almost everybody here believes the 2 party system must go, thank god. but how can we convince the rest of the sheeple in this country to see the light so to speak? that is the crux. never underestimate the power of consumers. oh if only we could organize and kick those worthless corporate kiss-ass politician out and vote for new ones that represent core progressive values.

but i guess not in my lifetime. there will have to be practically a civil war between the proletariats and the millionares roughly speaking.

at this point i'm ready for a revolution..... but quiet, cowardly dem party apologists won't let that happen as that's too "radical" and so not the status quo. no, we have to work appeasingly with those no-change agents. that's what. and then the whole country continues to lose and laws continue to get rewritten for the benefit of big business to the environment's detriment and our detriment. meanwhile the average pay of a CEO continues to increase wildly, etc..etc. but who cares about the environment, about the growing gap between us and the mega-millionaires, and being anti-war?

Make the really obvious point that no candidate for President at this time can really be putting country first if he runs a dirty, lying campaign of false smears. That betrays the public trust. Tell it like it is, Obama! Obama cannot use this talking point after the dirty, lying, racist campaign of false smears he ran against Hillary in the primary. If he can dish it out, he should be able to take it. He spends all his time playing the victim. The primary was spent blaming Hillary for anything that made Obama look bad. Now Obama looks bad during a talk about faith and it gets blamed on McCain. He whines that McCain cheats. I don't support either candidate but if Obama wants to be elected President he needs to take responsibility and act like a man.

Julie

Theda Skocpol made a name for herself with a book called States and Revolutions wherein she laid out the factors that lead to the collapse of China and Russia among other failed states. I would prefer to hear her opinion as to how close the United States if from becoming another failed state. external conflicts draining our resources, internal conflicts, etc. This is her area of expertise, not selecting running mates for presidential candidates....Help us out here Theda, what does the future hold for us?????

I noticed in a Tom Hayden commentary on ZNet today an oft-repeated charge against McCain: he dropped bombs 25 times before being captured -- the implied point being that he therefore doesn't get any credit for refusing to be released from torture until his fellow captives were released. For the first time, I wondered: what would Obama have done? Not the mythical Obama, but the one who's "progressively" turning his back on everyone who ever supported him and every policy he ever claimed to stand for so as to get elected. Do all you who still refuse to look at him without blinders on really think he would not have dropped bombs, if he'd been drafted (or chosen to sign up because he thought it was in America's interests)? Somehow I think Barack "Jerusalem undivided for Israel" Obama probably would have dropped bombs, too. Which brings up the second question -- whether he who is showing loyalty to nothing but his own personal ambition would have refused release for the hopelessly idealistic cause of not leaving one's mates behind. (I'm not a McCain supporter. I'm someone who loathes the blind support for Obama that has disgraced the progressive movement.)

America is an evil nation, with an evil population !!

America hates good people !!

Americans hate populists, socialists, humanists, peace loving people !!

Americans love death, evil, evil warmongers, evil violent bloody sports like wrestling, american football, NASCAR !!

Americans hate chinese, muslims, hispanics, jews, europeans, canadians, asians, africans etc.

Americans hate everybody !!

Americans are racists, americans cannot see a black populist president in power !!

Americans are real unfriendly, real apathetic, and real antisocial. In America your neighbors are your enemies, people hate each other in this country (Thanks to the philosophy of free market and libertarians such as Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, John Locke)

Americans prefer a Nazi, a brownshirt, a warmonger !!

Americans love war movies !!

Americans hate Chavez, Mandela, Mother Theresa, Fidel Castro, United Nations, and progressive churches.

Americans will destroy their own country with so much evil, evil cannot conquer good. America will self-destruct itself because of evil.

.

Bush to Putin, "Get out now!". Putin to Bush, "Nyet!"
By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20572.htm

21/08/08 "ICH" -- - When Vladimir Putin heard President Bush demand that Russian troops "leave Georgia territory immediately", he did what any sensible leader of a great nation would do; he yawned, scratched his belly and ambled over to the Kremlin frig to see if there were any left-overs from last night's imperial banquet with the French dignitaries. He may have even smiled wistfully to himself as he peered over the Chicken Kiev and the Siberian cutlets, thinking, "Nyet, George; South Ossetia's future is no longer negotiable".

If Mccain becomes president, we will have to rise up and bear arms. Americans cannot endure another 4 years of the Republican Party brownshirts

With one candidate praising the other's service to the country and his heroism and that candidate questioning the 1st candidate's patritisim, aren't the results inevitable?

Everyone, it seems wants Sen. Barack Obama to come out swinging, as if this were a prizefight. I believe if we came out swinging, everytime we have a strong response to something we learn about McCain, or hear from McCain's own lips, we could change the tenor of this campaign. Why won't individuals take some responsibility for this? Afterall, a leader is the recognized spokesperson, but as you have seen with McCain, the ones he is actually "leading" are doing quite a bit on their own. Last election, everyone agreed that the Republicans won because they were so organized, not because Bush was such a great leader. In Obama's campaign, it seems to me that the responsibility to get the vote out, and to disseminate true information has been left up to the young, while the older folks just criticize. When was the last time you picked up a pen and paper to write a letter to the editor of your local paper? or written to one of the Cable TV News shows' top honchos? or written to one of the advertisers of the radio talk shows to complain, etc. etc.? A campaign needs more than dollars, and sideline cheerleaders, or Monday morning quarterbacks, it needs real people using their voices, alone, along with your family and friends, and neighbors. Try it! . . . and give 'em hell!!

A terrific article, in my opinion. I am only puzzled why anyone is surprised at Obama's chances dropping like a stone in the pond. Do we not remember the abysmal campaigns of Gore and Kerry? When do we begin to understand how, after almost eight years of the worst Presidency in American history, an election in which a dead democrat should trounce any breathing republican candidate, we are quite possibly going to see a McCain victory?

I would paste this from Ms. Skocpol's article because it bears repeating:

"On evasion: A national, turning-point campaign is not an academic discussion of the issues! You don't go into Saddleback and give a ridiculous, distanced, abstract, evasive, talmudic answer to the abortion question you knew was coming! You look the television camera/voters in the eye and crisply explain your own personal moral perspective in clear, plain language -- acknowledging AFTER you state your views that other moral people can have different views and underlining that you will always respect them, listen to them, and look for common ground. This is not rocket science!"

Our system is designed to continue control of our government by the wealthy, and changing that system is paramount to the health of our nation and its democratic processes.

we see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin

If Obama really represents change, then he has to have a strong message on something or other, that being the changes he hopes to bring about. However I feel that he is now switched into what is known as the "small target" strategy.
A leader has to show there is some some stern stuff underneath for all classes of citizens, and present achievable and worthy national goals, as well as demonstrate understanding of peoples hopes and political shade.

Prosperity for all at the level of US aspirational standards of living is not achievable anywhere now. Sustainability seems to only possible at a greatly reduced total energy consumption. A better way of life may be possible at a greatly reduced consumption of resources. Is it too much to ask for government leadership and try to head this way? To wait until dire circumstances affect a majority of the population is government direliction of duty.

Confused By Nader? Why in the years between POTUS elections is Nader not building a Party? Organizing? WITHOUT doing this, he gets the results he does, a few percentage points, enough to tip a state, but not enough to build a Viable Third Party.

By presenting himself BRIEFLY every four years as the Icon of Progressivism, a candidate for President, but doing NOTHING between election cycles, he HURTS rather than helps the Progressive 3rd Party Potential. The Tiger is made of Paper.

I love his words, but NOT his (non) actions.

THUS McInsane or Obama, that is Easy. War light or WW3, sad but easy choice.

Either way Afghaistan is Warring, Obama though favors discussions with Iran, he has not talked about kicking RUSSIA from the G8 like McCain.....Obama pushed the Rhetoric toward withdrawal in Iraq, something he gets no credit for, but I saw it.

Theda and all the rest of the Obamaniacs need to think of the election like a professional wrestling match. We all know Barak's gotta win (because otherwise the Republicans will be responsible for the coming financial, social, and societal collapse), but my dears it's still about two and a half months to the election.

If it all looks as if it's over (as we all know it is):

Who will watch and listen breathlessly to the debates or stump speech infomercials?

Where will broadcasters get their windfall profits from wall to wall advertising?

What will there be to write about for the stenographers that comprise the Washington press corps?

How will sex workers be able to make enough to get through the winter till next spring?

For these and many other practical reasons this charade must go on.

Poet

The Titanic is about to hit the iceberg...

Obama doesn't have to react to every Rovian smear, and he doesn't have to attack McCain's character. All he has to do, and MUST do, is to mercilessly shine bright lights on McCain's lack of knowledge and intellect. McCain is showing us every day how little he knows about anything. And there is so much comical footage and sound bites of McCain out there now. It should be easy to make a fool out of a fool.

It seems so obvious.

I dismiss everything the author says when she thinks that the answer is Hillary.

What was the question again?

Oh yeah, how do you get the democratic corporate shill elected rather than the republican corporate shill.

I'm tired of hearing Obama say almost everytime he starts speaking about John, how he honors his service, etc, etc. Why remind people of that and McCain isn't showing any respect to Obama every time he has something nasty to say about him. I hope he does pick Joe Biden for VP. He needs an attack dog! If McCain wins this election, I'm done. With the way this country is now and it will not be any better when senile old John gets in there, just turn it over to the Republicans and forget about it. It's over for most of us. I've lost hope. If the Democrats can't win as bad as things are, then there is no hope of ever winning.

Obama's hubris may have caught up to him. He's behaved over the past few weeks as if he's already president, marking time until inauguration, while McCain's goon squad has used every underhanded tactic at their disposal to dispose of Obama's pretense to power. As usual, dirty tricks work on the American electorate. So once again we're seeing Gore 2000, Kerry 2004 in deja vu. And so early in the election year! By October maybe Obama will have withdrawn entirely, for fear of offending anyone by defending himself against guttersnipes of the fascist right, and concede the election to McShame. Everyone ready for Room 101?

Today US elites face a mega-catastrophe - the loss of their geopolitical prestige and influence. This is why the two camps are practically joined at the hip pushing exactly the same extreme right policies. The capitalist beast is "in its last throes, if you will". Doctor O'Bama wants to save the ailing patient with a fresh blood transfusion. STUPID IDEA!!!

"On the bright side, the world won't end if McCain is elected."

This is not wishful thinking. It is insanity.

Sorry for the double post.

Those imploring Obama to *fight* are really just calling for him to go negative and attack McCain personally. I don't see anyone saying Obama should change his positions on the issues.

Clearly Obama has the same problem that Dean, Kerry, Edwards, and Gore had; i.e., try as he might, he can't delude voters into viewing him as a progressive alternative while he simultaneously takes Republican-lite positions. Bill Clinton was able to pull off this illusionist trick somehow. No other candidate has been successful at it, and it is simply amazing that Harvard-educated Obama would try this same tired act even after it has failed over and over again. The only thing I can conclude is that Obama is either mentally incompetent or else he is totally under the control of his political consultants.

Last time I read something by Theda Skocpol, she was bitching like mad at all of us progressives who were critical of Obama's so-called "turn to the center," aka his vote to trash the fourth amendment, his support for the death penalty for crimes other than murder, etc. What a surprise, Theda! This is what you end up with if you encourage your candidate to bow to the right--someone who is incapable of standing up for what he thinks is right.

After a number of emails to commmondreams about how bad their comment engine was, I'm really happy to see this improvement! It's nice being able to read an article without having tons of comments attached, but available to read if I want to. Also, happy to see that long URLs are discouraged as that can make articles difficult to read. As to the 250 word limit on comments - Great! Too many times in the past, comments have amounted to the publishing of whole articles.

"On the bright side, the world won't end if McCain is elected."

Only if you believe we can survive WWIII.

"I know not how WWIII will be fought but I know that WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein

I am wildly disappointed in the Obama campaign and have let them know it(for
whatever good that will do). I am likewise disappointed in the previous commenters
who seem to think change will come from above and a new political party will solve everything. Newsflash: It ain't gonna happen.

Let's pool our talents...they are collectively significant, and by direct action
remake the world in ways that may not be perfect or utopian, but will be a hell of a lot better than what we have now.

We don't need to hate, but a dose of good-old righteous anger can work wonders.
We don't need gallows or firing squads(haven't we had enough of that claptrap?).
We need a switch from "me, me, me" to "we".

C'mon, it CAN be done. Si se puede!

I can't bring myself to vote for Obama. He broke my heart when he went back on his word on the FISA vote.

How can he be trusted to do ANYTHING he says?

The "democratic" party is standing for exactly what it wants to stand for. I'm voting for McKinney, who may well be as crazy as people says she is, but she's not rationalizing the destruction of civilian populations in order to advance this wasteful, wasteful economic system the two major parties swear by. Crazy is as crazy does.

What drives me most crazy is that despite all of the intelligent and well-reasoned critiques of Obama and his campaign, he and his groupies still fall back on the racist excuse for his poor showing, and will do so loudly if he loses the general election. When will this guy wake up and realize that many of us like his color but dislike just about everything else about him ??

Tommytoons
If Obama's looses this election I'm finished with the Democratic Party! I will switch my party affliation to one that I know will not cater to the Republican Party and the Blue Dog Democratic wing, I will join the Socialist Party and work for an organization that I know is liberal and leftist to its core!

Yes, this new discussion format cut off from the article reminds me of the PROTEST ZONEs or CAGES in which common people without limousines must stand and pretend to be heard surrounded by helmets, horses, dogs and clubs (meanwhile the limousine orders for Democrats are exceeding city capacity)....I ASK you for advice---I am all for Nader for the obvious 10 reasons. Friends I respect urge me to vote Obama, though, because true enough, he vs. McCain might be able to make critical small differences ahead in the fates of people who are just barely surviving in this country, people doing far worse than myself. And yet day by day Obama is turning into MUSH while McCain and Karl Rove (who was in Georgia in July) make hay on yet another war they've provoked, with big bad Russia taking over the airwaves on their and McC's behalf. How the hell can I vote Obama who speaks and fails to question all of this? This may be all we have, to teach the Dimocraps a lesson they can't ignore anymore--Jeeziz, Kerry lost by doing just what Obama is now....And Nader's percentage already will be the decisive factor.....

What is this, a boxing match? The Chinese Olympics? Some kind of sport? Who's champion will beat the oligarchy at its own game?

Obama has to lose. It's in the master plan. Too much at stake. The duopoly is more concerned about keeping voters in the 2-party fold than they are about any one party winning. They collude. Is anyone surprised? If Obama wins, the Democratic Party and the duopoly will die because they can't make any of the "promised" changes. The Dems will have the house, the senate, and the presidency. The excuses will be gone?

But if Obama runs a lousy campaign, betrays his constituents, he will certainly lose. They know this. It's the 2-party's strategy. Haven't you noticed? Obama forces progressives out of the party, effectively handing the election to McCain. The empire's agenda will move forward, 3rd party and independents will be blamed. Obama will receive a big promotion, maybe run in 2012 (He never got the chance! they will rail). Perfect.

If there is any reason at all to vote Obama it is to once and for all see the Democrats and Republicans stark naked in the light. All of the excuses will be gone. If Obama loses ....... watch out party bailers! The proverbial shit will hit the fan .... again.

McCain is winning at the moment. Are you guys sure you want to help him win? "Lesseroftwoevilisms" sounds nice, but is it worth putting McCain into the Whitehouse to vote for no hopers?

This is no disrespect for other candidates and I'll vote for whoever I darn well choose and I'm sure ya'll will too. But the pragmatic reality is that any vote other than for Obama will elect John McCain.

Is John McCain the President we want? Or is Rich right, it makes no difference?

Everyone going to Denver should get over to the Nader super rally. Go, Ralph go.
And I'm glad Common Dreams has established some guidelines for comments. Some of the comments have been unnecessarily vicious and hostile. A good idea or comment will stand on it's own. I believe that we can create a discourse on the left that doesn't belittle or humiliate others. Thanks.

Mendo Chuck

Seek out one of the third parties that suits your liking and support it.
Make the change happen and stop crying . . . . Being a social liberal and a economic conservative I am going with the Libertarian Party. At least they are what they say they are and have principals. No more choosing the lesser of two evils and then wondering why nothing changes. Anything else will only keep the status quo.

jlocke123 August 21st, 2008 4:03 pm

True.

Steer you comments to Opra, it was her support that made Barack.
She, like Bill Clinton, is a multi-millionaire, and they don't need us.
They don't dare allow Nader in on the debates, he might just expose this crowd
for what it is, a big Zero..

When presented with a real Republican and a fake one, voters will always choose the genuine thing.

Obaminable is behind McSame because he's moving to the right and pissing on the left, the same mistake Al Bore and John Scary made when they ran.

Nader is at 3%, enough to tip a close election. True progressives must support Nader and defeat Democrats at all costs, our most dangerous enemies.

The problem with this milque-toast campaign is that, when it's over, there will be no mandate for change. He will not be able to point to a plank and say "this is what the voters want", only "I was elected". A win without a victory. Not something anyone can get as excited about as earlier in his campaign. He may not be able to win without the "swing" voters, but he sure as hell isn't going to win without the new voters.

Dr. Skocpol is right on. For several weeks, we have been waiting for Barack to drop his 'disagree without being disagreeable' mantra and become our champion ... leaving the knives at home on the way to the gunfight.

Instead, we have been treated to deja vu from familiar strains of Gore and Kerry anemic campaigns. Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a redundant theme.

It matters little or not at all if Obama's absence of passion for the street fight being waged by Rovian proteges is innate to the candidate's personality or his advisors' political cowardice. It is however, important that they all notice that they are in a street fight with all of the niceties of the collegial Senate debates on the sidelines or in the dumpsters.

If he wants to make nice, we are all going to pay the price ... and McSame will exact a burden on middle America and the poor that will affirm Bush and Cheney's lunacies. The Obama Campaign may have the authority, but they haven't got the right to lose by default.

Dr Wu, moonpie, I concur.

How do you like the new CommonDreams "free speech zone", by the way? Out of sight, out of their minds.
I guess they think that political comment should be left in the capable hands of the professionals.

regarding: "Politics is not just about issues, it is a metaphorical test of strength. "

This is a lame article. Yes Obama is losing the "test of strength", But it is because of the issues that Obama is losing in the polls.
Obama supports: Iraq war, Fisa law, "off the table", status quo health insurance, etc. Millions in exxon money won't change that.

Oh, never mind. Defeated by the 250 word limit.

This article is written by a Democrat from Harvard who's beginning to panic about Obama. She assumes that his problem is something he can change at a day's notice, simply by adopting different tactics. She thinks he's mainly "failing to fight" effectively, & begs him to do better. She tells him not to run a feel-good, bland convention about abstract "hope" and "change."

What she's not facing up to is that Obama NEVER stood for anything more than vague BS about "hope" and "change." He got through the primaries on that -- partly because gullible Dem Party loyalists eagerly deluded themselves that he was secretly very antiwar & progressive.

But that was all a lie, and now we're seeing the real Obama -- and there's nothing there. The guy is virtually a Republican in all but name, who'd rather agree with the hard right than fight with them. He never stood up to confront the Bush admin criminals in any way, but the Dem Party Apologists all made excuses for this, wailing, "Oh, if he really stood up to oppose the wars, or torture, or to support impeachment, then the media would attack him, and he wouldn't win."

So now the Dems are stuck with another empty suit.

To be continued...

I went to the opening of a local Obama campaign office here in West Palm Beach yesterday. They were throwing money in a can to buy bumper stickers. HUH?

Then I went to the homeless shelter to decide which of the two needed what little time and energy I may be able to spare. I realized that the saying "We are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For, We are the Change that We Seek" would be much better implemented using my time and money not to throw at more political fundraising but cleaning and taking action at a level that truly affects what that means.

Obama doesn't need money for bumper stickers. In fact instead of using his millions in campaign money to fund tv ads and making executives in the media industry richer he could be funding grassroots programs using campaign volunteers to make a difference at the level he claims he wants to change.

I must be old fashioned. Used to be you'd want your politician to walk the talk.

This country is screwed. We simply have forgotten what this is all supposed to mean.

This seem like a replay of 2004 when Kerry threw the election. O'Bumma may be setting himself up to loose as well. They cannot stop the imperial juggernaut so he will step aside and let the republicans continue to do the dirty work. Vote Nader 2008 and send the man a check! He's the only honest person in the race. Winning is NOT the point in a fixed election. Where's my diebold Technician?

Go McKinney

But I could be wrong !

Obama starts to fade... Pulls a Kerry, even a Gore. Liberal activists lose interest in a party of the rich run by Wall Street and oil pipeline interventionists.

2008--end of Democratic Party as we know it.

2009 new party forms to take on Republicans.

From the looks of it, the new party, as yet unnamed, will not be another party of the rich. Rule of Rich begins to fade in US as the truly rich move to China.

US in 2010 becomes a second tier power--emerges as happy and content Scandinavian country.

Dr Wu, the last of the big-time thinkers

Doubts are starting to come up for me about the mental fight that has to be there.

Intellectual Wimp usually doesn't make it across the finish line.

I remember Adlai Stevenson as he ran against IKE in 1956, very intelligent, but didn't have the mind set to fight the real fight that seems to be required.

Hope, Obama gets the message before the scumbags win again.

There is a lot of material that can be used against McCain, including the facts surrounding his time in the pit. There is a swift boat still out there waiting to launch.

I liked IKE, IKE was Americas friend, And John McCain is no IKE. IKE wasn't a looser, IKE never used his "Real well documented WAR record, Commander of ALL Allied Forces in the WWll theater, for political gain......

John McCain, graduated 5th from the bottom in his class at Annapolis. How did he even get into such a prestigious Naval Academy? Daddy pulled strings for his Dumbo son?

The United States of America doesn't need another Dumbo son to be Commander in Chief, When what we need is an adult who think of himself as President of the United States of America who also has the civilian duty to oversee the Joint Chiefs in their duty to protect the security of the country.

This is a poor article.

I can understand Obama's desire to maintain the high ground and not get into a mud-slinging match. The 1972 Australian Federal elections witnessed a landslide victory for the Labor Party over the incumbent Liberal Party, because Labor deliberately chose a policy of NOT slinging mud, unlike the Liberals who were extremely pointed and personal in their attacks prior to election day. Well, there were other reasons, but for most Australians, this was a memorable election cycle because of the lack of drunken verbal brawling.

The attitude of "If you are hit hard in the pile, you hit back" is adolescent and puerile, and I would hope, beneath most Americans.

This is getting worse by the day.

On the bright side, the world won't end if McCain is elected. We'll see little difference in any real policy changes anyway. Democrats probably should start getting used to it. Until the democratic party stands for something different than a mirrored image of the republicans, they'll continue to lose.

Progressives on the other hand, can at least take solace in having Nader or McKinney to vote for. At least it might (finally) help start a viable third-party for 2012.

Go Nader!