The initial reviews are in and it’s not terribly good for McCain. Republicans are pulling out their yard signs and praying for the lives of their family and children.

Obama was THAT good.

Obama was poised, his answers substantive, and deflected McCain’s attacks with aplomb. But once again McCain dug deep into the history books for guidance, quoting Theodore Roosevelt’s famous line “Talk Softly and Carry a Big Stick” when discussing Pakistan. And this wasn’t the first time McCain has gone to that well. In the first debate he invoked Dwight Eisenhower to enforce a point on accountability, that was later to be found incorrect. While these are certainly important historical figures and we owe much to them, they have little or no impact on the modern voter.

For me the most memorable moment of the night is in the clip below when McCain referred to Obama as “That One” in a rather dismissive, perhaps even disrespectful tone, with regards to an energy bill that Obama voted for and McCain voted against.

I’m glad for Obama that McCain wasn’t actually carrying a stick.

As VP candidate Sarah Palin discussed Barack Obama’s alleged ties to William Ayers at a rally in Clearwater, Florida (surprise) today, one of her fervent supporters shouted “Kill Him!” Palin failed to rebuke them and moved on with her allegations. It’s now abundantly clear the McCain campaign is happy to foment it’s base into an angry frenzy to get them to get out and vote against Obama and his “terrorist pals“.

And earlier today at another rally, McCain allowed one of his supporters to call Barack Obama a terrorist without so much as a blink.

I’m not asking the candidates to control their supporters, I know that’s pretty much impossible. But at least call them out when they make such outrageous and incendiary statements. But they can’t even bother to do that. Just imagine the outrage on the right if something like this had happened at an Obama rally.

This is what the race has boiled down to. And we all may suffer for it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, particularly in this case. Below is a word cloud of Palin’s answers in the Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden. Words that were said more frequently are larger, also, relative to others, also. Very interesting, don’t you think? Reminds me of the “blizzard of words” comment made by Charlie Gibson during the first Palin interviews.

Click on the image for a larger version. You can create your own word cloud at wordle.net.

After watching John McCain in the first presidential debate pander about how much he cared about veterans, I found his statements so disingenuous I decided to put together this video highlighting the hypocrisy of his words.

The references cited in the video are detailed below:

McCain voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650 million. (8/1/2001)

McCain voted against establishing a VA reserve fund to treat veterans. (3/10/2004)

McCain voted against increasing VA medical services funding. (3/14/2006)

McCain was one of 13 Republicans to vote against $430 million for VA outpatient care and facilities. (4/26/2006)

It’s my first campaign-style video, so please be kind. I’ve also got one on Sara Palin in the works I hope to post soon.