This is welcome

I had to work yesterday, plus my computer is being difficult, so I wasn't able to hop on the "John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns" bandwagon. So in case you missed it, John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns. In his defense, Republicans have a hard time counting once they run out of fingers.

And yes, this matters. John McCain has profited from wingnut welfare ever since he got back from Vietnam: made a media darling early on, he parlayed that into a marriage to a wealthy Republican family and from there to the Congress and Senate. At every step, the wealth of his wife's family has insulated him from any kind of reality in America: when you spend a quarter-million on household staff in 2007, I think it's fair to say you no longer notice when the Wonderbread goes up a dollar.

Meanwhile, the Obamas were struggling with money until 2004, when he became a US Senator and bestselling author. But one of these people is an arugula-eating Commie.

Anyway, glad to see the Obama campaign take the gloves off. Now let's just make sure the gloves are locked in a closet somewhere and don't come out until the gracious acceptance speech... in November.

BTW, I know I'm not alone in this, but it's worth putting in print: I'm really hoping -- not accepting, not resigned to, but hoping -- he picks Clinton as VP. If Evan Bayh and Joe Biden are seen as appropriate VP material, when both supported the Iraq War but give the Democratic ticket bupkis, I say put Clinton on and let's stomp this thing.