Kennedy was obviously smart, so that's suspicious, and then all these university professors and student types come down on the Democratic side with all that civil rights stuff. Then people like Al Gore throw all those numbers around and use big science words and acting like they're smarter than "us".

Edit: I've noticed for quite a while that people are more impressed of success through connivery--ie, street smarts--and dumb luck then through the application of smarts.

Oh- and I realize that I was just as bad thinking that Democrats were uniformly "good" because my family said so, but I was young! I still get this little twinge of surprise, especially as my uncle still goes on and on and on about how if I work unpaid overtime I am screwing up life for all union members, working people, and Democrats!

The best description I've seen yet for the whole Palin thing is "a Tennessee Williams play has broken out at the RNC."

OMG. I love this.

Fred Thompson dropping to his knees and bellowing "Sarahhhh!" during his address tonight.

BWAH!

I'd give good bandwidth to watch that on YouTube.

Me too.

And just imagine the remix possibilities.

Best thing I've heard today.

Stolen from the comments on some blog or other:

The truth of the matter is that McCain made a very astute pick. As Fafblog notes, Palin “should provide McCain many more years of extended existence through gradual consumption of her life force, and, if needed, a new host body should his current vessel fail him.”

I've grown less enchanted with McCain over the years as he's adopted more and more of the Neocon party line, but I'm not quite ready to make the assumption that he's a demonic puppetmaster masquerading in human form.

Dick Cheney is still around after all, people!

Beverly, you are absolutely right. It is rather devastating. To me, the President of our country best be hyper-educated, well-spoken, and be a hell of a lot smarter than I am. I don't want my uncle Tinky (no lie) in the White House!

From the newspaper coverage of the weekend's book festival:

John T. Edge, Clyde Edgerton and John Egerton sat to the side of the pulpit in the Decatur Presbyterian Church sanctuary and with humor talked about food, funerals and family.

The only question from the audience was their opinion on moose stew, a reference to the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Edge responded with a story about his son, who was 4 at the time and with a baby sitter outside a local pharmacy. The boy, screaming, threw himself to the ground and refused to go inside.

“Turns out it was Cheney’s Pharmacy and my son was thinking Dick Cheney was inside and would get him,” Edge said.

This is a very long day. I have missed lots and lots of buses, and then I missed the 6:34 bus because I misread it as 6:44. Now the next bus isn't until 7:42, which means I will get home around nine. I am hungry, my cat is going to be hungry, and I was kinda hoping to do some laundry tonight! But 9:00 pm is , like, my bedtime!

Beverly is totally correct in that, what she posts is how the Republican party has pitched and positioned themselves for at least the last 8 years. I'm not sure how the Democrats exactly let that happen, why they never fought hard on that front.

W is from a family of several generations of wealth who went to Ivy League Univ. and has never had to worry about money or the future in most of the ways that "one of us" would.

I can't speak to the 4 nominees this year, but just from how he speaks, McCain does not have the automatic connection with people the way W did/does.

I saw a Flying Spaghetti Monster metal thingy on the back of a minivan tonight. Like the fish/Darwin fish things, but, you know, Pastafarian.