Written Report on 2nd Day of 2020 Democratic National Convention

I thought the second day of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, totally virtual, and just concluded on television, hit an emotional tone which was at once as deep as it gets, and hopeful.  The casting of the nominating ballots, state by state, in alphabetical order, was especially moving and satisfying, a much better multi-faceted picture of America than could ever be offered in an in-person physical convention, because we actually got to see the states and cities across this country from which the delegates, multicultural, colorfully dressed and spoken, were casting their votes.

It was also good to see Joe Biden himself at critical moments in the convention, as we did last night.  Tonight he accepted the nomination, spoke with people who survived because of the Affordable Health Care Act, which he helped bring over the finish line with Obama, and came out to hug his wife Jill after her speech.  This was something you also didn't see, or didn't see much of, in the traditional old-fashioned in-person conventions.  (Right, I'm increasingly thinking of those in-person conventions as old-fashioned.)

I also thought the segment of Biden working with John McCain and other Republicans was very effective.  Whatever McCain did that was right or wrong in the Senate, his saving of the Affordable Care Act from the Trumpian onslaught will be remembered for a long time in history.

And Jill Biden's talk, and its analogy of making a family whole (what she did when she married Joe Biden) and making a nation whole (what Joe and she will do once they're in the White House), was just the tonic we needed.

As a parting note, it was great to see Caroline Kennedy and her son Jack Schlossberg, looking a lot like his uncle John Kennedy, Jr. and he has the same bearing as his grandfather JFK.  There's no going back to Camelot, but Jack may well play a role in building the new and better America in the decades ahead.

See also Report on the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Day 1 ... Report on the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Day 3

Some Thoughts on What Trump and His Minions are Doing to Children on our Southern Border

A few thoughts about the horrendous, immoral Trumpian policy of border security separating children from parents of people trying to enter our country on the southern border:

• It's good to see all the former First Ladies come out against this policy (Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Rosalynn Carter).  The current First Lady Melania Trump's statement was better than nothing, but could have been stronger.  But ... where are the former Presidents?  I'd like to see Obama give a speech about this, and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton as well.
• The agents themselves who are implementing this policy - separating children from their parents, lying to the children, as a means of separating them - are as much to blame as Trump and his lying minions.  Those agents are no better than Nazis who said they were just following orders.   Where is their humanity?  Without them, Trump's bluster would be just that, bluster without consequence.  I hope the next Democratic President fires each and every one of these agents.
• Where are the Republicans who, in the past, have shown a shred of decency on this issue?  Where is John McCain*, Jeff Flake, Ben Sass, Susan Collins?  Why don't they step up and vividly denounce this inhumane policy? Some have made statements, and some are better than others.  The time has come for every Republican with any compassion to come out with clear, unconditional statements calling for this heinous policy to end. *[McCain just tweeted the following at 7:30pm Eastern, "The administration’s current family separation policy is an affront to the decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon which our nation was founded. The administration has the power to rescind this policy. It should do so now." Excellent - exactly!]
• Much has been said by Trump and his supporters about the Democrats made this law.  That's not true - as just about everyone knows, this is a policy, not a law, that Trump has chosen to initiate.  But even if it was a law - as our great philosophers have told us throughout the ages, there are moral imperatives that transcend the law, and should be followed when the law calls for something evil to happen.  Caring for our children, seeing that no harm, let alone indelible harm and pain befalls them, is among the most important moral imperatives in our human condition.
• Credit to most of the media for shining a spotlight on this awful state of affairs.  If ever it was clear that we need a free media system, unregulated by government, the baneful actions of our government are demonstrating this today.
• Psychologists accurately say that separation of children at such early ages (especially toddlers!) can cause enduring psycho-social damage to the children.  This is something that every parent, and everybody who was ever a child, which means everyone, should instantly understand.

Every American needs to step up and speak up and oppose this policy, in whatever way they can.  For what it's worth, I think it's the worst thing our government has ever done, domestically, in my lifetime.

Steve Schmidt Moved To Tears on the 11th Hour on MSNBC

I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as moving and profound from a Republican commentator on television.

I first became aware of Steve Schmidt when he was campaign manager for John McCain's unsuccessful 2008 Republican campaign the U.S. Presidency. I didn't much care for Schmidt or his candidate, and even less for Sarah Palin, who would have become Vice President had Schmidt succeeded in his campaign.

Perhaps Schmidt has grown wiser.  It happens.  Perhaps Schmidt correctly sees that as, dangerous and out-of-her mind as Sarah Palin was, Donald Trump is 10 times or whatever big multiplier worse.

Schimdt recounted on the 11th Hour with Brian Williams the dignity of FDR on the White House lawn after Pearl Harbor.  He reminded us that Hitler didn't take power by force, but because democracy in Germany was weak.

Schmidt could barely contain himself, and neither could I.   His voice and the tears in eyes conveyed the threat that Donald Trump poses to our democratic process, conveyed the disgust and despair Schmidt feels when he compares Trump to any former American President.   The obscenity of his election would trash what not only FDR but every American President has struggled to uphold and preserve our democracy, and the respect upon which it is predicated, respect for the choice of the people as reflected in the votes they cast on Election Day.

One of the silver linings of Trump may the unity he has unintentionally brought forth among all Americans of rationality and good will, Republicans as well as Democrats.

I'm looking forward to seeing them work together together to build a better America, after the political illness that is Trump is defeated.

Talking about Trump's attempts to delegitimize election, Steve Schmidt quotes Churchill + warnings of fascisms rise. pic.twitter.com/Q5SKyak3nH

— Garrison66 (@Garrison66) October 19, 2016

Game Change

HBO's series are so superb, it's sometimes easy to forget that Home Box Office was first a movie channel, and has brought us some great original movies over the years.  Game Change, which premiered tonight, is surely one of the very best.

Based on the John Heilemann and Mark Halperin book of the same name, starring Woody Harrelson (Steve Schmidt), Julianne Moore (Sarah Palin), and Ed Harris (John McCain) in tour-de-force leading roles, Game Change the movie gives us a breathtaking, heartbreaking, frightening, but ultimately more or less inspiring view of the election of 2008 which all us remember, and most of us knew much of what the movie tells us.  We knew, for example, that Palin gave a great convention speech, bungled the Couric interview, went rouge in the campaign by not completely following McCain's positions, pretty much held her own in the debate with Biden, wanted to give a concession speech after the loss but was refused that precedent-setting privilege by some combination of Schmidt (campaign manager) and McCain.

We also knew that YouTube magnified Palin's interview blunders by keeping them in permanent play - I discussed this back in 2009 in New New Media, and Schmidt in the movie shows an astute understanding of this media revolution.

What we didn't know were some even more extraordinary pockets of Palin ignorance, including thinking the Queen of England is head of the British state, and Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11.   That someone with such astonishing lack of knowledge was almost a heartbeat from the Presidency was enough to give Schmidt and Nicole Wallace (responsible for tutoring Palin in history) more than pause, and I hope most people a kick in the stomach right through the television screen tonight.   One can only assume that the single-minded focus on winning the election was enough to keep Schmidt from even allowing himself to consider the option of trying somehow to get Palin off the ticket.

Not that any attempt to convince her to resign would have worked.  And in that toughness, the great enigma of Sarah Palin comes across indelibly in the movie.  She's devastated by the media's response to her interview fumbles - the depth of her depression and fury being something else that we didn't quite know - yet she manages to pick herself up, and give a good debate performance against Biden, speaking from her heart.

Nicole Wallace, unfairly blamed by Palin for the interview fiascos, reveals to Schmidt in the end that she couldn't bring herself to vote for McCain-Palin, another revelation in the movie.  It didn't matter, because of course Obama won by far more than one vote.  In that sense - Obama winning and Wallace not voting - the system worked.

But are we less vulnerable to someone like Palin getting the nomination for Vice President today?   Until the crazy way our Vice Presidential candidates are selected is changed, our democracy will ever be on the precipice.

The Event 1.16: High-Placed Sleeper

The Event keeps tightening the vice, with another thread in tonight's episode 1.16 that is a little too close to today's real politics, at least for my tastes.

Simon, who has been outed as an alien sleeper, makes good his escape from the White House compound.  Someone on the inside, with a voice distorted to protect his or her identity (mostly from us), gives Simon precise navigational cues.  He uses these to elude Blake's best efforts and cameras.   The President orders that everyone having anything to do with the White House undergo a DNA-test to confirm their humanity.  One person refuses - the President's wife.

Uh oh - is the First Lady a sleeper?   The possibility is uncomfortably close to the suggestion that Obama may be Muslim.  It's become more than what we heard from that weak-witted woman at the McCain townhald in the 2008 campaign - remember that, and McCain's attempt to give a principled answer?  ("He's an Arab," the woman said to McCain about then-candidate Obama.  "No ma'am.  He's a good person.  He's family man."  Poor McCain - he defended Obama by insulting Arabs and Muslims by implication.)  And nowadays, even the likes of Donald Trump are joining McCain's questioner in expressing doubts about Obama's religion.

Anyway, back to the television show that is deliberately written as fiction, The Event has also come close to disposing of two more characters - Vicky and Simon, who are both on the verge of being murdered.   But I'm guessing/hoping that both survive - because I like them.

And remember in my review of last week's episode 1.15 when I said that I thought Dempsey may hold the key to the aliens' survival?  Well, I was almost right.  Tonight he tells Vicki that he holds the key to our survival!  

More in two weeks.


5-min podcast review of The Event

See also The Event Debuts on NBC ... The Event 1.2: Aliens! ... The Event 1.4: 24 Back in Action! ... The Event 1.6: Not Only Aliens, Immortals! ... The Event 1.7: The Portal and its Implications  ... The Event 1.8: The "Republican" VP and the Anti-24 ... The Event 1.9: "Native Populations, Indigenous People" ... The Event 1.10: Satellite ... The Event 1.11-12: Hardball in Fiction ... The Event 1.13: A Little to Close to the Reality ... The Event 1.14: Upping the Ante ... The Event 1.15: Bluffs and Stakes

---

                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle

---

The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

John McCain's Internet Freedom Act is Eminently Warranted

I voted for Barack Obama, don't like Fox News, and think our health system is in need of long due reform. I thought the McCain campaign was one of the worst in years, bringing lowlights ranging from Sarah Palin to Joe the Plumber on to center stage.

But John McCain's Internet Freedom Act, a bill introduced to make sure the FCC does "not propose, promulgate, or issue any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services" - in the wake of the FCC's unanimous vote yesterday to move forward with debate and promulgation of net neutrality rules - deserves the support of everyone who values the First Amendment and our freedom.

Net neutrality seeks to make sure that the Internet remains a level, open playing field, not dominated by corporations that may give favored treatment - charge less or nothing - for services that may line the pocket of the corporations but deprive users of better services. I strongly support the ideal and practice of net neutrality.

But I strongly oppose any attempt to make this happen by FCC fiat. I take "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" - the First Amendment - seriously.

A surprising number of people miss this. Tony Bradley, writing today in PC World, asks - about what McCain's bill seeks to prevent the FCC from doing - "Isn't that what the FCC does? Isn't that sort of like introducing a bill to prohibit the Treasury from printing money, or a bill to prohibit the IRS from collecting taxes?"

Sadly, yes, and no. Yes, this is what the FCC does - including levying millions of dollars of fines for television programs it finds objectionable - all the time. Even though there is a First Amendment. And yes, tax collection is what the IRS does. Because, like it or not, the Sixteenth Amendment gives our government that power. But the First Amendment has not been repealed or amended, last time I checked.

We have become so accustomed to its trampling that Bradley's argument almost seems plausible. But every violation of the First Amendment makes the press - in newspapers, radio, television, and blogs - less able to do its job for us, which is ever keeping a watchful eye on our democratically elected government, so we can be as informed as possible in the next and every election.

I doubt I could ever vote for John McCain, even with his introduction of this important bill. But he deserves our thanks for introducing it, and the bill warrants our support. We can work for net neutrality in many ways - especially with our patronage of sites and organizations that do the right thing. Extending the FCC's unconstitutional regulation from radio and television to the Internet is manifestly not the way to go about it.

See also The Flouting of the First Amendment

Katie Couric, Hero of the Revolution

I'm looking forward to not blogging any more about Sarah Palin, but her explanation given the other day to Matt Lauer about why she couldn't tell Katie Couric what newspapers Palin reads -

you know, questions about, well, you know, 'What do you read up there in Alaska?' To me that was a little bit annoying. Because I'm like, what do you mean, what do I read in Alaska? I read the same things that you guys read in New York. And there in LA and in Washington state.

- reminded me about the pivotal, crucial role Katie Couric played in this year's momentous election.

What was the single most decisive moment in the election, the instant in which the McCain-Palin ticket was irrevocably finished?

Obviously, the financial crisis was the major factor, and McCain seriously hurt his chances by suspending his campaign, urging a postponement of the first debate, and rushing over to Washington, DC to accomplish nothing. That might well have been the second worst moment of the McCain-Palin campaign.

But I don't think it was the worst, because, as the weeks proceeded, McCain's bizarre initial reactions to the financial crisis got diluted by other events.

Not so Katie Couric's CBS interview of Sarah Palin, broadcast on September 30. To this day, I can't understand why Sarah Palin was unable to tell Couric what newspapers she read, or to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe v. Wade. Was Palin advised not to answer questions like this? Hard to believe - as it is hard to believe that she didn't answer because she could not cite a paper or a US Supreme Court decision.

I think that moment, that lack of answer, became indelibly recorded in the opinions many Americans from then on had of Sarah Palin.

Katie Couric and CBS have received a lot of criticism in the past few years. But there was something about Couric's interview style, her soft spoken way of putting her questions, that put Palin at ease and led to this result.

When the histories of this election are written, they will say that the Tiffany Network shone bright again, and the CBS Evening News anchor came through again for America, in that interview. By doing what media interviews are supposed to do - help Americans get to better know their candidates. And, fifteen days later, Bob Schieffer of CBS came through with the best moderation of any of the debates this year.

William Paley would have been proud.

The Shame of Joe Lieberman

Senators Joe Lieberman and Harry Reid met today, to discuss Lieberman's future in the Democratic caucus. With the Democrats presently still short of the magic number of 60 Senators needed to dissolve a filibuster, Lieberman's status could be crucial. After the meeting, Lieberman said he and Reid had had a good discussion, and would be thinking these matters over for a few days.

What a strange journey Joe Lieberman taken. He was Gore's VP candidate in 2000 - an election in which Gore won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote, because the Republican-dominated US Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida.

Lieberman in 2006 lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut, but went on to be reelected to the Senate as an "Independent". He has since the "caucused" with the Democrats, which gave the Democrats a crucial one-vote majority in the Senate - not enough to stop a filibuster, but still a majority.

So far in this story, I still have some praise for Joe Lieberman. I disagreed strongly with his pro-war policy, but I respected his right to speak his mind, and admired his win as an Independent.

But then Lieberman took a turn for the worse.

He endorsed John McCain for President. On the plus side, Lieberman was entitled to stand up for his friend. On the negative side, did Lieberman agree with all of McCain's policies?

Word at first was that Lieberman would be speaking on behalf of McCain's foreign policy.

But Lieberman's speech at the Republican convention went far beyond foreign policy.

And, he irrevocably crossed a line for me when he stood up there on the stage, beaming next to McCain, as the Republican candidate attacked Obama's economic domestic policy.

What happened to Joe Lieberman, the hawkish Democrat, who still professed to support the Democratic progressive economic agenda? Did he want McCain to be President so much, that Lieberman was able to swallow and endorse the Republican lies about Obama's tax policy and all the rest?

I always liked Josiah Royce's Philosophy of Loyalty (1908), and its thesis there's no greater good in the universe than loyalty - but loyalty both to people and to principles. We need both. Lieberman put his loyalty to McCain above his loyalty to his progressive principles. He allowed his loyalty to McCain to betray his principles - either that, or he never had those Democratic principles in the first place, but just pretended he did.

Shame on you, Joe Lieberman. Were it up to me, I would rather see the Democrats have one vote less in the Senate than ever see you counted as part of our party.

I've Never Been Prouder of America - We Just Elected President Obama!!

And now it's official: America has elected Barack Obama its next President.

This is a triumph for everyone who values freedom and democracy. First time voters, African-Americans, Latinos - and everyone else who saw the need for a new way of governing this country. It was a victory for the Internet, for grass roots organization, for common sense. A victory over the lies that the Republicans have been hurling at Democrats and the American people for decades now.

The electoral votes for Barack Obama are currently over 330 - Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa - all of those Republican strongholds went to Obama!

This a revolution as great as FDR's in the 1930s...

John McCain just gave a very gracious concession speech...

I have never more more proud to be an American!

Calling Voters in Pennsylvania for Obama

I was just on the phone for an hour or so, calling voters in Pennsylvania for Obama. They were listed as Obama supporters. I gotta say this was one of the most inspiring hours I've ever spent.

Of the 50 voters I called, a fair number were not in. My wife, also making calls, did get a vile racist on the phone (his daughter was listed as an Obama supporter). But the vast majority of people I spoke to were well informed and enthusiastic about this election. From Philadelphia to the middle of the state, people of diverse backgrounds and ages were ready to go out and make history on Tuesday.

I think my favorites were the mother of a voter - he wasn't home - and she was from Haiti. She spoke French. I mustered my best college delivery, and I think I got my point across, because she said, "Oui, Obama!" On the other side of state, a woman interrupted my voice mail to tell me she and husband were voting for Obama, and they were sure he would win. My wife also had a good conversation with an Obama supporter in the middle of the state who said he had been receiving "disgusting" calls from McCain supporters - he was too much of gentleman to tell her the language - he said he and wife "were ready for a change" and were voting for Obama.

But nothing is certain in politics and democracy. In the end, all the speeches, the polls, the articles, the news commentary all give way to one thing: the votes on Election Day and before. It doesn't matter how rich or powerful the voter. All votes count the same.

You can make some calls, and get a feel for real democracy, at mybarackobama.com. If you have even an hour or two in the next day, give it a shot. The new new media of the Internet and telephone and political revolution. It's an experience you won't soon forget.

Sincere Question for Conservatives: How Can You Vote for McCain?

I have recently heard more than one conservative say something along the lines of, "I'm going to hold my nose, and vote for McCain."

I'm seriously wondering about the reasoning. John McCain strongly supported the $700 billion bailout, which includes the government literally buying out and taking over banks. If this isn't a step on the road to socialism, I don't know what is.

Now, it certainly is not socialism - our free enterprise system is in no danger - and neither McCain nor Barack Obama, who also supported the bailout, are even remotely socialists. And I can well understand why a conservative would have problems with Obama's progressive view that the government should be a source of improvement in our society - a view I share, as a progressive libertarian -

But I don't see how any true, thoughtful, principled conservative could bring him or herself to vote for McCain. There were people in Congress, Republican as well as Democratic, who voted against the bailout - who held to their conservative or other principles. But not John McCain.

I'm enthusiastically voting for Obama. But I believe that, were I conservative, I would vote either for the Libertarian or the Constitution Party, or sit this one out.

Best Political Ad of the 2008 Presidential Campaign

This, in my opinion, is the best ad of the 2008 Presidential campaign, and I'd put in the top 10 best political ads of all time.

It says it all - John McCain's admitted lack of knowledge about the economy, and his VP choice Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge about just about everything.

And the ad says this without speaking a single word!

Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud.

Obama at Midnight: "Power Concedes Nothing Without a Fight"

Obama saved the most important words of his rousing speech in Florida at midnight, with Bill Clinton at his side, for the end: "Power concedes nothing without a fight." In other words, don't rest confident in the polls. If you Obama to be President, make sure you vote, and encourage all of your friends to vote, too.

It was a high intensity day politically, especially in the evening -

1. Obama's 30-minute advertisement to the American people was excellent. It wouldn't have been necessary, had not the Republicans been constantly lying about Obama wanting to raise "your" taxes, repeating the idiocy of Obama being a "socialist," etc. Obama made his case to and for the American people. He looked Presidential, speaking, in part, from what looked like an Oval Office. I consider that not presumptive but appropriately predictive.

2. CNN made a show of taking some high road by refusing to air the commercial, and keeping to its (usually boring) political coverage. And what did CNN put on instead? John McCain, in a typically inarticulate interview by Larry King. So much for CNN's political coverage: what they did instead was give McCain free air time, opposite the time that Obama paid for, with money donated by the American people.

3. Obama also was on with John Stewart. Both were humorous and vibrant. Good thing for anyone who might have been falling asleep watching Larry King.

4. But I thought the best moment of the evening was Obama on the stage with Bill Clinton in Florida. It was good to see the previous Democratic President on stage with someone who so many hope will be the next one. (Obama quipped that Jimmy Smits - whom we saw with Obama and Clinton back stage before the speeches - was a Democratic President. Well, he did beat Alan Alda's Republican character-candidate for President on the West Wing. As long as Dexter wasn't there...)

But will Obama be elected? "Power concedes nothing without a fight" - an important update of Frederick Douglass' "Power concedes nothing without a demand." Obama will be elected only if everyone who supports him goes to the polls and votes.

Republican - Party of "Family Values" - Strategist Is Derisive about Obama Visting "Grandma"

I saw this out of the corner of my eye on MSNBC earlier today, and couldn't believe my ears - a Republican speaking with dripping derision about "the outrage" of Obama "taking a 767 campaign plane to go visit Grandma." Keith Olbermann performed the important service of replaying and highlighting this on Countdown tonight - important, because it shows just what low level of humanity some Republicans occupy.

This is a party that regularly trumpets itself as the party of "family values". And its spokeman calls Barack Obama's visit to his gravely ill grandmother, on whatever the plane, an "outrage"?

Brad Blakeman, the Republican strategist who spoke this, did not even have the decency to refer to Barack Obama's grandmother as his "grandmother". What point was Blakeman trying to make - that Obama loves his grandmother so much, that she is someone Obama is so close to, that she is better termed his "grandma" than "grandmother".

It's impossible to get into the mind of someone who in any way would make light of anyone going back home to see his or her seriously ill grandmother.

But what Blakeman said is unfortunately consistent with what I've been seeing and hearing from a variety of Republican strategists and supporters in the past few weeks. As McCain's chances dwindle, these lowlifes lose all pretense of dignity and accuracy. Their opponents become "socialist" and "anti-American," and a man galvanizing the nation in his heroic run for President becomes a target of their abuse and contempt for the way he chooses to visit his 85-year old very ill grandmother.

As I've urged here before, I can only hope that Republicans who are decent human beings read Blakeman and his ilk out of the party.

Another Question for Republicans: Do You Agree with Rep. Bachman That Media Should Investigate "Anti-Americans" in Congress?

Michele Bachman - Congresswoman from Minnesota - told Chris Matthews on Hardball on Friday that she suspects Barack Obama may be "anti-American," and news media should vigorously investigate whether there are "anti-Americans" in Congress.

Colin Powell cited this in his endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press on Sunday as one of the things that disturbed him about the Republican Party and the McCain campaign.

Obama today spoke eloquently of there being no dichotomy between "real and fake Americans," no anti-Americans in this campaign.

So, another question for sensible Republicans: do you agree with Bachman, or with Powell and Obama? Are you concerned that a Congresswoman from your party is raising the spectre of Joe McCarthy and witch hunts against Americans that beset us in the 1950s?

Is this the kind of change you're after?

Question for Republicans: How Is Letting Americans Keep Their Money a "Give Away"?

I just heard John McCain say at a rally in Missouri that what Obama wants is "not a tax cut but another government give-away".

Can someone explain to me how the government having less of a hand in the pocket of all tax payers earning under $250,000 a year is a "give-away" or "hand-out"?

What it's doing is reducing the money that the government is already taking from us. By what logic is allowing 95% of Americans to keep their own money a "give-away"? How can we be "given" that which we already have?

The Republicans of course know the hypocrisy of their "give-away" claims, and the contempt they are showing for the American voter, the bet they are making on the lack of common sense of most Americans. I'm looking forward to Americans standing up and saying they're not going to fall for that kind of blatant misrepresentation and mangling of language, and voting the Republicans soundly out of office in record numbers in two weeks. That would be the true give away - giving Republicans a way to the door.

Powell's Endorsement of Obama Should Appeal to Every Sensible Republican

It was good to see Colin Powell endorse Barack Obama this morning on Meet the Press.

I've always liked Powell, not only because he was born in the Bronx and attended City College (two of my proudest accomplishments), but because he always has had a way of cutting through the hype and getting to the core of the issues at hand.

Powell said his reasons for not voting for McCain, a long time friend, were two-fold: McCain's response to the economic crisis has not consistent and clear. And Sarah Palin, McCain's choice for VP, is unfit for the office, in Powell's assessment.

Powell thinks Obama, on the other hand, has displayed good judgment and leadership capacities, especially in the economic crisis that still besets us.

Those are about as sensible reasons anyone could want for endorsing a candidate for President - sensible not only for a thoughtful Republican like Colin Powell, but for anyone. Indeed, Powell's complete 30-minute endorsement of Obama, with the detailed reasons he offered, was the best-reasoned endorsement I recall ever hearing of anyone.

Powell will have to live forever with going before the United Nations and assuring Americans and the world that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He can't go back in history and change that, because he now regrets that he had been misinformed by the CIA.

But Colin Powell went a long way today in doing something very right and balancing his position for the good on that great cosmic scale.

Final Presidential Debate: Best of the Three, for Obama, Schieffer, But Not So Much McCain

The last Presidential debate of this election, which I just saw on CSPAN, televised from Hofstra University, where I once taught a few courses, was the best so far. Best for Barack Obama, best for the moderator, but mixed for John McCain.

Obama looked the most Presidential he's been so far. He looked into the camera and clearly explained his health policy, tax policy, and the distortions of McCain and the Republicans about everything ranging from Bill Ayers to Obama's positions on health care, taxes, and the rest.

Bob Schieffer was an excellent moderator - asking tough and important questions about all the domestic issues, including the choice of Vice Presidential candidates. Schieffer also asked some good follow-ups, and rarely interrupted or got in the way of Obama and McCain's answers.

McCain had a few good moments, as he had in the earlier debates. His best line was when he said to Obama that if he wanted to run against George Bush, Obama should have done that four years ago.

But Obama came back with a crisp response about McCain supporting Bush's policies. And, as in the first two debates, McCain often came across as twitchy and uncomfortable, and occasionally close to incomprehensible. He did manage more smiles than in the first debate, and he looked at Obama, but he still looked less than Presidential in his chair.

And McCain did himself no good by any standard on abortion, first saying he would not apply any "litmus" test to his Supreme Court appointments (this will win him no thanks from his right-to-life base) but later brushing aside, incredibly, a woman's health as a valid reason to have an abortion.

In contrast, Barack Obama appeared more reasonable, compassionate, and, frankly, intelligent, on this and every other issue. In his concluding remarks, Obama never looked more like a President.

I expect we'll be treated to many more Presidential addresses from Barack Obama in the years ahead.

I've Seen the Future - Make Sure This Doesn't Happen to You

As some of you may know, I write time travel stories, I also write about time travel, and review my favorite time travel movies and television shows right here on Infinite Regress.

I also have a secret, invisible portal in my office, which I rarely talk about, for obvious reasons. But last night, after teaching an evening class, I went two weeks into the future...

I've returned from the future with this horrifying video from November 7, 2008 ... we all have the power of free will ... it need not turn out this way ... make sure this doesn't happen to you... More details here ...

Bush Speechwriter David Frum Chides Rachel Maddow for Her Tone

Did you see the Rachel Maddow Show tonight?

Talk about gall - and poor logic. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum, invited on the show to talk about his criticism of the McCain campaign for stirring up "fury" in the populace, took Maddow to task for contributing to the problem with her own sarcasm and ridicule of Republicans and their policies.

Now, I have no problem with a guest blindsiding a host or a producer - comes with the territory. But equating the sarcasm of a TV host with the vile rhetoric of a Presidential campaign is absurd. Surely, Frum doesn't think that Americans pay as much attention to a TV host as to a Presidential campaign?

Indeed, I think it's good for commentators to be sarcastic. Not that I agree with them, all or even most of the time. I certainly don't agree with most of what I hear and see on Fox. And, as I've pointed out here, I think Keith Olbermann on MSNBC has on more than one occasion been over the top (though he's been right on key the past few weeks). But sarcasm, satire, and other kinds of political lampooning have been and always will be an important part of the political process - they help keep us focused, and, on occasion, awake.

Totally unlike the vicious attacks on Obama - not just by rank and file, but by party leaders, including and in particular their VP candidate - which do nothing but divide us.