Obama has to take a break from the campaign.  He hasn't spent time with his family in weeks.  He and his wife decide to visit Rainbow Lake.

McCain has heard about this.  He thinks it's a great idea.  He and his family will also go to Rainbow Lake.

[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]

Via Suburban Guerrilla, the great political writer Matt Taibbi wrote on July 19th for Rolling Stone that our America era of "fantasy elections" is soon to inevitably end, for the howling pain from the abuse of our people just cannot be ignored forever.  One might be justifiably surprised that the will of the American people is being ignored after endless elections in the 2008 political season, but the American process almost earns the title of fantasy, and there is disturbing historical precedence that, in fact, it could go on for a very long time.

Those of you who read my posts know that I usually keep with factual information, or now and then a flight of fancy when Dr. Franklin finds me.

This is a different thing.  I am trying some fiction, and honestly want your honest feedback.  Most likely this is very poor, but I thought that I would try.

There's something that John McCain said in his chromakey speech (and please, someone put some sports bloopers behind him on the green-screen, because no sports out-takes can be as painful as that speech). It was this bit:

It's the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people.

Wisdom, decency and common sense, huh?

More, below the fold...

Obama is getting in the "McCain-Bush" hits, one after another, on meaty issues... Katrina, war, economy, FISA, etc. McCain is starting to heat up, and pushes back with "Now everybody knows I'm independent."

Then Barack comes in with "John, I'm sorry. I understand you haven't always gotten along with Bush personally. But ideologically, you're reading from the same page. On issue after issue, you stand behind the key failures of the Bush administration. And as you've pursued your party's nomination, you've even created an impression of flip-flopping or pandering on these issues. So your personal differences with Bush might be important in your mind, but these are the facts."

And McCain just flips out.

What's your fantasy?

I know this will disappoint some of you, but John Edwards isn't going to be Attorney General.  It's tempting to think of him in this position, since he's well-respected and was once a practicing lawyer, but it really isn't a good match.  John Edwards' number one interest is lifting the unluckiest of us out of poverty.  That's what he asked Obama for in exchange for the endorsement:  A poverty tour.   The next AG isn't going to get to do very much about poverty, because she or he will be too busy cleaning out the Augean stable that Bush has made of the Justice Department.  The next AG is going to have to be universally trusted, a brilliant manager, and a scholar of law.  Think Edward Levi.

So please, stop putting putting forward Edwards for Attorney General.  It's not a good match.

In fact, stop making up fantasy cabinets all together.  

Yes. A grand tour of Iraq. Of the fifty American-built forts including the obscene 100 acre 'embassy", with a gaggle of cam-heads in tow.

Not a political diary. And keeping it brief overall and adding some links. But just wanted to inform the Kossack Sci fiction and Fantasy community of of Roberts Death.  I enjoyed his books and he made difference in my world.

I had just read a great-catch diary this morning by NWTerriD where she nailed John McCain on a rather large misinterpretation of the Constitution during a speech at Wake Forest and his campaigns attempts to cover it up.

Less than an hour later while watching MSNBC, I found myself in a laughably similar situation.

After Obama clinches the nomination, Hillary will endorse him. What do you think that endorsement will be like? I have been able to imagine three scenarios for how it might happen, and I'll describe them here. I'm also sure that there are many other possibilities, some serious and some snarky, that others can add to mine. By mid-June, Hillary will have been voted for by millions of Americans, most of them Democrats, and while it is not to be presumed that all of them will follow her lead in switching allegiance to Obama, it is certain that what she says and how she says it will have a certain influence, perhaps a significant one. These three scenarios assume that either (a) She will come out swinging for Obama, using all the tactics we now think of as dirty and underhanded, (b) she will realize that the Rovian strategy did not work and will switch to echoing the themes in Obama's stump speech, or(c) She will sulk about losing in the primaries and will offer Obama only luke-warm support.

So, the RNC is up in arms over the 100 years war ad? McCain spokespeople are  apoplectic over Jane Hamsher bringing it up?

Well, he sure has been saying it a lot, and not just at town meetings.

But it is legitimate to tie it to him for 2 reasons:

One, it's a fantasy to think we can stay there without casualties

Two, it effectively illustrates his pervasive flip flopping. He was agin it, 'afore he was fer it.

I

I awoke from a very bad Dream just now.  I am not ſure if it was from too much Drink, or too much Conſideration at this Moment.  I do not think that it was from too much Drink, becauſe I have limited my intake of Brandy and Whiſkey to only one Pint in Total for a Day.

At Time from to Time, I feel like I have been taken away from the Bounds of this Earth and have traveled to many other Places.  I realiſe that it is only Imagination, but it does in many Ways feel very Real.  I can imagine a Companion, about whom I can only recall the Name of The Doctor.

Over the weekend, Obama talked about splashing with his kids in a Virgin Island swimming pool. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was defending her "mis-speaking" about past experiences with Chelsea under sniper fire in Tulzla, Bosnia. In fact, the Bosnia trip took place after Tuzla was perfectly safe. The trip was specifically designed to show off the successes of the Clinton Administration's peace-making efforts there.

There is a fine encomium about Barack's mother, Ann Durham, in the New York Times:

A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama’s Path

Strangely, the article gives rise to favorable comparisons to Hillary Clinton. Is it possible that Obama's mother, Ann, was like Hillary in some ways? If not so much Hillary herself, could it be that Ann Dunham had a background similar to a lot of Hillary supporters?

One wonders why Obama's first priority was to write a book about his Dad, the one who abandoned him. Why was it "Dreams From My Father" (hereinafter, "DFMF") instead of "Dreams From My Mother?" It looks like his mother was the greater contributor to his successes.

His mother's life work was in Java. Yet, Obama didn't write a book honoring his mother's work in Java. As a teen, Obama didn't want to go to Indonesia with his mother. He never went there after his early childhood. He didn't want to go there after his mother died to see what her life had been about. Instead, he he went on a pilgrimage to Kenya to learn about his "origins."

As many of you know(or used to before the Publishing for Kossacks series went on hiatus), I'm a writer and editor, but I'm also a regular program participant and sometime organizer at Lunacon, the New York regional science fiction convention, run by a nonprofit group called the Lunarians. The convention features about 600 hours of literary, media, science, art, gaming, music, and other programming over this coming weekend (March 14-16). It also has a world class art show, 24-hour gaming and anime rooms, and a hopping bar where you can meet about 200 writers, artists, and editors who you didn't catch up with during the day.

And because there's so much overlap between genre fans, genre professionals, and Kossacks, for the second straight year there will be a DKos meet and greet on the actual program schedule.

we'd be about mid-way through it.

The protagonist has been given heroic qualities.  He parlayed his reputation for busting big-time white collar criminals into the governorship of a large state.  From that powerful position, he continues to be a thorn in the side of the Wall St. crooks and liars.  Yet for all his smarts, he somehow overlooks that the prey he's stalking has friends in very high places.  Then because he can't help himself, he consorts with a high priced hooker.  Leaving behind the evidence of the arrangement of the assignation.  The  prostitution ring is busted by the Feds and Mr. Hero gets scooped as client #1.  But no John Doe invisibiilty cloak for our hero.  He's outed immediately in the media.

(tiny diary)

Our candidates, no matter how we might feel about them, are both far too intelligent to be wasting their time and ours by participating in conversations under village idiot control.

There are many questions both candidates still need to be confronted with on stage, by actual thinking humans, concerning Iraq, healthcare, civil rights, torture, lobbyists, and the economy.  And these questions need to be framed within the context of reality, unlike everything we've seen thus far in this campaign.