What else can they do Huck?

Huckabee may be right that demonizing Obama would be a 'fatal mistake' for the GOP.

Unfortunately, as things currently stand, it is really the only hope they have of winning in the Fall. They have to convince people that Obama is the devil. They have nothing else to run on.

I fell victim to a GOP talking point

I must confess that, until this morning, I bought into the whole dialogue McCain and the GOP has been pushing about lifting the "ban" on offshore drilling. I thought it was a stupid idea, for many reasons. But I still bought into the fundamental proposition that we were talking about whether there should be a "ban" or not.

Well, this morning I heard on the Thom Hartmann program that there is, in fact, NO "ban" on offshore drilling. I've been snookered.

What we have, actually, is a moratorium on new leases for such drilling. But what is obscured by this "ban" talk is the fact that the Oil companies already have leases for drilling thousands of acres with potentially millions of gallons of oil, yet they aren't acting on those leases. In other words, if there is any fault to be laid in this issue it is the OIL companies that are blocking future development of these properties.

This dKos diary provides more detail on this.

I suspect many other prominent Democrats don't realize that this is yet another example of a misleading GOP talking point. They, like myself, are being snookered.

This harkens back to the days of Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security. Democrats fought that back by repeating the mantra "there is no crisis". They should fight this back by repeating the mantra "there is no ban".

Image management

This is a tough call.

Given the smears swirling out there about Obama's allegiance, I'm sure the campaign is sensitive to any image that might feed the "he's a muslim" crap. But still, it is sad that supporters have to be segregated in this fashion.

If I were in charge of the campaign I think I would tell people to relax about it. The smears are going to be there regardless of what you do, and treating supporters like this will just feed those smears anyway since it will give yet another opportunity for the media to talk about it.

Fortunately, this story suggests that this was a case of overzealous organizers rather than any official position from the campaign.

Attacking wives

This is absurd. There is no qualitative difference between smears about Michelle Obama being anti-American and the DNC asking the McCain campaign why it is violating campaign finance laws by not reimbursing Cindy McCain for the use of her corporate jet. The former is a direct attack on Obama's character. The latter is an attack on the finance practices of the McCain campaign.

But, besides this silliness, I really have to question the wisdom of the McCain campaign making an issue out of this. After all, do they really want to draw attention to this particular aspect of the campaigns finances?

Fanthorpe!

Writing so bad it is sublime.

A sample:

Trinkle did not possess a legal mind. He was a mental grasshopper, an intellectual kangaroo, a mind wallaby.

One more:

Val realised, that in referring to the shaft as being subterranean, he was subconsiously thinking in terrestrial terms. The shaft led from the ground, true, and they were moving equally into the ground but it was not a subterranean shaft. In all truth and honesty the word subterranean could only be employed, thought Val, for that which was under the Earth. A shaft which merely sank into Awan, 6th Planet of Polaris, was not subterranean, but subawanean.