John McCain is like the Ike Turner of the Republican Party. He smacks us around then he comes back with a fistful of compliments, a bouquet of promises, a "John loves you baby."

Twas' the night before Christmas and all through the White House, all the liberals gagged the imaginative press for Obama and spouse.Union bosses lined up outside with their palms raised,

By the time dusk fell on the evening of November 4th, the GOP party looked at their Reaganite ideal of a "shining city on a hill" now dust under their feet. History was made, in more ways than one.

Halleluljah! The 2008 election is almost over. It's been exciting, inspiring, historic and incredibly contentious. Soon we won't be hearing anymore about John "Mr. Grumpy Puss" McCain and Barack "Mr. Tax and Spend" Obama or Sarah "We're Mavericks" Palin or Joe "I"m From Scranton" Biden. But before we move on to the next act in this political drama, let's take a look back from a media standpoint. In a campaign year when many Americans got their news from the internet: YouTube, Facebook, campaign websites and hundreds of blogs on the internet that helped shape public opinion and motivate voters, it would be a mistake to forget the power the mainstream media (MSM) still holds over shaping a candidate's image. Here are some Election 2008 MSM highs and lows.

Grab some coffee or a big glass of wine or a liter of water. Because I have something to say and it's going to take a while. As a child, I was often told that I was "too sensitive." I remember feeling, when people said that, that I didn't know what they meant. It wasn't that I didn't know the meaning of the word itself, but I didn't understand how it was being applied to me.

The other day I happened upon a fantastic post that Lizzi at The Bitten Word published regarding Barack Obama’s tax plan, something that has been worrying conservative bloggers (like Ally) across the Web. Lizzi (like my husband and myself), is a small business owner.

The campaigns are in the final stretch and some people are paying a lot of attention to polls. BlogHer hasn't done any official polling, but since John McCain and Barack Obama have each given out their signature recipe, I thought a BlogHer Foodie Poll was in order to see which candidate's food BlogHer readers would rather eat. Both candidates have their strengths, but the question here is, can they cook?

When you say “socialism,” several things come to mind. The first are the most famous socialists of them all, Germany’s National Socialist party of yore, the goose-stepping Nazis who carved a deep wound into the fleshy world psyche. The second is Mussolini. I also think of the current Spanish government. Then I think of my cruel first grade teacher who once caught me with a bag of candy corn that I brought to school as a lunch snack (that I paid for with my own money). She made me distribute it evenly to every kid in my class “to be fair.”

Change is coming. In fact, if you look over the past 15 years it's already here: the Internet. What it is now, with blogs and social networks, software-as-a-service and 'net-enabled applications, bears scant resemblance to what it was like in 1995. Think about how much it has changed just since you got on the net. No question: the Internet is evolving faster and faster. Do we know what it will look like in 15 years? Ten years? A year from now? No. The Internet is changing too fast too fast. Why Net Neutrality is important

I interviewed two leading economists to find out. On Tuesday, when the “partial nationalization” of some of our country’s largest banks was announced, Henry Paulson’s most widely circulated quote was “Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans – me included…” But the alternative, no credit in the market, is “totally unacceptable,” according to Paulson.

You've seen the SNL election parodies and sketches: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin thanking elementary school students for helping her prepare for her debate with Joe Biden; Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden saying he'd take a bullet for his good friend John McCain...but McCain is "mentally unstable;" Even the real Joe Biden cracked up at that one.  Then there's the SNL town hall meeting debate where Chris Parnell as Tom Brokaw keeps hilariously cutting off the candidates to save time. 

At the post, "Sarah is the Fresh Air," on Blogher, I found this comment today: When can she be interviewed by reporters - I find it disturbing that the McCain campaign isn't allowing Ms. Palin to be interviewed by reporters. What are they hiding? According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, possibly never: