I hope some of you take some time to celebrate the holiday. The summer sure went by fast.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, with the caveat I stated below. Please read it before commenting.

Hillary Clinton's advisers tell the New York Times she will increase her campaigning for the Obama/Biden ticket. One reason: McCain's choice of Sarah Palin and Palin's co-opting of her campaign theme.

Mrs. Clinton’s friends said she was galled that Ms. Palin might try to capitalize on a movement that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, built among women in the primaries....Guy Cecil, the former political director of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said it was “insulting” for Republicans to compare Ms. Palin to Mrs. Clinton.

Hillary's advisers have no problem making the inexperience argument against Palin: [More...]

Howard Wolfson explains how Obama's speech in Denver made him a solid Obama supporter:

For 18 months, I listened to Obama on television, sometimes intently, often just barely -- background noise to a running series of conference calls and meetings and e-mails. In person, my attention undivided, I saw something of what so many others had seen for so long.

Progress in America is never cheap, and even today history exacts a price for Obama's victory -- the dreams of electing the first female president, the dreams of so many who rushed toward Hillary Clinton on rope lines across America and refused to give up her hand and their hopes. Today these dreams are giving way to another kind of progress.

For me, the presidential campaign began in a crowded Iowa hall, where I saw a man my age lift up a daughter around my daughter's age and tell her that one day she could be president. Last week things came nearly full circle, when I saw another man my age lift up another child and say the very same thing.

Nice piece by Howard.

By Big Tent Democrat

I always thought Roger Cohen was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and this column on NATO, Georgia and the Ukraine proves it. Interestingly, Cohen starts well:

In retrospect the NATO summit declaration of April 3 about Georgia and Ukraine seems almost criminal in its irresponsibility: “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” That lofty commitment emerged from a Bucharest meeting so split over the two countries’ aspirations to enter the Atlantic alliance that it could not even agree to offer the first step toward joining, the Membership Action Plan that prepares nations for NATO.

(Emphasis supplied.) Absolutely. So what does Cohen suggest NATO do?

at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in December, it should replace Bucharest blather with basics: a Membership Action Plan for Georgia and Ukraine.

Say what? To coin a phrase, that would be "criminal irresponsibility." Does Cohen think we do not have enough wars to fight right now? More . . .

Actually, in real life, he does, but I am really sick of the silly "Obama plays poker" arguments regarding politics. Obama is playing politics, not poker, and quite well. Here is an example:

A reader e-mailed me explaining the choice this way: Obama plays poker, McCain plays craps. Poker relies on a steady understanding of the probabilities and the willingness to bet when you have a good hand. Craps requires the willingness to bet and bet big, even though you know the house is against you.

In politics, no one is going to fold before election day. And in terms of issues, you won't know who won the hand until election day. It turns out, imo, that Obama was dealt a sweet political hand - George W. Bush, the worst President in history. And now he is playing the hand by the book (Biden as VP, hammering on Bush's Third Term, etc.) There is no poker involved. As for McCain, he has a lousy hand and is drawing new cards (the Palin pick), playing draw poker, not craps. (Oh no, now I am doing it.)

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

It made landfall this morning.

This is an Open Thread.

Michael Kinsley:

The whole "experience" debate is silly. Under our system of government, there is only one job that gives you both executive and foreign policy experience, and that's the one McCain and Obama are running for [BTD - That's what Bill Clinton was saying when he noted no one was really "Ready to be President."] Nevertheless, it's a hardy perennial: If your opponent is a governor, you accuse him of lacking foreign policy experience. If he or she is a member of Congress, you say this person has never run anything. And if, by chance, your opponent has done both, you say that he or she is a "professional politician." When Republicans aren't complaining about someone's lack of experience, they are calling for term limits.

[More . . .]

Today is Labor Day. If you aren't familiar with its origin and history, here's a primer.

The observance of Labor Day began over 100 years ago. Conceived by America's labor unions as a testament to their cause, the legislation sanctioning the holiday was shepherded through Congress amid labor unrest and signed by President Grover Cleveland as a reluctant election-year compromise.

On the first Labor Day parade: [More...]

The Washington Post writes that the McCain campaigned explained the detailed and thorough vetting process it used for Gov. Sarah McCain.

Nor, he said, was Palin selected without having gone through the full vetting process that was done for other finalists. That process included reviews of financial and other personal data, an FBI background check and considerable discussion among the handful of McCain advisers involved in the deliberations.

"Nobody was vetted less or more than anyone in the final stages, and John had access to all that information and made the decision," Davis said. "It's really not much more complicated than that."

More...

Want to know why James Dobson is so fired up about McCain/Palin when he refused to support McCain before her addition to the Republican ticket?

I've opined before it's to get the evangelical vote, but Harper's has done a little more research.

Since becoming governor in 2006, Palin has attended the Juneau Christian Center, where Mike Rose serves as senior pastor. Her previous pastor was David Pepper of the Church on the Rock in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla — a church that “was kind of a foundation for her.”

Here's a sample of their sermons: [More...]

John McCain today on Fox News called Sarah Palin his soul-mate.

Can you honestly say that Sarah Palin is the best person to put a heartbeat away from the presidency?

MCCAIN: Oh, yes. She’s a — she’s a partner and a soul-mate....

Enjoy. This is an open thread, all comment rules apply.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention are as divorced from reality as is John McCain. Like McCain, they think the nation's economic outlook is rosy. Nine out of ten Democratic delegates think the economy is in a recession, while nearly three out of four Republican delegates disagree with that assessment. The Republicans have proof:

"If we were in a recession, people would not be eating out — they would be in the grocery store and cooking at home," said Phyllis Gorman, 59, a business owner and delegate from Oklahoma, in an interview after the delegate poll was taken. "When I drive by McDonald’s, there are so many people in line there."

Right. Because if you can afford a Big Mac with fries, you must be doing well.