But we all need a little hope in our lives especially when thinking about American politics so I thought I’d report that 9th of September CNN polls in the key “toss-up” states Ohio, Michigan and New Hampshire have all had 2% swings towards Obama/Biden, moving from a 2% gap to a 4+5% gap in Obama’s favour. This is despite the first Palin-era poll in Virginia going towards McCain. These 3 positive states are enough, with those states already solidly Democrat, to give the election to Obama, as long as the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene and stop the election again. Although Pennsylvania is narrowing Joe Biden comes from the next door state which should help. So there is some hope.

I’m not trying to say Obama will solve America’s problems and that this will solve the world’s problems – America is not the hope of the world it’s just that, if it keeps going the way it’s been going, it’ll go down and take the whole world down with it. Dave is right to lessen expectations. It will take many years just to avoid disaster. We only hope America can save itself.  . . read more

What's depressing about this is how well the McCain campaign's swim in the sewer is working. A nice kid I know who works at our local garage told me that he couldn't vote for Obama, despite liking his policies, "because he'll take his oath of office on the Koran." Aside from the anti-Muslim bias inherent in this statement, it is based upon false information being spread virally through the internet falsely claiming, on the basis of no evidence, that Obama is a secret Muslim...

People on the left may wish that Obama were a more overtly progressive and more expressly anti-war candidate... But let's get real here for a minute. With the black-baiting that is going on by the other side, and the gullible and terribly uninformed or even misinformed electorate out there, and with a national media that will simply repeat and spread whatever bilious and false charges are made by the McCain campaign, what chance on earth would a candidate like Obama have if he were to call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, or for a government-run medical insurance program? [More] . . read more

My criticism of Palin should not be construed as uncritical acceptance of Obama. Needless to say, I find Obama's religious pandering repulsive. The suspicion that he is pandering, out of obvious necessity, and not quite as religious as he makes out, is somewhat comforting, however. But even if Obama were precisely as religious as he appears, he is not a Creationist, Rapture-Ready blockhead. Palin, by all appearances, seems to be one. This is a difference worth noting. Whatever you may think of his politics, Obama is very intelligent and reasonably well educated. Palin thinks the universe is 6000 years old...

So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. . . read more

Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that's precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don't look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves... This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism.

Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be U.S. president, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages - and loses - both necessary and unnecessary wars. McCain has so little respect for the presidency that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. [More] . . read more

I DON'T WANT A PRESIDENT THAT THE REPUBLICANS LIKE. I don't want to make nice with them, as Obama always says. I want to have them tried for war crimes and put in jail for subverting democracy and the Constitution. Obama's wife built her fortune evicting poor people from their homes if they couldn't pay their inflated hospital bills. And he had the nerve to say about Edwards "do we want another trial lawyer in the White House?"

Obama has been absent for more votes in the Senate than present and when he is there, he usually votes "present"; not for or against. He will not make a real stand on anything. He uses the world "change" like Rudi Giuliani used 9/11. What change? What will he change? Let's see some concrete substance, not just catch phrases, sound bites. Saying the word change a lot does not make it happen. What's the change? No more Bush? McCain will beat him and it will be the end of America. I think it already is. What's next? Dancing with the Stars or American Idol? You would think America would have learned where smugness and arrogance leads. He has no humility. He is cocky and brash. He is the perfect president for the dumbed down Americans that love him, but he will lose. The media has been pushing for him from day one, because they are told to by their bosses Murdoch, etc. Why? Why does the media love Obama? Because he can't beat a Republican thug. [More Doglove]  . . read more

At the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten, Obama extracted Old Glory from the burn-pile and gave Brand America a desperately needed shot of adrenaline. 200,000 ecstatic Germans jammed the streets in what turned out to be the political shindig of the year. Many of them were waving American flags and chanting, "Obama, Obama, Obama". It was like Jack Kennedy had risen from his moldy sepulcher and made his way across the pond for one last rousing ovation. Obama has the very same affect on crowds. Its a gift and he knows how to use it to great advantage...

What can we say about Obama's oratory skills that hasn't already been said? He is one of those unique characters who knows how to tap into the collective psyche and put them under his spell. He is the closest thing to a Pied Piper we've seen in the last half century. Whatever one thinks of his politics, his speeches are a welcome reprieve from the simian blabbering of President Dimwit. [More] . . read more

How did we get here? Shrillary, Obomanation, McPain, Huckleberry… and now Ralph the Fader is back in the “chase”? These are the people that we actually talk about as serious contenders for the worlds most important job title?!

If we consider them, we deserve the hell that comes with them. Our children do not, but we baby boomers deserve what we get. America is sooooo screwed! [More] . . read more

To woo his cultural, religious base, McCain unleashed his light saber in the guise of a well coiffed, moose hunting pit bull named Sarah Palin. The Vice President candidate, governor of Alaska, came out with fisticuffs and blazing guns, playing the role of aggressive, go get ‘em “drill sergeant” as a foil to McCain’s persona as the wise, calm but forceful General.

Palin unveiled herself as a fascinating, political Frankenstein. Like the computer-designed woman in the movie Weird Science, she seems to be the perfect wet dream composite as imagined by lustful and passionate right wing, radical Republican teenage boys. She’s a salmon fishing, Bible thumping, pistol packing, hockey mom who can hunt a moose, skin it, make a burger out of it for lunch, catch the pastor’s Sunday sermon, and also find time to wear a sexy - but not butch - power suit the following day for a press conference. And, according to her drooling, Conservative acolytes, she thankfully doesn’t look “lesbian-y” and aggressively intimidating like that alleged man-hating ogre Hillary Clinton. [More] . . read more

For those who don’t know America well, big white weddings with all the trimmings remain - despite the social and sexual upheavals of the last half century, despite wars and threats of wars - an important part of popular culture... It is by appealing to such boiled-frosting, satin-ribbon fantasies that Republicans hope to push John McCain over the campaign finish line and into the White House. The last week or two of the campaign would be ideal timing, surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin in a fluffy, sugar-sprinkled haze. Imagine voting against the distinguished-looking old man in a tuxedo on the front pew with the beneficent countenance of a proud grandfather? Or the mother, gowned rather than in mukluks and hunting gear, eyes moist, watching “her baby” march to the alter?

Clearly, this is not matter on which an election anywhere should rest, much less in the world’s most powerful country, one staggering through war and financial crisis. Indeed, the Republican campaign, as it well deserves, has faltered on the merits. McCain is a tired old man with a sour temperament and a narcissistic personality who picked as his sidekick a person who would have reached the limits of her talent as captain of a cheerleading squad. Although certainly not the limits of her ambitions, but isn’t that what America is about, your reach exceeding your talent? [More] . . read more