Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I voted yesterday. The 2008 election is now a little more than a week away. Usually I like to wait for election day, because I like the sense of civic camaraderie that comes from standing in line at the polling place. In Texas (and in more and more states), one can vote early without any reason. Across the country, many of my fellow citizens have also voted early, hoping to avoid getting caught in what could be a record high turnout. As is my habit, I did not choose the straight party option, although I always end up voting for all the Democrats who run. This year I did vote for one (unopposed) Republican judge who used to be a Democrat, and some Libertarian judge running against a Republican with no Democratic opposition. I've been watch the polling figures on RealClearPolitics and keeping my fingers crossed. Things look good, but a lot can change in a week. That's another way early voting has changed elections -- it's lessened the effect of last minute surprises that ca...

One of my wife's guilty junk TV pleasures is TLC's What Not To Wear , in which our hosts Stacy and Clinton pick some poor fashion loser (nominated by the loser's friends/family) and give them a makeover: new hairdo, makeup and $5,000 worth of clothes. It's reality television at its finest. A plucky individual remakes themselves in the image of What's Hot and along the way sheds a few tears, gains some insight, and ditches all their old crappy stuff on someone else's nickel. How can it miss? The McCain campaign has picked up on this heart-warming concept. The Republican National Committee has spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin's wardrobe in the last two months, outfitting the Hockey Mom You Can Trust in threads from Neiman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue . Tell me -- are those stores in Real America or Fake America ? When ungenerous commentators questioned this campaign largess, McCain flacks were quick to say Sarah's outfits would be donated to charity at some...

I watched the final debate tonight, thankful it was the last. Tonight instead of PBS, I happened to watch it on CNN where they again had a group of "undecided" voters with the instant polling gizmos. The men seemed to prefer McCain, the ladies liked Obama. Gimmicky but moderately interesting to watch. McCain came out with a roar but sort of petered out. Perhaps it was past his bed time. Obama did his usual slow and measured performance -- no fireworks but he made no discernible mistakes. Alas, my friend the Whited Sepulchre had not the time or will to liveblog it, but he did record his impressions after the fact. After a while I found myself sick of hearing about Joe the Plumber. I'm not sure Senator McCain served his campaign well by marrying himself to the image of a plumber's crack, since after the third mention that's what came to my mind every time he pulled ol' Joe out of his rhetorical rucksack.

A photo that reveals more about the Republican Base than anything I could possibly say. Thanks to the Washington Post .

One of the interesting things to have happened as McCain slowly sheds supporters is that we have an opportunity to get a better look at the Republican Base, since everyone else is slowly creeping out of the tent. Thanks to the Embarracuda, the Base still flock to the rallies, where they scream "Terrorist!" and "Kill him" at the mention of Obama. The Base: Jesus lovin', God-fearin', flag-wavin', red-meat-eatin', gun-totin', cousin-marryin', anyone-different-than-them-hatin'. Oh they are something. Primarily intolerant and mean-spirited. John McCain has finally found his sense of shame, at least for the moment, and has tried to cool some of the more foaming-at-the mouth rhetoric of his supporters recently, and was booed by his own crowd . It remains to be seen how long the new civility lasts. The base doesn't really like McCain. Now Sarah Palin...that's another matter. Rumor has it the Powers That Be are already grooming her for 20...

This just in... To quote the New York Times : " A 236-page report released by lawmakers in Alaska on Friday, found that Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had herself exerted pressure to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed, as well as allowed her husband and subordinates to press for his firing, as a result of a messy divorce between him and Ms. Palin’s sister. " Whoops! RealClearPolitics now has the Electoral College count at: Obama/Biden: 353 McCain/Palin: 185 I'm beginning to wonder just how much worst it can get for John McCain?

Watching McCain's descent into the cesspool in the dying days of his campaign, I am reminded of an old, tasteless joke: An old Scotsman drinking in a bar says to the young man sitting beside him, "Look out to the field. Do ya see that fence? I built it stone by stone with me own two hands. Piled it for months. But do they call me McGregor-the-Fence-Builder? Nooo.." He pats the bar. "See how smooth and just this bar is, laddy? I planed that wood with me own hard labour, for eight days. But do they call me McGregor-the-Bar-Builder? Nooo..." He points to the sea. "Do ya see that pier that stretches as far as the eye can see? I built that pier with the sweat off me back. I nailed it board by board. But do they call me McGregor-the-Pier-Builder? Nooo..." "But ya fuck one goat..." John McCain has had a long and honorable career, earning him a great deal of deserved respect. Now that his quest to be president is tanking, he's chosen to cast asid...

John -- Just a quick note. The stock market fell ( plummeted, shreeked, plunged earthward with nausea-inducing abandon ) another 678 points yesterday. It's now below 9000 points. The financial markets are in near collapse. My 401k is worth 40% of what it was in January . And what do I hear you and the Embarracuda talking about: Bill Ayers, and whether Barack Obama is trustworthy about their "relationship." WHAT THE FUCK? Do we really know Barack Obama, you ask. This is rich coming from a campaign that refuses to give the media access to their running mate and won't let her appear in public without adult supervision. The biggest economic crisis in my lifetime and you, Senator McCain, are busily flinging turds.

Joe Klein over at Time magazine has done us a great service -- he's coined the ultimate nickname: Embarracuda . See? I don't even need to tell you who he's referring to. You know . Thanks to Mr. Klein, I shall henceforth adopt this term in all my references to Sarah Palin. His article by the same name peels away the perky exterior and casts a flinty eye at what he refers to as McCain's insult to your intelligence. As to her recent crack about Obama "palling around with terrorists," he points out the irony, given the fact that she's married to a member of a political party that wants Alaska to secede from the lower 48. Huh? He also contrasts her statement about Obama's former paster, Jeremiah Wright ("I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said.") with the fact that she sat through (not getting up and leaving) a sermon by the founder of Jews for Jesus who, as Klein rep...

Here we are less than a month from the 2008 election. You thought things were nasty before? Get ready--the shit's really going to start flying now. Despite his pledges to the contrary, McCain signaled early on he was more than willing to wade into the cesspool. Remember the stink over the "Celeb" ad? That was the tip of the iceberg. There's plenty more. Obama, to his credit, responded quickly and vigorously to these, having learned the lesson from John Kerry that unanswered attacks only encourage more of the same. McCain thought he'd run this election using the Bush "National Security" playbook ("the Surge worked," etc.), but a funny thing happened on the way to the polls: Wall Street had a meltdown. And it is a truism in politics that the economy trumps almost everything. Senator McCain has admitted in the past that economic issues are not his long suit. With the US teetering on the brink of a recession, suddenly voters are noticing McCain...

If there is any upside to financial meltdown of the last weeks or so, it is that we, the voting public, have been given a welcome respite from all things Sarah Palin. Tomorrow is the vice-presidential debates, which will probably not change any substantial number of votes, but has the potential for the guilty pleasure at watching someone make a fool of themselves. If Sarah's recent performances are any indicator, the evening promises much comic fodder. Tina Fey may actually look more presidential. Her handlers have been shielding her from any contact with a discerning public, with the not overly surprising effect that even her lukewarm supporters have begun to grow bored with her. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to see her fade back in to obscurity, her brief moment of notoriety reduced to little more than a footnote in the history books and a few random subpoenas.