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This isn't fun, but it's very important to understand when bad news happens. Poll aggregators now show Obama losing roughly a third of his polling lead. The Rasmussen Tracking Poll out minutes ago shows a 43-43 tie. Let's understand what happened.

Amy On The Issues

Amy Klobuchar takes so many of the great qualities about Obama and gives us a double-shot.

And if you think that sounds hot, listen to her talk science and environmental policy:

Obama has my vote. It's embarrassing that I have to preface my diary this way, because many have suggested that by criticizing Obama, I'm saying McCain is better.

Others wonder, why don't I "grow the hell up" or even "Shut the #@$% UP!!!"? Nobody's perfect, after all.

Of course that's true. But I don't have to trade in my independent, critical thinking to support a candidate. Why should I need to stifle my opinions, on a blog of all places, to be a good Democrat?

Here's why I bother criticizing our nominee for president:

Not everyone will read Dreams From my Father before they vote in November. But what if they could?

What if people who simply aren't inclined to buy the book, or who simply aren't readers, received the audiobook for free?

It's possible now, through BitTorrent, where anyone inclined to download it already can. But I'm interested in what people think about sharing the link to promote Obama's candidacy.

I could write a screed here, but it wouldn't be anything others haven't said already, and would not be a better use of a diary slot if I bothered. So I'll spare us both that waste of time and get on with the poll.

After a certain diary traded on hot lesbian subtext with great success a couple days ago, I promised to title my next diary "LESBIAN INFERNO! New Obama/McCain Poll" just for the attention. But then I realized there was a diary inside me that was more important and more deserving of shameless gay-baiting.

And I should point out that I am gay, so I am allowed to gay-bait. If you are straight, you are not, because we both know you're homophobic, else you would be letting the gays do it with you. Jena is forgiven, because, as she acknowledged, she is so tediously heterosexual that she wouldn't recognize a sexual double-entendre if it were shoved down her throat.

Serious thoughts on sexism and racism are below the arbitrary break in structure.

The most anti-science administration in history has reached its ultimate manifestation of idiocy. And it's got over 500 pages.

President Bush created a Council on Bioethics in 2001 to examine issues such as stem cells and cloning. Their recent report suggests Bush assembled the Taliban. 21st Century medicine is examined through the lens of Bible stories. Living longer is considered a bad thing because the Greek gods lived "shallow and frivolous lives." There is a "mortal danger" with the idea that "a person has a right over his body." And what's "worst of all?"

UPDATE: For clarity, as Ivey476 points out: McCain denounced comments two months ago that only became public this week. Why is McCain rejecting Hagee's endorsement now if he was happy to have it then?

As Hunter pointed out, McCain has rejected Hagee's endorsement after seeking it:

Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.

But on Bill Bennett's March 11 Radio Show, McCain said:

I repudiate any comments that are anti-semetic or anti-Catholic, racist, any other. And I condemn them and I condemn those words that Pastor Hagee apparently...that Pastor Hagee wrote. I will say that he said that his words were taken out of context, he defends his position.

John McCain was aware that John Hagee was anti-semitic two months ago. He only pushed him aside when everybody else became aware of it, too.

Audio after the jump.

America is having to confront the reality of racism's persistence. I think that's a healthy thing. Consider this AP report. A partial transcript is below.

TPM is all over this:

In a 60 Minutes interview that was recorded March 4 and which aired March 9, John McCain pledged that he would be "doing the medical records thing with the media sometime in the next month or two."

NYT:

Senator John McCain on Sunday sharply criticized one of Senator Barack Obama’s supporters, a former member of the Weather Underground, as an "unrepentant terrorist" and called on Mr. Obama to condemn remarks by the supporter expressing regret that his group did not conduct more bombings in the United States in the 1970s.

Obama doesn't just use his index/middle-finger combo to secretly attack people:

Here's rolling coverage of the live chart that 6-ABC in Pennsylvania is airing of undecided voters' ratings of the candidates during the debate.  For live video, paste this in Windows Media Player.

A lot of the numbers are just a reflection of how much uninterrupted time a candidate gets, as the chart tends to float upward gradually. Most of the 60s are shorter answers. Also, Clinton is doing a good job of pivoting from the controversial questions to crowd-pleasing issues, and gets high scores when she does.

The final "Who won?" question is Clinton: 50, Obama: 23. They asked Clinton's Ed Rendell who won, and he first said ABC sucked, then that Clinton was far and away the best.

We've all read these stories before. What makes this diary urgent is that we haven't all connected the dots.

It is imperative that everyone understand the immediacy of the threat that comes from a victory for McCain. Through a series of published statements, McCain has made his intentions clear: He doesn't need very long to start a war and pass it off to his veep.

Sen. Clinton is air-dropping attack ads on Wisconsin, but isn't showing up in Wisconsin to talk to the voters.

20 debates aren't enough for Clinton. There must be 21. Meanwhile, Clinton is absent from Wisconsin and its voters all week.

Obama has debated and will debate about his health care plan. Obama has debated and will debate about his record. Obama has debated and will debate about strengthening Social Security. Contrary to Clinton's negative attacks, Obama has answered Clinton's questions in 18 debates so far, and Clinton will be free to continue these attacks to Obama's face in two more debates to come.

Hillary Clinton is a strong woman. She is not one who breaks down when people give her a compliment, as she did today, or when people ask her, "How do you do it?" as she did in New Hampshire. That is, unless it's election eve.