Even allowing for Obama hate, I'm honestly curious as to how many people would see that ad and think it could be a realistic portrayal of Obama's views.

Jerry, unless Obama responds, lots of dittoheads and maybe a few independents. I watched the damn ad a couple of times and wanted to take a shower. The visuals all but accuse Obama of being a secret child molester. It is beyond shameful.

This ad demands a really strong response. If I were Obama I would be really mad, and I would let people know just how mad I am.

The night of the first debate, Obama needs to pull a Joseph Welch to McCain's McCarthy: "Sir, have you no decency? Has your desire for the White House become such that you have let consultants prostitute you by emphasizing the base, irrelevant culture wars over issues such as economics and healthcare that genuinely affect the everyday lives of the American public?"

I'm not saying no one would believe it. I am saying I wonder what percentage of people will believe it. It's such a ridiculously stupid claim to make, I want to know how many of my fellow citizens will hear that claim, and be convinced by it.

It's the pessimist/Mencken in me.

I really would be surprised if this ad aired. It could just be for news consumption.

If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that's beyond furious

??? WTF ???

this will be, substantially, the same congress that has lifted its skirts for the owrst president in history, time and again.

they will bow down before the Mavericky Master, lest they be called rude names by the Maverick-worshipping press.

you are absolutely nuts if you think the Dems will fight McCain on anything, let alone go "berserk"

In Mencken's "boobocracy," I think that in fact many, many people will believe this ad.

That being said, if Obama wins, I'm not sure they'll be 8 years of Clinton-like problems. It's not like slick Willie didn't bring a lot of that upon himself, letting himself be the comeback kid over and over. Obama seems more mature than that.

McCain doesn't care a bit about the country, his protestations aside. He has become the people who defeated him in 2000.

And in the midst of all this, there's a pretty good chance that Sarah Palin will end up president, one way or another.

If we still have a country by then, that is.

I've never been so discouraged in my life. By putting Palin on the ticket, McCain has ratified the views of the rabid right: education is evil and a tool of the left; ergo, science is just a matter of opinion; the media is another elite, therefore discountable. Oh, yes, and we need to institutionalize Palin's exceedingly weird religious views. I get more than a little worried about someone who presumably believes in "The Rapture" having access to the nuclear codes. Do-it-yourself Armageddon, anyone?

And women who have the misfortune of being raped will just have to take (and rear) the consequences. Because life is so precious, you know.

The triumph of, what did they used to call it in more enlightened times? Oh, yes: Boobocracy.

I see that NJC beat me to it on "boobocracy."

It can't be said often enough.

1) The only people who'll believe a horseshit ad like that are already in the 28% club, and have been off Obama's radar for a long time. McCain's team seems to believe in Karl Rove's rally-the-base strategy. I think it was a loser in '06, and will be even more of a loser this year. (Which is partly my way of saying, this day's polls are strictly convention-inflated outliers. Obama's going to win handily)

2) And if Obama does, I see no reason to expect a repeat of the Clinton experience. Clinton was hobbled by being the first Dem president in a long time (the way Nixon was for the GOP), and for being elected in a minority vote. Obama will have over 50% (I'll say over 52%), much enhanced Congressional majorities, and the narrative that a Dem president is not a Halley's Comet-like occurrence. He'll have some of the deference -- from the country and press, if not the hard-cores -- that Reagan did when he swept in.

Also, if Obama refuses to get into the gutter -- as he has been doing -- and emerges triumphant, he discredits the sleaze tactics in a way Clinton never could. (Andf that Hillary would have half-legitimized by responding in kind)

IMO, McCain isn't concerned with losing. My cynical side tells me that he knows he can say anything, and twist everything. It will gain him some votes, and lose some others, but he isn't really worried about losing. Voting fraud, with machines that cannot be audited properly, is going to win for him. I hope I'm wrong, but his campaign is using tactics that even the MSM are beginning to call him on.

I was going to leave a comment about the risible idea that the Dems would be "beyond furious", but see that cleek beat me to it.

I don't see why McCain would care what Democrats think; he hasn't before and he doesn't now. All he cares about is scoring points and making Democrats crazy.

Besides - for the last 30 years there have been NO penalties for trashing the Democractic Party. Not from the Democrats, and certainly not from the press. It's past time for that to change, but it won't come from the 'centrists' or the inside the beltway Democrats. And it's not like the Democrats have a media machine on their side to echo their talking points.

The mistake, I think, is to take these attacks personally and respond personally. I'd frame a response as not about McCain having no shame, but rather McCain acting as part of a morally corrupt Republican Party bankrupt of ideas.

Don't just go after McCain in other words, go after him as just the front man for his party that shows why the McCain-Palin ticket can't and won't deliver on change. This is just more of the same they've been giving us for the last 8 years. Obama's "They must think you're stupid" talking point should be a good springboard for this.

Meanwhile, anyone want to do a viral video about "Good Touch - Bad Touch" showing McCain staring at Palin's butt and their frequent hugs? Painting McCain as a creepy old man is almost too easy.

The difference between McCain winning and Obama winning is whether you want to retire outside the US or whether your kids will.

".. another eight years of near psychotic dementia .."

umm hellooooo? Kevin? That's an accurate description of what you guys have been up to since 2000. Some would dispute the "near".

Self-awareness, much?

The Republicans have consistently won elections, in spite of their corrupt policies, because they understand that politics IS a war. And in any war, you do and say what you must to win. It is all that matters.

I don't know how we can change this. And I don't suggest that we begin behaving like them. But, Democrats will always be the losing team until we understand these basic truths.

First, I hope Obama wins; I think McCain will.

I think the level of fury depends on who gets to lead the dems - if it is Harry Reid then he will make it so hot for McCain that the maverick will be wearing a sweater during the summer. If Pelosi and Dean spearhead the opposition, then we might have a chance.

That said, the Palin pick seems like it might save a couple Rethug senate seats, so there will be even less leverage for the dems. Then we'll lose some seats in 2010 b/c people will call congress on not being responsive to their needs (b/c they won't be able to be).

Vincent, this should not wait until the debates.

I *really* would like to see Obama buy ads to counter this. With him speaking directly to the camera, explaining why the ad is a lie and why this displays how McCain has surrendered all honor.

Please! Use my money for this. McCain is a gambler, but he is all in on this. Obama has more money and more guts - and has the moral position. I hope he calls McCain sorry ass bluff.

I never expected McCain to run an honorable campaign. But I will admit I am surprised at how decisively he has decided to run the dirtiest campaign since, I don't know, 1900?

At times like this I fall back on Lincoln and his "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether".
I don't think McCain can win this one--people are tired of repeated appeals to cowardice and ignorance--but if he does, the voters swayed by fear and his Desperate Governor running mate will get the brunt of the beating he and his party will lay down.
And if the day comes that a bank board in Macao starts dictating American fiscal policy, I don't think they could do it in a more reckless manner than whomever's minding the till now.

The last time a Democrat won after a resurgence of the culture war right, we got eight years of madness, climaxing in an impeachment spectacle unlike anything we'd seen in a century.

The only way this shit will stop is if one of the old farts of the inside the beltway class calls him down on it.
This will not happen.
Being a POW (a Republican POW, that is) gives you carte blanche to say and do anything.
No shame, no accountability.

I'm beginning to wonder if this emphasis on states like Ohio and Pa makes any sense. Not that those aren't perfectly wonderful states, but it seems like the folks Obama is trying to court there are the great glob of idiots who will believe this kind of crap and gleefully circulate it among themselves. They are the same dolts who hang on every word that comes out of Sarah Palin's mouth.

Wouldn't it make more sense to set our sights on the republican business crowd? I realize that's also a tough sell, but it least we have fighting chance. Surely, with all the businesses failing or requiring bailouts, some of them are smart enough to see that their own interests have not been well served by Bush. And I KNOW they are smart enough not to believe this b.s. from McCain.

It's obvious that McCain views Obama with contempt. Also, McCain's pick of Palin isn't about governing, just getting McCain elected. We shouldn't be surprised by anything McCain does, because he will do anything to ensure he's elected. Running against someone he detests probably pisses him off, but also makes it easier to sling the lies and innuendo. This is where 527's would help. A relentless attack on his "honor," or concept of honor is called for.

So, basically, McCain is accusing Obama of being a pedophile for supporting a bill intended to teach kids about the dangers of STD's, teenage pregnancy, and child predators.

I keep thinking that a good response would prominently include the word "Bristol".

And Obama agreed to appear with McCain to commemorate 911!

Oh my god, this is hideous.

I don't think we will be in that much trouble if Obama is elected

Remember Clinton wasn't even elected with a majority- Obama will get at least 50%. Also- no one calls him "Slick Willie" and he doesn't have the famous Clenis. There just won't be that much red meat for the red meat crowd.

The GOP response to losing an election has been to make the country ungovernable for decades now. In 2000, there was an undercurrent that it would be better to let Bush win because the Dems would accept it and go home but God only knows what the GOP crazies might do. Remember the people chanting "get out of Cheney's house" outside the Naval Observatory weeks before Gore's term was over?

Something changed during the Reagan years. GOP'ers didn't like losing to Carter, but they accepted it. Since then, they seem to have lost the ability to regard any victory by the Dems as legitimate - it's a result of fraud, or trickery, or it's just wrong, dammit. Echoes of Kissinger's remark that just because the Chileans elected Allende didn't mean we had to let him keep power.

This is a problem that's a lot more basic than a biased media or an insider Village culture. I don't know how a democracy works when one of two major parties no longer accepts losing as a legitimate outcome. Given some of what we've seen over the last decade, maybe it has pretty much stopped working already.

Surprise, surprise. The Repubs aired an ad linking the black candidate to sex. The Republican Party, since 1968 the proud home of bigots.

I really hate to disagree. But I think in about 5 min, we will have ol' Hotair Harry sayin' that for the good of the country, we have to leave the vitriol of the campaign behind us, and start to govern (cave) with my good friend John McCain.

Some 527 needs to make an ad with a man speaking to a small audience of all men, the speaker looks like McCain but with his back to the camera, telling the joke that McCain told about Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno.

Don’t think that midwestern Hillary supporters would appreciate that too much.

Soooo you're saying that it will take 5 months for elected Dems to get upset?

Thats not surprise in my voice, its cynicism. I hate what I'm feeling right now--what I've been feeling since '06. I wonder how many people can stand to continually vote for these people. I know I can't.

I know "Rome wasn't built in a day", but it wasn't built on such a festering pool of ineptitude either.

the role of the media, the Fourth Estate, is to act as a referee. For a long while now, it has avoided that responsibility, but the McCain campaign is forcing a re-think, at least among some journalists. How it will turn out, though, I don't know. Thank God for the internet and blogs, because otherwise we'd be screwed totally.

This ad already has aired. I saw it in St. Louis.

Look, I've seen some trash in my day, but this is the lowest piece of disgusting garbage ever, period.

John McCain has NO honor left. None.

This is the most disgraceful ad ever. No contest.

This also shows how it IS about the lies. We can't play the game on their terms, because our side is still decent - Republicans are indecent.

At least we know what we're up against. Now we know they'll stop at NOTHING. Nothing.

Now what?

What sort of man spends his whole life talking about honor, only to piss all over the concept once he nears the pinnacle? A complete scumbag, that's who.

This is why they called him McNasty. Aside from his POW experience, McCain really hasn't been a man of honor. Fight back! Bring up the fact that he graduated at the bottom of his Naval Academy class. Let's remind voters how John Mccain tossed his first wife and children aside like garbage so he could marry a millionaires daughter. Lets remind voters how he stuffed Charlie Keatings dirty bribe money into his pockets just before keatings Crooked S&L went under. Lets show McCain debating himself with his flip-flopping, before-and- after 2008 positions on the issues.

Of course, there is a still significant chance of an Obama blowout. If Obama blows out McCain, the GOP MAY decide to rebuild and move away from the politics of personal destruction and actually develop a policy platform again. Meanwhile, the new president, working with a sizable congressional majority, passes an undeniable progressive legislative platform.

Keep the faith, this is a realistic scenario.

McCain's dishonor is amplified immensely if you consider the fact that Obama has always prefaced his criticisms of McCain's polices by an acknowledge of his service to the nation.

McCain is a real douchebag.

instead of firing back ads, there's a simple solution for Obama: call a news conference and go ape-shit over the McCain campaign. It will get the attention of the press, it will get widely covered (I bet they'll love it), and it won't cost a dime.

For what it's worth, Mark Halperin was virtually frothing at the mouth tonight on Anderson Cooper, about the coverage the media is giving to the "lipstick on a pig" quote. He really landed into Cooper and said the people scheduling the shows' contents were to blame for giving this issue one moment of air time.

He and Gergen are clearly worried about the McCain ascendancy, but Halperin (like the MSNBC crew) was also really angry. McCain may have made a mistake by making the press the enemy at the convention.

Let us hope. Or pray. Or prey.

"Have you no decency, sir?" is a line that needs to be uttered by someone in a very public forum.

This ad IS inching up toward some sort of child abuse line.

McCain is a disgrace.

JimP: "his campaign is using tactics that even the MSM are beginning to call him on."

LOL, this reminds me of the Python "Piranha Brothers" sketch: "Even the police began to sit up and take notice."

instead of firing back ads, there's a simple solution for Obama: call a news conference and go ape-shit over the McCain campaign.

Uh-uh.

Angry Black Man. Median Voter does not want.

There is a -- perhaps -- apochrphal story which puts the bind that this add puts Obama into...

The story goes that LBJ told his campaign manager to put out an ad calling his opponent a "pig fucker". The manager, shocked by this said "I can't do that, it's not true!". Johnson answered, "I know, but I just want to hear him deny it!".

The problem, as blogged here and in many other places, is that repudiating a lie seems to reinforce it in the public mind. The press ought to be doing its job here, but of course that will not happen. In that case, how is one to deal with attacks of this sort?

It's not true? Really? Aw shucks. If things don't work out we're gonna have a leering old guy who's one Viagra away from an MI as Prez and lying through her lipstick trailer trash as VP. What we gonna do?

"...unloosing..."

A small error, there. You probably intended either unleashing or let loose and accidentally combined the two into a neologism that literally means exactly the opposite of what you intended.

The vast majority of the electorate think that man was created "according to God's plan".
A near majority think that all creation (including Man) has happened within the last 10K years!
86% Of the US population think there is a God, only 70% think there is a Devil.
Hell is less popular than heaven by about 15%.
We have had 8 years of Bu$hco and the election seems to be a near tie.
Any questions, any answers?

John Sully's post is the correct description of the spot we find ourselves in.

If you are basically decent, how do you win against an opponent who is willing to cross all lines, willing to say or do anything to win?

If McCain wins, particularly if he does so using these tactics, this country will be tipped into a long decline. Rule of law is essential to a succesful democracy. Whatever the conservatives have done the last 8 years, including the way they grab power, is a clear declaration that they don't give a damn about morality and law. We are one election away from turning into Russia -- an Oligarchy.

I know it's wrong.

I know I shouldn't feel this way.

But now, after this latest child molester smear, I'm not just opposed to the conservatives.

I hate them.

If you are basically decent, how do you win against an opponent who is willing to cross all lines, willing to say or do anything to win?

This is where you need a referee with some semblance of honesty and an audience (voters) with some common sense. If McCain wins, it is more a reflection of the country's sad state than a reflection of McCain's lack of decency. There are millions of people who want to grab power by hook or crook; it is the responsibility of the democratic institutions, and ultimately the people, to separate the gem from garbage.

If you are basically decent, how do you win against an opponent who is willing to cross all lines
That is why someone in the press has to call McCain down on this. In person, on TV.
"John, why are you running adds that you know are lies."

A near majority think that all creation (including Man) has happened within the last 10K years!

Seriously?

Oh my.

A black man, sex, and children. We knew that was coming, didn’t we?

Okay, I just watched the ad again. There is one picture of children, all of them white, far as I can tell. And the next image is of Obama, looking down and over his shoulder, with a smile on his face.

It's not subtle.

Take a close look and tell me I'm wrong.

It's not an ad about sex education.

Here it is on TPM:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/new_mccain_ad_badly_distorts_o_1.php

How to respond? John McCain. Keeping the world safe for pedophiles.

Joseph Miller,
If you hate the mofos so much, quit wasting your time here. Get out there and do something. Call friends, debate family, write letters to the editor. Piss off your conservative neighbors. Tell them the truth, McCain might love America, but he sure as hell hates Americans. Do something tonight, tomorrow, and every day until the election. Help get out the vote.

TPM reports:

Sarah Palin was warned by a judge in 2005 that her harassment of her sister's ex-husband Mike Wooten amounted to "a form of child abuse".

So there you have it. The ad was a preemptive strike.

Obama, unlike Clinton, seems to have enough self-discipline to avoid giving the Republicans such a good target.

Since when do campaign commercials have pictures of the opponent SMILING?

Only when he's leering at children, I suspect.

I think this ad is more odious than is being acknowledged.

Ron Byers, I HAVE taken action. Check this page out and spread it to EVERYONE you know:

http://jamillerrampant.blogspot.com/2008/09/j-millers-insanely-useful-action-post.html

If only Democrats could do anything besides cry and go tell the teacher they are being bullied. The fact that the Obama campaign has gone fetal when attacked by McCain simply proves his unfitness for command.

John McCain has won the election by being the tougher, smarter, and better candidate. You may not like the spin of the ad, but that doesn't matter. The fact that the ad is arguably false (and it is arguable, not certain) doesn't matter. Obama couldn't play the game -- he wasn't tough or smart enough. That's why he lost the election.

And what if Obama wins? The last time a Democrat won after a resurgence of the culture war right, we got eight years of madness, climaxing in an impeachment spectacle unlike anything we'd seen in a century.

The reason the GOP was able to do this was because in '94 they won both houses of Congress in a massive, realigning victory. If you think they'll repeat the same trick in 2010, you're dreaming.

What made the '94 GOP victory possible was a temporary alignment of history and politics. The South, long a Democratic stronghold, was finally yielding to the switchover of its white electorate to the Republicans. Gingrich's majority was made possible because the last few white southern Democrats were swept out of office in red America. Yet at the same time, there were still decent numbers of Republicans representing the blue northeastern states, so the GOP had numerical supremacy in both the House and Senate.

The years since have seen a slow chipping away of the GOP majority, followed by its complete collapse in 2006. This has happened because the remaining Republicans from blue states have retired or been defeated (I believe there is now only one GOP representative from all of New England, for example).

Nor is there any possibility that the GOP will sweep back to power anytime soon. After probably losing (many) seats in the upcoming election, they are more likely to lose even more in 2010.

After the election the rump GOP in Congress may well be boiling mad and spitting fire, but they won't have the numbers to be anything other than an impotent nuisance to an Obama administration.

And if the Dems are smart, they'll use their newly won executive power to weaken the Wurlitzer, by resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine (eliminating right wing AM radio at a stroke) and other measures to be discussed later.

Rock (head): This thing ain't over yet, pal. It's time to tell America how McCain cheated on his loyal, seriously injured first wife (because she no longer met his standards), started screwing the woman who is his current wife while he was still married to the first one, and dumped his first wife like she was a piece of garbage.

Don't count your chickens, pal. The people who still care about America will whip that son of a bitch McCain and his goddamned Caribou Barbie yet.

"Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV."

Comprehensive sex education for 5 year olds to include "instruction in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections".

These details will be aired, and Obama will stutter and claim pay grade deficiency when trying to address them. The ad is tough. But the ad is accurate.

The ad is lying bullshit, and Rock is spreading propaganda:

http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/789668.html

From Kansas City.com:

What happened: A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach " 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

Why that's [the ad] wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.

But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

Republican Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex..

The ad is goddamned lie. Period.

Obama needs to ask at least once every speech: Senator McCain, when are you going to stop slinging mud and sleaze, when are you going to stop lying to the American people about my record and my family, and come and debate the future of the country with me ? He needs to say exactly this without using euphemisms for mud, sleaze, and lies.

Another idea: How about a clock which counts the number of days since the McCain campaign stopped slinging mud, sleaze, and lies ?
What I am getting at here is that you don't answer each charge, instead you repeat the message I suggested in the post before this one every single day. Answering lies as they come out just gets you bogged down in their campaign. I think Obama instinctively recognizes this, but he has to do something about the daily onslaught that's coming for the next eight weeks. If you answer every new lie with the same message, you are alerting the people to the fact that the entire suite of republican lies is composed of the same rank garbage.

The standard reply for any of these attacks should be one that begins along the lines of "The Republicans are so desperate and afraid that they have to resort to this sort of dishonest claim." Drive home the fact that they are scared.

Republicans are paranoid cowards, once you scratch the surface. Part of why they are so good at playing on fears is because they live in fear. It's the root of their attacks as they lash out in constant desperation. It's time to repeat that fact, hammer it home.

I think the reaction to this child sex ad will be enormous, and will pop the mcpalin bubble. Obama need not, and should not, do or say anything.

"They (Dems)won't even return McCain's phone calls, let alone work with him on legislation. It'll be four years of all-out war."

If only that were true. What we've learned from our Democratic "leaders" in the last two years is that they are pathologically driven to bend over and spread 'em for Republican bullies, no matter how destructive to their own party, or the country.

Clearly the most credulous people in the United States are the Evangelicals who think that the Republicans care about them. They keep voting for these liars and the liars do absolutely nothing to help them.

Republicans do not support the values of conservative Christians.

I'm an atheist but was raised a Christian, and this theater of piety presented by the McCain campaign is a travesty of Christian ethics.

Where are the religious leaders to denounce the spectacle of McCain/Palin lying through their teeth and bearing false witness?

Hey Gibson, why don't you ask Palin:

For what does it advantage a man to gain the whole world and pay for it with his life?

I think the reaction to this child sex ad will be enormous, and will pop the mcpalin bubble. Obama need not, and should not, do or say anything.

Posted by: fel on 09/10/08 at 5:58 AM

You'd like to think it, but based upon what I've read and heard the past few hours, not so. The MSM is more concerned with "lipstick on a pig," a nice, easy soundbite to digest. Detailing the utter lie of this ad takes time and explanation (albeit simple).

Obama needs to take the initiative on this, and do it now. Otherwise, the right-wing punks -- and that's what they are, punks, bullies -- have won.

"...Barack Obama wants to teach your five-year-old how to put on a condom."

Maybe if someone had taught young Levi Johnston how to do this, the Palin family would not have had to make an embarrassing announcement.

freelunch:

Clearly the most credulous people in the United States are the Evangelicals who think that the Republicans care about them.

I thought they were finally starting to catch on. But McCain waved a shiny Palin at them and they reflexively knelt down to worship. Yes, she has an extreme fundamentalist faith, but she seems to make a point of not bringing it to work. She hasn't pushed creationism in the school curriculums and she hasn't done anything I know of to agitate against abortion. This looks exactly like the usual Republican practice of unkept promises to Evangelicals.

I'm not convinced that McCain would really want to unleash the furor that would ensue if Roe v Wade were reversed. However, if Palin became president she would almost certainly try to appoint a judge who would try to overturn Roe v Wade.

So, if McCain were elected and something happened to him, the Evangelicals might attain their long-promised reward. So maybe their support of Republicans makes sense in this case.

Kevin wrote: "If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that's beyond furious."

If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that is as cowardly and supine as it has been since 2000.

A few Democrats like Dennis Kucinich will no doubt stand up to a Palin-McCain administration, but they will be ostracized, marginalized and ridiculed by the Democratic leadership as well as the corporate-owned mass media, and any proposals they bring forward will be declared "off the table" by the Democratic leadership.

Kevin says: "If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that's beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk. They won't even return McCain's phone calls, let alone work with him on legislation. It'll be four years of all-out war."

To which I say: Dream on. I wish it were so, but all Democrats have done for years and years and years is just rollover and do what they are told by the reThugnants and the faux news-driven MSM. I've have told friends for years and years and years [since at least 1996] that what the Democrats need is knife wielders, back stabbers, bomb throwers, but it just hasn't happened. Why should it happen now when the reThugnants are running their usual style of campaign? Democrats have been socialized into being nice and having ideas about governing, and that socialization will kick in again on January 2.

Derek

If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that's beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk. They won't even return McCain's phone calls, let alone work with him on legislation. It'll be four years of all-out war.

Which Congress are you referring to? The Congress that has rolled over repeatedly when it comes to executive branch law breaking? The Senate that can barely stand up to Joe Liberman? All out war? In our dreams. No this is a Congress that will, sadly, supinely roll over and do what ever the Commander and Chief want. And the press will line up with the Republicans.

If McCain/Palin are elected it will finish off our republic as we know it. And Congress will no more stand in the way of McCain/Palin than the Roman Senate stood in the way of Caesar.

After eight years of Bush/Cheney, an unnecessary war that has bankrupted us and law breaking and corruption that would shock Nixon, the voters know who the Republicans are. McCain is on of the most pathetic and weak candidates I've ever seen. If, in the face of all of this, McCain is still elected, then, tragically, our country will have gotten what it deserves.

I don't know of a better system of government, but the election of McCain would show that our form of government fundamentally doesn't work. McCain will be elected for one reason only: because many people in the US still cannot accept a man with more melanin in his skin than they have serving as President of the United States.

"It'll be four years of all-out war." And McCain is thinking: "Wow! I can't wait. It's what my family does."

You all have made such spot-on comments. This is my first visit to this blog - hopefully the first of many.

Perhaps we are witnessing the perfect example why Democrats should not be in power. They're gutless. They would rather educate all of us dummies than actually win a tough, contested election.

The beserk Democratic Congress would be great, were it to be true. But, we've seen time and time again, that it only takes a few blue dogs to knuckle under and we lose.

If I could suggest an appropriate response to this latest smear, I would suggest something like this:

"Just like bugs in the summer; the lies of the McCain campaign are getting bigger every week."

I was actually thinking about that the other day--WWCD? If they pursue the "lame duck" approach in McCain's first term, can you imagine what the 2010 congressional elections are going to look like? I don't want to.

So, some repugnant skirt-lifting might be the only chance to maintain the Democratic majority. Even though, what kind of "Democratic" majority would that be? It's like a Catch-22, and I can't figure it out ...

The past 24 hours have been so deliriously awful that I'm nearly comatose. Maybe that's the right's whole plan.
But Kevin, I'm pretty sure you either meant "loosened" or "unleashed," not "unloosened," which is akin to the hot water heater and unthawing the meat.

Oops ... obviously I meant "unloosed," the word Kevin used ...
Told you I was comatose.

For me, the difference in the outcome of the upcoming election means this: if the O/B ticket loses, I'm emigrating before we hit the wall. After impact, Americans will have a harder time moving to other countries than Mexicans (hell, everybody) have moving here now. The world's memory of how badly we've screwed the pooch will be generational in scope.
Think electric fences with surveillance, dog patrols and Immigration Enforcement for us rather than by us. It'll be a regular hootinanny.
I'm neither being facetious nor attempting pithy humor here, I'm gone. It's too hard to continue to be this ashamed of my country, which is on the express train to becoming the greatest unrealized potential of this age. Some would say we're there; they'd get no argument from me. I'm packing in advance. What might have been, eh?
And just so you know my demographic, I'm a native born-and-raised veteran boomer.
It's a poignant dichotomy that so many early settlers of this country came here to get away from funky politics, religions or conditions and now their heirs are stuck with all three.
Seems it's the epitome of the word antithetical to me. We stand on the cusp of our future in toto, so keep your head on a swivel. We're about out of chances.

American Victory in Iraq is both necessary and achievable. Victory means political stability and bases for US troops in the ME. President John McCain will build 45 nuclear plants to increase American energy independence. We are free to control our futures and our destinies. That's what conservatism is all about and under John McCain and Sarah Palin, Republicans and Dems just might get used to doing the hard work to build a bright future.

We tried to warn you. We tried to tell you that the person to nominate was someone who had already been through this crucible.

But no, you had to pick a shiny new toy. Just wait until the Republicans start going through HIS baggage, though. It ain't gonna be pretty.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

The system is "working."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6lCBnRoHQ

"John McCain has won the election by being the tougher, smarter, and better candidate. You may not like the spin of the ad, but that doesn't matter. The fact that the ad is arguably false (and it is arguable, not certain) doesn't matter. Obama couldn't play the game -- he wasn't tough or smart enough. That's why he lost the election."

I don't know what planet you're living on, but on this one it's only September 12th.

Obama wants someone other than the parents to teach the children about sexual misconduct. Why is it the libs always want complete control of your life from birth, if you are lucky enough to be born, to death. They went to the elite schools, they know everything that is the best for you. Problem is we have been living in a civilized society for hundreds of years. The libs, the party of death, have no morals, are unpatriotic (especially Obama) and are ruining our great nation.

For the GOP, making the country ungovernable is a feature, not a bug.

Sounds like you've forgotten every Republican campaign since Nixon. McCain has yet to approach the level of sleaze and smear of any Republican campaign in the 70s, 80s or 90s. He has a good bit lower to go.

We ain't seen nothin' yet.