Home again; a week later

Well, the conservative Alaska governor is just as dreadful, from a policy perspective, as I'd expected. My favorite snippet is that her first step as mayor was to talk to the town librarian about taking "offensive" books off the shelves. The librarian didn't; I think she was fired although I may have that last detail wrong. But I missed how much impact the media response to Palin would have, especially since her nasty smiling sound bites are perfect for cable news. I'm really terrified of losing this election; I think we may end up in the poor house without sensible economic policy.

I just heard both Obama and Palin on the Fanny/Freddy crisis. He was reflective and thoughtful and detailed about the causes; she gave a punchy sound bite about those organizations having gotten "too big and too expensive" and how the McCain/Palin administration would make them smaller. Not really a good diagnosis but it sounds good if you're not paying much attention.

So it's hard to look back on the Convention except that it is still, in memory, wonderful. I was really struck on the last day with all of the military presence--soldiers who told us they'd voted Republican their whole lives but now thought Barack had a much better sense of what a modern army needs than McCain. We also had a stage full of generals and admirals at one point although I haven't seen anything about them in the press.

I guess, if the sense of the campaign can change so fast in a week it can change fast again--especially if Palin is ever allowed to talk to the press and she stumbles.

A little garden news

Here are pictures of a success and a failure: the success is the huge helianthus clump--these were bought this time last year at an end of season sale; they were root bound and driend out and I wasn't sure they'd survive. Survive they did and now they are taking over; they'll need much dividing this fall. It's hard to get a good sense of scale from this picture; they are taller than Roger.

And the lovely green vine? It's a mix of morning glories and moon vines. I made the mistake, early on, of providing a little fertilizer when I thought the poor things were struggline. Fertilized, these vines don't bloom; we've had an odd blue flower or two just to show the flag but nothing more.

I hope to get back to more regular blogging. I also hope Theo may comment soon on politics--and on his upcoming Big Vacation.