Question for McSame:  How did you deal with the PTSD associated with your POW experience?

Obama is showing extreme confidence in America by talking to voters as adults and trying to talk about issues. Some say too much confidence...

McCain on the other hand treats the electorate like morons with his "celebrity" smears and Britney/Paris ads, in saying one thing and doing another, in pandering the energy crisis away...

Blah Blah Blah Blah!! This moron is not saying anything new. I'd rather vote for a president that understands nuance rather than a President that will shoot first ask question later.

I'm actually shocked he's spending so much time arguing that it was the right call to go into Iraq. This is not a fight McCain wants to have.

Although, I did like his line about being confused by questions. Pot, meet kettle.

http://pufferfish.typepad.com/

Obama needs a serious ad campaign. Attack ads. Time to invest all of that campaign cash.

He is getting hammered by McCain -- even during the convention.

Politico reports that this McCain front group "Vets for Freedom" is launching a $1.1 million ad campaign called 'I am the surge'.

He cannot continue let McCain get days of free air time with more controversial ads. He must go on offense.

Of course we set a bad example for Russia. We invaded a country without provocation and killed tens of thousands (if not more) in the process. If John McCain thinks we actually have credibility on this argument, he's just as out to lunch as I thought.

McCain said this?: To promote stability and peace, America must stand firmly on the side of freedom and justice. The next president must bring to office a clear-eyed view of our nation's role in the world, as the defender of the oppressed and a force for peace.

Great words, yes, but McCain doesn't know what they mean.
It's the double-talk express's view of what is freedom, justice and our nation's role in the world that he gets all wrong.

No. McCain is not ready to lead.

See, this is what these guys think "patriotism" means. For them, "patriotism" is entirely about a kind of gut-level atavistic "blood and soil" spinal-reflex jingoism. Anyone who, when discussing his patriotism feels the need to discuss the country's ideals or national character, or engages in any kind of intellectual activity higher than that displayed by a couple of male lungfish engaged in a bout of territorial grunting, is just one step removed from treason in their world.

"You caught McCain's POW-POW-POWing in there, we trust."

WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! John McCain was a P.O.W.?!?!? How did I miss that? Why does he never talk about it?

Uhm, John, you obviously do NOT catch Senator Obama's drift. It probably has something to do with the fact that you were a POW. Obama was expressing the point that when we go around the world saying that it's wrong to invade other countries, we can't claim the high moral ground on that issue. He did not say (or imply) that our invasion of Iraq caused Russia's invasion of Georgia. Of course, logic and reason have no place in a former POW's speeches... everyone knows that.

Barack Obama has within him the audacity of hope. John McCain is audacious and a dope.

John McCain has now become a tool of his campaign. It is clear that he has sacrificed himself and his message to the altar of selfishness and greed for power.

His accusations on Barack Obama are outlandish. I think that the Democrats have problems responding to the McSchmidt attacks (as delivered by the Republican nominee/tool) because they make no sense.

Wow that was freaking awful. Someone needs to give that man some meds and send him directly to one of his 7 or is it 8 beds?

I am so sick of John McCain -- how can ANYBODY stand him - even Republicans? They must be busting at the gut to say something nasty about him but they know they can't for fear of hurting his chances.

McCain is so full of HATE and self centered with his talk about HIS POW status. Now he's claiming America is the ONLY nation that stopped the cold war? Give me a break. talk about an ego?

It's too bad the 160 plus men from the Forrestal will never have confidence in anything again because McCain wet started his plane.

You caught McCain's POW-POW-POWing in there, we trust.

Oh damn, I totally missed that! If he starts subliminal POWing, all hope is lost.

Yes, there is a lot of money being spent on anti-Obama ads.

However...

The RNC is spending all of the money that would usually be reserved for downticket races on these ads. The intent is to smear Obama, depress voter turnout, and create a set of "apathy coattails" that will carry McCain to the Presidency and stem the tide of Congressional losses. This is the best strategy they have. Consider that, and then compare that to past strategies where a few million on Swft Boat ads could sink an entire campaign until it was close. The RNC has already outspent that outlay and is not raising enough to maintain the outlay. Too much overhead.

August is almost over and no real damage has been done. The polls are being slanted to present an illusion of horse-race, but is continuing the "likely voters" lie that perpetuates the RNC-favored outcome of a depressed voter turnout. The polls are not gauging new voters, voter registration, percentage of new Dems versus new Reps and other factors that could impact and legitimize political demographics. Don't believe the hype.

Soon, we will also see the effects of McCain's VP choice. The best scenario for McCain is that he picks a fundie lunatic... even though the base would rather have the lunatic than McCain. The worst scenario is that he picks Giuliani or Romney, either of whom will alienate the voting base. McCain has to continue throwing blood-red meat at a base that just isn't all that threatened about Obama. And red meat costs money that McCain does not have,

We won the cold war?
The other guys went bankrupt and collapsed. That's not what I consider winning, especially since we didn't do much better.

the following article needs to be used to hammer McCain and to bring up the contrast of Michelle vs Cindy when they start with the elitist shit again.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008012018_mccainbeer23.html

I'll bet Michelle Obama supports M.A.D.D.
I'll bet most (all?) mothers in America support the work that M.A.D.D. does.

Why does Cindy McCain hate America's children?
[note: I think every campaign attack should end with some similar ridiculous question until the repubs stop doing the same. good for goose...gander, yadda yadda yadda...]

McCain is a slimeball. He has everyone so snowed right now. Hopefully, we can shine some light on him in the next two months.

You realized, of course, that if Obama had phrased it in a way that had emphasized America's role in ending the cold war, McCain would be attacking him for insulting our alies.

It really doesn't matter what Obama says. McCain's going to attack. This is a campaign that has absolutely zero need for logical consistency.

I certainly hope and trust that the Obama campaign plans to engage in the same kind of relentless daily assault against McCain DURING THE WEEK OF THE GOP CONVENTION that McCain's campaign is right now waging against Obama.

I cannot read anymore about what he says and nor hear any more commercials of his. The MSM is pathetic, and frankly, to have polling this close is enough to depress anyone, it certainly has me. Add Clinton backers into that mix, who obviously care more about a female for President (reverse sexism) than their country, and, well, I'm done.

McCain is proving to be the worst that this country offers.

He's a habitual liar and most likely has been his whole life. As a child he probably was given the benefit of the doubt and certain privileges because he was the son of an admiral. If he was in school with children of military officers the other kids had to watch what they said because of his father's power. I know what this is like. And I've seen kids of the military elite use their "power" to get what they want. And I've seen how incredibly mean and nasty they can be.

As a man he used woman as toys, just one of the boys.

And when he returned from Vietnam he continued his pattern of lying and abuse. While he cheated on his wife and children how many lies did he tell to all the woman he was sleeping with? Did he tell them "I was a POW. I didn't have a table. My wife doesn't understand me. My children don't love me." What lies did he tell the future Mrs. McCain to get on her gravy train? What lies has he continued to tell her over the years to stay on that same train?

The flip flopping is bad enough, but this country can't afford 4 more years of lying. We've had that for the past 7.5 years.

Liar: deceiver, fibber, perjurer, false witness, fabricator, equivocator; fabulist; informal storyteller

Sounds like McCain to me.

I think we need to redefine the meaning of 'country.' Right now McCain owns this word. We have an opportunity to take the power of that word away from him. McCain 'country' is the country of the rich and corporations. When actually the country is really you, and me and our neighbors and friends.

I need a picture of McCain with Bratwurst sticking out his ears,....because that's the picture I get when he starts twisting other people's words and starts mind reading what Obama meant. Did he wait 2 weeks to come up with this crap?

Quoting Heinrich Heine may be elitist of me, but if we were to change some of the nouns in this quote would it not be apt today:

"We Germans were ordered to be patriots and we became patriots, for we do everything our rulers order us to do. One must not think of this as patriotism, however, as the same emotion which bears this name here in France. A Frenchman’s patriotism means that his heart is warmed, and with this warmth it stretches and expands so that his love no longer embraces merely his closest relative, but all of France, the whole of the civilized world. A German’s patriotism means that his heart contracts and shrinks like leather in the cold, and a German then hates everything foreign, no longer wants to become a citizen of the world, a European, but only a provincial German."

Terribly prescient for a guy that died in 1856.

He owns this one, too:
"Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid."

It's McCain's love of the limelight than is fuelling all this "celebrity" nonsense against Obama.

I detected this jealousy the minute the firt ad with "celebrity" came out! He is such a "Has Been" and cannot come to terms with it. He represents a state of total denial of himself, the status of the country, the war. . . you name it! Unfortunately but very definitely not presidential material.