In an op-ed entitled A Suicidal Choice for Clinton Supporters, Colbert King of the Washington Post insinuates that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters in the broad PUMA coalition are nothing more than racists.

I get the part about feeling disappointed and bitter. I can even understand their impulse to sit this one out. After all, this was supposed to be Hillary Clinton’s time. What stumps me, however, is the possibility that some of her most ardent Democratic supporters, angered by her defeat, might vote for Republican Sen. John McCain.

That makes about as much sense as swallowing hemlock.

How can Democrats, drawn to Hillary Clinton by her powerful advocacy for children, inspired by her support for the rights guaranteed in Roe v. Wade, emboldened by her work as a champion for middle- and working-class men and women and her courage in the face of relentless right-wing attacks, even think of putting a John McBush in the White House?

But that is afoot, I hear, even after both former president Bill Clinton and the New York senator gave Barack Obama ringing endorsements at the Democratic National Convention.

I can appreciate the hurt many Clinton supporters felt. This was the year America would have elected its first female president. That Clinton came so close to winning the nomination makes her defeat all the more painful and difficult to accept.

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For someone who supposedly lacks experience, Sarah Palin sure shows a lot of initiative, some might call it leadership. Unlike Senator Obama, Governor Palin actually has legislative accomplishments to her name. In addition unlike Senators Obama and Biden, and for the matter Senator McCain, Governor Palin has actual budgetary experience. And while Governor Palin has but two years in the governorship, that’s two more years of executive experience than Senator Obama has.

But whatever her perceived shortcomings are, there is one area on which Sarah Palin shines, energy. And as I have said before, probably ad naseum, is that energy is the most important issue in this election because if we don’t address our energy crisis both near and long term, every other issue won’t matter. Energy makes our lifestyles possible and without it, it all pretty much goes away.

Sarah Palin is an energetic pick because she is energetic on energy. She is aware of the peak oil phenomenon even though she herself believes that we haven’t yet peaked oil. That’s fair. While many of us do believe we are at or near the peak, some do believe that new drilling technologies especially deep sea ones will tap new as yet unreachable reserves. And Sarah Palin is not all about drilling more oil, she is also for using more natural gas.

If the Democrats had hoped to paint Republican John McCain a pawn of Big Oil which is a stretch to begin with since McCain opposes subsidies for Big Oil while Senator Obama voted for the Bush Cheney Energy Policy (the Energy Act of 2005), their task has become a bit more complicated with the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. She is works with Big Oil, not for Big Oil. Her record is one of working for the people of Alaska and getting results. No wonder she has an 80% approval rating. Even those who don’t like her social views like Sarah Palin. Pragmatic, not dogmatic.

While an ardent advocate for more drilling — off Alaska, off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the off-limits Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — Palin also has shown she’s not shy about confronting the likes of Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips.

As the presidential campaign moves into high gear in the coming weeks, McCain and Obama will duel over two overriding energy issues: whether to expand offshore oil drilling into areas long off-limits and whether to impose new taxes on the biggest, wealthiest oil companies enjoying tens of billions of dollars in windfall profits. Obama doesn’t have a leg to stand on given his vote for the Bush Cheney Energy Policies. The McCain camp would do well unleash the energetic Sarah Palin and let her speak on energy issues. She just might sway more than just a few votes.

From the Wall Street Journal:

As the politics of energy engulf the presidential contest, Sen. John McCain has picked as his running mate a politician with firsthand experience of the industry and its tactics.

Since becoming Alaska’s governor in 2006, Sarah Palin has pushed oil companies to move faster with projects to expand oil and gas production. She is widely credited with reviving a long-stalled effort to build a natural-gas pipeline from Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay energy fields to the Lower 48 states.

In a state that is dependent for its operating revenue on taxes and energy royalties paid by oil companies, she has negotiated with the state’s big producers, Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC and ConocoPhillips.

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Inside Iraq looks at the political impact of the crackdown on the Awakening Councils and asks if Iraq could once again be thrown back to sectarian war and violence.

The Awakening Councils are part of the Iraqi Awakening, a political movement that also has a paramilitary component. It derives much of its strength from the Iraqi Sunni tribes. Though the Awakening movement is not a part of the Iraq government, it provides many of the functions of government in the absence of central government presence. The Awakening movement is led by Ahmed Abu Risha, the brother of slain tribal leader Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi. While the provincial heads have a great deal of autonomy within the Awakening movement, all of them seem to recognize Ahmed Abu Risha at least as a symbolic leader. Ahmed Abu Risha is known to be in contact with all the Awakening movement’s provincial leaders.

The Iraqi Awakening preceded the surge and looking back now marked the turning point in the war. The surge built on the Iraqi Awakening. While Iraq has faded as an issue in the US Presidential election as the violence there has subsided but Iraq yet has to realize a national accord to fully stablize the country. The sectarian divisions remain deep.

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The Obama campaign today released a new ad. It is their first ad released to the media and to bloggers in over a week. This ad was released after the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee and it includes a couple images of her but mostly the ad focuses on the theme of the Obama camapign, that McCain is more of the same by attempting to tie McCain to George W. Bush.

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When running for Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was asked the following question regarding her views on abortion: If Roe v. Wade were overturned and states could once again prohibit abortion, in your view, to what extent should abortion be prohibited in Alaska?

Under this hypothetical scenario, it would not be up to the governor to unilaterally ban anything. It would be up to the people of Alaska to discuss and decide how we would like our society to reflect our values.

Her own personal convictions aside, it doesn’t seem like she would impose them on everyone else.

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The history of the modern French Left can be traced to Paris Commune of 1871, though the failure of that uprising left the Left in France crushed and splintered. While several attempts were made to form a Socialist Workers’ Party, divisions within the ranks and oppression by the Conservative and Centrist governments of the early Third Republic prevented or perhaps delayed the formation of a nucleus of a French Socialist Party until 1902 when two Socialist Parties were formed. The history of the French left is largely a history of division even at its birth. But by 1905 under the leadership of Jean Jaurès a party called the Section française de l’Internationale ouvrière (SFIO) was formed. This party would later split into the French Communist Party and the French Socialist Party after the success of the Russian Revolution.

Unlike other Socialist or left of centre parties in Europe, the Socialists in France have mostly been on the outside looking in. The SFIO joined two short-lived coalition governments in the 1920s and 1930s before unifying under Leon Blum in 1936 to form the Popular Front, a government that lasted a year.

The modern Parti Socialiste Français (PS) was founded in 1969 after many close calls finally won the Presidency under François Mitterrand in 1981 and would win re-election in 1988 and governing until 1995. Apart from this 14 year period, the PS has largely been an opposition party though the French system is a hybrid one where one party can control the National Assemby and the other the Presidency and thus forced to adopt a power sharing formula.

In 2002 came the Shock where the PS candidate Lionel Jospin finished third in the first round President election behind the far-right National Front candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. In truth, the French Left remains as hopelessly divided as ever with a plethora of small often single issue parties. In last year’s election the PS once again fared poorly, though the PS did make into the second round, but it has come out of that defeat fractured and in search of leadership.

Now comes word that the French see the Socialist Party as hopelessly divided and on the verge of a meltdown, according to a poll released on Friday, just as the battle to lead France’s main opposition group heats up. From the Daily Telegraph:

With almost all the Socialist party’s big guns attending a summer university this weekend along with thousands of activists, almost two thirds of the French see the party as mortally riven by internal rivalries.

The Socialists “are perpetuating their own discredit”, according to the head of ViaVoice, which conducted the poll. The public no longer “understands” why the party cannot forget its “egocentric preoccupations” and “pay more attention to the French and (be) a stronger opposition to the (ruling) power”.

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Former Vice Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro gives her thoughts on the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as Senator McCain’s running mate in an interview with Fox News.

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Senator Obama as seen by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. He succeeds where others fail.

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