What Are the Sunday Morning Gas-Bags Saying?

The Sunday morning gas-bags have had their say, and the consensus is in: comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (not to mention Charlton Heston playing Moses) has worked, Obama is mortally wounded, his poll numbers have come down, the country emphatically does NOT want a president who looks good, can think on his feet, can complete whole sentences that actually have subjects and verbs, can draw the admiration of foreign nations and former allies. We definitely wouldn't want a president like THAT!

Apparently, fleeting images of Paris and Britney (not to mention Charlton Heston) have inspired Americans to yearn instead for John McCain, because a confused old man who can't get his facts straight, who knows war and can keep us gainfully employed in one (or maybe several more) forever, who has an unpredictable and volcanic temper, who will continue the policies of George W. Bush because thinking up new directions would spell trouble with the hard-right of his own party ... is just exactly the kind of homunculus we need as president of the United States.

'Course, we in the South – a.k.a., the Republican base – know what the Paris/Britney (not to forget Heston) TV ads were really all about.

"Beware of Obama, 'cause he's an Uppity Negro."

Those ads were not about convincing anyone of McCain's better qualifications for president. Those ads were about convincing the Republican base that McCain is as willing to go as low as their hearts desire, which is pretty durn low. And, O my brethren, hasn't the Republican base (mainly in the South) displayed a little more confidence in its stride this week?

"Get that Uppity Negro!"

That is ... IF you believe the Gallup Poll.

Which we don't (and which, incidentally, George Will signaled this a.m. he didn't either). Gallup's track record? Just ask President Thomas E. Dewey (that's him pictured above). Is any current poll adequately calculating the impact of new voters, those without land-lines, those who haven't voted in presidential elections previously but who will vote this year? George Will said he doubted it and also said that there's a great possibility that Obama is much farther ahead in this race than any pollster has been able to measure or predict. Wonder what those unheard-from potential voters think of comparing Obama to Paris & Britney & Heston (who?).