Veritas et Venustas

The United States of America

1974 > 2008

7 Days

LIKE MANY OTHERS, I've been obsessing about the election. The Times, the Journal and the New York Sun all had recent stories about people all over America constantly checking Huffington Post, the Daily Show website, Countdown, RealClearPolitics and fivethirtyeight.com to get the latest news. I already knew about the phenomenon from myself and my friends. I've been alive for 14 Presidential elections, and as far as I'm concerned, this is by far the most important one of my lifetime. For a while, I was about ready to take a multi-day sleeping pill until it was all over, but Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com has convinced me that I can finally relax.

Atwater's Revenge

THE REVEREND WRIGHT ADS are out, and state polls show that McCain is not closing the gap. Is that making the famous far Right discipline of the last 25 years break down? The rest of us can only hope.

Governor Palin has "gone rogue," and polls show she's a drag on McCain's campaign, but a senior White House aide to Bush 41 dismisses Mrs Palin's critics as "cocktail party conservatives" who "give aid and comfort to the enemy". "There's going to be a bloodbath," he told London's Sunday Telegraph. "A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?"

For Democrats, happy days are here again.

"Pals" Around With Terrorists

Quote(s) of the Day

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Is this election any different from the last two you covered?

JON STEWART: I was convinced an Obama/McCain campaign would be measurably different on almost all standards. And to watch it become Bush/Kerry, Bush/Gore, has been one of the most dissatisfying experiences.

STEPHEN COLBERT: That means it's not an Obama/McCain campaign. It's a Guys Who Work for Bush/Guys Who Work for Kerry campaign. Both sides have people who are just smart enough to know ''We need to tweak this dial right here,'' so of course voters are divided 50/50 between the parties. When the 2000 election was down to 14 voters in Boca deciding the whole thing, I thought, ''Wow, that's great! It really is a political science! They've found a way to put electrodes in people's hands, and a probe up their butt, show them images, and say 'See how they respond!'''

STEWART: That's why you think to yourself, ''Hey, couldn't you guys tie for $10 million, instead of a trillion? Does it really cost that much money to tie?''

UPDATE: The Obama campaign raised $150 million in September — obliterating the old record of $66 million it set one month earlier.

Talk to your parents about John McCain

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