BUSH IS DARTH VADER

What's with the new Bush TV ads? Have you ever seen anything more disconnected, more ineffective, more creepy? What does he mean, "I can't imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September the 11th"? If he means, we all had a renewed awareness of the preciousness of life, of love, well I don't get it. The Sage and I have five kids, and we didn't wrestle with that question. We grabbed the closest and all at once, and added as the others showed up.

If he means a Sophie's Choice, as in which child would you save from death, ick. Who could think that posing such an unthinkable question would create anything but debilitizing fear in the intended audience.

Wow. What a leader. More and more, Bush seems like the Dark Side, and I don't mean it metaphorically. If he can persuade enough educated and wealthy people who think, like the German elite who thought they could "control Hitler," that he may be terrible and scary sometimes, but God help us, we can't elect Democrats just out of tradition and principle; if he can persuade enough just-barely-not-poor Southerners and residents of American's rural areas that they are more threatened by "Yankee elites" who want to make them the nation's spit-upon class while they elevate the n-word's above good-decent-God-fearing-people-like-me; if he can, through his proxies (I don't doubt that he would never countenance such moves; like a good mob boss, he will always just count on his loyal minions to "do what has to be done"), manipulate the electronic voting system in key states and/or precincts; then he will survive his own discreditable record as pResident and secure power for another four years.

God help us. And I know He will. The Repugs may have co-opted the religious right, but I'm religious left.