I am praying for divine intervention right now: I want the levee that Geraldo Rivera is standing on to collapse beneath his feet.

"It's very difficult to be sanguine about it"...

McCain will announce his cabinet picks at the convention.

Some have already been leaked:

Secretary of State: Melissa Smith - County Clerk - Derby, Connecticut

Secretary of Defense - John Henderson - City Councilor - Fishers, Indiana

Treasury Secretary - Leslie Milworth - Mayor - Milford, Pennsylvania

Director of Homeland Security - Fred Dungee - City Councilor - Jerome, Arizona

Attorney General - Mary Williams - Law School student - McCall, Idaho

And don't forget Secretary of Agriculture - Debbie Morgan - Gardener -- Hugo, Oregon.

Has anyone noticed that Sarah Palin and Ashley Banfield are never in the same location?

Dang, I know they'd come up with a way to keep GW and Cheney from speaking at their convention!

Also, I like Barack's response to the question about Palin today:

"I have heard some of the news on this and so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18. And how family deals with issues and teenage children that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that is off limits."

That's our candidate folks!

It is interesting to consider the strengths and weaknesses (from the RNC's perspective) of taking the Repube convention underground. A behind-closed-doors convention does diminish the RNC's opportunities to define the candidates on their own terms before a wider audience (though the corporate media pretty much lets them write the script for the nightly news anyway) and the RNC doesn't get the chance to use the free airtime for fundraising (which hasn't gone well anyway) and energizing their base (ditto). On the plus side, Shrub and Cheney have been given the reason they needed to not show up and embarrass everyone. (Fewer photo ops for the Obama campaign of Cheney, Bush and Mc Cain in a group hug.) The RNC won’t have to run that 30 sec. tape of Shrub’s accomplishments over the last 8 years and there will be fewer embarrassing interviews with delegates unhappy with either/both candidates. The candidates won’t have to have their policies and platform reviewed in public (since they are so out of step with the majority of American’s values). The Repube convention will be spared comparisons with the Dem convention and they’ll have a ready-made excuse for losing in November (if it hadn’t been for that darn Gustav ruining our convention we’d have won every state). All together a win-win situation. Pat Robertson was right, the Almighty is using the weather to punish the liberals and bless the right-wing extremists.

Changing the schedule - Responsible Choice of Palin - Bold Response from the left - Predictable fright/anger Results in Nov - McCain/Palin

Wow. The first two comments in this thread are, I believe, what some democrats and many in the media were hoping for, merely to spoil the Republican Convention. How sad this is that one would wish the possible death of many and the destruction of a great city just to mute the Republicans.

As for the Democrats scrutiny of the private family matters of Sarah Palin, perhaps the Democrats should refer back to the private travails of their hero Bill Clinton when their cries were that his private affairs were none of the media's business and had nothing to do with whether he was performing well as the President.

The media should also step back and consider the incredible double standard and sexist slant these attacks are taking. If Ms. Palin were male and the father of a pregnant teenager, he would likely be admired for his courage and dedication to serve the public while handling such an unfortunate private matter. His wife would also be viewed favorably as being a dedicated and loving mother. But because Sarah Palin is a woman and a mother, who also wants to hold an elected office, she is being held to another completely ridiculous standard.

I believe that there is a reason why McCain chose Sarah Palin and why she is so popular in Alaska. Once the public hears her and recognizes this, I expect that the backlash from the many irresponsible press and tabloid reports will be significant.