But it's important for Palin to be stopped. Obama doesn't have to do it, the media will. But they have to have surrogates that are competent enough to be hardasses while still keeping their distance from Obama.

My suggestion would be Wasserman. I've never seen anyone quite as effective at the sort of incredulous Ann Coulter-ish tone she does. She doesn't have real ties to Obama, she can legitimately say she's doing it because she's tired of Hillary's name being thrown around.

He just doesn't care - its not personal.

Republicans are so enamoured with profitmaking that they don't see that US businesses as well as others should be encouraged to employ in the US, especially core competencies.

I do see McCain and the GOP as being so anti-union that they would rather see jobs go overseas than go to unionized workers. That desire is behind a lot of privatization of government jobs too. Its a continuation of the struggles of the past, they feel that they have won and that the middle class are pretenders to the aspirations of the rich, who don't deserve the wages they are making because they are not "owners". (i.e. Bush's ownership society, in which jobs are replaced by small businesses.. impossible because of the inherent inefficiency as long as the rush towards specialization continues.. thats what is driving all the mergers.. small businesses can't survive in their niches in such a cutthroat, "efficient" environment..

The only way out of this is to start praising the merits of SLACK.. seriously...

I think that in ten or twenty years it will be obvious that we are headed towards a society where most wealth will be inherited.. from investments. Productivity and employment are mutually antagonistic. The more productive a business is, the fewer workers it needs to do a given job. That is the goal of technology, to make business more profitable. The best way to do that is by replacing people with technology.

Thats why America is a world leader, its because we are very good at this. Thats why the economy can be "booming" and people are still losing jobs like crazy. The two are really not connected, if anything, its the opposite. Of course, business also needs people to buy its products, so something has to give, eventually.

Exporting is a good strategy, as far as domestic sales, luxury goods have been stronger in some ways, but now even they are struggling. If the economy implodes, selling luxury products will only take you so far.

If you are suggesting that John McCain, who had only one investment when he was a POW in the infamous real estate known as the Hanoi Hilton, only cares about real estate investments then you are unpatriotic and entirely accurate. Kudos, and appalled is an understatement.