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John McCain wanted many "Town Hall" style debates. Look out when you get what you wish for. One was more than enough. McCain must have liked them in the past, since he can, for the most part, vet the audience, fill it with friendly Republicans, and talk in a more relaxed manner. There was nothing relaxed about Tuesday night, unless it was The One leaning/sitting cooly on his chair, waiting for McCain to finish his latest attack. Obama was turned into That One, instead of just The One, by a frustrated McCain. In his happy campaign stop Town Hall meetings, McCain would only be shown giving an answer or two, in a close shot, on local and occasional national news. Little bits where he would look folksy and sincere. But Tuesday the scene looked like the set of Equus, currently remounted on Broadway. Tiers of seats surrounding an arena equipped with a hot red carpet, a space that McCain paced around like the damaged Richard III. There were few tight shots, many long shots. McCain's physical presence and body language did not play well in such a setting, especially in contrast to the lithe one, Barack Obama. So, along with the cratering Dow Jones, a lot of talkers are writing off McCain, describing his downward death spiral in the polls. Democrats shouldn't be so confident. Given the so-called Bradley effect (polls exaggerating a black man's actual potential vote), Obama will need about a ten percent lead to squeak by November 4.

Last night's vice presidential debate was to be either comedy or tragedy and it turned out to be a bit of both. You betcha, as one possible future vice president would say. Sarah Palin came out wearing a black outfit that appeared taken from the back of Cindy McCain's closet. I was hoping for red shoes, but at first glance they looked black. In 2000 there was a lot of discussion about what Al Gore would be wearing for the presidential debates. "Earth tones" were mentioned often back then. The color of ties was deemed important. This time around there was almost no discussion of outfits, which is a shame. The press has been cowed, wanting not to look overly sexist. The McCain team did a good job of lowering expectations, and giving the press the heebeejeebees. Even Gwen Ifill fell under attack for her future book on black politicians. The format of the veep debate had been worked out to Palin's advantage. She could give canned speechettes from behind a podium. I kept wondering what papers she kept glancing at and flipping through that were on her podium. Cheat sheets? I didn't see her making notes, as Joe Biden did. Luckily, Biden did an admirable job, so the contrast between the two candidates was more than clear. Palin, unfortunately, now sounds like she's doing a Tina Fey impersonation. Her most "effective" answers weren't answers at all, but descriptions. Soccer moms and fear. She can describe. The attack on Ifill did its job; she didn't probe or ask for more detail, except on an exchange about vice-presidential power. It's likely Palin won't be put in front of an aggressive press corps asking for specifics. Palin's dithering to Katie Couric came after Couric continued to press for a direct and specific answer. Ifill didn'tand Palin turned on her replies. Palin did gain energy as the debate neared its end. The finish line obviously cheered her up. At that point her shoes began to look a little red, took on a glow.

Well, where to begin? The kind of capitalism the Bush crowd practices is the game of musical chairs sort. In the present case, depending how you look at it, the government (aka the folk who pay taxes) are left without a chair, or it/they are supposed to supply the chair that isn't there. For the last eight years, at least, thanks, in part, to McCain's economic guru, Phil Gramm, Wall Street has managed to leverage assets far beyond what the assets are worth. All this has been done with those often mentioned complicated (to whom, non criminals?) derivatives, swaps, etc. Of course, these "instruments" are valuable to the people who sell them to one another, since they take out large profits when they make the transactions. Yippi-yi-yay! This is an example of blood out of a turnip, and, now, the world is about to come to an end. President Diminished, George W. Bush, gave his scare talk the other night, eerily reminiscent of a speech Morgan Freeman gives in a 1996 movie called Chain Reaction. Freeman gives W.'s talk almost word for word, except the cause is the fear of free energy forever, something the One before he became the One (Keanu Reeves) has helped invent, rather than the Wall Street meltdown. Though the idea of meltdown is kept intact. John McCain then galloped into town, since that's where the cameras were, and, at this moment at least, he'll high tail it to Mississippi for tonight's debate. Can't wait.

It was amusing to hear John McCain quoted on NPR this morning criticizing Barack Obama for using the Wall Street meltdown as a "political opportunity." Next, McCain will be claiming that Obama is using the George W. Bush administration as a "political opportunity." Bush's world lies in ruins around us. The government is buying up the collapsing superstructure of Republicans' economic fantasies, the free rides two terms of Bush's rule provided, just as we are paying Iraqis not to kill Americans. So much for free enterprise and all the denunciations of big government. It is a sham beyond belief. Bush's real base, the top 1 percent, is not being affected much by all the turmoil; they have hauled away so much loot from the last seven year's come-and-get-it spree that whatever is occurring now is just a nuisance. The old theater of the absurd has returned big time. Nonsense is spouted by McCain and the fabulous Sarah Palin (crowds of women holding lipsticks aloft!) and Americans cheer. Something to cheer for, however, was last night's first debate of the governor's race. Mitch Daniels was trounced by Jill Long Thompson. Her two remarks linking Daniels to Bush, the first about Daniels being the architect of the Bush economic policy and then, later, her reference to Bush's "fuzzy math," were so devastating Daniels didn't even reply to them. Daniels, like McCain, knows even mentioning Bush's name is dangerous, much less reminding Hoosiers of his closeness to the failed president and his policies. The presence of "Libertarian" Andy Horning in the debate was complete theater of the absurd. It was like the recent editorial cartoon of McCain asking a cab driver to be his secretary of transportation. Horning was the ridiculous dream of Daniels' economic philosophy come to life. The news now does belong to the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

The Republicans are currently winning the war of words. They seem to be occupying the surface more successfully than our troops in Iraq. Surging Sarah Palin is one reason. The utter disregard of the so-called truth is another. It harkens to the entire Bush II administration's penchant for titling programs the opposite of what they are: One of the latest is FHASecure, formed a year ago to show that the Bushies were on top of the subprime crisis. FHASecure. Hahaha. There are dozens; just pick any program launched by the Bush crowd in the last eight years. But Sarah Palin is a past master. The Bridge to Nowhere. No problem. Supporter of family values. Just take a look at Track and Bristol. I hope she doesn't pick education as a speciality, since she has a problem with getting her kids through highschool. Is Bristol going off to class now? Her supposed fiancee has dropped out. Perhaps he, too, will join up soon. How about the Navy for him? Track's highschool career is checkered. He was in Michigan his senior year playing hockey, but returned to Alaska in March 2007 to "graduate" with his class. How does that happen? Mom's the guv, after all. Maybe the school board thought it was a year abroad. One plus about Obama's record is its thinness: Not enough time to get too mired in Chicago pay and play politics. But now the same thinness is benefitting Palin. Only her thin record makes her viable, which is why her family life is served up as a proxy. The mayor to Governor leap is still too fresh.

Well, the conventions are now over, but nothing will be done for until November 4. We've all had our first taste of the Gidget and the Geezer show, as at least one Democratic insider refers to the Republican ticket. Sarah Palin certainly has retained all of her beauty queen self-confidence and she is of the moment, since she represents the popular school girl taking down a notch the smart guy with her honed sarcasm. It's town and gown, too, she with her rural roots and Idaho BA and Obama burdened with his Ivy League academic robes. (But they both have Hawaii in common; Palin spent one semester in Hawaii Pacific College. Gidget territory. Surf's up!) The world waits now for her first press meet and greet. Her family, in a number of ways, is no more bizarre than Ronald Reagan's and his home life was sold as American as apple pie. The Republicans and their convention can redress any uncomfortable truth with a pretty lie and many will still buy whatever they are selling. LOWER TAXES FOR THE RICH! We've known for some time that John McCain favors younger women, preferably much younger (see his courtship of Cindy), and he has one with Sarah Palin. What does the world see when a 72 year old man is coupled with a 44 year old former beauty queen? Governorships in the country have been the office of choice for actors and celebrities; in Palin's case, it is the hockey mom cutting ribbons and bringing home the pork. And what conservative God-fearing mom doesn't want to ban a book or two? The near-miss New Orleans hurricane and the Republican convention certainly took Obama off the news radar; at least he returned after being attacked by Sarah and the parade of also rans. We were all reminded of why McCain was the last man standing, barely.

Alaska was notorious for being the chosen home of The Bridge to Nowhere, but that has been usurped by being the stomping ground of The Veep to Nowhere. I expected John McCain to lose his mind once or twice during the campaign, but not so soon, or so dramatically. Picking Sarah Palin, the fresh governor of the great state of Alaska, was his version of a Hail Mary Pass, or, rather, Hail Sarah pass. In 1984 Walter Mondale attempted the same thing with his pick of Geraldine Ferraro. Mondale's candidacy needed a booster rocket, but his, too, fizzled. It's the family, you bright people. Hers and Palin's. One legacy of the Hillary Clinton campaign is that the national press, or MSM, may treat Palin better, given all the criticism it took over coverage of Clinton. But, the other media doesn't seem to have learned any lessons. The Daily Kos has published the claim that Palin is the grandmother of little Trig, not the mother. See all this at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/31/145838/319/386/581332. And on top of that all the Republican prayers to rain on Barack Obama's stadium speech went for naught and, instead, brought a news hogging hurricane aimed at New Orleans and the Louisiana coast. Whose prayers have been answered now?

With all this hitting-it-out-of-the-ballpark language being used at the Democratic Convention, at least tonight Barack Obama will be in a ballpark, Mile High Stadium, actually a football field, mostly. It is now called the Invesco Field at Mile High, but Invesco probably won't get the product placement bounce Pepsi did for their convention center. Bruce Springsteen will be the opening act at Invesco, so it will be the Boss and the One. Speaking of one, the other one, Hillary Clinton that is, during her oration for Obama she said she was a "proud mother," a "proud Senator from New York," a proud this and that, but not a "proud wife." Hillary is looking as youthful as Mrs. McCain. Botox might be the fountain of youth. Her speech was fine, finely tuned on a razor blade, full of praise of herself and shouts to support Obama. Mrs. Obama's face was a study during the cutaways to her during Hillary's speech: Michelle Obama can hide her feelings, but not completely. It was a display of tense mixed emotions. Her own speech was, in many ways, overwhelming. Juan Williams, another NPR turncoat on Fox News, couldn't suppress his emotions. I have never seen him so overcome. It took a while for him to toe the Fox line. But his point was undeniable. Unbelievable, he said. A black woman from the south side of Chicago on the way to become the First Lady. It is as incredible as a man with the middle name of Hussein becoming the President.

So, things are not as they seem. Or, even it they are as they seem, the MSM (first time I've ever typed that abbreviation, since it is usually used with disdain) will not bother to report it till they've been scooped by grocery store tabloids or the blogosphere. Which brings us to John Edwards, he of the hot forty sweetie saga and her late motherhood good luck. (Dick Morris's prostitute was in her forties, too, she of the delicious toes, when his scandal broke during the '96 Clinton campaign.) Amongst all that has been published of the Edward mess, there was one photo particularly apt: Edwards smiling at the women in question a smile so big and delighted, he could have been auditioning for the role of the Joker in the next Batman flick. All of this does provide one answer to a question a lot of folks had, even if most of them didn't articulate it. Why doesn't Edwards' message fit the messenger? Why does it seem so off kilter? Well, as he himself boasted in one of the home made videos his honey was paid so much for making, I want to the world to see who I really am, not some plastic Ken doll.... Well, now the world does see him for who he really is, a guy more hollow than anyone expected.

Yesterday, August 6th, marked two anniversaries. Of the two, I noticed, one was mentioned on CNN and it was the more obscure. It was August 6, 2001, when George W. Bush, the novice president, was presented with his briefing paper on how Osama Bin Laden wanted to attack the homeland, before anyone ever called America "the homeland." George was at the ranch at the time and doubtless just took out his chain saw and had at some brush, giving the briefing paper the brush off. And, of course, it is the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb being dropped way back in 1945. It may just be me, but I don't recall seeing the usual onslaught of news about the deed this time. Google has some foreign reports up high, but I read a few papers today and yesterday, but didn't see anything. Only China and the soul-sucking olympics. Earlier in the week, though, I was at the National Air and Space museum near Dulles Airport, an adjunct of the Air and Space museum in Washington, D.C. The Enola Gay is now housed there, near Dulles, kicked out, given the bum's rush more or less, from the more accessible District museum. The museum near Dulles is a huge hanger, with planes galore, part of the Smithsonian complex. We were on a family visit. It's worth seeing. The Enola Gay is very shiny, amongst the shiniest of the planes on exhibit. Only a handful of the historic planes are polished metal. As it happened, since tours are given at the museum, a woman was leading a small group, reading from a script about the Enola Gay. She, unlike the other guides, had a microphone on and was obviously rehearsing the new text she was flipping through. She mentioned that on August 6th, a few days hence, there would be armed guards around the plane, military in place. It was obvious the museum was expecting protests; her talk was to be part of the PR reaction to them. It was peaceful enough the day we were there. In her prepared remarks, she recounted the demonstrations at the National Air and Space Museum about the Enola Gay in the nineties, saying some people didn't think the plane should be on display, a plane whose mission was solely devoted to killing people. By my count, around half of the planes (not half, maybe a third) were certainly used to kill people. Even the Space Shuttle killed people, though not deliberately. The military flies planes. She reminded her handful of listeners that the Air Force wasn't established till 1947 (some problems with the Constitution, though she didn't mentioned that), and it was the Army that flew the Enola Gay. She seemed well prepared as she stumbled through the fresh reading of her text. John McCain was shot down while killing people, presumably, and, as badly as he was treated, his captors at least kept him alive, alive enough to run for president all these years later. Even George W. flew a jet, at least once, even though there doesn't seem to be film of the feat. Presidents and the military are often mixed, but Barack Obama shares with Bill Clinton an avoidance of military service. Anyone spending even an afternoon in Washington, D.C., can't avoid the military aura, the expression of power, the harnessing of architecture and might. It's something to think about, the day after the 63rd anniversary of the dropping of Atomic bomb, and seven years past the date George W. dropped the ball, once again.

Batman's dark knight may have been dragged to a Brit police station to answer charges of roughing up his mum and sis, but America's black knight was cheered by hundreds of thousands in Berlin. Which is more ominous is anyone's guess these days. When Batman was filmed I don't think Barack Obama was a large blip on the presidential radar. I do remember when the film company collapsed an actual vacated candy factory (Brach's) in Chicago last summer, a building that looked rather modern and it turns up in this film blown to smithereens. Brach's closed the plant in 2003, choosing to outsource, rather than stay in Chi-town. But it may just be part of the Zeitgeist that makes the movie's Dark Knight conjure up the image of the junior Senator from Illinois. One thing in the movie that isn't explained is all the black shoe polish-like substance smeared around Christian Bale's eyes that magically disappears when his head gear is yanked off, so he won't look like a racoon. But what it really calls up is an Al Jolson blackface look. Whether any of this below the surface aspect has helped fuel the mob success of the film is still a question, but it certainly doesnt hurt. Who's hurting is John McCain, who fulminates uselessly against the tide of good Obama press. And today Senator Obama's been in France, hanging out with the nude model First Lady's husbandof Freedom Fries-ville; oo la la.

The New Yorker cover is a triumph of marketing over meaning. Magazine covers, as most everyone during the last week seems to have forgotten, are there to sell magazines. The swells at The New Yorker wanted to join the national political conversation big time (even bloggers want to join the conversation) and sell product. It's been a while since we have had a New Yorker cover that generated much buzz. Bears wearing iPods don't help magazine copiesrush off the newsstands. So, when we hear endless debates about "parody," "satire," and other English Lit 101 topics on both cable and network news this past week, we can only say, well done New Yorker, your aim has been accomplished. Get the folk talking about your slick mag. The boys at the New Yorker have done it before, with the black on black 9/11 cover, the orthodox Jew and hot mama cover, and now with the Obamas in the Oval office, fist bumping (I have heard a number of racist riffs on that gesture), while the Old Glory burns in the fireplace and Osama stares down from the wall. Michelle looks more Assata Shakur than Angela Davis and Barack is in some generic pass-for-Muslim outfit. That'll get them talking! But the pious palaver about irony, etc., has been a real pain. As usual, it's about money, all you smart people out there.

Things continue to come apart at the seams. The economy, John McCain's campaign, Barack Obama's happy campers, what's left of the Bush II administration. Is it just the wild fires of the summer, or a continuing trend? In McCain's case, it well might be scorched earth forever. Phil Gramm, the former Senator from the great state of Texas and McCain's national co-chair, said we have become a "nation of whiners" and what's going on out there is only a "mental-recession." Gramm is one of the more unpleasant people still functioning as a public figure, even though he's a vice chairman of a Swiss bank, UBS. To Gramm and his friends it certainly is a mental-recession, since whatever happens won't leave them gas-less. Gramm has expended too much gas in his time in the Senate, pushing laws through that set the stage for the subprime mortgage collapse. That is, when he wasn't getting laws through as he left the senate to ease the way for his wife's trips to corporate board heaven. Having him around continues to make McCain look like a stooge for all things Republican at its worst. McCain does a passable job at connecting with average folk, since he doesn't always come off as the elite scion he actually is. Gramm is a buffoon on wheels, though a successful one. McCain has attempted to put "distance" between himelf and Gramm, but it's the distance between A and B. And then there's Jesse Jackson, an equivocal champion of Barack Obama, caught on film once again. Jackson has a long history of being embrassed by an open microphone ("Hymietown" comes to mind), but the latest is a dozy. The "cut his nuts out," Barack's that is, remark is a bit much, given the history of blacks in America. But Jackson and Bill Clinton are nursing the same hurt (not, decidedly, the nuts problem): both feel mightily displaced and had Hillary been the nominee to be, both Jesse and Bill would be rolling in clover. And that's a hard nut to crack.