When it came to light that I would need to write about energy this week, the idea appealed to me about as much as going forward with the presidential debate tomorrow night seems to appeal to John McCain. But one thing I love about blogging, and BlogHer, is that I expose myself to and others expose me to notions and topics out of my comfort zone. 

A couple of days ago The Huffington Post did a video roundup of GOP VP pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The videos were of her comments on important issues relating to Alaska. Well anyone can do that. But tell me, have you seen clips of Governor Palin back when she was a sportscaster? Or watched as she hiked to her office from her house with a local Alaskan podcaster? Or heard what the Red State Update has to say about the moose hunting firebrand? That's where I come in.

Well, America, in case you've forgotten, there's a whole 'nother party out there vying for your attention, and while this Democratic National Convention might look very promising with its pastel backgrounds and its Edward Kennedy tributes that will eventually make everyone think he's already dead, John McCain is just waiting in the shadows for his turn. That's part of the reason that senior McCain adviser Carly Fiorina is holding court in Denver (the other part is that she, like so many of us, just like to sit back and watch the insanity from the bleacher seats).

I like Rebecca Traister's piece on the Party Unity My Ass loyalists in Salon very much but I love this woman. The setting:

In the aftermath of the “Celebrity” ads and the Rick Warren Saddleback Church show, one thing is clear: McCain got the memo. When asked if there is evil in the world, McCain unequivocally stated, “defeat it.” Bam!!

Late last month I looked at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain's education plan and found it lacking. Now it's time to examine the education plan of his presumptive opponent, Democratic Senator Barack Obama. As always, I encourage you to read the plan yourself; you can see an outline of Obama's plan and download the full versions of his K-12 education and college affordability plans.

In politics, money talks, but online fundraising has really helped close the money gap between men and women. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, women are the majority of low-dollar donors to Obama- in the $200-499 level. In this post, I present some ways to think about your political giving strategy.

Ah, how we love to slap down the superstar. Like the housing market, what went up too fast must incur a media drubbing, which is the case with Barack Obama and the media right now. Last week I wrote a piece on how difficult it is for women to be blatantly ambitious. We suffer from a social backlash that paints our expression of ambition as unseemly, or even worse, we can become “irrelevant bitches” (thank you, Ludacris).

There's been an almost continuous stream of information out of the McCain camp this week, and one can only assume that its a vain effort to distract from Barack Obama's tour of countries that like him better than America, but only until he becomes President. Today, Obama got a "pop star" reception as he delivered a "non-political" speech in Berlin.

"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."- Harry TrumanCalvin Coolidge went above and beyond the call, reportedly owned a pygmy hippo and a wallaby, but I'm ashamed to say that I don't know enough about his presidency to know if that says anything about his track record. (That may say enough, actually - with those kinds of animals on your mind, what time do you have left to run the country?)

The Chicago Tribune, yesterday morning, couldn't stop beating on Barack Obama. They've been disenfranchised. They've been disappointed. They, as a collective whole, are thinking very seriously about spending the afternoon at home on the couch watching soap operas and eating Ben & Jerry's with a giant spoon. Barack Obama voted to protect telecom immunity, and it hurts. It hurts really really badly.

I had to stop and think today, when confronted with this Rasmussen Report. Apparently, whatever Rassmusen defines as “libertarian” is more willing to vote for Obama than for John McCain.