Anger. Everyone has it. The important question is how you cope with it. If you don't control it, it controls you; it morphs into rage and violence.

Attacking John McCain on policy differences, as powerful as those might otherwise be, is not going to get it done. They are ineffective attacks this year. The reason is that the voters are factoring in the strong likelyhood that the Democrats will be in control of Congress and will put constraints on a President McCain. [More after the jump]

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DOOD. Whr R U?

wtf?

what u mean, wtf? we r takng off!

wtf?

oil rig. chopper. etc.

FAHK! that was 2day?

nvrmnd. Im going. u owe me.

tx.

This morning, I woke up thinking about why the Obama campaign has not had the same message discipline that McCain's campaign has driven.  I agree with others who believe there is no overriding message that is easily captured in few words.  

The closest they have is the Same Old Politics, and the Low Road Express.  The first was used against Dole and consultants dragged in back out, and the second is corny.  They both are also problems because reporters will be unlikely to frame narratives and interviews around them in the same way they have created entire segments on celebrity, and Obama's patriotism.

Obama must immediately create a message on par with Rove's infamous flip flop meme.  My suggestion for the new surrogate campaign message:

John McCain:  All Talk, No Action

Here is a comparison of what should be very similar moments: Senator McCain saying how a decision cost him more years in a prison camp at 10:04 of Part 2 of the  Saddleback forum where he just said,

But I wasn't in good physical shape. In fact, I was in rather bad physical shape. So I said no.

Note that there is not a grimace of pain, nor even a furrowed brow, and not a sign of stress in his voice for what he describes as the "toughest decision I ever made". Contrast this with the image of Nikali Schartz, who was in a Nazi war camp, who found out that he was almost sent to the Dora camp, an almost certain death sentence at 6:33 on CBS Holocaust I . The voice of Nikali Schartz drops. His brow furrows. You can tell the pain, even after all this time!

Well I can't say I'm shocked.

http://ap.google.com/...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican official tells The Associated Press that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman will be speaking at the Republican National Convention.

The GOP official said Wednesday that Lieberman would deliver a speech as Republicans gathered in St. Paul to nominate John McCain for president. The official requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to make an announcement.

Looks like Holy Joe will get to live his dream of being the next Zell Miller.

So what kind of nasty things do you think he'll say about Obama?

(Edited to remove "breaking" from headline so that zombies won't come and eat me.)

There’s a new editorial in Wall street Journal by Peter Ferrara that portrays Barack Obama’s tax cut plan as "welfare for the poor".

Ferrara who happens to be a conservetivewho worke in the Reagan's White House argues that Barack Obama's tax credit to 90% of the Americans is actually like giving welfare to the poor!

Here's the link:

http://online.wsj.com/...

With a round of new polling out last night and this morning, I could sense a concern day coming on.  And, typically, that means that there will be the equally pithy responses that boil down to "sleep it off" "let me know when it's over" "stop whining".  But concern days are not necessarily a bad thing.  Ridiculous concerns ("He's too black" "He's not black enough!") can be quickly dismissed out of hand.  Voter based concerns, these are issue concerns, are legitimate and have to be considered in how we think about why they have become a concern and what best addresses those issues.

I'm not too incredibly worried about this latest poll, as it's the first poll that I've seen where McCain is ahead after Obama has clinched the nomination.  That being said, it does show that we can't take this election for granted, either.  The winning conditions are there for the Democrats to take the White House, but we need a better reason to get voters to vote for Obama other than running against Bush's third term.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/...

Obama's support among Democrats fell 9 percentage points this month to 74 percent, while McCain has the backing of 81 percent of Republicans. Support for Obama, an Illinois senator, fell 12 percentage points among liberals, with 10 percent of liberals still undecided compared to 9 percent of conservatives.

OBAMA NEEDS TO WORK ON BASE

"Conservatives were supposed to be the bigger problem for McCain," Zogby said. "Obama still has work to do on his base. At this point McCain seems to be doing a better job with his."

There is a new moveon.org ad that hits McCain for not voting to decide if $13.5 billion tax breaks for big oil should go towards alternatives for oil, money that could have gone towards wind and solar. There needed to be 60 votes and they only got 59. John McCain chose not to vote.

As a result, instead of powering millions of homes with clean energy and building next-generation solar technology, ExxonMobil and other companies are getting billions in tax breaks at a time when they're already making record profits.

BENEATH THE SPIN    • ERIC L. WATTREE

The Crabs Are On The Move

Well, they’re at it again, y’all.  A small minority of Black people are hard at work doing everything they can to undermine the Black community.  This time it’s in the guise of trying to drag down Barack Obama by promoting Cynthia McKinney’s dead-on-arrival candidacy with the Green Party.

I removed it, most of you infants can now get back to sleep with your pacifiers.

I thought I would get a mature response with some criticism, but you guys, sheesh...you give the word "intolerant" a new meaning, is there a special uniform you wear or something?

It looks like the McCain supporters will say anything to get a vote:

Singer-songwriter Roseanne Cash says she's "appalled" by others invoking the name of her father, music legend Johnny Cash, to "further their own agendas."

Writing on her Web site, Roseanne Cash, a Grammy winner with 11 No. 1 country music singles since 1979, took exception to unnamed people appropriating the memory of her father, who died five years ago. While not singling out anyone in the post, the message came only days after country music superstar John Rich said Johnny Cash would have supported likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain, The Nashville Tennessean said.

John Rich obviously never heard this Cash song...

More below the fold...

Reuters is reporting that McCain now has a five point lead over Obama.  Like all polls, this one is just a data point, and people should not get too high or low over any one poll.

In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

McCain leads Obama among likely U.S. voters by 46 percent to 41 percent, wiping out Obama's solid 7-point advantage in July and taking his first lead in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll.

Poll shows McCain in 5-point lead over Obama

More, after the fold.

Carly Fiorina, known best for reassuring ex-Clinton backers that John McCain voted for Ginsburg/Souter/et cetra's confirmation even while McCain says he'd never appoint them, while also hinting that McCain won't give a preference to viagra over contraceptives when it comes to medical coverage(actually, he does!), has met privately with the brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania.  I am not kidding you.   Hillary Clinton's own brother is planning to vote Republican after supporting her in the primaries.

Wasn't Clinton suppose to reach out to these people?  Per the Times Tribune of Scranton, Pennsylvania;

One more round on the Church thing--but perhaps from another angle.  Pardon me if this thought has been posted before, but I haven't seen it.

As far as the Saddleback thing goes, couldn't Obama have pulled a Stephen Colbert/Press Club thing that night?

By that I mean, while McCain was speaking to the audience in front of him and ignoring the fact that the nation was watching, Obama was speaking to all of us.

From www.courant.com

Lieberman A Possible Running Mate For McCain

   The NRA gave him an F. He is endorsed by advocates of abortion rights and gay rights. And, oh, yeah, he was Al Gore's running mate and remains a registered Democrat.

   With a deep laugh, even Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut has questioned if he would be a smart vice presidential pick for his friend, Republican John McCain.

   But the Associated Press and the Politico, a respected online news site, each reported Tuesday that Lieberman, a self-proclaimed "independent Democrat," remains among McCain's potential running mates.

   And those stories already are riling the right. A horrified Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that he considered the reports on Lieberman to be a serious trial balloon.

"It's not a head fake, apparently, it's a serious float," Limbaugh said. "McCain's trying to gauge, take the temperature of delegates to the convention and these high donors. This is tough because I like Joe Lieberman a lot. He's a fine guy."

UPDATE More Zogby data available now.  Obama loses 8 points among women?  More below the fold.

The new LA Times poll shows Obama leading McCain 45% to 43%.  This lead is down from the June LA Times poll that showed Obama leading McCain 49% to 37%.  The LA Times and the Republicans would have you believe that the race is tightening and that McCain's negative attacks on Obama are working.

What may be the real story here is that independents are breaking for Obama.  In June, independents favored McCain 44% to 36%.  In the new August poll, independents favor Obama 46% to 35%.

Now if you've been paying attention you are asking yourself, "If Obama went from -8 to +11 with independents, then how did the race get closer?"

The answer is distribution of party affiliation, my dear reader.

If you follow me below the fold, I will deconstruct the math, hit the Republicans over the head with their own numbers, show that the race hasn't tightened at all, and see how much McCain's slime has hurt McCain's favorables..