You have to vote for what the person will probably do when confronted with choices -- not what they say they will do, or want to do, or can do.

In the end, when confronted with things to be done, Obama will think about it and do a normal-person thing. McCain is not the kind of person to be his own man; he'll do what the Republicans have done.

It really is like that joke that's been making the rounds with the flight attendant... can I offer you the Chicken or the plate of shit with glass fragments.

I think we should go for the Chicken (every time).

Everyone has a different tolerance (or maybe bias) and they're not upfront with it, maybe because it hits home very emotionally for a lot of people.

Some people freak at losing 10% of the value, others freak at even a hint of recession, other freakers are concerned about depression, and I suppose at the far end they could be concerned about money losing it's notion of value.

The picture I have in my head is Gramma Walton up there on Walton's mountain; Depression; 25% unemployment, value dropping 50+% ... and even then, I wouldn't say I'm scarred shitless about it; I'd certainly be annoyed.

So it would be nice for the analysts of all sorts to state what they think bad is when they say that it could get really, really bad.

So, what's really the big deal with nukes... we still have some very nasty bombs in the arsenal like daisy cutters and bunker busters; and I'm sure there are many other kinds that I would not like to be blown-up or disintegrated or melted by.

Is the argument that we'd have to use so many of those if we really wanted to decimate people/things that doing so would become impractical and therefore we wouldn't do it?

Or is it that there's so much downwind radiation that we wouldn't just decimate "the enemy", we also befoul the neighborhood (and the neighbors)?

Or is it that the nuke industrial complex is just so much more expensive than more traditional bullets, bombs, and those new-fangled laser dazzlers, etc. ?

Or is it the combo? Why really does it matter that we have a "world without nuclear weapons" when we have a world with every other conceivable kind?

John McCain and Bible Spice.

And what's with the same moderator question every debate: given the current economic crisis and your previously announced plans, what are you going to have to cut? Answer: How the hell can any us know? The economy tanks more a differently every single day, let's see what's left when we actually get to the white house.

Oh the babies, the babies.