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Posted at 10:00AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Ted Kennedy's speech was pretty good too:

Posted at 10:10AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Michelle Obama is incredibly eloquent and empowering. She really does give Barry a run for his money.
Unfortunately, I can see the right wing smears coming. I just hope that things don't devolve too much as the race heats up.

Posted at 10:28AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Four more years :-)

Posted at 10:30AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Yeah dont fuck up. Vote for the candidate with integrity and a long history of non partisan legislation rather than the charismatic preacher.

Posted at 10:32AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Unfortunately, I can see the right wing smears coming.

After the US MSM decided that McCain came off best at that recent faith forum conversation thingy with The Purpose-Driven Life Guy (I mean, seriously, WTF on so many levels), I lost most of my hope. It was so clear to me that McCain came across like a complete douche, and that Obama was thoughtful and considered; but hey, it was also clear to me in 2000 that Bush was a stupid asshole, and he won. Twice.

If Obama pulls this out, I will be stunned. Thrilled, and stunned.

Posted at 10:33AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Because I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking: America, please don't fuck this up.

That's what I thought and earnestly hoped for last time, yet the fuck-up was returned to Office, legitimately or otherwise.

The last two elections have made me extremely cynical, to the point that I'm now rather torn between the "please don't fuck this up (again)" camp, and the "I don't give a fuck" camp.

I think I've just resolved my position in favour of the latter, for what it's worth. ... Not much. ;-)

Posted at 10:35AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Yeah dont fuck up. Vote for the candidate with integrity and a long history of non partisan legislation rather than the charismatic preacher.

Alternatively, don't vote for the one who is certifiably mad as a meat-axe.

Oh darn, I'm starting to care again ... thanks RB!!

Posted at 10:38AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Because I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking: America, please don't fuck this up.

Oh god I totally agree with you, you just sit there open mouthed gaping at the gallup website that tells you that McCain has pulled ahead for the first time since the campaign began proper.

But as has been pointed out, what point hope when a nation returns George Bush with a bigger (nee actual) majority.

Posted at 10:40AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Yeah dont fuck up. Vote for the candidate with integrity and a long history of non partisan legislation rather than the charismatic preacher.

Sigh ... keep trying. I'm fairly well aware of the respective nominees' policy platforms, from healthcare and reproductive rights to foreign affairs (where, as I've explained, the people advising McCain are flat-out scary).

I'm also aware that while Obama isn't perfect, his platform on internet and copyright issues -- geek politics -- is intelligent and informed to a degree that may well be unprecedented in such a senior political figure anywhere.

Now tell me what you love about McCain's policies.

Posted at 10:43AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

After the US MSM decided that McCain came off best at that recent faith forum conversation thingy with The Purpose-Driven Life Guy (I mean, seriously, WTF on so many levels), I lost most of my hope.

I thought Rick Warren's questions were SO much better than the idiotic 'gotcha' topics that came up during the primary debates. Granted, Warren's questions were mostly about character not policy but that's still a vast improvement over the sustained trivial idiocy of the network debates.

I suspect that the questions about character and personal belief (though not that important to me) were of great interest to the majority of American voters - much more so than Reverend Wright and why Obama doesn't wear a flag lapel.

Posted at 10:47AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

If Obama pulls this out, I will be stunned. Thrilled, and stunned.

He came out of a bruising primary process ahead in the head to heads with McCain. He's remained ahead in the heads to heads with McCain. The "no-toss up states" metric is just bs, as any pollster would admit, and most polls are unable to account for documented the surge in voter registration among democrats, or the likely surge among young people and minorities. To top it off, he's consistently outperformed polls wheneve actual elections have been held.

The campaign hasn't even started, and he's twice the campaigner and twenty times the public speaker as McCain. He's going to be able to play around with a lot more money than McCain.

He has better surrogates. Moderate republicans are not even going to the convention. McCain will be the first person in history to enjoy a convention dip in the polls, after the most unpopular president in history gives him a half-hearted endorsment on national television. People are running away from his VP spot. He'll be lucky if he gets Romney, and Romney is a huge douche whom the voters despise.

It's going to be a thing of Lyndon Johnsonesque proportions. You mark my words.

And if it isn't, I have plenty or recipes for humble pie that I'll be sharing with you all on November 5th.

Posted at 10:49AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

I thought Rick Warren's questions were SO much better than the idiotic 'gotcha' topics that came up during the primary debates.

Oh, agreed. It's quite worrying that the most useful lines of questioning come from satirists (Stewart, Colbert, occasionally Letterman) and Rick freaking Warren, though. Plus I do find this 'make your Christianity paramount in the election' thing so disturbing. Church. State. Separation. Work on it, USA!

(The Purpose-Driven Life is sitting on one of our bookshelves at home. My husband's family in Texas gave it to us for Xmas when we visited in 2004. A not-very-subtle hint to forgo our heathen ways, I believe. It didn't work, obviously.)

Posted at 10:52AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Now tell me what you love about McCain's policies.

Quite probably they want another hawk. That or they want him because of his fervent Christianity. Or both.
Whilst having enormous respect for how he acted while a PoW, I just don't want to imagine how much worse the world will get if there's another hawkish POTUS. Dubbyah's administration has done a stellar job of making the US global enemy number one, and McCain doesn't seem to have all that much in the way of his own thoughts on interventionist policies. Dialogue? What's that? What do you mean we can't just go invading other countries because they've pissed us off?

Obama's not perfect, by any stretch, but I can live more easily with an isolationist than an interventionist. Ideally US politicians would tell their domestic lobbies to STFU and walk the free-market talk that they insist everyone else follow, but until that happens it's better that the US not try and force their own broken ideals onto others.

Posted at 10:52AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

It's going to be a thing of Lyndon Johnsonesque proportions. You mark my words.

My rugby watching mates and I have a rule whereby whenever Dan Carter lines up a kick, we abuse the shit out of him, his kicking ability, the way he's wearing his hair, whatever we can think of to ensure we don't hex him.

Giovanni my friend, I hope you haven't commited the ultimate hex.

Posted at 10:53AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

free trade, campaign finance reform, the surge, strength in deomcracy, not "peace in our time " appeasement.

compare that with a tech policy written by his campaign fundraisers. big deal for barry

Posted at 10:55AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Giovanni my friend, I hope you haven't commited the ultimate hex.

See, I'm Italian and we have a proven remedy for that, so I can assure you that whilst writing that I had a hand firmly planted on my... Which accounts for the slow typing.

Posted at 10:55AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Sage old chap, what do you think about McCain's stance on reproductive rights?

Posted at 11:00AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

slash pork, simplify taxes...be willing to fight your own party over what is right rather than blind tribal allegiance

need i go on?

Posted at 11:02AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

Plus I do find this 'make your Christianity paramount in the election' thing so disturbing. Church. State. Separation. Work on it, USA!

Yeah, it is funny. They have technical separation, in that there's no official religion (which is, after all, what separation is all about), but with POTUS being expected to be a "rah rah rah" Christian it's pretty notional. For such a "progressive" country they're stupidly conservative. We've got a woman who's at least agnostic, and nobody really pays that much attention except for the raving fundies. It's certainly not of importance to a major portion of the electorate. But Helen would be pretty much unelectable in the US for her religious views alone, even if the US was finally able to reach a point of sufficient enlightenment that a woman could make it to the top.

The Political Compass view of the US presidential primaries candidates for this election is quite amusing, not least for the little blurb at the top.

Posted at 11:03AM on 27 Aug 08. Permalink.

be willing to fight your own party over what is right rather than blind tribal allegiance

...until the 'maverick' narrative stops being useful and you decide you really need to be president this time around, so you start cosying up to the religious right and giving George Bush lots of hugs...