Cindy McCain started off a speech yesterday by telling the audience, “I’m proud to be a part of my country.” She got an awful lot of applause, considering she was speaking to the Republicans everyone tells us Obama will attract.

And Hillary Clinton WAS muzzled when her husband ran for office. Either you weren’t paying attention, or you’re too young to remember. It was painful to watch.

There’s a big difference between a spouse’s role as campaign surrogate and being treated as a ventriloquist dummy. That’s just insulting.

so,

when was the last time you all were proud of america?

The question is when was the last time you were REALLY PROUD of your country.

That’s what she said. Really proud.

I’m 38 and I haven’t been really proud of my country since the days following 9/11.

But we all know how that caring feeling for each other went.

To be truthful we need to apologize to the world for Bush’s actions and then transfer his ass straight to The Hague Court so he can face charges for being a war criminal.

That would make me really really proud of my country.

when was the last time you all were proud of america?

I mean really happy with something the country or countrymen achieved?

I’ll start:

when burt rutan and crew won the ansari x prize, I was very happy and felt positive about america. In fact, I recall this was pretty much the only thing I was really happy about in 2004.

Other than that, I think I felt pretty good when Floyd Landis won the Tour, til that all went wrong, and I felt equally happy with Armstrong until it became apparent he was a doper as well…

Don’t we all pretty much agree that the US is in real trouble after 8 years of the clowns in the Bush junta?

So, is what Michelle Obama said really so wrong?

I also find it rather amusing that the same people arguing that you cannot ever relate Hillary to her husband cause that is sexist are now implying that Obama better put a muzzle on his wife.

have tried three times in six years to get democratic women challenging incumbents in districts where defense is a major issue to get their heads and arms around not-soft-on-defense policy and message.

its difficult and it isn’t made easier by having the not-sure-women-and-dems-get-it hill to overcome in the demographic that decides general election races.

haven’t won a god damn race democratic woman in a defense spending district yet.

don’t care what huffponies think or drink. don’t read huffpo.

Can our Democratic campaigns please, please, PLEASE stop feeding the Rove machine. You know, the one which turned Max Cleland and John Kerry into Osama-loving traitors.

some of the above commentators (and probably some of the huffpo people) are talking about what should happen: spouses/kids/close family members of politicians should be left alone.

i think we all agree with that. and yet, can’t we also agree that family members being left alone will never actually happen in the real world? isn’t that all susie is saying here? how is that even controversial?

And the right wing is only a small part of the problem. “It’s the media, stupid!” Do you really think anyone cared about John Edwards’ haircut until the media told people they should? Until there were the Jay Leno and Jon Stewart jokes? You don’t want to give your opponents (and yes, I count the media in that group) one thing to hang around your neck.

It’s silly to think you can change this dynamic by pretending it’s not there. Yes, let’s work to change it. But in the meantime, we have an election year.

It’s not impossible to do, by the way. Elizabeth Edwards was certainly no pushover, yet she managed to keep out of trouble.

remember: mustn’t criticize the precious.