“If ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’ were smack and some spliffs, what a wonderful Christmas me and my boys would have, hanging out with a few ho’s in one of the vacants near North Howard, getting our high on, and maybe some ass, too.” (West Baltimore)

OpenLeft’s Chris Bowers suggests that Barack Obama’s claims of post-partisanship don’t make any sense on the surface, but should be read as a coded appeal asking voters to move beyond identity in their voting patterns.  It is an argument with several flaws. First, Bowers launches his analysis from a Rasmussen poll finding that: Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters nationwide say that it is more important to understand a candidate’s specific policy

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain spent Friday clarifying his earlier suggestion that the Iraq War was motivated by US dependence on foreign oil: “And I just want to promise you this: My friends, I will have an energy policy, that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East,” McCain said. “That will prevent us from having ever to send our young