...from the "Straight-Talk Express" to the "Shitstorm On Parade".

The fact that he managed to get himself nominated only demonstrates that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public (and that goes double for the American voter).

Haven't we been lied to enough already by Cowboy-hat Oathbreaker and his PNAC puppet masters?

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

really i didn't know that. I am a independent voter leaning toward Obama but i was impressed with that story, it would not be a reason for me to vote for him but i was impressed with the story. I agree. I don't know why people just accepts what a person says about thier record i.e. voting record on veteran's affairs, when if you look it up it is drastically something that you should not be proud of especially if you are a veteran. This may seem like an off subject issue but i want to ask and get peoples input. I read an article about rural voters and the article quoted several people who said they were republican and did not like McCain but they would not vote for Obama because he was black. The economy is in the dumps, gas prices, people are losing homes, but thats not enough to put that aside and vote for a better candidate. My question I guess is if this is a demographic that is keeping his (Obama's) poll numbers down than he can try all he wants and that will not change so why keep trying why not just strengthen your base.

Oh, I get it...guided by television, good for just one shot, and incredibly destructive.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

MCCAIN: The Vietnamese kept us in prison in conditions of solitary confinement, or two or three to a cell. They did that because they knew they could break down our resistance. One of the techniques that they used to get information was to take ropes and tie them around your biceps, loop the rope around your head and pull it down beneath your knees and leave you in that position. You can imagine it's very uncomfortable.

One night, I was being punished in that fashion. All of sudden the door of the cell opened and the guard came in. The guy who was just -- what we call the gun guard -- just walked around the camp with the gun on his shoulder. He went like this and loosened the ropes. He came back about four hours later and tightened them up again and left.

The following Christmas, because it was Christmas day, we were allowed to stand outside of our cell for a few minutes. In those days we were not allowed to see or communicate with each other, although we certainly did. And I was standing outside, for my few minutes outside at my cell. He came walking up. He stood there for a minute, and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard, he drew a cross and he stood there. And a minute later, he rubbed it out, and walked away.

For a minute there, there was just two Christians worshipping together. I'll never forget that moment. (APPLAUSE). So every day.

=========

sound fami-liar

A story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.

On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope.

I am deeply offended that John McCain lied about his so-called "Christian" experience. He recounts a story he obviously read by the Russian author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn ("The Gulag Archipelago" ) and took it as his own. Despicable.
Then he rails about the spending on the bear DNA study, while failing to report that he VOTED FOR IT.
He fails to mention the 10 BILLION ("B" not M) spent in Iraq per day.
The man is a liar and a fraud. His military experience amounts to less than 24 hours in VIet Nam, almost flunking out of the military academy (finishing fourth from the bottom in a class of over 700), costing the country lives and money in crashing helicopters, and omitting to tell the public how he denied his country four days after his capture. Always puts his country first? John McCain puts himself first- from womanizing and cheating on his wife to making up lies about his opponent.
He is the last person whom we should consider voting for for president of the United States. The only people worse are the people who go along with the lies.