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In The Times Online, an interesting analysis of the state of American politics: It was a great victory - but not for the Left . The Guardian has a good three-part Obama biography: The Obama Story . Slide show: Road to the White House . Then there's Newsweek's blockbuster, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign .

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) (See the posts in chronological order ) November 5. The election was upon us, a scary time. The choice, between LBJ's vice president Hubert Humphrey, a likable former mayor, congressman and senator from Minnesota who had for years been a reliable liberal campaigner, and Nixon. In 1948 HHH had been one of the first who stood up to the southern Democrats and demanded a civil rights plank. He introduced the bill that created the Peace Corps. He had tried for the presidential nomination in 1960 and gave up his senate post and majority whip position to become LBJ's VP in '64. Despite all his good points, many Democrats and other voters, especially the young, deplored his complete loyalty to LBJ and support of Johnson's war effort and were upset he was the nominee instead of the dead Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy. A Tom Lehrer song " Whatever Became of Hubert? " went " I wonder how many people here tonight...

Here's a novel take on a political ad. Subtle but effective. It's the 'Wassup' gang from the Budweiser commercials, 8 years later . This one via KnoxViews.

A topic that needs more discussion, and here's a great one from Anil Dash on What Sarah Palin is Saying .

Via Achenblog , a fun graphic from Foreign Policy: If the world could vote ... Heresy to some who think we should ignore what the world thinks of us, but I'm on the side who believes it matters very, very much....

I hadn't heard of Google's 'In Quotes' until I saw it mentioned in the AskSam newsletter. What an intriguing idea, and hopefully useful. It's just quotes from John McCain and Barack Obama, but searchable or browsable by category. Some Biden and Palin quotes, too, I tried 'hockey mom' and and got it. Also from Ask Sam: a searchable version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ; the Presidential Debates transcripts ; and the Vice Presidential Debates transcripts . These available to search online, as usual, or download to use with the free AskSam reader. The Commission on Presidential Debates has lots of history, transcripts, quotes, etc. online, too. Good stuff for these final campaign days.

Interesting stuff (updated, see last entries): From Christopher Buckley (son of William F.) in The Beast : Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking? ...having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. Dear Pup ...

...about politics, anyway, an amazing effort by the staff of Esquire to put together a database of endorsements of every Congressional-and-up candidate in the country. Wow. This includes their endorsement of Barack Obama, Esquire Endorses Barack Obama for President We thought this election would be a serious fight over the future of this country, but only one candidate showed up. This is a thoughtful and very thought-provoking argument, particularly on the links between -- and political effect of -- Justice John Paul Stevens and Obama. Far as I can tell, the rest of the endorsements are not online. Worth buying a copy, I'd say. Among the lists, the 10 best -- and 10 worst -- politicians in the country.

Here's a well- researched compilation at Random Pixels of various published reports on the details of John McCain's service record. This is interesting. John McCain's service to his country...the stuff he doesn't talk about . Ar all the questions about who did or said what, or what we know about Obama/McCain tax plans, driving you crazy? Don't forget to see what other factcheckers have discovered is true or false, at Politfact (with it's Truth-o- meter), or Factcheck , or Fact-Checker . And don't forget good old Snopes .

Interesting stuff in this first part of Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin. Obviously, she needs a researcher: Couric : But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this? Palin : I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today. Couric : I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation. Palin : I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

From Digby , today: (Via Economists for Obama ) From South Florida Daily Blog , a few days ago: (Via Little Joe ) Or even this earlier version, comparing the two, via Digby :

Just a bit more on the last post. Just in case you missed it, we knew Tina Fey would be perfect as Palin but this is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnRUKIMegn8 . And one comment from Rick at South Florida Daily Blog : I'm frustrated that I'm unable to make Sarah Palin a Democrat for one week so that we could all sit back and watch the same hypocritical gasbags who have exalted her as the new Ronald Reagan tear her experience and background to shreds.

Amazing the amount of interest Sarah Palin's raising around the country. I heard talk of her everywhere this week, places I wouldn't have expected. Daily Source has compiled a comprehensive list of resources on Palin's background, at Special section: an in-depth look at the record and policies of McCain’s VP choice Sarah Palin . There's similar coverage at Mahalo: Sarah Palin . The Anchorage newspaper, of course, compiled all their news coverage of Palin on their website, at Gov. Sarah Palin: Background from Anchorage Daily News. A blog: Women against Sarah Palin . With links to more, like Impalin . (Thanks Deb.)

Deja vu. Amazing news about the arrest of Amy Goodman and two colleagues from FSTV and Democracy Now , as St. Paul and Minneapolis police seem to be overreacting to anti-war protesters and media coverage. Goodman 's gentle but determined coverage of the news has been growing on me over the last few months. The networks' websites have details; lots more links at Boing Boing . In 1968 it was the democratic convention that exploded. This year, Republican? Hmm. Is this just the beginning? ( Updated: ) Michael Froomkin has been following links to the protests and police reaction in the Twin Cities, too. In other political discussion, interesting reactions to the Palin appointment. Among them, PolitFact's Flip-o-Meter , which has added a new posting about Palin's so-called opposition to the 'bridge to nowhere'. PolitFact's ruling: a complete flip. Joel Achenbach, as usual, has some interesting thoughts about the Palin questions, in Achenblog: Vetting is for W...

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) The Whole World is Watching The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago on August 26. For months, anti-war groups had petitioned the city to get space to carry out demonstrations while the convention was ongoing. The Youth International Party (YIPees) had decided to hold their own national convention, a five-day "Festival of Life" the same week as the democrats, nominating a pig as their presidential candidate. Mayor Daley had responded by denying permits, calling out the national guard and barricading the convention sites. The city was crippled by taxi and bus strikes. The weather was hot and humid and air conditioning was erratic. The television networks and party insiders had encouraged the Democrats to move their convention to another city, maybe Miami Beach (which President Johnson had rejected, saying 'Miami Beach is not an American city'). Yippee flyers posted around Chicago in the weekend leading up ...

Over at the Nieman Watchdog, George Lardner wonders, in Spreading Lies, Rather Than Debunking Them , about a recent Washington Post story that he calls a 'front page ad' for a couple of new books about Barack Obama. ...why did the Post put a so-called news story about the book (and incidentally, for the sake of “fairness” no doubt, a pro-Obama book) on Page 1? And why did it fail to cite its lies instead of just saying that the main-stream media had pointed some out. ...The Post couldn’t bring itself to do what a newspaper should do and tell its readers what was true and what was false. It has been unable to do this in its presidential campaign coverage for many years, but most often in the last two decades. Interesting reaction from Lardner, who wrote for the Post for many years. But what if the paper made the story more even-handed? It would be accused of 'liberal bias'.

This is just too good to pass by. Question: How many presidents (or candidates) have gone by different surnames? From David Weigel at Reason Magazine: More fun with the stupidest people on the Internet .

( An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) On August 5, the Republican National Convention opened its sessions at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Norman Mailer on attending that event in Miami Beach in August: The vegetal memories of that excised jungle haunted Miami Beach in a steam-pot of miasmas. Ghosts of expunged flora, the never-born groaning in vegetative chancery beneath the asphalt came up with a tropical curse, an equatorial leaden wet sweat of air which rose from the earth itself, rose right up through the baked asphalt and into the heated air which entered the lungs like a hand slipping into a rubber glove....Of course it could have been the air conditioning: natural climate transmogrified by technological climate. They say that in Miami Beach the air conditioning is pushed to that icy point where women may wear fur coats over their diamonds in the tropics. (It's no wonder for years after 1968 I considered Miami a place I would never go.) Nixon entered th...

I love this column in HuffPost by Peggy Drexler: The High Cost of Low Information . With so much information out there, sometimes it's easier to stick with the sources we're comfortable with. How do we fight the lethargy? The From the Editors column in the latest AARP Bulletin ( You Be the Reporter ) encourages voters to get informed. Among the tips: 2. Differentiate among news, opinion and advertising. As Stony Brook professor Jim Klurfeld says, “Evaluate sources. Evaluate sources. Evaluate sources.” There’s a difference, for example, among the Congressional Budget Office, the Heritage Foundation, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities. 3. Be aggressive. Being a good news consumer today is hard work. On the Internet, rank and popularity of a story do not necessarily mean reliability. This is hard work, even for professional journalists. But our future depends on it.

That's what this MSNBC report calls librarians, specifically librarian (and former newspaper reporter) Carol Kreck, who was ticketed for holding a "McCain=Bush" sign outside a town hall meeting. ProgressNow has the video , plus an appeal for Kreck's defense fund. ( Updated: ) but wait! the wingers have found out that, yes, she is a former reporter! and may be connected to Progress Now! So obviously she's a bad person and deserves whatever she gets (one commenter here wondered why she wasn't tased). Arghhh. More bad press for the McCain campaign: MojoBlog's shocked reaction to McCain's calling Social Security a 'disgrace'. This is not the first time that McCain has hinted that he will follow in Bush's Social-Security-dismantling footsteps. More here and here (McCain's Ignorance about Social Security Is the Real "Disgrace") .