What is it about this particular election that makes it impossible to talk about a candidate's views without trash-talking each other? I absolutely feel more comfortable with one set of candidates than another but I'm genuinely also curious about why people feel this candidate speaks for them and that one doesn't. Can't seem to get to that conversation, what with all the body slamming...

I one time in this thread gave a list of reasons why I'm drawn to Obama/Biden and not McCain/Palin. The response from one member of the post was positively rabid. I don't know why people feel the need to take things so personally. I'm sure even this post will invoke wrath.

I think it's good to keep engaged on some of these threads ... I simply realized some time ago that there are those here with whom it is useless to engage in any type of civil discussion.

It's not just pointless, it's counterproductive to the goals of educating those that seek out political threads for news or analysis that doesn't reach the mainstream media.

And there's plenty of things to talk about, such as this gem

In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg at New York's Le Cirque restaurant to unveil that magazine's redesign, David Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:

[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.

Brooks praised Palin's natural political talent, but said she is "absolutely not" ready to be president or vice president. He explained, "The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions."

Remember the old adage: Democrats want to fall in love with their candidate; Republicans just fall in line.

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No. I don't think that adage is true. I like to think of myself as an Independent, but I lean a good deal to the right.

I would love to fall in love with the candidates, but I have not. I can't fall in line either. I am feeling really bad and don't like any of the choices at this point. I do hope I can vote and feel okay about it in November.

I read that article, WM and am disgusted by those kinds of actions. McCain/Palin seem to keep fanning the flames. I honestly cannot vote for someone like that--heaven help us if that's how they would treat other leaders and other countries they have disagreements with!

And this is in a book and reported by PoliPoint Press, which has been using the liberal blogosphere to promote its just-shipped title exposing some of Sen. John McCain's less appealing traits that are chronicled in The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't.

Now, when I start putting in excerpts from the book out re: Obama, are we all going to believe them, too? Let's find out . . .I'll do some quoting this weekend.

Then stop the insults, Beth! It's hard to fight with a nice person who only has ones best interests at heart.