I don't think it is a chauvinistic at all. Partners, spouses, take care of each other and defend each other. FTR, what does your wife do when someone badmouths you in her presence? I bet it ain't pretty.

The GOP is dropping. They've lost a good portion of the Christian base. They've lost most moderate conservatives. All they have left are the bigoted, the sexist, the racist, and the intellectual lightweights known as the "good ole boys." And the only ammuntion they have in their arsenal is old fashioned character slander. They can't compete on intellectual matters, they can't compete on social matters, hell they can't even compete on moral matters.

The era of the smooth-talking, self-serving, boys'-club politician is over. It is time for the tough, intellectual, people-serving politician.

And it's about damn time.

agreed. great assessment.

This is the textbook definition of a troll.

d'oh!

Good for Obama. Though I doubt it will be as important as FTR would like to think.

Did McCain really say those things to his wife? I mean really? Wow, I'd only say that kind of thing to Ann Coulter or Countess Bathory or some other irredeemably evil bitch...and even then I think I'd probably say it in the nicest way possible.

Gee, some chicks sure know how to pick 'em.

Agreed. I hope it is, but I've seen a lot of amazingly eloquent speeches Obama has made while surfing the net, and I really had to look for them. Whenever you turn on the TV, all you get is the Reverend Wright bullshit or his "god and guns" thing instead of speeches like this.
Only in this county can you get attacked for being intelligent and actually tackling the REAL issues.

Believe it or not, as much as I huff and puff around here, I'm generally a very peaceful guy. I can count the fights I've been in in my life on one hand and still have enough fingers left over to go bowling. Someone messes with my wife or kids, the transformation the Hulk goes through will look like caterpillar to butterfly in comparison. I believe if you DON'T have this reaction, weather you are male or female, there is something wrong in your relationship. Now, I don't mean to say every time someone looks at your wife you should beat the shit out of them, but there are definitely situations where the risk of a battery charge may be called for.

I also wouldn't have called myself one of the Obama groupies. I just thought he was OK, least worst. After seeing that, I'm sold. That's the most truthful, straight from the gut talk I have EVER in my entire life heard come out of the mouth of a politician.

Right on! And I don't think there's anything chauvinistic about a man defending a woman he cares about, just as there is nothing emasculating about a woman defending a man she cares about.

I will respectfully argue that Obama ducks real issues as well as any politician who aspires to be President. If the argument is desired, anyway, I will see it through. No doubt, though, the guy has more class and style by far than anyone else on the trail. I got burned voting for a rock star in '92, so this time I am more skeptical.

Echoing bean's sentiment, I hear livertarian's type of comments all the time (or an amalgamation of don't know what he stands for, what his record is, can't trust him etc.). Just once I wished these uninformed and misinformed media slaves would stop waiting to be spoon fed, get off their couch and actually do some research on Obama instead of simply parroting what they hear from some conservative luddite. For goodness sakes, this man could very likely be the next president and people are simply willing to be told what to think of him instead of actually looking into him for themselves (for better or worse!!!) I highly suggest people research all candidates before deciding to vote for instead of just settling for who you're told to vote against, otherwise why the hell are you recklessly voting?!?

Seriously, the Republicans have no where to go but low at this point. They're down in the muck and the best they can do is to try to pull everything down with them? I think their negativity and fear-mongering machine finally jumped it's rails and is going to hold them back in November.

Well, to begin a debate on this, we'd have to agree on what the "real issues" are. I would propose a few for starters.

Social Security. Obama said in his speech in Portland yesterday that higher-income people need to shoulder more of the burden. This resonates with voters - nobody really likes rich people, so of course they should pay more. This kind of statement I find highly typical of politics, and completely lacking practicality; SS is conceptually flawed from the ground up, and I don't believe anyone who's as educated and savvy as Obama can honestly see a way around it. Even if rich people were to be denied SS, plus taxed highly to support the lower brackets, the system will still go broke eventually. More importantly, Obama never mentions Medicare/Medicaid in his speeches, because it turns out these entitlements dwarf SS in cost. SS/Medicare/Medicaid is straight-up guaranteed to bankrupt the government. The accountants at the GAO can fill in details, but it's a $50 trillion problem as of today.

Drug War. Obama says nothing substantial that I can find. The implication is that he wants to stay the course by keeping drugs illegal and funding the War effort. I believe drug criminalization is by far the number one issue impacting African Americans as a group. Prison stats and crime stats might back me up on this.

Military policy. Withdrawal from Iraq is the only thing Obama has pledged so far that I can get behind. But he fails to discuss our military policy with any depth or candor. Would he back another UN resolution to essentially rebuild more nations deemed rebuild-able? How successful are these effort, considering the cost in lives and dollars, and what kind of results do we expect? Iraq was a disaster - most Americans agree - and yet the UN is not taken to task for resolving to make this happen.

It would be wonderful if there were more candidates out there discussing what the role of government truly ought to be. Protecting our rights would be my answer. Transformation of society is assumed to be the role, however, with little debate. Obama's speech on balancing religion with politics is an eloquent one, but sidesteps this very important issue to me and most true conservatives.

I realize that Obama has little to gain by sticking his neck out. But I also have to assume that the Hope and Change thing is just talk. I am prepared to see the mess we call the federal government become worse under this guy, or the other. It's really just a matter of how fast you wanna slide.