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The McCain campaign trying to talk up Sarah Palin’s “foreign policy experience:”

I thought the convention was fantastic. The Clintons came home and really redeemed themselves in my eyes. There’s nothing like seeing Bill standing in front of his adoring fans, wagging his finger at McCain and telling the country in no uncertain terms why Obama is ready to lead. Hillary laid out an excellent case for why no person who voted for her could in good conscience ever vote for McCain.

Obama’s acceptance speech before 78,000 people was masterful, a symphony as said by David Gergen. It blended some much-needed economic populism with a call to personal responsibility and an appeal to people of all political stripes to come together as one nation to defeat the many problems that assail us. It also did not fail to bang McCain exactly where and how he needed to do so.

But nobody can say it better than some of the most hard-core Republicans on television who were flabbergasted by his speech:

(Love the last quote: “whatever Republican didn’t get picked as VP today may be a lucky Republican.”)

And how about the McCain camp? Speechless:

Picture of McCain with elder Bush on golf cart wearing $500 shoes.

VOICE: John McCain wants you to believe he’s just like you. OH REALLY?

How many houses does he own? He doesn’t seem to know.

(big white letters over picture) “”I think – I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where – I’ll have them get to you.”

VOICE: The answer: Four. And what kind of income does he think defines who’s rich?

::SHOW VIDEO OF RECENT RELIGIOUS FORUM:::

MCCAIN: IF WE’RE TALKING ABOUT INCOME, HOW ABOUT $5 MILLION?

VOICE: Is this why John McCain wants to cut taxes on people making $2.5 million or more, because he thinks they’re middle class?

VOICE with nice pic of Obama in background) BARACK OBAMA only recently paid off his student loans, and gave up his career as a lawyer to help the youth of Chicago as a community organizer, helping kids get off the streets and stay out of trouble.

(back to pic of McCain/Bush/shoes)

$500 shoes, four houses, and a $2.5 million a year middle class? WHO’S REALLY MORE LIKE YOU?

OBAMA: i’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message.

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GET WITH THE F’ING PROGRAM, OBAMA! Time to destroy this totally false view of McCain as the Everyman who understands the needs of people suffering real economic hardship, and focus on who has REALLY seen the carnage on the streets.

I decided to evaluate Obama’s and McCain’s proposals for confronting the twin crises of energy scarcity/dependence and climate change. I developed the following grid, based on information provided by the two candidates on their respective web pages devoted to these issues (you can see Obama’s page here, and McCain’s pages here and here.)

(The government report referenced above regarding offshore resources can be found here.)

Bottom line: overall, Obama’s plan beats McCain’s hands down when it comes to aggressiveness and vision. These crises require a national resolve and commitment akin to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo program in order to relieve our oil dependence and prevent a climate catastrophe. We should be throwing everything and the kitchen sink at these problems–government funding, tax incentives, education, efficiency improvements, and every other tool in the book. Both candidates kind of pick and choose, but at the end of the day Obama’s plan shows more of a commitment to resolving these problems than McCain’s.

McCain’s emphasis on developing “clean coal” technology is particularly disappointing. Coal can never truly be clean from an emissions perspective until we develop sound ways to sequester the carbon dioxide emitting from these plants, and we are a long ways off from doing that in a cost-effective and reliable manner.

However, McCain’s plan fills some notable gaps in Obama’s–most notably in pushing for the large-scale development of nuclear power as a cleaner alternative to coal. Nuclear has its problems too, but at least it doesn’t worsen the carbon emissions problem as we ramp up production of renewable energy.

I also oppose continuing subsidies for corn-based ethanol, which Obama favors but McCain does not. We have to stop putting food into our gas tanks as quickly as possible or we will continue to exacerbate food shortages around the world. Cellulosic ethanol is just around the corner, but we need to push very hard right now to make that a viable alternative to corn.

Overall, Obama has it right on these crises–but he would do well to pick up a few elements of McCain’s plan so as to truly commit America to literally saving the world from these pernicious problems that are wrecking our planet, economy, and national security.

Obama responds forcefully to the “bitter” BS, effectively adopting the word into his vocabulary for change. While at it, he imposes his own special brand of smackdown on Hillary.

Clinton and McCain are trying to make lots of political hay over Obama’s comments (which admittedly could have been said better) about the bitterness being felt by people in depressed areas like parts of Pennsylvania. He clearly intended to say that because people feel abandoned by their government on their economic needs, that they are bitter about that and will vote instead on religious or gun rights issues. That is the only interpretation consistent with Obama’s campaign theme, which only the most strident Clintonites and ratings-hungry TV pundits could deny.

So what do the people of Pennsylvania really think, apart from what all the talking heads would like them to think? Well, Fox news went out and asked a couple of them, and didn’t get the responses they expected. They agreed with Obama, and saw nothing wrong with what he said. Watch these videos, courtesy of Crooks & Liars:

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So could we stop with the nonsense? I guess that’s too much to ask, especially of Clinton–who will end up not getting the nomination while damaging her party and its candidate in the process, for the sake of her own ambition.

I am so outraged at the race-baiting and religion-bashing coming out of the Clinton camp against Obama that it absolutely makes me want to puke.

A few months ago, Clinton volunteers circulated an e-mail falsely claiming that Obama was a Muslim (he is in fact a Christian)–not that there’s anything wrong with being a Muslim, but it was clearly intended to play into people’s prejudices about a minority religion. Obama has worked hard to dispel that rumor.

Today, the Drudge Report was sent a picture of Obama in traditional Somali garb as a goodwill gesture on an overseas visit a couple of years ago (something not at all unusual for politicians and ambassadors)–and Drudge attributes the picture to a source in the Clinton campaign.

When asked and after Obama protested release of the picture, the Clinton campaign erupted in righteous indignation:

Enough. If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

We will not be distracted.

In a perfect Clintonian trap, her campaign manager has the unmitigated gall to put out a statement like this while at the same time declining to deny the picture was sent to Drudge from her campaign. Of course it came from her campaign–and why? To cement the image of Obama as a Muslim, of course…and to play into people’s racial and religious fears. Why else would anyone submit a picture like this to Drudge?

I am so thoroughly disgusted at these tactics that if Clinton ends up being the nominee, I will stay home on Election Day. I would rather see John McCain be president than vote for that witch.

I rushed out this morning, leaving my cell phone and reading materials behind, thinking today’s voting would be a quick in-and-out 5 minute affair.

Um, no.

What must have surely been a record-breaking line for a primary awaited me at the polls. I did not press the vote button until an hour and a half later.

With nothing else to do, I took note of what was going on around me–who was there to vote, what people were saying.

There were the young professionals, blackberries and iPods in hand–and those who could not afford such luxuries.

There were young people and old–a lot of older people, in fact–a busload of them arrived from a nearby senior residential home.

There were whites, blacks, hispanics, asians…people from all walks of life.

“Will be in line for 1.5 hours, but last general election was 4 hour wait,” typed the woman in front of me into her Blackberry. “At this rate, next general election will be whacked.” (Yes, shame on me for reading over her shoulder.)

Most people were cheerful, happy to be a part of something that seemed really, really important. “I’ve been in line for an hour,” yapped a woman into her phone. “But I’m not leaving–this election is important!”

Unfortunately a few did leave, unable or unwilling to wait in line for so long. One older person collapsed, requiring a 911 call and an ambulance.

Clearly, the electorate is in a mood. From gas prices, to the housing collapse, to the recession, to Iraq–people are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

I have a feeling this angst will translate primarily into Obama votes. We will see tonight–polls in Virginia close at 7 PM.

The Clinton campaign knows it’s in trouble–setting up Ohio and Texas in March as “must win” states in the face of a string of losses on Super Tuesday and beyond.

This is a terrible strategy, and I have doubts she’ll even make it to March. The string of defeats in state after state between now and March–Obama is expected to have blowout victories in the Potomac region today and has won every other state voting since Super Tuesday–threatens to create a snowball momentum effect that may be impossible to cancel out by the time March rolls around. It’s not just the delegate count (though many Clinton super-delegates are now wavering because of the Obama snowball)–it’s also the demoralization of troops, the drying up of fundraising, and the incessant drumbeats of impending death from the media. Obama is already bringing in twice as much money per week as Clinton, choking off her ability to respond.

Oh well..this former Hillary supporter is off to vote for Obama in the Virginia primary. She just didn’t close the sale for me.

I’ll be voting for Obama in Virginia’s primary tomorrow because:

And most of all: