In order to attack someone for something, don't you first have to not be guilty of it?

And is it possible to be so American that you look at a very large part of the American population and judge it to be less than American?

And I really enjoy the 'elitism' debate. Isn't it a good thing to be elite? Aren't Navy Seals elite? What exactly does that mean? They're a little TOO good at what they do? Let's train them less and give them less equipment. Less education and resources should fix that problem.

Besides the fact that on Meet the Press on Sunday, Colin Powell gave a strong endorsement of Barack Obama for president and a devastating rebuke to the Republican Party and conservatism, he put forward his idea of America. The biggest shame of this campaign has been not been the wispering campaign that Obama is muslim (hes not) but the implication in that accusation that being a muslim makes a person un-American, or, worse, a terrorist. This is taken as a given on the racist right. They are about 10-15% of the population. They are dangerous. They gave us Timothy McVeigh, and the minutemen down on the border. They gave us the most ardent gun enthusiasts. They gave us Lee Harvey Oswald too.

Powell told the story of a mother visting a grave in Arlington National Cemetery. It was one of the countelss white tombstones that cover the rolling hills of Northern Virginia, and are all identical, except for the name, and the symbol on top indicating the faith, if any, of the deceased below. In this case, the stone had a star and cresent on the top, rather than a cross or Star of David, signifying that the dead soldier was muslim.

One of the greatest moral outrages ever was the treatment of black soldiers returning from World War II. They returned to Jim Crow, second-class citizenship in the south, and not much better in the rest of the country. The point is, in America, no citizen should be above the next. Finally someone had the guts and decency to say it!

Obama is a RISKY ELITIST, his association with Bil Ayers is OUTRAGEOUS, and his opponent is a FIGHTER.

When a strategy first doesn't succeed, fail fail again.

BTW: My prediction will hold. Obama will take a big lead and McCain will close at the end (people like this guy more when he's losing for some reason). But mark my words: Obama will win and it will be because of North Carolina! Just like in the primary.

At this point, it seems very difficult to argue that President George W. Bush will not go down in history as the worst president ever. I'm not going to restate what has been restated so many times. We all know the standing this country had in January 2001 compared to what it has now. Economically, Militarily, Politically, Existentially, the United States has taken a substantial blow.

I think it is important to make a sober assessment of the past 8 years and to make sure that this story is remembered for future generations. Which is why I propose that when Bush dies, we create a George W. Bush memorial to go somewhere prominently in the National Mall in DC. On the monument, we have two things and two things only. They would be reminders of the two biggest (and you know they must have been big) mistakes of the last 8 years.

The first thing to go on the monument is the headline from the Washington Post this morning. "The End of American Capitalism?". Can you imagine being told in 2001 that this would be the headline on the Washington Post after 8 years of having the first President with an MBA? And by the way, the Harvard Business school should be shut down and demolished for giving this guy a degree. I believe Bush's "Ownership Society" will go down in American history as the most botched, poorly executed domestic program in the history of the country.

The only other thing on our George W. Bush Memorial monument would be a tribute to that great other mistake. A mistake so massive that it helped to not only weaken the American Economy, it also destroyed the American brand. The 'Shining beacon of light on a hill' seems to have been extinguished because of it. The second thing on the Memorial would simply be the statement "Mission Accomplished".

Now that the biggest political sideshow of the season is over, the presidential campaign can get down to brass tacks. Palin may have played well with the crazy religious right--who don't care about people being competent because God will take care of everything, but by all indications she has scared the out of independents and Democrats who had considered voting for McCain. That, and the plunging economy and fiscal crisis and you have the Obama surge in the polls. The voters are saying in these polls that for serious times, we need serious people--and they'd be right. McCain,at one time, may have been considered serious--but he gave that up when he picked Palin and engaged in relentless fabrications in order to move up in the polls. Well, we see the results of that strategy: utter failure.

One more word on Palin: she is truly George W. Bush in a skirt. Blissfully ignorant, intellectually incurious (can't even name a newspaper you read, not one!?), convinced that America was put on Earth by God so that we don't have to ackowledge the existence or importance of other nations or peoples......talk about a scary worldview. And now, post debate, she is attacking Katie Couric for asking tough questions. Biden, in an abundance of caution, didn't even correct her when she, twice, got the name of our commanding general in Afganistan wrong (its McKiernan, not McClellan--who was fired by Lincoln for being slow to attack). McCain lauded her today as somone that millions of American women can look up to. Really? What is she teaching them--that you can not know anything, lie, but still succeed because you are pretty and appear to have nice body? Good message. Hopefully, the current trends will hold (I believe they will) and Barack will blow out the terrible two-some with over 300 EVs.