Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress | The Onion
... Today Americans have grudgingly taken a giant leap forward,' Williams continued. 'And all it took was severe economic downturn, a bloody and unjust war in Iraq, terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan, nearly 2,000 deaths in New Orleans, and more than three centuries of frequently violent racial turmoil.'
Said Williams, 'The American people should be commended for their long-overdue courage.'"...I'll take it.
I can't find a photographer credit.
Tired Obama addresses huge Virginia crowd at final campaign rally | World news | guardian.co.ukI'd forgotten he chose to begin in Virginia. Win or lose, Barack Obama is a wonder.
... After securing the Democratic nomination in the summer, he chose to begin his presidential election campaign in Bristol, Virginia. At the time, it seemed a quirky choice, with the state apparently solid Republican.
But he is in with more than a chance of taking Virginia today and so made it his last campaign stop with the rally in Manassas, a quiet town now but the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.
To take Virginia would be rich in symbolism. Obama acknowledged as much last night when he referred to Richmond, Virginia, as "the capital of the Old Confederacy". He said he found it extraordinary that 100,000 people in the state had come out to see him on a Monday night.
John McCain attracted only 8,000 when he held a rally on the other side of Manassas a fortnight ago. The Republican stood on his tiptoes to wave at the expected crowd at the back, only to find there wasn't any...
Sasha Abramsky (Guardian.co.uk): The election could end the south's race-based politicsBut they are higher ...
...In the last few days, Pennsylvania - one of only two Democratic states from the 2004 election thought to be within McCain's reach - has been flooded by television ads once again seeking to correlate Obama to the inflammatory preacher Jeremiah Wright. Palin supporters have been filmed holding toy monkeys with Obama signs on them at her rallies. And a miasma of racist rhetoric hangs over much of the campaigning by local Republican party operatives in many southern states...
We'll shortly know whether these tactics worked. If they did, it will be a cultural catastrophe...
... If democracy is simply a competition of ideas varnished by a sense of personal charm evinced by its lead figures, Obama's the next president. But democracy is more than that. Unfortunately, tribalism has a powerful hold on the process. A significant number of people - despite an unprecedented year-long national conversation about race and culture and American identity - still have a gut-check problem with voting for a black man.
If McCain wins, tribalism wins. The southern gamble, that race will always remain central to the nation's political decision-making process, that race will always trump economic common sense, pays off. And the American dream takes a rabbit punch to the kidneys that will take decades to recover from.
If Obama wins, however, taking some southern states and bringing enough new voters to the polls that several Senate seats in the region also go blue, then at long last the possibility of a truly post-racial political system comes one enormous step closer to fruition.
The stakes couldn't possibly be any higher.
A Conservative for Obama | D Magazine - Wick AllisonThe comments include this amazing gem ..
... Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.
Most important, Obama will be a realist. I doubt he will taunt Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an ally. The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American national interests are directly threatened.
“Every great cause,” Eric Hoffer wrote, “begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” As a cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama...
Your article endorsing Obama found its way to my computer, Wick... and I wanted you to know you have a VERY strong "thumbs up" from three folks you might least expect: my two sisters and me. We are the daughters of Bill Miller who ran for Vice President with Barry Goldwater back in '64. We have all morphed quite independently into feeling, as you do, that the Republican Party in general and George Bush in particular do not represent in any fashion what our dad stood for more than 40 years ago. In fact, we are all HUGE Obama Mamas! I live with my family in Salisbury, NC... my older sister Libby Miller Fitzgerald is in Lynchburg, VA... and our youngest sister Stephanie Miller is in LA where she has a nationally syndicated radio talk show and is seen regularly on Larry King and other TV shows. Thank you for your wise words. I hope there are enough others like you to put Obama over the top. Or we're headed overseas to live!A Goldwater endorsement for Obama? And I thought George Will's endorsement was mind blowing.
Mary Miller James
In Landslide, John McCain Is The President Of AOLFascinating. Someone who still uses AOL today is probably information averse, fairly poor, and really hates change.
... AOL.com's homepage political poll results are in, and the site's calling a landslide for Republican John McCain. Not only does he carry swing states Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, in the poll, but McCain also scores upset wins in California and Massachusetts...
McCain Is Now A Penny StockI think the election is too close to call, but that might reflect my superstitious nature. There's no way, however, that Obama has a 90% certainty of winning.
... John McCain's odds on Intrade drop to 9 cents on the dollar, a new low. (If you put a gun to our head and forced us to bet, we'd actually buy the contract at that level. We think Obama will win, but we certainly wouldn't give someone 10-to-1 odds on that.)...
