Great column by George Will. He gets it. It's over. (link)

[scheming daemons]

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.

In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.

This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seem surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."

Recently Obama noted -- perhaps to torment and provoke conservatives -- that McCain's rhetoric about Wall Street's "greed" and "casino culture" amounted to "talking like Jesse Jackson." What fun: one African-American Chicago politician distancing himself from another African-American Chicago politician by associating McCain with him.
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/a_landslide_coming.html

[grannie4peace]

1. yes, it is

[kick-ass-bob]

2. lol - are we sane yet?

:eyes:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. I've always liked George Will.

I rarely agree with him, if at all, but at least he attempts to make logical arguments instead of buzzword-laden red meat diatribes that lack substance.

[melody]

5. He's the monster that stole Jimmy Carter's playbook and gave it to Reagan

Any sense he's making now is because he knows the wind isn't blowing his way anymore.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. savaged by a dead sheep

that's about it

[LiberalAndProud]

6. female Sancho Panza

:rofl:

You gotta hand it to him. He's got a way with words.

[Zomby Woof]

13. As "Don Quixote" is my favorite novel

I have to disagree with Will's comparison of her to Sancho Panza. Yes, she is his sidekick, etc. But Sancho was the sane half of the duo, grounded in reality as Quixote got ever loftier and 'crazier' from his unbounded idealism (I can see where McCain is a reverse Quixote, insane, but clouded by cynicism instead of idealism - and really, aren't BOTH of them insane?). Late in the story Sancho deceives Quixote, but it frees Quixote of his illusions, and his sanity is restored. Sancho is given the governorship of an imaginary island, which he administers with fairness and practicality (unlike Palin), until it too, comes undone. There is no chance of McCain's sanity being restored.

I am afraid that Will's comparison is as shallow as he is.

[yardwork]

16. I'm offended by the comparison. Don Quixote is a classic of Spanish literature

and a telling social commentary on exactly the sort of government that Will has championed. Let Will compare McCain and Palin to somebody evil and stupid in literature - perhaps some of children in the Lord of the Flies.

[central scrutinizer]

7. I called this weeks ago

Not to toot my own horn, but I have been saying for weeks that those quarterly statements (I just got mine yesterday) would be this year's October surprise.

[xxqqqzme]

9. I got mine Tuesday.

'gingerly opening' describes it - I'm flat-ass-out afraid to open mine.

[central scrutinizer]

11. mine wasn't all that bad, however

the end of the quarter was September 30 and I don't know what further erosion the past week has caused. On the plus side, all of my new monthly deductions will buy more shares at these lower prices.

[Barack_America]

10. That was a very smart call.

I never thought of that, perhaps because I don't have a 401K yet, lol. (still in school)

But that makes absolute sense.

"How Wall Street defeated the Republican Party". What a tale that will be. (McCain was technically ahead before the great collapse)

[Max_powers94]

17. I see you horn hanging out of your pocket

[central scrutinizer]

20. No, I'm just glad to see you

[Max_powers94]

21. OOOOKKKKKK backing out of post

[nichomachus]

8. Will can repent all he wants

He can "get it" now, but he's still going up against the wall after the revolution.

[Bill McBlueState]

12. Obama 350!

Still, it may be politically prudent for McCain to throw caution, and billions, to the wind. Obama is competitive in so many states that President Bush carried in 2004 -- including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico -- it is not eccentric to think he could win at least 350 of the 538 electoral votes.

Yup.

[old mark]

14. I remember many years ago people were conditioned to be

scared of a takeover by the Communist Chinese, of all things.
I remember thinking that if the Chinese ever did take over the US, they would find us so crazy, they would give it back in a month.

I imagine the rest of the world watching this election campaign, and realising how crazy the American system is, then realising how much effect the election will have on their country. Must be pretty scary.

It gets pretty scary here, too, sometimes.

mark

[yardwork]

15. The Repukes have gotten all pissy now that their money's gone.

It was always all about the money. Now they're turning on one another like the rats they are.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. Mccain doesn't seem to spending much how much has he got left?

[Raster]

19. George Will: arrogant, verbose and full of shit up to his eyeballs.

"The success of the surge in Iraq, for which McCain justly claims much credit, is one reason why foreign policy has receded to the margins of the electorate's mind, thereby diminishing the subject with which McCain is most comfortable and which is Obama's largest vulnerability."

The success of the surge? Oh please. That tired rethuglican talking point was taken out with the other trash long ago.

[mvd]

23. I know - makes no sense

The surge was put in place to repair the damage from McCain and others' strategy to invade Iraq, and it is clear that the surge isn't solely responsible for the violence going down.

[Supersedeas]

22. seem surreal b/c of the context of the Economy!!! How about IMMORAL, FALSE, DIVISIVE, and LAME

irrespective of the Economy.