Yesterday was Thursday, today is FRIDAY!
Last night was dark, today its STILL LIGHT OUT.
Before a few hours ago the day was an even number, specifically 28... now... everything is odd and you can't write a check without having to use an 9 on the date line.
OH, LORD, ITS ALL, SO VERY, COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY... exactly the same.
John S. McCain has nominated a distraction as his Vice President.
An anti-choice... pro-creationism... pro-guns... fairly centrist ideas on the rights of gay men and women... has a bunch of kids... is the SNL Church-Lady kind of distraction.
Oh, yes, and she happens to have a vuh-jay-jay, which seems to have everyone in a twitter.
Because without the crevice where the joystick would be, she'd just be the unknown governor from the cold state that goes in that weird little box in the bottom left corner of the map.
Without the long hair and the chest bumps and the elevated estrogen levels WE HERE AT DAILY KOS WOULD NOT BE SO STUPID AS TO GET DRAWN INTO A FIGHT ABOUT WHETHER SHE WAS QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT WHEN THE PATH TO WINNING THE ELECTION HAD BEEN SO CLEARLY LAID OUT LAST NIGHT.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Wash, lather, rinse and repeat.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Say it in Michigan. Say it in Ohio. Say it in Virginia and Nevada and Pennsylvania.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue.
And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
And... we're done.
Now, I know I COULD HIT THE CAPS KEY AND BLATHER ON FOR FIFTY PARAGRAPHS AND NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO ME. It seems inevitable now, that... for the next eight days at least... we are going to follow Karl Rove down the rabbit hole and try and KILL, DESTROY and EVISCERATE this woman, because she has been served up like manna to starving hoards, but please know that EVERY WORD, DIARY AND COMMENT wasted on Sarah WhatsHerFace is energy spent losing the inevitable election that awaits us.
She doesn't help win a "swing" state.
She doesn't win a demographic (and may, in the end, cause more women to vote Obama).
She doesn't even get you into a movie theatre with a ten percent discount.
She is a distraction; there to add "Noun-Verb-Mother-Of-Five" to "Noun-Verb-P.O.W".
She is nothing more and surely, clearly, much, much MUCH less.