Bush league

K:

Barry may indeed weather whatever storms emerge. It seems clear that Gibson and Stephanopoulos are getting the worst of the debate coverage, for instance. John Dickerson says Obama was doomed to look petulant; and I think the stick-to-your-guns strategy is what doomed him. Because we've seen it before.

It's Bush 101 : Double Down. It may or may not enable the campaign freedom of maneuver. I tend to think not, based on Barry's flaccid attempts to thread the needle on Rev. Wright in the debate, but prove me wrong. (He was pushy and above-the-fray while delivering byzantine rationalizations of his relationship with Wright. It was cringe-inducing. There are so many ways to deal with the Rev., and he has to pick the morally upstanding one? Barry can't say, "Look, I was living in Chicago's South Side. I need this man and every other vintage militant every day of the week, because I'm from Kansas."? He can't plead expediency? Ahh, because that would be the old politics rearing its ugly head...)

There is maneuverability on the Bitter score, so fine, maybe the tactic works. Elevate. Got it. But it's a shit way to make policy. Elevation is fine for discourse; but in policy, it's called escalation. It's a perpetual raising of the stakes.

To take your abortion prediction, what does an elevation speech sound like?

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Leebs will speak at convention if McCain can't find his keys.
Related! McCain anger okay! Not pissed enough to "blur his judgment," says Leebs!

Also, not senile enough to fumble the nuclear football! Not drunk enough to confuse Sunnis with Shiites! Still funny! Don't you quit on me...

Also related! One-third of Iraq veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder or a major brain injury. That's 19 percent with depression, 19 percent with probable brain damage, minus 7 percent with both. What's the record for Vietnam POWs?

And, forty years after: the sacrifice-shall-not-be-in-vain meme is back to shame us all...Will President McCain blockade Vietnam until the return of all captive US servicemen is accomplished? I'm for it! US out of Vietnam!

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