What A Real Leader Does

A real leader raises the level of public discourse. A real leader speaks to the public like equals. A real leaders does not dumb things down.
Joe Klein on Barack Obama – “Why Brack Obama is Winning”.
He seemed to be thinking in my presence, rather than just reciting talking points, and it took him some time [...]

Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic:
McCain feels with his heart, but he thinks with his base. And when he picked Sarah Palin, he told the United States of America to go fuck itself.

“Here’s to doing the right thing.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic writes a lyrical and poignant post about race and parenting in America and Obama’s grandparents.

The Powell Endorsement

Watch the show here.
This is huge. I think this story is going to dominate the press for the next 2-3 days. What does that mean? No news coverage for McCain.
Powell’s performance on Meet The Press was fantastic. He presented a clear, logical, measured argument for Obama. He was kind to McCain – he cited his [...]

“Rope a Dope”

Andrew Sullivan discusses why “Barack Obama’s strategy of calm is provoking his rival into fatal errors.”
McCain never seemed to learn from the Clintons’ misjudgment of their rival. A key element of Obama’s strategy is classic rope-a-dope. He gets his opponents to splutter with irritation as “that one”, as McCain contemptuously described Obama in last Tuesday’s [...]

What McCain Is Doing

Sullivan sums it up well. I am getting more scared, angry, frustrated, and disgusted every minute:

There was always going to be a point of revolt and panic for a core group of Americans who believe that Obama simply cannotbe president – because he’s black or liberal or young or relatively new. This is that point. [...]

From the Desk of Mo Dowd

John McCain cynically picked a running mate with less care than theater directors give to picking a leading actor’s understudy. More…

Behind Every Angry Woman…

…is John McCain apparently. I am so disgusted by the fact that he is using this woman to smear Obama on his behalf. If he REALLY believed in the Wright and Ayers lies, then he should have brought it up during the debate last night.
What a pussy.

The View From Inside a Palin Rally

Linda Milazzo reports on her experiences inside a Palin rally on AlterNet:
Among this raptured crowd of 20,000 was a frightening mix of Christian zealots, anti-abortion fanatics, and mostly white suburban women and men reconnecting with their high school mentality. Bright colored pom-poms were everywhere — as if Sarah Palin were head cheerleader, the women were [...]

Jonathan Chait Is In Love

Obama Crushes McCain

We miss you, Molly

What’s missing from this election? Molly Ivins.

McCain = Dean

Joe Klein writes about Obama’s steadiness.
“… I thought of Karl Rove. Back in 2003, at the height of Howard Dean mania, Rove was skeptical about Dean’s staying power as a candidate: “When was the last time Americans elected an angry President?”
The far left is constantly screeching about how Obama needs to be more “angry”. Sure, there [...]

Holy %^&!

From Quinnipiac University poll:
FLORIDA: Obama 51, McCain 43

OHIO: Obama 50, McCain 42

PENNSYLVANIA: Obama 54, McCain 39
Dates conducted: Sept. 27-29. Error margin: 3.4 percentage points.
*
Why? McCain has had three horrible weeks… the Palin downspiral keeps spiraling downward, his campaign suspension stunt produced no results (he did not event SPEAK in the meeting at the White House, [...]

Bad Actress

Random Thoughts From an Ordinary Person
You know there are a lot of good actors out there. You give them a great script, then rehearse, and direct the heck out of them. Of course they need to look the part, so you bring in the crew to adjust and tweak hair, make up and costumes. It [...]