I'll return when the balance of discussion on this blog returns to public policy and McCain. Till then, I'm with Nathan. And, no, I won't be replying to comments, either.

In the meantime, I leave you with some food for thought that too many are ignoring at the peril of electing McCain.

Masturbating Minds Want to Know

We jerk off about Palin's daughter's pregnancy. We post misogynistic barbs about her qualities as a woman. We dig for hidden dirt on obscure details of her personal life and expect that will resonate positively with voters instead of being seen as the sliming it demonstrably is.

What Does Palin Mean for the Democrats?

Palin is no game changer. She is a mirror of McCain who energizes the base and reinforces the reformist message that threatens to split the center. Obama's task now is to win the center. His base will remain energized if he is careful in how he keeps Hope and Change alive.

Police Raid Activists Ahead of GOP Convention

Police armed with automatic weapons raided at least six buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul used by activists and seized a bus carrying others in what one attorney for the National Lawyers Guild called "unwarranted" acts of "preventive detention" to deter protests at the Republican National Convention.

Strawberries

Taken together with McCain's saber-rattling bombast at the start of the Georgia crisis, his flippant "bomb, bomb, bomb — bomb, bomb Iran," his "hot-dog" record of crashing five Navy aircraft, and his support for virtually unlimited U.S. military presence in Iraq, McCain's choice of a foreign affairs neophyte shows a willingness to take unacceptable risks with American national security.

TO ALL BLOGGERS: Policy, NOT Misogyny

If you are using misogyny to advance your arguments against  John McCain's choice of running mates, you are giving disaffected women every reason to withhold their votes or use them for McCain/Palin.

DON'T do it.

Sarah Barracuda

The most salient point for Democrats to consider about John McCain's new veep, Sarah Palin, is that her looks are deceiving. She is fiercely partisan, charming and politically ice-cold and calculating.

Thanks to all those who understand what my last several posts are really all about: Winning in November.