At tonight’s debate Barack Obama was cool, collected, articulate and connected with his audience.  John McCain had his moments but ended on a whiney note with that “give me another opportunity” and a real lack of grace when Barack held out his hand, John pointed Barack to Cindy, and then turned away. Barack ended with inspiration, […]

In case you somehow missed this.

Looks like the left in France has run out of gas, no more “nouvelle philosophes”… instead, a “nouvelle Obama” named Harlem (as in A train) Desir (as in New Orleans streetcar). Click here to see the image, and then you can go channel the Red Queen in cryogenics if she can break away from […]

Marc Ambinder, the Atlantic Monthly author who was among the first to calculate that Obama would win the Democratic primary, has posted some interesting data on how people of different religious preferences split between McCain and Obama. I note that the survey cited was conducted in June-August. I wonder what the numbers would look like now.

As you watch the value of your 401K shrink before your eyes today, make yourself feel a wee bit better reading Rick Perlstein, who suggests that Barack Obama, if he can manage to win the election, might have a legislative opening similar to FDR’s in 1932 and LBJ’s in 1964—crises to deal with, public support […]

Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire reports,
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night’s presidential debate say Sen. Barack Obama did a better job than Sen. John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.
Again I am moved to think about what this means. Political junkies tend to see politics as a fight club and are […]

My two favorite pieces of commentary on the debate are the video of Frank Luntz working with his Las Vegas focus group  and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com analysis of the internals of the CNN uncommitted voter poll conducted just after the debate concluded. Both confirmed for me something I’ve been thinking about for several weeks now, the […]

George Will, of all people, takes John McCain to the woodshed and concludes by saying,
 
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although […]

Fact is, I’ve almost stopped reading BestoftheBlogs. Who needs a daily dose of Chicken Little when there’s news like this from Raising Kaine to boost morale and keep us pushing, pushing, pushing until we get this done.

It really doesn’t matter what happens in the debates or on the campaign trail between now and November, how much of a liar and incompetent John McCain is, how big a crooked Christianist fool Sarah Palin is, or how much more likely the average American is to support Democratic positions than Republican ones. How does […]