As to the rest that precedes that last sentence, I wasn’t aware I was articulating anything that is more accurately described as “theological” than “cultural”, or that in that the end there are any meaningful distinctions between them, certainly when it comes to low information types, and I suspect mostly if not completely otherwise as well. As I’m sure is true of a number who post here, I’ve got a old box in the attic full of Bibles, as study prizes from Sunday School days – along with childhood games and broken and archaic toys.

My point is that I would have thought the monsters at the top of the GOP pyramid to have better understood the beast they’ve chosen to ride. Your point is that they do not. And if so, I would find that mildly heartening.

John McCain’s campaign said, on September 24:

Senator Obama phoned Senator McCain at 8:30 am this morning but did not reach him. The topic of Senator Obama’s call to Senator McCain was never discussed. Senator McCain was meeting with economic advisers and talking to leaders in Congress throughout the day prior to calling Senator Obama…

Now McCain’s staff says that he wasn’t meeting with his economic advisers but, instead, with a handful of political advisers:

Robert Draper on the dishonest, dishonorable, and incompetent John McCain:

John McCain – The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate: On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 24, John McCain convened a meeting in his suite at the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Among the handful of campaign officials in attendance were McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, and his other two top advisers: Rick Davis, the campaign manager; and Mark Salter, McCain’s longtime speechwriter.

http://www.businesssheet.com/2…..ut-bailout

brendanx @71, my problem with Draper’s coverage of the narrative involving McCain and (Russian) Georgia is that it’s depraved, though it’s quite possible that Draper doesn’t realize it. It’s depraved in the sense that Draper failed to mention that McCain ’strategist’ Scheunemann has a history of lobbying for Big Oil, which would be related to the Caspian oil pipeline that runs through Georgia, another of Scheunemann’s clients. Now, if Draper had linked those facts together in explaining the problems with that particular McCain ‘narrative’ (”Leader vs Celeb” IIRC), THEN it would have informed readers of the enormous ramifications of McCain’s false narrative. And it would have led them to grasp WO’s insights @40, and why:

the monied interests fled to McCain who, after all, was owned and operated by the lobbyist class.

But without that background on Scheunemann’s lobbying history, McC’s attempts to show himself as a ‘leader’ appear to be a bit stronger. If you put that Scheunemann background in, then you see why McCain is a tool of Big Oil and Big Military Industrial Complex lobbyists. (Yeah, the irony!)

WO @73: wow. Helpful.
Just a note that if the GOP actually cared about some of the Mormons (for instance, Mormon women living downwind of nuclear test sites, who have frighteningly high rates of breast cancer, or potato farmers in Wa, Ore, and Id who have to deal with pesticide issues), then maybe they wouldn’t so seriously undervalue the cultural norms. And with respect to evangelical concerns, it sure looks to me as if the GOP used the social issues to manipulate the economic interests of evangelicals; however, I defer to your more judgment on this topic. Shorter: If the GOP actually cared about these people, they would not undervalue the cultural norms; they’d try to understand them.

EW @62: Neither Romney nor McCain could/can tell a TRUE story about why they’re running. I completely agree. What fascinates me is pondering: ‘why? why can’t these guys tell a true story? Are they hiding something? Or have they not thought seriously enough to figure out an answer?”

Leen @66 – the polls are important, in the sense that if the GOP pulls out some of these elections people will not believe it. I’m still convinced that Rove, et al, were mainly using polls and the press in 2000, and 2004 to sew doubt. As long as people didn’t have clear expectations about the ‘winner’ or the electoral outcome, they could be bullied into buying the GOP ‘narrative’ and distracted by hanging chads. If the election results don’t match Obama’s huge leads, and Dem leads, people aren’t going to accept the vote tallies. I don’t think the media would buy it, either — at least, not those who’ve walked away from the tire swing. I don’t think the media would report it as a ’surprise upset’ this year; this year, the story would be, “We are looking into possible election fraud.” The smart ones are, IMHO, sick of being played for fools and realize that they won’t have jobs left if they keep passing along GOP sleaze. (If you don’t believe me, go click through the TIME Swampland topics; as Joe Klein has implemented his New Rules focus on issues, rather than passing along sleaze, the number of comments seems to have built steadily. Fascinating, no? Maybe ‘truth’ sells better than lies, after all. Who knew…?)

If Joe the plumber was not a setup, then McCain’s campaign is clearly flying seat of the pants. I am really proud of the American people for roundly rejecting the Joe the Plumber tactic as credible justification for McCain accusation of socialism and Obama’s tax plan as inequitable.

Digby cautions that the voter fraud accusations are the first round to delegitimatize an Obama presidency. You can see it in the right wing talk rhetoric already, IE Jay Severin and Michael Graham. Non policy-related stories that the press and the American people feed on now (Clothing Gate) are the kind of stories that will be used against Obama going forward to drive up his negatives and disempower him.

Political ads, flood the airways. Because NH is a swing state, boarders on MA and shares our television market, Obama is buying tons of ad time on Boston channels. The Senator race between Sununu and Shaheen involves a lot of ad buys too in the Boston/Southern NH TV market.