I don't have the words composed for this yet and don't think I will for a while.  I was born after John died and while Bobby was still alive.  Tonight I watched the last great moment of the brothers that defined the modern era, the men that made the biggest difference in my young parents' world and, though I did not know it, my own childhood.

The GOP has been deploying Psychological Operations against the Democrats all year, and it works.  

The trick is to play on tendencies that are near the surface and enhance them, just like you cannot hypnotize someone and get them to kill their best friend but you can get them to do something they would almost have considered doing anyway.  I'm not even going to use the Democratic Primaries as an example of how this works - because that is the prime purpose of the GOP PsyOps, to get us having these conversations - but rather the GOP primaries:

Mormons Dismissed by McCain and the GOP

I'm not the first to get all gushy over celebrities and their statements, but sometimes they get it right.

will.i.am hit the nail on the head with this one:

And now another one strikes a chord with me.

We all have an American Dream.

The fix is in, the die has been cast, the Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate has been chosen.

Many have wondered, many have guessed, many have spoken with authority.  But all were wrong.

Robert M. (Mike) Duncan, RNC Chairman, would like you just to calm down.  

Hello, Leftist Utopian Radical Optimist Pigs,

Rush Limbaugh and I would like you to stop being so unrealistic.  Stop trying to save the world, recognize that it is just a wild dream that you Leftist Utopian idiots believe in because you are not mature enough to understand that the End Is Near.  I mean, didn't you read Revelations?  Forget the rest of the world, we're all doomed anyway, and hunker down at home and pray.

Besides, the UN goal of 0.7% of GDP is too much to give.  Forget that starving populations breed terrorism, forget that when other nations prosper they become good customers of American goods and services, forget the loss of Florida, Los Angeles and New York City to rising sea levels.  We've come far enough in the last 50 years and need to stop.  

Now.  Before it's not too late.

Crossposted at DKOS and MyBO

We are in the fourth year of an unprecedented change in political registration.  Never before has there been as sustained a pattern of decrease in one party's registration and increase in the other's.

Jennifer Steinhauer today in the New York Times discusses this significant trend.

Well, now we know.

At Barack Obama's Economic Security Townhall yesterday, the Senator held up Friday's St. Petersburg Times.  The front page tells the story:

Crossposted at DailyKOS and MyBO

With no power beyond his use of words, the person who will next month become the Democratic nominee for the office of President has caused more action at home and abroad than those who hold the reigns of power in their hands.

Frank Rich makes this point in his article "How Obama Became Acting President":

IT almost seems like a gag worthy of "Borat": A smooth-talking rookie senator with an exotic name passes himself off as the incumbent American president to credulous foreigners. But to dismiss Barack Obama's magical mystery tour through old Europe and two war zones as a media-made fairy tale would be to underestimate the ingenious politics of the moment. History was on the march well before Mr. Obama boarded his plane, and his trip was perfectly timed to reap the whirlwind.

He never would have been treated as a president-in-waiting by heads of state or network talking heads if all he offered were charisma, slick rhetoric and stunning visuals. What drew them instead was the raw power Mr. Obama has amassed: the power to start shaping events and the power to move markets, including TV ratings. (Even "Access Hollywood" mustered a 20 percent audience jump by hosting the Obama family.) Power begets more power, absolutely.