Amazing…msnbc vid is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…

Williams: Who is the elite?

Palin: I guess just people who think that they’re better than everyone else…anyone who thinks that they are better than anyone else, I guess that’s my definition of elitism.

Oh, and John McCain goes on to clarify that it’s also anyone living in Washingotn DC or New York City…Rudy, I think he means you.

Criminal masterminds come from the strangest places. Look at Harvey “Two Face” Dent. Or Lex Luthor. Or Cat Woman.

Well, you have a new name to add to that list: grannyhelen.

Sure, I may look mild-mannered. I’m a 40 year-old, stay-at-home mom of two young kids whose alias is a tribute to my own great-grandmother. I write about nonviolence and politics in between changing diapers and baking cookies. You’d see me on my walk with my two-year-old and never think to yourself: this is the woman who is rending the fabric of our Democracy.

But you’d be wrong.

Okay, yes, I’m gloating. I admit it. I own it. But after eight years of the GOP running this country into the ground a bit of schadenfreude is cathartic. For background the Kubler-Ross five stages of grief, see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K…

Denial:

In a phone interview before headlining the Indiana Republican Party’s fundraising dinner in Indianapolis on Thursday night, Graham said Hoosiers are too smart to vote for Obama.

Democrats, he said, “can’t win fairly out here.”

Asked whether Democrats could win without cheating, Graham said, “No. They can’t win fairly out here ’cause their agenda is so far removed from the average Hoosier.

“We could lose, I suppose, if they cheat us out of it,” Graham said of Indiana’s 11 electoral votes. “I think the only way we lose a state like North Carolina or Indiana is to get cheated out of it.”

link: http://www.journalgazette.net/…

From Politico:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign.  What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history.  Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.  George Wallace never threw a bomb.  He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.  Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.  They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.  We can do better.  The American people deserve better.

link: http://www.politico.com/arena/…

Dedicated to Chris Matthews and his handwringing over the McCain campaign’s last, desperate attempt to win through fear and smear.

It happens at the drop of a hat, when you least expect it from folks you’d normally think are just better than to utter the phrase.

And then it comes. “I’m not a racist, but…”

And when you hear it you instinctively hold onto whatever chair you’re sitting in and prepare yourself for the worst and wackiest of racist rhetoric ever to cross another human’s lips. And the folks who utter this phrase are the ones the McCain campaign is trying to appeal to, with the drumbeat of Ayers and Obama’s middle name and all the nonsense they’ve been throwing the last few days.

The only problem is it’s not working, and it probably won’t work moving forward.

Inspired by this little comment right here:

“We see America as the greatest force for good in this world,” Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, “Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

linky: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI…

Now, CNN goes on to explain that:

…the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called ‘somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.’ ”

Several other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The National Review, have debunked the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

But, if Sister Sarah wants to go there…

Tonight was an eye-opening experience. Running behind all day long, Hubby and I decided to order a meat-lover’s stromboli for two, and I drove down the road to our local pizza place to pick it up.

There are some things you don’t do in life. You don’t start whistling in the check out line at the grocery store. You don’t give out your personal banking information to the Prince of Nigeria, regardless of how desperate that email sounds.

And, you don’t talk politics at the local pizza place.

All that changed tonight.

We’re hurt. We’re struggling. We look at our children and our dwindling bank accounts and piling debt and wonder how we’re going to make it. Will my company be bought tomorrow? Will I have a job?

What will happen to my kids?

Barack, I love your intellect. I appreciate the fact that you’ve presented real, tangible plans to fix our economy.

But I need to know that you get me.

What do you feel when you see this (warning, sick and wrong attack on Obama follows):

Angry? Incensed? Stay with that emotion and watch this next one:

Note from GH–this probably applies less to the DocuDharma crowd, who don’t get so easily distracted by bright, shining distractions

These are serious times, and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation.

–Barack Obama

Now, I admit to having a few guilty pleasures in life. Watching back episodes of “What Not To Wear”. Buying earrings at the Kohl’s in the 80% off clearance section. Getting that chai tea latte at Panera. Doing that powerwalk through Ikea and promising myself that someday, somehow my house really will be this organized.

Sarah Palin, over these last fun-filled days since the announcement that she would be Old Man McCain’s Vice President, has been one of these guilty pleasures. But like all guilty pleasures, it doesn’t take a whole lot of exposure to just get, well, a little tired of seeing it day in and day out.

From a stay-at-home mom.

I know, I know…my alias is “grannyhelen”, which I’ve used as a tribute to my own great-grandmother. I, myself, am a 40 year old stay-at-home mom of two in a small commuter city.

Wanna win my vote? It won’t be as easy as simply nominating a “hockey mom”, or even taking down the “maverick” image of John McCain. But women – and particularly mothers – may help decide this election, and it’s obvious that the McCain campaign picked Governor Palin to appeal to women like me. In order to put Barack Obama in the White House, Democrats must compete successfully for these votes.

Follow me over the fold for some talking point do’s and don’ts of this demographic.