In Praise of Folly

I'm back from a self-imposed hiatus and hope to start again with daily updates. Obama has just passed a bill that radically alters the s...

It's morning in America and hope has been restored for those of us who see a road forward to the future, not an idealized, mythical past...

Been off the past few days, busy with other tasks. Today we find out who the next president will be. I was teaching a class yesterday and ar...

The latest polls seem to show Obama expanding his lead, and while I was teaching when his 30-minute ad ran -- it appears to be getting popul...

This from an Amazon disscussion board (I'm quoting it verbatim, with thanks to MDS) . . . Congressional Quarterly gave this a rare twi...

Just out from the AP, two young white supremist males planned to go on a killing spree they hoped would end with the assassination of Obama....

An article today details the growing rift between Palin and McCain aides: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html?er...

Salon has a short article, that doubts the validity of the two polls that show the race closer. Interesting read: http://www.salon.com/opi...

Well, some have already covered the infamous poll ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_el_pr/ap_poll_presidential_race/print;_ylt=Ap_...

Moveon.org asked bloggers to post this message. While I have some reservations, here it is . . . 1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unp...

Republicans are in trouble, so go back to the old stock answer. We are more like you (Palin pick; socialist, Joe the Plumber, "real Ame...

I was listening to Hannity on the way home today. One must admire him for his resolve and the myopia that seems to cloud every thought he ha...

And this one is big . . . Colin Powell. Given the differences on the Iraq War and McCain's claims on terrorism, the choice by Powell to ...

The night of the debate, David Brooks suggested that John McCain stop the negative campaigning and restore his image. Fox News, with the exc...

Not only the "liberal media" seemed to think Obama won the debate. Even Fox News and George Will admit that they're not sure w...

1) We started with the traditional "class warfare" arguments that use "Joe the Plumber" to stand in for large corporatio...

One of the interesting post-mortems on the 2004 election was the revelation that Kerry did in fact appear to be a flip-flopper within his ow...

Looking at historic trends, the NYT asks whether McCain can makeup the growing deficits in the polls that show a potential landslide in the ...

The Virigina GOP Chairman, Jeffrey Frederick, has taken the campaign to a new low that, well, reminds this writer of Bush and the Iraq War. ...

I've talked a lot on this blog about the underlying cynicism of the McCain campaign. Unfortunately, it appears as if cynicism is rampant...

We are seeing the true stripes of Republicans yet again. Financial crisis, skyrocketing oil prices, the decline of America both politically ...

Quick thought now, and then more tomorrow: McCain likes to talk about Obama's naivety, and how he "just doesn't understand....

John Dickerson, Slate's Chief Political Correspondent . . . http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=2201336

Biden wins a debate, but Palin is considered the winner by some because she didn't make any huge mistakes. Bush could barely complete a ...

The following excerpt from the recent Katie Curic interview . . . COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions [than Roe v. Wade] do you dis...

Funny video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtHwWReGU0 Also, good article in The New Republic on McCain's penchant for lying as a ge...

I think we need a new word, McCainspeak, to describe the growing absurdity of the spin of his campaign . . . if the bill passes, it is my su...

When I watched the Palin interview, one issue that I thought she had resolved was the firing of Monegan. It appears even this might have bee...

So even Karl Rove has come around to say that the negative attack ads and the lies are too much. Hard to believe really. McCain is showing a...

McCain keeps the lying going strong: WALTERS: What is she going to reform specifically, senator? MCCAIN: Well, first of all, earmark spen...

A few years ago, President Clinton was on the daily show. He said that all one needed to be a democrat was to think. Little has changed in t...

John Mitchell of Talking Point Memo today argues that the press is starting to grow weary of the sleazy, lying campaign that McCain is runni...

A student of mine came into class today and handed me one of the infamous email charging Obama with numerous crimes and misdemeanors -- esse...

I watched much of the Democratic and Republican conventions and thought the former was wonderful and the later uninspired (particularly McCa...

McCain's speech was rather uninspiring last night, even to the crowd from what I could tell. There were moments of great energy, but ove...

Palin gave a very clever speech last night and the media loved it. As reported by the AP ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/c...

I am listening to Joe Lieberman's speech right now stupefied by how this guy once ran as VP with Al Gore. How can someone so dramaticall...

As usual, the election is getting caught up in the spectacle and what is being lost is the central issue. It is unfortunate that Palin's...

Who cares, seems to be the answer. She's a women and in the increasingly cynical campaign of McCain that seems to be enough. Ms. Palin m...

I thought Obama's speech was extraordinary last night. He laid his claim to be president, showed a tough side and ability to take on McC...

From Today's Paper (Slate): The new poll puts Obama at 45 percent, three points ahead of his Republican rival. Obama's biggest pro...