This is always the way that Republicans have chosen leaders. They don't select people based on issues, expertise, or god forbid, education. No they would much rather pick someone based on narrative. They chose Reagan because he was America's "Father Figure". They chose Bush because they would like to have a beer with him. And apparently they have chosen Palin based on her motherhood (she was almost breastfeeding her baby while on the RNC stage).

We now have an election with two constitutional law professors on one side (with Obama majoring in Political Science at Columbia, writing his capstone paper on Soviet Nuclear Disarmament, graduating magna cum laude, editor of the world's most prestigious law review, etc.) against McCain (who finished 894th out of 899 students in college) and Palin (who needed to go to three separate junior colleges before she was able to finish her bachelor's in journalism).

Great going PNW!

Yes, you hit it out of the ballpark on this one. The 'issues' MUST be the defining factor and if 'the un-christian-like-christian right-wingers do make into office then the ones that put em' there deserve everything they get. And frankly, the gay Republicans will never hear the end of it as long as I am around.

Again you are right, that with our country bankrupt and with our credibility home and abroad so deeply tarnished, our military tapped...the media in my opinion is culpable in not asking the right questions or they have cowered in pre-conditions to not simply asking any questions that will absolutely take the right wingers down several pegs.

Why people cannot see the McOld and Palin are more of the same...running on fear. Hey, didn't Hitler do the same thing...oh yeah, it was the other Hitler...Bush!

Why don't we go after Palin's family on family issues? They have been touting how immoral we are for eons.

Have people forgotten that McCain did not vote for a Martin Luther King day in his state of Arizona? And they tote themselves as agents of change and they care for all Americans.

Have people forgotten that the Republicans, who run on fear, are the ones who had The White House, The Senate & The House during 911? How can they tote that they are better at national security? Why? aren't we not letting them forget that?

I called Obama's office last week and my one little vote/voice asked that Obama and Biden take the gloves off and do not let these lying crooks get away with anything.

I want my country back! Where we are respected around the world, where we have a balanced budget in sight, where we can have affordable health care. Where my community can feel safe without oppression and I have access to My Friend Flicka at the library!!!

Bush cut and run from the real war of Afghanistan and we shouldn't let McOld have four more years nor should we let them forget it.

Polls are all over the map one day they have Obama beating McCain in a landslide the next its a tight to close to call race.Now McCain is in the lead yawns these polls all mean zip nada nothing.Remember that and you will not get heartbun every other day as new ones come out.The only poll that will matter is on Novemeber 4 not any of these so called opion polls you will see betwene now and then.So vote on Election day in the real poll.You who stay home will be the real losers not those who voted for the loser who ever that may be.

Politics is a contact sport with no rules.
Cathy

I remain hopeful that once Palin is off-script and her positions are specifically drawn out in an interview format, American's will have a little more than her speech skills on which to assess her. I have yet to hear her speak without McCain by her side. Has she been in front of an audience alone? Has she been interviewed? Has she had an unscripted conversation with media yet? I haven't seen anything...

I'm not a fan of facing off with negativity, sarcasm and criticism. Obama and Biden have something to say - they don't need to resort to attacks and criticisms.

Patricia thank you as always. I see it still as a stealth race issue. Michael Moore was on Larry King Live recently and even he complained that Democrats are just too nice to the other side.

In the face of what can be just a total disregard for the intelligence of the American electorate (I hope they are wrong about that)we have to get tough and hold their feet to the fire on issues and solutions to problems. Make: "Have ya had enough yet?" our battle cry.

Take no prisoners, take no chances, any overkill could easily translate into the majority in Congress we need to restore America to herself.

It's the movie: Idiocracy unveiling before our very eyes.

It's all in the packaging.

Many (I won't say how many) moons ago, I was involved in the underground comics scene (not quite the underground comix scene, which was a bit different), and just digging through a lot of comic theory in the process. The basic principle about how you portray someone is that the more defined and visually distinctive you make someone, the harder it will be for people to identify with them, no matter their personal similarities. Likewise, the more ambiguous they are (i.e. the basic smiley face), the more people will identify with them, despite the differences.

There is a certain amount of similarity in how the Repugnicans are packaging their people. It's like gathering a stable of pro wrestlers. "What's your gimmick?" Here, we have "war hero" and "concerned mother." Cartoony and otherwise shallow, but people can relate to the archetypes. And they can sum their policies up in a single sentence! On the other side, we have, well, two complex political guys with complicated views that take awhile to explain.

Personally, I'd rather have the complicated explanation, but human nature is such that most people wouldn't. Human nature tends toward pack mentality and simple solutions, like voting for so-and-so because "he's going to win" (like it's a lottery).

I suspect that ballots should be accompanied by an exam. "Name two issues that have been raised by presidential candidates in this campaign..."

Absolutely.

While that Gallup poll was an out-lier in polls this week, most of them are shockingly close.

And it's not just The Speech - it's the media constantly talking it up as the greatest thing ever. So she delivered it well, she didn't even write it.

As for off-script talking, I doubt the campaign will allow much of that. They've already said that she won't be ready for interviews for a while now, so I'm guessing she's just going to fundraise until November.

Then again, this is the same party that hired an actor to play president in the 80's and found another puppet for the 21st century.

(BTW, Snopes disproves the banned book list.)

The more the Obama campaign struggles against Palin, the more time McCain has to run around and cause trouble. And Biden needs to be the one after Palin anyways - equating Obama with Palin only underscores the experience issue and ties them together in the public's mind.

They need to get off her quick and let her implode on her own.

For most people, elections are decided on the issues. But for some, maybe 15-20% of the electorate, "character" is more important. Requently these people are the less well-educated, and they don't really understand a lot of the issues. So they vote for the candidates they feel safer with. This is whom McCain is appealing to when he says, "Trust me."

If Obama doesn't counter this somehow, McCain will win.

I'm hoping the debates will be the turning point for the democrats. I think Obama is being coached on how to "throw down" with John McCain and the strategies McCain typically uses in a debate. Obama's nomination acceptance speech was an indicator of that. Plain talk and not political double speak will win the day here.

As for Palin (It's mean, but my partner and I have taken to calling her "Sorta Palid"), there was a post earlier here at Bilerico which was a fact check against her nomination speech. It was as if the speech writers never bothered to check her record at all. And it isn't just bloggers noticing these inconsistancies either. CBS news did an exposé based on her "opposition" to the bridge to nowhere project and her about face on earmark spending. These fictions that the republican party speech writers keep spinning are what Biden should, and probably will, bring up when the Vice-Presidential debate occurs.

In any case, I'm hoping that all those idealistic college kids who managed to band together enough to swing the nomination to Obama are both registered to vote, and willing to exercise that right. The college age vote has been less than stellar past elections. I hope they realise that if they really want change, they'd better be prepared to back it up with action.

An update on the now-famous list of books that Palin is said to have tried banning at the Wasilla public library in 1996:

It is actually a general list of books that have been banned overall in the U.S. in recent years, that somehow got attached to the Palin story. From there the list was wildly recirculated around the Web. One mailing I saw said that the list came straight from the Wasilla library committee minutes. However, a few books on the list, notably Harry Potter titles, weren't published in 1996. I admit to being one of those who grabbed onto the list with more fire than fact-checking.

However, checking back over local news stories going back to 1996, I note that Palin evidently did make an inquiry about banning books -- and that she may have been after banning some gay titles in particular. Apparently local reporters are trying to find those actual library meeting minutes, to see what they really said.

Meanwhile, here are two links that might help Bilerico readers get some clarity on this story.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2008/09/06/breaking_news/doc48c1c8a60d6d9379155484.txt#blogcomments

http://librariansagainstpalin.wordpress.com/

So -- did Palin try to ban dozens of books, including "My Friend Flicka?" Apparently not. Is she interested in banning books? Apparently so.