DISQUS

Lets face the facts: the Left Behind series of books was enormously popular. A Sarah Palin - who to this day still has a favorable rating among Republicans of over 60% - has a huge target market.

Hitting this market with the assistance of a good ghostwriter and a savvy editor couldn't be an easier toss.

Sarah Palin is not going anywhere. Watch for her soon to be bragging about her NY Times bestseller!

A metaphysical treatise on marriage. Excellent!

I was in CA on Election Day (sojourning from my Florida habitat) and i was disappointed to see the passage of this sad initiative in both of those states. Here is my take: to describe something as a "right" is to affirm its universality. If something is limited to a select set of humans, then it cannot be described as a right.

NB - the Declaration of Independence: "We are endowed by Our Creator with certain inalienable rights".

Inalienable: unchanging.

Our Creator: these rights are not made by man and cannot be taken away by man.

On a more basic level, our constitution protects minorities from the tyranny of the majority. That the majority cannot gather together to vote away the rights of a minority is well established in our law. These propositions must be overturned by our courts, or our concept of justice will crumble under the weight of our hypocrisy.

Interesting point here - in that we cannot just say 'Republicans' will vote for McCain come 4 November, as we know of several Republicans who have publicly stated their opposition to McCain and their intentions to vote for Obama. From Susan Eisenhower to Colin Powell and even onto Ken Adelman, Republicans are deserting McCain.

So just whom does that leave in the category of 'McCain voter'?

Well, you have his friends and family - although we can be fairly certain that the black McCain's of Mississippi will not be remembering their cousin come election day; only fair for all of the times he has ignored them - even claiming to be unaware of just who was living in that rundown house across from the former 'big house' on the plantation.

Outside of that group, you have the folks enumerated above; I tend to think of the 'libertarians' - you know, your Ron Paul Republicans - as an amalgamation of the racist type and the sociopath, depending upon how tightly they hew to the Ayn Randian philosophies (like Andrea Mitchell's husband, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan) versus how enraptured they are of the 'Lost Cause' narrative of your average Jesse Helms Republican.

Regardless of the typography of the McCain voter, we should all be grateful that their day in the sun is closing with the end of the Bush Administration and that a new American will rise from the ashes of their incendiary economic and political philosophies - much like a Phoenix.

Do not forget Powell's moving discussion of the photo essay that depicted a mother weeping at the grave of her 20-year old son - who was 14 on 11 September 2001 and waited until he was old enough to serve his country and he died in the process.

That American Boy was Muslim.

Powell mentioned how disgusted he was with the McCain campaign and their insinuations of not only that Barack Obama was a Muslim but that there was something wrong with being a Muslim.

This grave? It is in Arlington Cemetery - which is where we bury American Heroes.

John McCain disgraces himself and us as a nation when he allows that bigotry to be put forward as part of "Country First".

Hmmmm . . . You mean to tell me that 72-year old John McCain, was totally flummoxed by the racism behind the question from an apparently equally old woman?

It is almost as though McCain came of age in an era before black people were afforded many (much less all) of the same civil rights as white citizens of this country.

Can we all not see the innate disdain - if not outright contempt - that McCain has for Obama written all over his face whenever the two share the stage? It goes without saying - or at least, it should - that McCain has no respect for Obama at all. We could pretend it has to do with Obama's relative youth, but to do that we would have to overlook the fact that McCain is more than smitten with his even younger VP-selection.

So, we all know that racism exists in America. But that does not change the question: will it have an effect on this election?

Thankfully - if one can be ironically thankful to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan - over the past 40-years, most of the racists have found a home in the Republican Party. Furthermore, while the country has been minting new voters daily - as they reach the age of 18 - the Republican Party finds itself stagnate to in decline, as more and more people tire of the outright and sub-rosa shout-outs to the racist hard-liners in the party. That is why both the Democratic Party and those registered as Independents are growing, along with increasing numbers of members for third-party groups.

Ignoring for a moment the even more virulent racism of some third-party movements (Alaska Independence Party, are your ears burning?), we are without question in a period of American history over which racism has less sway than at any point in our short existence as a republic. This election - if we work hard to turn out the vote of all those with any sympathies for liberals or progressives or merely simple thought - can produce the sort of political landslide not seen since the realignment Reagan created in 1980. Remember: that race was down to the wire and it was the final debate - days before the election - that sealed a shift across so many states from Carter to Reagan, so much so that Reagan eventually carried 44-states and received 489 EV.

Those targets are within reach for Obama in this election, irrespective of the racists in our midst. There is a possibility that McCain will merely end up with UT, OK, ID and WY in his camp come Wednesday morn.

It will take more work on our part to bring about a realignment this historic, but never before in our nation's history has the need for such a realignment been so great.

Ever - including the Civil War period and "the greatest generation" of WWII. For we stand not just at the precipice of the end of the American Century, as we grow ever older and more indebted, but we stand on the edge of the Carbon Era and the energy we have extracted from the Earth as coal, oil and natural gas. The miracle of economic growth - which is but a few minutes on the clock of human existence - stands mute before the progress of history and with but a few more years of burning carbon and expelling it into our atmosphere, our world could change irrevocably into one more hostile for our needs as a species.

Could a small-mined racist like John McCain lead us out of the darkness and into the light?

Tell me you didn't just run over to a Dunkin' Donuts and buy that for this post?

It is likely that he has already had this sort of screening exam and that he has said, "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" This is one man who so clearly lusts after the presidency that he will do anything to reach it - which makes his advertisements and his attacks so much more shameless.

But if you want proof of this assertion, just ask why a 72-year old cancer survivor would release his medical records to a select group of reporters for a period of minutes on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend?

The answer is obvious: he has something to hide. Take your pick - neurological or oncological - he is suffering from something. As you point out, daily Senator "Erratic" pushed the line closer to neurological.

I hate this show; when is it going to be canceled?

Looks like the Philly fans came through for us:

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Greeted...

So you are wandering into the fire with this one, aren't you?

People talk about Social Security as the third rail of American politics, but when a nation as young as ours still is has fought its deadliest war ever over the question of race - the real third rail seems quite clear to me.

Every presidential election we have ever had, concerns the "race" issue to one degree or another - from 1 right through to 44. The only difference this time, is now we have a candidate in the race of African heritage (I think it is telling that he is not descended from those brought here as slaves, but has a more immigrant background; the psychic toll of slavery makes it hard to reach the same level of equanimity which Obama displays so effortlessly).

Regardless, welcome to the Big Leagues! Be prepared, the waters here are deep and dangerous, with a vicious undertow that seems to come from no where. Easy to find oneself wandering for days on blogs and wikipedia pages in an attempt to discover just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

These might provide some guidance along the way:

http://allpanthersareblack.blogspot.com/2008/05...

http://allpanthersareblack.blogspot.com/2007/06...

http://allpanthersareblack.blogspot.com/2007/06...

I cannot believe that this race is anywhere close - just because of the simple analysis included above.

I believe that Obama / Biden will collect more than 400 EV in less than one month's time.

I hate to retreat into the old stand-by that this is "a new day and a new time" - but that really is the truth and this commentary captures that.

Here is the why: back in 2000, things were going so well that a good portion of the country felt that we could alter course and go with a "compassionate conservative", as he promised to repair the degradation of the White House (which an honest assessment would report had become somewhat tarnished). Then - after the attacks of 2001 - we were a nation in fear and changing course in 2004 was just a bit to much to ask in that year, although it was quite close and some things were kept hidden from the public that might have changed our minds.

Hurricane Katrina unmasked the Republicans and the sham government they were operating. Newspapers began to reveal what they knew of the President's warrant-less wiretapping program and an Attorney General was forced to resign in shame. And now the house of cards has all collapsed in a $1T bailout of our economy.

It is indeed, a new day.

My friend, you know that ol' Dutch was just making that crap up about "supply-side" economics and trickle-down and all of that hooey, right?

It was the world's biggest con job, a means to transfer tax dollars to the folks at the top of the ladder, justified by fast talking peddlers like Steve Forbes.

Eight years of Reaganomics ended in the S&L bailout; eight years of Bushonomics ended in the investment bank bailout (or bail under, since they were allowed to either collapse or merge with commercial banks)

The only question now is: will we once and for all drive a stake through this supply-side monster, or will we once again fall prey to its siren song of money for nothing?