sweetheart-mine

What do you mean? I was summing up my understanding of bobbob's position, if that wasn't clear.

and you did a good job of it. i've been trying to figure it out for months. i think you got it.

I've learned my lesson .... from election nights for Reagan, Bush I and Shrub. And with McCain stacking up his own serious endorsements, at best I could claim to be cautiously optimistic.

thanks for that, i needed it!

I just thought it was standard campaign speak, is all. A line from the script for the underdog.

maybe it was. i don't think so. i think it goes along with mccain's beloved self-image as a "maverick" (no matter how delusional that may be). he sees himself as a fighter -- he likes to fight, that's how he feels he operates best, he frequently and proudly talks in fighting terms. in his view underdog = fighter, or reason to fight. that's what i hear from him. it's his most standout quality, that pride in fighting. i think it has huge inherent limits, represents tunnel vision, is dangerous and unhealthy and unproductive, and is the last thing we need.

Out of all the things McCain has said, you take issue with this? What is he supposed to say? Why would saying "I like being the underdog" make you think that he needs therapy?

say, don't read too much into it. i've taken issue with many, many things mccain has said and done, for a long time. this was just another strange little twist of outlook that doesn't appeal to me given the seriousness of today's national and world issues. and yes, i do think mccain is not particularly healthy in outlook. if you think he is, so be it. fine with me.

on cnn.com just now:

Sen. John McCain said today he's "very happy" with the way his campaign is going, despite his status in the polls. "I love being the underdog," the Republican candidate said. "You know, every time that I've gotten ahead, somehow I've messed it up."

i guess that was meant to be cute? at this point my advice to mccain would be to try serious therapy, and i'm not kidding.

wonderful. as a lifelong republican connected to the military and with heavy responsibilities in the administrations of both bushes, powell gave one of the most well-thought-out descriptions of the reasons for his choice that i've heard from any prominent public person -- republican, democrat, independent, or martian. i especially appreciated that his decision is based partly on the republican campaign tactics of the last couple of months, which have been despicable. he sees them for what they are, and he sees the difference in integrity & vision between the candidate using those tactics and the candidate who instead is more concerned with reaching out for and inspiring the best in people -- certainly better than the lowness the mccain/palin are giving away their souls to appeal to. powell disappointed me some in the past, but he has more than made up for it now, especially since it's obvious he has been thinking, analyzing, weighing, looking at the country and its future and its place in the world, and getting his priorities straight. what a breath of fresh air.

bachmann was unbelievable. at first i wondered why matthews looked so strange . . . i didn't realize he was being brilliant until bachmann couldn't hold back her big wish any longer. she's a palin in the congress. who knew?

good question. home plate ump, cousins, hit by a foul, and after the inning they have to talk about it for 15 minutes? they don't have a backup ready and waiting? now they have a 5-ump staff instead of 6. pretty strange, never saw it before.

same here. nice going, tbs. ???

edit: geez, you'd think they'd have a sign on the screen or something! it's 8:09 here, first pitch was scheduled for 8:07.

jeff's acoustic "new madrid." i play it over and over in the car, and sing along. over and over. and over.

Unfortunately, I can't see any foreign countries from my apartment.

do you own anything made in china? that oughta do it.

a very happy birthday to you, wendy!

good for you, a-man.

with that robo call i've concluded that the mccain/palin campaign has completely lost it. couldn't believe my ears, what is this, new-joe-mccarthy time? i was so disgusted by it last night that i couldn't read this board or anything else about the election. idiots do exist who will buy the repulsive crap in that call, but at this point there are probably very few of them who haven't already decided that obama is sub-human. so to gain a very few votes that probably won't help him, mccain has in my opinion reached down to a new low and sealed his legacy as the filthiest and stupidest presidential campaigner in modern times.

one of our two republican u.s. senators from maine, susan collins, actually contacted the mccain campaign and told them to stop making that robo call in our state, as she told the press yesterday. she thought it was bizarre and inappropriate, to put it mildly. three stars for senator collins.

what a great trip!

now, is it true that fans booed papi mid-game last night? (before the homer, of course). the nytimes says that this morning, and so did the tbs guys last night. i didn't hear it and hope it isn't true.

this thread inspired me to listen to summerteeth, i have been sitting on my bed with my laptop and my ipod, with cnn and msnbc on the tv (with sound down) its all i watch these days because i am so excited about obama and it looks like hes going to win. i actually yell at the tv when i feel it necessary. pieholden came on and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye. and then how to fight loneliness comes on after. jeffs voice does something to me like neil youngs did when i was 14 years old when i first heard him. jeff voice makes me sad, happy, makes my stomach ache, gives me the goosebumps. i know a lot of you feel the same way. oh and when he screams when he sings and his voice breaks, OMG that really gets to me. going to a wilco or a jeff solo show is the best thing in the world for me because i know i am surrounded by wilco/jeff fans. that makes me feel really good. i would be nice to know someone in real life who felt the same way. i love jeff tweedy.

i'm so glad you wrote this. jeff's voice is something that's been mostly unexplainable for me -- all i know is that it affects me like no other voice, and from the moment i first heard him his voice has been a permanent, chronic pull at me. all my emotions come alive at once, which can be very difficult, actually, as well as beautiful. before, i had favorite singers, i'd like them quite a lot, and they would change periodically over the years and i'd enjoy someone else. but jeff's voice is on some other plane for me, a sort of deeply human and deeply spiritual plane, both at once. so now there's Jeff Tweedy . . . and then everyone else in a loose group off to the side. i've never been so affected by someone's sound before; sometimes i want to yell for help!

oh, that's the best solution yet. and then if they'd just make their disappearance permanent. . . .

Just goes to show - they have nothing to offer, all they can do is attack Senator Obama.

yah, that was pitifully clear last night. i'd thought, since the attacks of the last couple of weeks were not helping mccain/palin in the polls, that he might come out with a different approach for the last debate (or at least some new material on the attack front!). he just solidified for people who he has become.

I wished for 2 things while watching the debate. I wanted Obama to directly ask MCain this, "John, do you believe that I 'pal around with terrorists'?" If McCain had said, "No" then I wanted Obama to say, "Then John, can you please explain to the electorate why you allow your running mate to accuse me of palling around with terrorists". He was cool enough to pull it off.

 

I didn't want him to but i thought how awesome it would have been if out of nowhere Obama said, "John, I have to say that you are a creepy looking motherfucker. What do you think, Bob?".

but seriously, i was amazed (and gratified) that obama actually quoted the "kill him" palin rallyer (as well as the one who said "terrorist" or "traitor," i forget which) -- and called mccain on the fact that his running mate said absolutely nothing to or about those people.

All in all, I thought Bob Schieffer did a great job last night. We finally got answers to a few questions that have been prominent in the media and in the minds of voters but were skipped over in the other debates, and he let the conversation flow freely as long as it remained somewhat linked to the original question. We should have skipped over Brokaw and had Schieffer sooner.

i agree, schieffer was excellent, by far the best of the moderators of these debates, for exactly the reasons you mention.

"Nice picture, John!"

thanks q23, that still makes my skin crawl!

To be fair, he's looked horrible since 1989.

i'll probably get laughed off the board for this but am saying it anyway. i live in a neighborhood where, though we respect each other's privacy, we kind of look out for each other at the same time. there are a couple of people who don't give a damn about anyone except themselves and their family, but most of us are more than willing to help each other out -- whether it's by offering meals when a house floods, showing up at a town council meeting to support someone getting shafted by an outdated ordinance, or, my favorite this year, just forking over an unneeded strip of land so a neighbor could make a safe walkway to his back door. i like living in this kind of neighborhood, and until the 1980s it felt like i was living in that kind of country too. the country hasn't felt that way for a while. some kind of "mine mine mine" spirit started poisoning the atmosphere and luxuries turned into necessities to be guarded with one's life. i'd love to see that go away.

When would it ever be enough?

does this mean "don't try"? "it's off the table"? don't worry -- the hardworking lower-income people i know are not bottomless pits (unlike some luckier people i know), and i'd bet those in the video aren't either.

Our neighborhood butcher used to say never trust a man who doesn't drink. I'd like to amend that to include never trust a guy who hasn't been divorced.

uh-oh.