John Aravosis reminds me of this article that revealed that McCain('s wife's corporate trust) did not pay taxes on one of the seven houses (the beachfront condo) for four years.

Talked briefly with my brother the other evening and I am alarmed over his decision making process for this election.  I am even more alarmed because I believe he represents a large protion of the electorate.

I asked him if he'd made up his mind yet and what his opinions might be and he began to recount a recent e-mail he'd received alleging that Obama didn't have valid U.S. citizenship.  Needless to say, I BIT MY FUCKIN TONGUE! ...for a moment and counted to 10 twice before I spoke.

Recent comments by McCain expose his utter disconnect from ordinary Americans.  Just like the "Let Them Eat Cake" attributed to Marie Antoinette, McCain's own words show how he is simply incapable of understanding how most Americans live.  And he says so in a way that makes it stunningly obvious.  

Check it out here. It's a virtual tie--Obama 44% McCain 43%, but there are some interesting insights in the article:

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become MY AMBITION to be president. . . . In truth, I'D HAD THE AMBITION for a long time." - John McCain, 2002.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

I’m sure that I am not alone in feeling this way.  While I still believe that this election is Obama’s to lose, I wish the circumstances were a little different.  Many months ago, even before the Democrats had a presumptive nominee, they had a substantial advantage over any generic Republican candidate. With Bush’s approval at all-time lows and a Republican brand tarnished by scandal and incompetence, any Democratic candidate that emerged from the bruising primary campaign would have the wind at his or her back.

There has been alot of talk by McCain and others around the Republic of Georgia fiasco about how they are a "European" country and deserve NATO membership. Being pretty astute in geography (and having actually visited Europe a few dozen times) something in this meme bothered me. So I thought I would consult some experts and see what they say about the issue.

Doesn't anyone besides me see the incongruity of the the Straight Talk Express' claims to superior dna while pumping up raisin-face McCain with fillers?  Nearing 60, I'm definitely not against a little youth treatment, but this seems to clash philosophically with McCain's message.

Hi guys, I've been a lurker here for quite some time. I am not an American. I am an immigrant working/living in Toronto Canada as an animator and I've been following US politics and polls very very intensely since 9/11. To be honest, US politics is so much more fun and interesting than the boring-ass Canadians, not to mention more gut-wrenching as well. I used to support Hillary Clinton until she went all negative on Obama. Now I'm an Obamaphile like many of you. The world needs an Obama presidency, that much is true. But I'm disheartened that McCain has been gaining in the polls when the republican brand should be in the dumpster.

Sometimes I wish I was an American just to be a political junkie who can actually make a difference.

What's wrong with US voters???

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Iraqi leaders Thursday to agree quickly to a U.S.-Iraq security deal that outlines the withdrawal of American troops.

per APNews

Iraqi and American officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that negotiators had completed a draft agreement that extends the legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq beyond the end of this year, while calling for them to move out of Iraqi cities as soon as June 30.

One of the favorite rhetorical devices that candidates running for the presidency like to use is to compare themselves to some former president, usually of the same party, in hopes that whatever favorable image Americans have of that past president will rub off on them. For the Democrats it's normally FDR and JFK. For the Republicans it's Lincoln and Reagan. It dawned on me that there is a former Republican president who almost no candidate uses as an exemplar of how he would be as president and that is Dwight David Eisenhower.

The clearest indication I have seen to prove that voting for McCain is the equivalent of voting for a third Bush administration is this video from the Larry King Show in 2001 that The Jed Report has put out on the web:

If this is how McCain thinks, then his judgment is certainly questionable.

Sloganomics, not Economics!

Winning American elections is not about who has the better understanding or the better intellect or the better argument, It is about who has the better slogans.  Period.

SlOBama the high and mighty

You know I try and remain optimistic.
Everyone says not to speak ill of the Clintons for purposes of unity. Well I cant hold my tonuge any longer. HRC doesnt really want to unify.

You know its one thing to claim unity to a group of Obama supporters...but what is she doing to bring her supporters over?

Heres the latest:

Sorry everyone - all signs point to a Clinton announcement on Saturday in Illinois.  Everyone else is writing VP diaries, so I had to write mine.  Today Obama was heard saying "he" when referring to his vice president.  Howard Fineman said if he had to bet his life on it, "it's Joe Biden."  But who else would you need to wait to announce until the last minute like this?  Who else could dominate a week of coverage and overshadow anybody that McCain picks?  Who else has already been given two nights of the convention?  I'm sorry, but I smell unity at the convention...

Recent polls show Obama slipping versus McCain.  How can that be when we can all see how much smarter and better Obama is?  The answer might be in the instincts that we inherited from our stone age ancestors.

When men choose a president, at least some part of our thinking is probably those stone age instincts we used in selecting the leader of the war party.  Women probably didn’t do much of the stone age war, so they might have some other kind of default hardware—mate choosing, for example.  It’s entire plausible that the criteria that served for those stone age war leaders are less than perfectly applicable to modern circumstances, but aspiring politicos need to keep those old instincts in mind.

What did you want in your SA war guy?  Courage, leadership, trustworthiness, initiative, pugnacity, vigor, celerity in judgment and action, decisiveness, and good judgment.  Conversely, you didn’t want cowardice, meekness,  passivity, lassitude, vacillation, or bad judgment.  Looking at the list it’s easy to see places where McCain scores well.  Obama is a listener and a consensus builder, and these can be mistaken for lack of initiative, leadership, and decisiveness.  Similarly his thoughtfulness and nuance.  

Do you feel a draft? Apparently John McCain does.