My one Orthodox coworker is pretty firm that McCain is "better for Israel" (I don't know what she means specifically, because I refuse to engage), so I'm sure he's just trying to shore up that opinion.

Very generally speaking in America, Reform Jews vote Democrat, Orthodox vote Republican, for exactly the reasons Shir outlines. (I'd say that makes Conservative Jews the swing voters, but it's such a tiny little demographic I'm not sure anyone's actually fighting for it.)

There's also the need to be Strong On Israel for the sake of that slice of the Christian right wing for whom Israel features prominently in their Rapture plans.

"You know, a lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11."

GRRRRRR.

From what I could see on the CNN percepto-thingy, the most positive audience responses were from whichever candidate answered the question more directly. McCain's "Everything is important and priorities are for pussies!" response got no traction compared to Obama's "Energy, healthcare, entitlements in that order." And I suspect he could have put them in any order as long as he was answering the question instead of evading it. I don't know what that says in terms of actual votes, but I hope somebody from both campaigns was watching.

Puppies!

One IRWS (6 month old pup) meets some very fluffy baby goldens.

Well, I know that's not Nutty, but it almost looks like a court of some kind, if not necessarily for squash: [link]

unbased (is that a word?)

Baseless

You see, most of the people here are convinced that without state-of-the-art military experience you're incapable to lead this country.

The problem with this argument, which people also make here, particularly in terms of which candidate would deal better with terrorism, is that McCain has typewriter military experience in an internet world.

McCain at one point said something to the effect of "Only I have a plan that will fix this crisis." I was yelling, "Quick, tell somebody. I don't think we can wait until January."

The problem with this argument, which people also make here, particularly in terms of which candidate would deal better with terrorism, is that McCain has typewriter military experience in an internet world.

The other problem being that, by all accounts, when McCain was in the military he wasn't any good. Courageous, okay. And he certainly paid a price for it. But the man went from near last in his class at the academy to having to rely on connections to force his way back into the cockpit long after it was clear he had no business in a plane. I don't mean to take away from what he did go through, but it frustrates the hell out of me that there's no qualitative component to this. There are good people in the military. There are great people in the military. There's also Gomer Pyle.

I think my physicists have had a bit too much as well. Way too jolly.

I think I've mentioned the parties up at the solar observatory. OMG.

Came in to a disaster. Want to go home.

Also, we are the department of unfortunate typos. Currently scraping people off the floors.

Last night, McCain said this:

"It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate, loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney," McCain said. "You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me."

Does the "That one" bother people?

Allyson, I hope all is ok today.

sara - y'all need some no disaster days.

People are yelling at each other in an office. Two others are arguing on a phone. WAH, it's the last day without the boss here, why can't people just be calm. I want/need to get through 3 things I had planned to do but haven't done while the boss is out. Must get on it.

Does the "That one" bother people?

Criticism of that specific line is all over the interwebs today; I watched the debate on NBC last night, and almost the first thing that one of the commentators noted was "that one" and McCain's patronizing "You probably didn't even know who Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were before this crisis."

Yeah, they were talking about it last night too. It pinged me a little, but not as much as it's getting play.