but I think building up intelligence capabilities, working with other countries, and non-proliferation efforts are far more important

Commie

It's weird - the election is just a little more than two months away. Two months, and either I'll be incredibly happy or incredibly depressed.

If Obama is elected and the Cubs win the World Series, I swear my head will explode, as I won't be able to handle that much happiness....

Meanwhile, on NPR, they had a little piece on Cindy "I'm an only child" McCain's half-sister who not only is the first child from her father's first marriage, got a $10K bequest from his will (and Cindy got the millions). Classy family there.

The convention talk reminded me to program my DVR to record it. Good thing, my wife would not be happy if I forgot to set it tonight. How did I ever get along without a web enabled DVR?

This is the best expression of how I feel about McCain that I've come across so far. She just nails it.

My sneaking suspicion is that the PUMA movement was started (and is funded) by the McCain campaign and is decidedly NOT the grass-roots outraged-women-voters thing that they claim to be. And as such, that the numbers they're claiming are pure unadulterated bullshit. (I don't doubt at all that there are women out there who truly believe John McCain would be a better President than Barack Obama - I just don't believe that many of them are Democrats.)

I'm pessimistic about the election. McCain is going to carry the south, the pillar of red that runs down the middle of the country, and the usual suspects in the west. Obama is going to carry the usual blue areas. I think it will closer in some of those red states than expected, but not nearly enough to actually win. In the Obama strongholds, I think Obama will win big. I think Florida will go McCain, Missouri will barely go McCain, and that Ohio will barely go McCain. Hence my prediction that Obama wins the popular vote and McCain wins the election.

Great. Mail is likely to be down for several hours. Bye-bye productivity.

I think Obama might carry NC. I've been out of the liberal dot every weekend and, while the rural bumperstickers aren't trumpeting Obama there are an amazing lack of McCain signs. Also, Obama's registration people are saturating the state. They don't really bother with the Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh area anymore because it's so done—most of them are heading over to the blue collar areas like those around Burlington (where the factories used to be) and seeing a lot of support. I think the combination of Republican apathy and Democratic voter registration efforts among African Americans and the economically screwed could make NC an Obama state. (Might carry Hagan to the Senate, too.)

No idea what's happening in Alabama, though.

I have heard that Obama has one hell of a ground game going. I could be totally wrong underestimating that effort.

Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans (warning: auto-play)

I'm with Calli on Obama's chances in NC. It's not a certainty, but it feels like a real possibility here, especially given new voter registrations that have been absolutely through the roof.