp?) or dealing with any other of the vast issues facing this nation?" 

The cynicism of McCain's choice is, I think, borne of the idea that disaffected Clinton voters will simply follow any woman.  But I guess at the same time, it's also the stupidity of McCain's choice as well.  It's simply way too hard for me to believe that anything more than a tiny minority of disaffected Clinton would simply jump ship because Palin is a woman.  Don't forget that this choice is being made by a guy who still doesn't quite get why it was inappropriate to tell a joke about a woman being raped by a gorilla.  In 48 hours, I think we'll be seeing a whole lot more questions about how tone-deaf McCain really is. 

This decision is a catastrophe if you're a McCain supporter, plain and simple.

"I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska." - Gov. Sarah Palin

And thus does the McCain argument about experience begin to fall apart...

I had the chance this morning to watch Michelle Obama's speech at the Convention last night.  She really hit one out of the park by showing herself as very much part of the American community.  She took on the Republican mythology that has been ginned up on the garbage about her not being proud of America and punched holes right through it.

But as I watched the replay of her speech, I kept coming back to a remarkable comment I heard from a woman who phoned in to C-Span after the close of Day 1 of the Convention.  The woman, who apparently was a McCain supporter, stated that the speech showed just how irresponsible the Obamas were.  The irresponsibility, in her view, was obvious because the Obamas chose community service over positions in high-powered law firms.  To paraphase the woman, the Obamas were clearly not taking care of their affairs by choosing salaries that would take care of their debts (how that follows logically I have no idea).  So, the argument goes, if they can't manage their debts, how can Barack Obama possibly manage the country in a responsible manner?

To me, this comment is the essence of mainstream Republican claptrap today: that conscious and meaningful community building is nothing more than personal irresponsibility.  And in one form or another this is a task that Democrats must continue to address.  The last several years have offered myriad examples of how the Republican message of "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" is a bankrupt philosophy that throws the people to the wolves. 

Deregulation, laissez-faire economics, "freedom" (mainstream Republican code for "screw your neighbor before he screws you") have created the mess we're in.  Democrats really need, in response to this, to listen carefully to what Michelle Obama said last night and what I hope Barack Obama will say on Thursday.  Her words last night really reminded me why I'm a Democrat: that civic responsibility is really a virtue and not a vice. 

I've worried for a long time that this Democratic principle is disappearing from the conversation.  Michelle Obama's speech took one step toward convincing me that it's not.  I hope we continue to hear it over the next three days.