Okay, so before I get into my political thoughts of the evening, I have an achievement to report. Tonight, reached the rank of “General of the Army” in Battlefield Bad Company’s multiplayer mode, thus unlocking any remaining weapons and eliminating any need to play further. I haven’t felt this good about game since I finished the main quest in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now what will I do with my downtime?

On to the election. After the immediate buzz started to dissipate around McCain’s pick of first-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, it seems that the majority of the rational pundits are on the same page as me. Chiefly, uttering various polite versions of my continued reaction: WTF?

It seems McCain did not receive a bounce from the announcement, and that the vast majority of the Hillary supporters (but not the completely insane PUMA’s, who I am beginning to believe are actually a Republican front organization pretending to be enraged Hillary supporters) are not on board with Palin.

Thinking about it this evening while basking in the glow of my new online military rank, it occurred to me that a choice like Sarah Palin is exactly the kind of stunt “elected” dictators like Hugo Chavez and Vladamir Putin pull. It’s all about gunning up some kind of populist support based on the belief that average citizens are a bunch of rubes too stupid to see what’s going on.

Palin was picked because she was a woman — McCain desperately believes that any woman on the ticket will pull in the Hillary supporters. But she couldn’t be a pro-choice woman, which would have certainly scored him some PUMAs, because the party base would abandon him. Palin, you see, is a member of the Assembly of God, an evangelical sect I have a lot of experience with given that my best friend as a kid was a member. Now, I have no intention of throwing my old friend under the bus — I certainly respect his beliefs, and I attended church with him once or twice. But I’ve got to confess folks, they are not in the mainstream of American thought.

In the 1980’s these beliefs involved a church-wide ban on movie attendance. I think they’ve softened their stance lately, but when I was growing up, they were adamantly opposed to going to the movies because of “the people you meet there.” They believed in the imminent return of the anti-Christ, the Satanic messages buried inside of rock music (including records by bands like Poison and Great White), the corrupting demons that could infect you if you played Dungeons and Dragons, and that the devil is a real entity in the world trying to possess your soul. I was also told that the Smurfs were satanic as well (yet oddly enough, my friend and his sister were allowed to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse, which even before Paul Reubens’ conviction for public indecency and possession of child pornography I was pretty sure was created by a child molester).

If Sarah Palin is a member of the Assembly of God, then this is what she believes. And the members of the right that adore her know this — it’s why they adore her, because they are also believers. It’s what qualifies her to them.

But if you go with her record as a state governor and mayor, there’s not much that would recommend her to the position. In fact, I can only imagine what would happen if McCain dies and she is made President. George W. Bush played the evangelicals like a harp, but at the end of the day, he was just a dumb rich boy who figured out how to gain political power — he co-opted their language and culture for his own purposes. Sarah Palin is the real deal. I don’t want a president with thin foreign policy experience, little education in national affairs and extreme religious beliefs deciding who to nuke, who to invade, etc.

And a lot of other people feel the same way. If McCain had been smart, he would have picked a woman with experience. I may loathe Kay Bailey Hutchison, but I respect her. She’s smart on the issues, she knows her stuff as well as Biden. She’s just got bad ideas. She’s certainly qualified.

Then there’s the other issue the McCain people thought we’d ignore — the fact that she just gave birth to a five-month old son with a serious disability. How much time will she have to be there for him? Doesn’t she have a responsibility to her child? As a father, I would never take a job that would take so much of my life away from my children. I’m pretty sure a lot of other Americans feel the same way I do about this. The Republicans are the “family values” party, and this kind of thing from a Democrat would have drawn a firestorm from them about how she was abandoning her family. But since she’s a right-wing evangelical, leaving the care of her son to others is — you know — a sacrifice for the greater good.

Who cares, right? The PUMA’s will go for it! She’s a woman, a working mom! Score this one in the win column for the Old Maverick!

Perhaps McCain is winning the race in some alternative universe because of this pick. But I seriously doubt it.

Tina takes aim at McCain for asking a new mother to abandon her children to be Vice President.

But hey, her 17-year-old daughter has to learn to be a “mama” sometime, right? It’s “country first” with the McCain campaign, Tina. Remember, families are nothing more than props to help sell your “narrative” and “brand” to America.

And Sarah Palin’s brand is “devoted hockey mom,” “former Union member,” and “evangelical Christian.” Forget how all three of those things contradict who she really is.

Oh yeah, and despite the fact that both she and her husband have worked for the oil industry their entire lives, she’s a solider against the influence of big oil and special interests.

This woman has all the right family values to be Vice President. And her judgment shows that if melanoma ever takes down McCain, she’ll be right there to lead this country further off the cliff.

Even the conservatives think this is madness.

From Ramesh Ponnuru of the Corner/National Review:

(On the other hand, as Kate O’Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She’ll already be up with her baby.)

If the right-wing punditry is making jokes like this it can’t be good for McCain/Palin.

Wow, she sounds like a student government president.

Also, it seems like she’s setting the ticket up as a status quo shake-up. Even though, of course, they’re running to preserve the status quo. She’s not really saying anything that reveals the ticket’s conservative bent. She sounds like a Democrat, in fact, I think they’ve lifted just about everything from Obama’s speech (though somewhat inelegantly).

Will it work? Will the media come to her rescue when Biden wipes the floor with her in the debate?

Listening to Sarah Palin, I’m reminded of Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy.”  The focus of her speech is her family, her kids, her husbands, etc. and not politics.  And she sounds like a mom — she doesn’t sound like a politician.  Which could be good, I suppose, except I’m not sensing a lot of confidence from her.

“Wow,” I’m sure people are thinking.  “She’s just like me!”

But is she really qualified to be Vice President?  Jesus.

Did McCain just hand Obama the election?

Wow, it turns out Palin is under investigation for having fired her ex-brother-in-law as a result of a custody battle between him and his sister.

This is truly crazy.  I was depressed when I woke up this morning, but man did this news cheer me up.

Obama’s speech was moving, exhilarating and in many ways a relief. The theory that Obama has been playing rope-a-dope now appears to be correct. Let McCain attack, let the pundits lower their expectations and then … wham! Knock him back back into ropes where he belongs.

Politico’s Roger Simon said it best:

“Obama’s speech soared many times, but it always came back to earth. And it usually came back to earth on John McCain’s head.”

You can watch the whole thing here:

Bill Clinton, you are redeemed. The former President’s speech was nothing short of a phenomenal endorsement of Barack Obama and a repudiation of those trying to wedge apart the Democratic party in an attempt to win the election for McCain.

And Joe Biden, wow. I can think of no better vice presidential choice. He has gone from being a verbose Senator to fighter of unimaginable proportions. Go get them for us Joe, lead the charge.

It seems like the majority of media coverage for the Democratic National Convention has focused on the Clinton-Obama split and not the Obama message. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, including Hillary Clinton, I don’t expect a convention bounce for Obama.

Maybe he’ll turn things around, but even on the “new” MSNBC (sort of recasting itself as a center-left version of FOX), it’s Republican talking points 24-7.

Maybe we’ve just lost too many times, but my gut tells me that John McCain is going to win this one. I don’t want to type these words, but that’s what I think. I’d be thrilled if Obama won, but I’m so used to losing now, it’s hard to believe otherwise.

With the media endless pumping the “lack of experience” meme, there’s not much that can be done until that notion becomes truth the general voting public. When not spending their time beating up Obama for not going balls to the wall negative against McCain at the convention, they’re focused on a handful of PUMA’s who flew home following Hillary’s speech.

I honestly believe that McCain and his neocon advisers are going to pull us into further global conflict and really wreck the economy as a side effect of their adventures. Also, the military — currently strained by their engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan — is going to break if we add a conflict with Russian into the mix.

The sad thing is, we’ve already been down this road. In 2004, those of us who opposed George W. Bush’s re-election were dubbed irrational haters, when we were in fact right about the war and its effects on the economy. I don’t know if I can live through another four years of the same policies without losing my mind.

Barack Obama has to win. But for some reason, the country takes everything he says or does and interprets it the wrong way, bringing the poll numbers down. I guess all those people unhappy with Bush don’t really understand the policies they’re unhappy with. Do they really want to borrow billions from the Chinese to go to war with Russia, while cutting even more taxes for the rich? Can our country afford another four years of that? And what about health care? McCain wants to make it possible for people to use tax credits to buy health care from companies in other states. Gee, that sounds like a practical solution.

It’s only a matter of time before the standard of living in America is little better than in the developing world. There’s only so many jobs that can be shipped overseas before that happens. The Republicans are setting the country on fire and burning the house straight down to the dirt beneath its foundations. I can’t believe this is happening, that people are letting it continue, but what can I do? One vote counts only so much.

I can’t help feeling an enormous sense of pride in the the Obama’s, Joe Biden, the Kennedy’s — finally, at long last, the real Democrats are in charge. Comparably speaking, the Republicans are a bunch of hollow, flaccid, losers. The intelligence, compassion, warmth and leadership they showed is just stunning.

Michelle’s speech was remarkable, just fantastic. If we lose this election, it’s not for a lack of trying, lack of sincerity, or lack of idealism. We’ve got a great team, the best team possible.

It’s now up to the Americans to see the truth through the smears and lies.