In an interesting riff on Emotion Vs. Reason, Michael Batz argues that….

…part of the reason that Obama is winning is not because he is speaking about policy, but because he has won the argument that we SHOULD be talking about policy. He has managed to convince people that in these times its important to vote with our brains, and that he’s the right guy for that vote.

There is some irony here. Obama won the primaries based upon very strong rhetoric and some hopeful idealism that had, at its core, a very emotional pull. His public persona before the convention was the lofty speaker who glossed over specifics, but he has pivoted substantially into the serious let’s-talk-numbers guy. It is pretty remarkable, when you think about it.

A thoughtful observation from James Fallows:

I remember how often, how vehemently, and with what certainty Obama’s detractors during the Democratic primaries said that he could not, possibly, in any way, in any real world, withstand the onslaught of GOP negative campaigning once it geared up against him. That he’s been seriously underestimated twice — by the Hillary Clinton camp, and now by McCain — doesn’t prove his potential in office but is interesting.

No comments required….

Well, maybe one comment – from John McCain:

Let me just say categorically I’m proud of the people that come to our rallies… I’m not going to stand for people saying that the people that come to my rallies are anything but the most dedicated, patriotic men and women that are in this nation and they’re great citizens.

Christopher Hitchens endorses Obama, and wishes that McCain could be “taken somewhere soothing and restful” – “I haven’t felt such pity for anyone since the late Adm. James Stockdale humiliated himself as Ross Perot’s running mate.” But he has no such tender feelings for McCain’s running mate.

The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: “What does he take me for?” Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party’s right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama’s position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.

In Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens considers the present financial crisis, and in particular the abdication of responsibility by those involved:

Now ask yourself another question. Has anybody resigned, from either the public or the private sectors (overlapping so lavishly as they now do)? Has anybody even offered to resign? Have you heard anybody in authority apologize, as in: “So very sorry about your savings and pensions and homes and college funds, and I feel personally rotten about it”? Have you even heard the question being posed? O.K., then, has anybody been fired? Any regulator, any supervisor, any runaway would-be golden-parachute artist? Anyone responsible for smugly putting the word “derivative” like a virus into the system? To ask the question is to answer it.

The McCain campaign really has been predictable. Predictably negative. Predictably cynical. In fact, back in June Obama predicted exactly what they would do. Check this out:

On reflection, I think perhaps that Obama did get a few of his predictions wrong. Not the what, but the how. Did anyone really believe that McCain would stoop to mob incitement? See John Scalzi’s “Your Rallies Are Beginning to Look Like Lynch Mobs”. Or from the Inverse Square Blog:

The grotesque sight of major party candidates standing mute and in apparent agreement as their supportors call for the murder of their opponent is not supposed to be part of the American political process.
It is now.

(And I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s read Allen Drury’s “Advise and Consent” novels….)
UPDATE: Well, better late than never. According to Time, McCain…

… just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, “I’m scared of Barack Obama… he’s an Arab terrorist…”
“No, no ma’am,” he interrupted. “He’s a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements.”

Perhaps he should tell his Veep candidate….

There’s a devastating bio of John McCain in the latest Rolling Stone. The guy comes across as a total narcissist and a thoroughly unprincipled jerk. And his colleagues apparently agree.

Last year, after barging into a bipartisan meeting on immigration legislation and attempting to seize the reins, McCain was called out by fellow GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. “Wait a second here,” Cornyn said. “I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.” McCain exploded: “Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone in the room.” The incident foreshadowed McCain’s 11th-hour theatrics in September, when he abruptly “suspended” his campaign and inserted himself into the Wall Street bailout debate at the last minute, just as congressional leaders were attempting to finalize a bipartisan agreement.

At least three of McCain’s GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief. Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain’s “temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him.” Sen. Domenici of New Mexico has said he doesn’t “want this guy anywhere near a trigger.” And Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi weighed in that “the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded.”

Read the whole thing – one piece of outrageous nepotism after another, his less than honorable military service, the Keating Five, the carefully calculated “maverick” moves designed purely to attract attention, the pure egotism and lack of any moral center. The man is a monster.

Larison on Palin’s debate performance:

She cannot be blamed for not knowing that civilian casualties from NATO airstrikes have been a major political problem in the Afghan war or that this reliance on air power stems directly from our lack of ground forces in the country, because I’m sure her handlers were never going to brief her on the existence of civilian casualties in a war zone.  For the Scheunemanns and Bieguns of the world, these casualties either don’t exist or are irrelevant.  Regardless, her clear lack of knowledge about a critical detail concerning one of the two combat theaters where American soldiers are fighting today would, were she not a Republican, be considered among conservatives automatically disqualifying and a cause for ridicule from now until eternity.  Obviously, had Biden made an error of this magnitude he would be attacked as unfit – and rightly so.  It can be no less disqualifying with Palin.

This is a wonderful speech by Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO.

Via Sully, who writes“To see a white union man take on racism this way is very moving. Something truly profound could happen in this election, if we want it to.”

Kathleen Parker at National Review Online, one of Sarah Palin’s most enthusiastic supporters, throws in the towel.

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Of course Parker had to toss in that gratuitous – and completely unsupported – jibe at Biden. Perhaps it was an attempt to soften the blow; no matter. The claim that “Palin can save McCain” is purely wishful thinking: the damage is done, McCain’s desperation is revealed for all to see. Does she really think that people would be able to forget McCain’s colossal error of judgement in a few short weeks? Well, maybe she’s got a point… after all, McMightyMouse will have (or fabricate) plenty of opportunities to play the drama queen between now and the election.
UPDATE: Even the manic enthusiasm of the rabid NROer K-Lo is wavering:

I’m not where my friend Kathleen Parker is — wanting her to step aside to spend more time with her family and Alaska — but that’s not a crazy suggestion. She’s right to say that something’s gotta change.