Ed Rollins just reminded me of a lesson I learned on the playground - many swing voters and undecideds don't want to lose - they want to pick the winner. Watching children take sides in an argument there are always those who jump in with strong belief and conviction - you know where they stand - there are other kids on the margins and you're not sure - but they sure flip fast to the winning side once the fight or argument is over. The same is true in spectator sports with fair weather fans - Everyone wants to pick a winner baby!

Pat Buchanan said on MSBC that Obama is 2 touchdowns ahead and should take a knee. Since when is talking to the American people unsafe? what if Roosevelt were afraid to give a fireside chat? would americans have served like they did? It's like Republicans chiding Obama for talking to Iran or  Chavez... they are afraid of communicating. After the most secretive administration ever, many Americans who feel left out and marginalized by the Bush government, just might like a President who speaks directly to them and identifies with their hopes and worries. 

The leader who draws huge crowds and inspires people is the more effective commander in chief. Look at history. McCain lacks leadership quality. If Obama were to take the US into war, the country on the other end should be very afraid, because he plays to win, not to draw.

Someone famous, influential and non-partisan needs to make a very passionate stand for voting rights. For Republicans to preemptively cry voter fraud before the vote has even taken place signals their intent to have millions of voters disenfranchised this election. 

Palin, the mother of two high school dropouts, has failed to insure her children are prepared for the jobs of the 21st Century economy. She comes from a family of teachers, so this is really bizarre. Given, that education is a Heath family value to taught to her by her parents and evinced by the fact that her father and brother are schoolteachers, wow does one not conclude that she's a bad parent since her two eldest children have dropped out of high school?
I hate picking on her and her children, but she so often rhapsodizes about eduction and then does not put her money where her mouth is. If she can't keep her own children in school, how does she expect to keep the nations' children in school.

It's going to get better in the polls from here when the talk around the watercooler gets going tomorrow... McCain made a faustian bargain in picking Palin and the disrespectful tone he took in the debate while directly insulting the intelligence of the Top Dog from Harvard Law, saying he did not know the difference between tactics and strategy, will cause extreme BLOWBACK.
The Dramatic Irony of that statement coming from the all tactics and no strategy McCain Campaign was astonishingly apparent to the whole audience at my debate watching party. The double irony is that McCain was technically wrong - David Petraeus called the Surge a tactic. And then McCain said Pakistan before Musharef was a failed state? - They've had the bomb for years. You can't get things like this wrong when you consider foreign policy your strong suit - this is common knowledge. Independents and Republicans fully acknowledge that Obama is a smart man - they just might not agree with him on some of his positions - it makes McCain look dumb to attack his intelligence. 
What a week for McCain - to dis Letterman while getting caught having make up applied, screw up the stock market on Friday by trying to take credit for the bailout with his dumb stunt, suspend his campaign, try to call off the debate, and then have to show up and then pull this line of crap in the debate, makes middle of the road white males think McCain is behaving like a primadonna punk, or a premature sore loser - take your pick - he's the kid in kickball who calls a "do-ever" when he kicks a foul ball and the man in golf who constantly asks for mulligans... you just don't want to hang with this guy. 
And for the rest of Americans that don't get this stuff... Obama looked and acted 1000 times more presidential than McCain in the debate... plus Letterman was devastating. Who's going to trust a guy who lies to Letterman and gets caught live? It was like when Eric Cartman busted his funny-fuse... you just can't write this stuff. The professionalism of Olberman and Letterman to maintain composure and continue the show was phenomenal, when that hilarious McCain makeup feed came in. 
The polls will move. Obama is going to break 50 and that will come from the Independents who think McCain is a clown.

McCain was busy filming a Katie Couric interview down the street from Letterman's studio after McCain called him and told him he had to go back to Washington and cancel the Letterman Interview. During the taping Letterman saw McCain through the inter-studio monitor. Watch Letterman tonight...
THIS is it for McCain. Letterman does not suffer fools lightly.

How in the hell does the across the aisle meme being floated by the Republicans make any sense? Why should they fault Obama for not crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans on the absolutely disastrous policies the Republican Congress has enacted? 
Furthermore, if McCain crosses the aisle so frequently, as they claim, it seems an endorsement of Democrat positions, so it makes little to no sense that Obama should cross the aisle if even McCain thinks the Republicans are wrong.

Republicans can decry the cap gains tax raise, but if you compare the yearly rate of returns of the DOW during the Clinton term to either Bush I or II, investors, especially small investors are better off under democrats. Higher cap gains encourages long term investing. High volatility of the stock market syphons money out of the middle class pocket. Long term investing is the backbone of our economy... not day and insider trading.

With earmarks making up only 1/2 of one percent of the federal budget - reform will bring less than a quarter penny on the dollar, at best. 
Compared to the military budget, earmarks are a joke. When billions go missing in Iraq, why are we so focussed on Earmarks?
Democrats must keep their eye on the ball and refocus the argument to the overall federal budget, the abuse of contracting procedure by the Bush Whitehouse, and the docile Republican Congress who did not reform federal Spending. As a longtime Senator, if McCain really was a Maverick and reformer he should have gone after wasteful federal spending that goes to the Military Industrial Complex, not earmarks.
Halliburton, KBR, etc. have gotten way more pork than anyone and McCain hasn't been there to stop it. This IS his responsibility as a Senator and he failed. Instead he focussed on Earmarks - not going to reform the budget at a quarter penny on the dollar - not real reform.

Greek Revival = Democracy
Ancient Greece is widely known by anyone who has taken a civics class as the birthplace of Democracy.
It is no coincidence that the architects of Washington DC chose the Greek Revival style, rather than say Louis XIV, because they wanted to symbolize Democracy.
How long will it take the STUPID mediocre pundits to draw this connection and point out that this Republican talking point is to call the symbolism of Democracy and the opening up of the convention to ordinary people, "pretentious"