Seriously, I was in Italy in the spring with a friend of mine who is a minor food celebrity and one place we stopped we were given this ham which was the best I've ever tasted.  It basically melted in your mouth.

  The danger is the 'enthusiasm' factor that propels people to the polls who then vote for the lower ticket.  And older voters tend to be really reliable at the polls.

  I think a danger has been the constant attacks on Palin that are overrun with some really bad errors to the point that factcheck.org (and Newsweek's republishing of factcheck's long article) has a large list of corrections at their site, which includes in its filename, "sliming palin" ... the upshot of which is she gets an 'underdog' status and gets an even stronger crowd reaction -- people waiting for hours in 92 degree heat.  NOT good for Nov. 4.

  I saw a hysterical article about her today that went crazy about her religious belief in a 'plan' or 'will' of a 'God' when the same writer did not see anything worrisome about Obama saying 3 times while I was watching that he prays every night that he will understand God's will and that he will become an instrument of God's will.

  Can you imagine if Palin said that a few times in interviews?  (With Chris Matthews at a college event,  "I pray every night..." that he understands what God's will is and that he will be an instrument of that.)  I think the Jerusalem wall message was similar.  I first saw him say this on a train in a documentary and I was flabbergasted.

  The best thing Dems can do is concentrate on McCain's explosion of gaffes and just plain errors.  He's the one that voters would need to worry about most because, like Obama, he IS the heartbeat, if voted in.  And, frankly, he doesn't seem to remember what he said the day before - diametrically opposed to what he is saying the next day.  He is constantly attacking without thinking, it's like a reflex.  I give his economic adviser credit, though, for coming across with a plan early Thursday that's quite similar to the one that was put out by TPTB Friday.  

When you show yourself willing to give Obama credit for anything at all beyond praising him when he he does something BTD thinks Clinton would have done.  THEN....  Well, nevermind, it aint gonna happen.

And we know why it aint gonna happen. Don't we?

But remember this, when you talk about what these boards "used to be populated by."  What you are really doing is lamenting the end, and of course the electoral result, of Primary season.  Anyone who has been following things knows this to be the case.

But on TalkLeft, as everywhere else.  There was a time before the Primaries and now there is a time after them.  Issues, not identity politics, are now, albeit too slowly, emerging as the focus here for most commenters.  

BTW: To your "point" about strategy.

McCain's bluster about committees and his newfound interest in oversight MIGHT play well strategically.  But then, if a lie plays well strategically, is it any less of a lie?  

My hope is that voters will prove themselves too intelligent to be duped into voting GOP by specious "tactics," this time around.  Hopefully the last two Pres. terms have been a better teacher than your praise for McCain's "Strategy" suggests.