“Obama, McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, George Bush … THEY’RE ALL LIARS to one degree or another - IT’S WHAT POLITICIANS DO. Does that mean there’s no difference between them? Don’t think so.”

“There is a difference, for all the reasons I listed and many others as well.”

“These people are politicians. That’s what they are. That’s the show folks, don’t expect anything else.”

Etc. But enjoy venting if you want … this stuff isn’t hard to see if you have an open mind and are willing to look at all the facts. Some people will, some won’t. C’est la vie.

Interestingly, neither will many of Obama’s supporters: I joined the “Vote No on FISA” group at Obama.com, and since Friday it’s become the biggest group on his site, with 2000 members. Also, my inbox is now full of anti-FISA emails to Obama from his supporters. I’ll be posting a screenshot later today.

That said Obama WILL be better than McCain simply because he’s not a 2,000 year old psychotic with a chip on his shoulder and a penchant for tantrums.

About time everyone in the Democratic party woke up and realized they’ve been drinking Obama Koolaid

Let’s not confuse that with there being no difference, or little difference, between the candidates. There is a difference, for all the reasons I listed and many others as well.

These people are politicians. That’s what they are. That’s the show folks, don’t expect anything else. Which leads to things like Obama’s recent FISA cave in, or for that matter, Hillary’s dodging of the vote on the issue this past winter. Or McCain playing to his base by loudly throwing down the Terror card, and calling Obama soft. Etc., etc., etc.

None of which changes the fact that there are real, palpable differences in how they’ll govern, as we see from their voting records and backgrounds, etc.

Obama, McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, George Bush … they’re all liars to one degree or another - it’s what politicians do. Does that mean there’s no difference between them? Don’t think so.

Let’s see … McCain was one of the prime instigators of the Iraq invasion, a neocon’s neocon, touting that “We’ll be welcomed as liberators” when we invade. Obama … wasn’t. And in fact spoke out against the war at a time when it was rather unpopular to do so. “But … but … he tested the political winds before he spoke out!” Yeah, and so what? He went ahead and spoke out, while McCain was busy oiling up the War Machine.

Jesus Christ, how much more do you need? McCain talks of staying in Iraq for a hundred years, while Obama speaks of finding a way out, and actually … negotiating! … with foreign leaders. For which McCain derides him as being “soft on terror”.

Obama’s voting record is very very similar to Hillary’s, whom most of the “why not vote for McCain” crowd supported. While McCain’s voting record is quite different from both of them. Do the math, people.

These guys are politicians. That’s what they are. Why would we expect them not to be? Obama is “running to the center”, just as Hillary would have done. And just as McCain is doing, to some degree. It’s not pretty, and it’s not what I want. But one candidate is very clearly likely to be less damaging than the other.

Is this really hard for anyone to see? Come on already, get real. This is past tiresome. Vote for Obama, don’t vote for Obama … whatever. Let’s not pretend there’s no difference between the candidates - that’s partly how we got these eight years of Bush. Remember? How do we like him, NOW??? Does anyone now still believe, as was said at the time, that there was no real difference between Bush and Al Gore? Anyone?

Sheesh.

P.S. - McCain was a “moderate” in the past??? I’ll have some of whatever you’re smoking. And he says he’ll only serve one term? Why would anyone believe such nonsense? He’ll serve however long he can.

If I’m to believe that Obama is merely strategizing (lying) now to win the GE, there’s no reason not to think that McCain has been strategizing (lying) by tacking farther right, and once elected will return to his more moderate positions of the past, especially since he indicated that he’ll only serve a single term.

We don’t need political analysts, we need flippin’ psychics to read their minds.

I haven’t really seen it yet.

Now, I’ll give Obama some credit; he’s younger, healthier, probably smarter, better educated, and clearly not insane. But is that really enough?

And between the Roberts story and last week’s FISA debacle, I’m left in the same place as Avedon. He’s backing off his previous positions, and who’s to say that he won’t do the same, once inaugurated, with Iraq? Wouldn’t a Supreme Court nominee be a perfect opportunity to show his bipartisan credentials?