Wow, I was a bit frivolous by not adding…

Republicans have my support this election cycle unless new evidence makes me reconsider … which is why i rarely know who I’m going to vote for until the ballot is in my hand … probably because centrist are so difficult to sniff out.

“It sounds ambitious.”

It sounds amibitious? Making the seas recede sounds ambitious? D’ya think?

They are always billed as the great savior, redecorate the building, have impressive 4 color brochures printed out, make impressive speeches and then leave.

My favorite: guys who put new nameplates on doors. (“Now there’s leadership!”) No more pathetic displacement activity exists.

I think his persuasive powers are very strong indeed, particularly when coupled with his not-inconsiderable charisma.

Daniel, I’m with neo on this one.

Much like a brothel inmate is pretty persuasive to drunken sailors, Obama is effective with people who are already in the bag, but not with those who are not. He can fire up those already fired up, but cannot persuade skeptics — the essence of persuasion.

he always believes he is the smartest person in any room…

No matter how smart you are (or think you are), there is always someone that knows more than you do.

No matter how smart you are, there’s always — always — someone smarter. Someone with an IQ of 140 (certainly much higher than Obama’s) is in the top 0.5% or so of the population (IIRC), i.e., to be 1 in 200 in IQ of people chosen randomly. Put a little selection bias in there (although in DC it’s increasingly unclear whether they select for or against intelligence), and that number plummets. Obama would be lucky to be the smartest person in a phone booth, if such still existed.

Opaque because there is nothing to see.

Its reached a point where I feel Obama’s being elected President was merely his way of crying for help.

Palin’s introduction was very exciting, peering through the crowd it was hard to get a full glimpse of this woman for the first week or so. Then she spoke and I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Then not so far before the election I realized wow what an irresponsible decision, what is McCain thinking?

Rickl I make the distinction that unfortunately for McCain the initial appearance would have to go on and reveal some substance before the election which was shortly coming. I believe McCain chose to see, “Hmm, vibrant, attractive go-getting opportunist who is holding and doing well with the governorship … in Alaska … hey it’s virtually a 3rd of the country.” In McCain’s defense he may have realized that there were no other options, the zeitgeist, the wish of the masses, after the racist trashing Obama got from the Clintons’ during the Democratic primaries, Obama was not going to fail.

The zeitgeist in a sentence might look something like this, “You can’t have a black man who can stand up to the muster of the campaign, take this kind of abuse, and then … lose?” It wasn’t going to happen.

Try to image the alternative: It would have been the image of America that broke the camel’s back in the eyes of the world. All of the world’s worst suspections about America would suddenly all be true.

McCain should have simply stood on principle and ask Lieberman or Giuliani to join him. Mccain still would have lost perhaps, perhaps not, but whatever, it would not have been for a cheap trick. To continue to not see Palin as a failed tool [it is about gender, used as a tool, stop it] is what I expect from the worst o the Right.

It isn’t simple, and it comes down to one of two choices, Obama failed, he knew he wasn’t ready for this but the people shoved him in, and since I really should be a part of the electoral process, despite criticism that I also for the Right, the Republicans have my support this election cycle.

I reached the same conclusions about the weirdo in chief some time ago. Fortunately we have institutions to prevent such behavior, damn, it just occurred to me his finger will be on the nuclear button to the very end.