Gross Random Distraction-of-the-Day

Honestly, who made this political ad, and how did they get it approved to go on air. Amazing, really truly amazing.



Al Franken's race may have to take a back seat to my new favorite non-Presidential race!

McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort

That at least is the gist of a new article up on Huffington Post. I'd need to know way more before forming any intelligent opinion on this,-- especially considering the source-- but if it's true, it's surely embarrassing for team McCain. This is the exact opposite of what they need now.

Politics is fun and all, but...

Nothing can beat October baseball played out like the Phillies did against the Dodgers last night. The game had all sorts of ups and downs, but it ended with classic October fireworks provided by the most unlikely of villains, the small, talkative, speedy and friendly Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs, a free agent the Phillies picked up out of the Toronto Blue Jay's discard bin for the purpose of providing a lefty home-run hitting bat.


It was one hell of a game, and if you are interested in reading more, I highly recommend Phil Sheridan's write-up of why Victorino is such an unlikely villain and Jayson Stark's rundown that references my hometown in the 'burbs of Philly:

Yeah, Stairs hit it, all right. He hit it so high and so far to deep right field that at first, said Howard, "I thought it was going to leave the park and hit the roof." Instead, it "only" came down two-thirds of the way up the right-field pavilion -- a mammoth blast in this park. And as that baseball finally settled into those far-away seats, folks from Chavez Ravine to Cheltenham needed a moment -- or maybe an eternity -- to make sense of what they'd all just witnessed.

That's right, Cheltenham, PA is a wonderful little suburb right outside Philly, a place that I'm sure 98% of people who read this write-up of the game do not know. It's also where my family lived starting back in 1982, and the town my mother still calls home! Why Stark chose Cheltenham to shout out... I'm not sure, but thanks to Matt for pointing this out, and thanks to Stark for the love. The 'ham appreciates it!

Thoughts on Momentum

Last Friday a big piece of news dropped as the evening skies darkened here on the week leading into Columbus Day weekend. Up in Alaska the commission investigating whether Sarah Palin acted improperly in the firing of a public official wrapped and they released a report showing (big surprise) Palin did, in fact, act improperly.



Over the weekend Philadelphia Flyers fans booed Palin (see video above) as she dropped the first puck at a hockey game. On Monday, John McCain tried to restart his campaign with a whole new stump speech, and here on Tuesday morning it seems like in the face of all these potentially at least somewhat interesting news pieces the big story is that the numbers (check out the cool interactive graph developed by the geniuses at Pollster.com below) show a trend that is solidifying and increasingly undeniable.



So even as things continue to seem strange out in some crazy little parts of America, as we see idiots with monkey dolls who think they're funny (damn it, that happened in the friggin state where I was born! $%*&%$ing ^*&#k s#$*&#t!!!!), and even further into the crazy where fanatical fans dress like their political obsessions...

...in many parts of America I guess I get the sense that something is settling in, the simple clear idea that Change is a must, and that the choice if you want change and real leadership is fairly straightforward.

Will the McCain campaign continue to implode this week? Will the right continue to turn on him and his campaign? Who knows? But the picture will certainly continue to develop, and I for one am glad that some of the scary angry dangerous tone that was present towards the end of last week seems perhaps to be dying back a bit.

I, for one, at least hope that last part is true.

Proud to be a Philadelphian, where at least I know I'm FREE... or something like that.

David Broder of the Washington Post wanders around Upper Dublin, not far from where I grew up (their high school played mine in sports) and interviews suburban Philadelphia folk about their feelings regarding the election.

Obama Jam

Just a little Columbus Day ditty for y'all. Kim's Uncle Lou is a musician, storyteller and performer whose work is primarily aimed at kids. He's actually appeared a number of times over the years on Kid's Corner, a Philadelphia-based kids radio hour that airs on NPR, and a show that my brother and i grew up listening to.

Lou recently put together a song that reflects his excitement about Obama and what his candidacy represents and what our future may hold. Check it out, and if you like Lou, learn more about his work here.

More about Ayers

To some extent, I think questioning Obama about Ayers is legitimate. If the leading candidate for President has been "paling around with terrorists" than that is surely the nation's business right? It certainly deserves more of an inquiry than whether Trig is really Palin's son, the matter which still--amazingly-- seems to be so important to Andrew Sullivan.

So it's not the inquiry itself that makes the current Ayers attacks so deeply shameful; rather it's the fact that, at this point, there appears to be nothing more than the most tenuous connection between the two men. CQ politics has an excellent run down of the claim that Obama and Ayers served on the board of a "radical" educational reform organization. It doesn't cover the other commonly asserted concern that Obama launched his campaign at Ayer's house, but it's worth reading, if only because it will let you assuage any concerns that friends or family may have.

NEW All Time Favorite Election-Related Video

Ok, so the video below is amazing. You should watch it, then you should send it to your grandparents, your siblings, your rabbi, your 3rd grade teacher, the guy who works at your local gas station, anybody you care about. Betty White is beloved to so many Americans and the only downside of her is that she makes me sad thinking of Bea Arthur, god bless her soul. Anyway, Betty White has some choice words about her friend John McCain and his friends.



Many thanks to Tyler for posting this on Facebook. You rock.

J Mac Attack

From the title, you might think this is just the latest The Best Way post about recent attacks in the campaign for the presidency... and maybe to a certain degree you would be right. But this attack didn't come from McCain, Palin, Cindy, Obama, Biden or any of their surrogates. It came from Vanity Fair. VF punched out a clever little fake news bit this week, publishing a mock-up cover for Out-of-Touch Weekly. Check it out:


Hat Tip: HuffPo, check out full story here.

Don't Just Stand There, Let's Get To It

Thomas Friedman wrote an op ed for the NYT recently that a friend, Deb, posted on Facebook. I'm glad she posted it, because it's a good read. In an even-handed piece advocating for a return to America making things, mixed with some independence from foreign influence ideas, but not the over simplistic ones you're used to hearing on the campaign trail, Friedman makes the case that we should push our economy green with a buildup to accompany the bailout:

Our No. 1 resource is our people. Let’s put people back to work — retrofitting and repowering America. ... You can’t base a national economy on credit cards. But you can base it on solar panels, wind turbines, smart biofuels and a massive program to weatherize every building and home in America.

Slip? No big deal? or um... something worth talking about?

How many slips make this kind of stuff worth asking questions about? How does having a running mate who most Americans think is unqualified for the Presidency (and also I think more than 50% of Americans even agree that she's not qualified for the VP slot) impact whether or not this is a question we should all be talking about.

What went wrong, when and how?

What went wrong(s?) along the way? I'd love to hear peoples' thoughts, but i think this video does a good job of capturing the phenomena that swirls around John McCain's clear disdain for Barack Obama. Perhaps I'm wrong, but let me know what you think.