"This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

This new Tom Tomorrow cartoon pretty much sums up the GOP's strategy that they've been running with since their convention. I'd find it pretty hysterical if the polls weren't indicating that the usual distract-and-divide tactic was working gangbusters for them again.



To prove the point that Republicans can literally get away with saying anything, watch this video of McCain campaign flak Carly Fiorina on MSNBC this morning. In it, she states the obvious that this mess wouldn't have happened if we'd had stricter regulation of the economy/financial sector... and then proceeded to blame this on Democrats. {*this is where my brain exploded*} Yes, that was a Republican blaming the lack of evil, socialist regulation and accountability on the Democrats.

Remember, so much of this-- the idea of an 'ownership society' free-market paradise-- was heralded by President Bush and the GOP at their 2004 convention as his greatest domestic success. And Andrea Mitchell didn't challenge that at all, instead they sort of dismissed this as a bipartisan mess (while Fiorina went on a non-sequitur pander about how hard working Americans are). Because that would've been biased of Mitchell. Or sexist too!

Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow or Wednesday for some thoughts on where things stand in general with Obama, McCain, etc. It's nice to see the campaign focused back (if only for a day) on real issues, but I'm still not convinced voters are getting a good message here.

[PS- Sen. Obama's response was okay, but too weak and polite. Punch hard, give the media soundbytes so they'll pretend to give a shit about what you have to say. How about this... "Lehman Brothers survived the Great Depression, but it couldn't survive George W. Bush." BAM. Something like that. It'd be nice to actually drive the news cycle for a change.]