Closer?

Huh.

I am still pessimistic (from my point of view). But still...huh.

P.S. Check out which religious group has 27% of its voters that are "Not Sure.".

Take Five -- 12 Days To Go

1. Maybe it's because it's early, but I've read this column three times now and I still don't understand it. Looks to me like she spend the whole time talking about how it shouldn't be easy to change the Metro charter by referendum and then concludes by discussing two amendments to the Metro charter that would be improvements to the charter, amendments that are going to be put into the charter by referendum. I guess I'm missing something, but then, I live in Brentwood now, so I guess I really don't give a flip.

2. Not convincing.

3. Definitely worth reading.

4. Also worth reading.

5. Indeed, Sarah Palin is not stupid. Anyone who thinks Palin is stupid really has no idea what a stupid person really is.

Take Five -- 13 Days To Go

1. Tennessee: Lame Hacking Capital of the World

2. A complaint I'm starting to hear more and more that's getting old: that a lot of black voters are just voting for Barack Obama just because he's black. Well, yeah, probably. And really, can you blame them? Not me.

Now, in a perfect world, we wouldn't have this sort of thing going on, but in a perfect world the vast majority of American whites wouldn't have treated black people as a homogenous (and inferior) group for 300-some-odd years. Really, why should anyone be surprised that they themselves (or any members of a race so treated) treat themselves the same way? It's going to take a long time to flush out those wounds and get ourselves to equlibrium. The good news: should Barack Obama win, that's just a giant step in the right direction.

3. Something that occurred to me last night: 24 has dropped off the radar screen lately, but there was a recent time when it was the bane of liberals and lefties. But you know what? 24 was groundbreaking in a major way, featurng not just one buit two black presidents as major characters. The West Wing? An old white guy. Just saying.

4. Non-elitists for Obama.

5. Thsi race remains closer than it appears. But what the McCain campaign lacks is a real ground game. He's got the hope that a 21st century version of Nixon's old "Silent Majority" is sitting out there. Indeed, that's really his only hope.

Take Five -- 14 Days To Go

1. To be filed in the Let's-(Gently)-Irritate-Aunt-B Department:

From Mickey Kaus

Recommended: Tim Noah's 2001 piece on William Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days. A searing and timely review! Noah certainly seems like another pro-Obama Democrat who wouldn't have served on a board with Ayers. He describes Ayers as "self indulgent and morally clueless" and generally treats the ex-Weatherman as a pathetic joke. ... Is Noah really 100% comfortable with a Democratic candidate who didn't? ...

2. A presidential endorsement sure to resonate in flyover country.

3. This cracked me up.

4. Andrew Sullivan continues his (hopefully temporary) descent into blog-o-madness.

5. Apparently, violating a woman is funny. Who knew?

Bill Ayers, Through Another Prism

This is probably not original with me, but it's still worth thinking about...If you are someone who just can't get why some people have an issue with Obama's supposed non-relationship with William Ayers, suppose everything about this story were the same, except for two major differences:

1) Instead of being a member (or whatever you call it) of the Weather Underground, suppose instead that he was a member of a group that bombed (or wanted to bomb) abortion clinics, and

2) Instead of it being a Democrat tied to this individual, suppose instead that it was the Republican candidate.

Now do you kind of get it? You can talk all day about just how intimate this relationship between Barack Obama and Ayers actually was or is. That's a fair discussion. But don't pretend like it's not an issue. You know that if this were about John McCain instead of Barack Obama, and, say, Eric Rudolph instead of Ayers, that Democrats would be going absolutely ballistic.

And, rightly so, no?

UPDATE: B's dissent here. I may have a response; I may not. Depends on available time. As usual, though, her post is worth a read.

Barring Something Astronomical, This One's Over

One, two, three strikes and you're out, as they say. These debates were McCain's last hope and he couldn't pull it off.

Well, one upside for those of us of the Republican stripe is that a Democratic sweep will remind middle-of-the-road voters that Democrats have their problems, too. It will be very interesting to see some of the stuff these guys try to push through in the early days of 2009. A little scary, too, from an economic perspective. Card-check anyone?

I'm (more or less) an employment lawyer by trade, so things are officially looking up for me. As for the rest of you, the ones out there who actually produce goods and services people want to use and enjoy, not to mention those who pay those people who actually produce goods and services people want to use and enjoy, as well as those who provide the capital for the people who pay those people who produce the goods and services people want to use and enjoy, well, good luck with that.

UPDATE: The Gallup "shock" poll, showing McCain only two points behind, was released a few hours after this post. That's helpful. In truth, I do think this is a lot closer than we're supposed to believe it is, but the pessimistic side of me usually wins the day on these sorts of things.

Steyn v. Sullivan

I've been on an Andrew Sullivan hiatus going on two months or so now, after since it became abundantly clear that Andrew had completely given up on even the faintest pretense of objectivity in this election. I do "stop in" from time to time (in the hope--thus far always dashed--that his sanity had returned), but I'm instantly repelled, espcially with regard to pretty much anything he writes about Sarah Palin.

Thus I about fell out of my chair in laughter when I read this gem tonight from Mark Steyn:

"Jim Treacher notes he posted the above some days before the excitable Frank Rich started going on about "Weimar-like rage" and Paul Krugman warned of the Republicans' "insane rage" and the Head of Obstetrics over at The Atlantic Monthly took his head out of Governor Palin's birth canal long enough to apply his forensic skills to "the Hannity-Limbaugh-Steyn*-O'Reilly base" "stoking" and "fomenting" the rage in order to bring on the assassination of Obama.

Sorry, but that's awesome. I guess it takes a Brit to really pop a Brit. (Well, Steny's actually Canadian, but what is Canada really but basically Great Britain with hockey?)