Given the personalities of the two candidates, clearly Barack Obama is most capable of both understanding and dealing appropriately with the complexity of the issues facing us and the world. John McCain, like George Bush, acts like the world is made up of a small group of leaders rather than billions of people whose fates are interconnected and as important as theirs. Obama both grasps and cares about the impacts of his actions, and is therefore more likely to exercise the awesome power of the presidency responsibly.

Why are Republicans suddenly so hungry for change? Is it because they see the error of their ways and really want to get rid of the collusion between Big Business and government that has expanded their power? Or is it because they realize that they will lose that power if they don't at least pretend to want to challenge the status quo?

The person you can trust is the one least likely to lie to you. By that standard, Obama beats McCain hands-down.

If there’s anything the last two presidential elections have taught us, a slim majority of Americans prefer a strutting fighter who they wouldn’t mind socializing with. Obama could meet this criteria if he just wasn’t so smart (Gore’s problem), ethnically different, and such a stark contrast to the last president they elected. Obama’s extreme popularity with his base and more rational observers overseas is as much due to this latter quality as it is to his personality: Someone might actually be able to clean up the Republicans’ mess! Unfortunately for his electoral chances, it also means that those who elected and reelected Bush might through Obama’s success have to face the enormity of their error; something notoriously hard for people to do.

They've got to be kidding us! In her interview with Charles Gibson (on 9/11/08). Palin clearly didn't know what she was talking about, and she didn't even have the honesty to admit it. The only thing worse than someone with Bush's erring certainty so close to the presidency is a demented warmonger being president; with McCain-Palin we get both.

For months McCain has been coasting on the difference in experience between him and Obama. If his choosing of an ignorant novice as a running mate took away part of the argument that his experience was an advantage, the Wall Street meltdown -- precipitated by his policy of unwise deregulation -- went a long way toward demolishing it.

The McCain campaign continues to insist that the public share its short and distorted memory of events. Obama was working on solving the housing crisis long before it even became a crisis. Early last week, Obama was spelling out a detailed plan while McCain was denying that there was a problem.

As for the "certainty" McCain claims credit for in this and other crises: He and Bush don't get credit for being right a few times, when the crises they responded to were triggered by being CERTAINLY WRONG the rest of the time.

Contrary to the Right Wing talking point that Barack Obama is indecisive (another instance of psychological projection), Obama is showing true leadership, shaping his response to current events based on solid understanding of a problem he's been working on for many months in the Senate.

If anyone is indecisive it's John McCain, who didn't even perceive that there was a crisis as late as last week; and then flopped around looking for someone to find a solution for him.