Pheidippides Says . . .

"Pheidippides is around the corner. He looks tired but I think he has good news."

The New Yorker has a sober well-written endorsement of Obama. It brings up the principles of the incumbent party which Palin tried to dismiss with a 'there you go again, pointing backwards' when Biden directed attention to it last night.

Sidenote: After the last 8 years, how can Palin hope that the public will ignore an analysis of Bush/Republican policies and the mistakes the public made that led Bush into presidential office in the first place? Bush essentially went into office as a "compassionate conservative" and immediately turned into a right-wing ideologue. He really mucked things up -- Guantanamo, unprecedented expansion of executive powers, Katrina, the economy . . .

The New Yorker editorial does a good job bringing up what the choice in November will mean: the possible Supreme Court justice appointments, the commitment to fight global warming, and the choice of a soldier vs. statesman with a broader view of war and peace approach to restoring American moral credibility.

I've been telling friends that McCain's best chance at the presidency was when he ran against Bush in the primaries in 2000. Unfortunately, at that time, Bush had spread a rumor that McCain had fathered a black lovechild, when in fact, McCain and his wife had adopted a girl from a Bangladeshi orphanage. This lie led to McCain's defeat in the South Carolina primary.

The editorial puts this time in McCain's life in context and how it helped fuel his reputation as a Maverick. Although, the rage against the Christian right lasted only 4 years from 2000 to 2004. It lasted until he saw his chance for the presidency again.

Earlier this year when McCain had already secured his party's nomination and Hillary and Barack were still duke-ing it out, McCain was making appearances with Texas televangelist John Hagee. I think he was trying to shore up the right wing Christian base of the republican party. He did it at a time when most of the media's attention was focused on the democratic side.

At the time, this told me two things: 1) McCain has now moved beyond embracing Bush in public but was now pandering to the people that supported the Bush's attack on his family in 2000, and 2) McCain does not know about the internet and youtube.




The tepid support from the Hagee constituents led to the Palin pick.