Back in 1995, I had both of my hips replaced and spent a month in a hospital and rehab center. Fortunately, my insurance covered the substantial cost. One day as I was pushing myself to learn how to go up and down steps on my new bionic joints, I overheard a couple of the rehab staffers chatting about the release of another patient. The doctor said something like, "We can send him home Friday."The other said, "But he's really not ready to be home on his own," the other person said.

As soon as word got out that Sen. Barack Obama would chose Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mate, a "news analysis" written by AP acting DC bureau chief Ron Fournier declared that the choice reflected Obama's insecurity about his own electability. Fournier's article echoed a point made in Sen. John McCain's attack ads: that Biden himself had said that Obama lacked experience, especially on foreign policy matters.

Over recent weeks, female supporters of John McCain (including myself) have been posting here at BlogHer about issues of concern to women across the country, including improving health care, helping small businesses, and reforming education.

I'm not an ardent McCain supporter, as if you haven't noticed. I'm still torn about whether I should hold my nose and vote for him against Obama, or whether I should vote my conscience and, unfortunately, "waste" one on Bob Barr. The thing with Bob is that, although we agree in principle, we have very divergent views on facial hair. I can't handle that mustache and am having a very difficult time justifying a ratifying vote.

Its not going to be Tom Ridge. If the word on the street is that the running mate is going to be pro-choice, the McCain camp is priming the pump for a much, much better choice...Joe Lieberman.

Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico quoted a Clinton Pollster- and that's all that was needed to set off a tempest in a teapot. “There was a message that we thought would be conveyed by Martha’s Vineyard that may not be positive,” said Douglas Schoen, a pollster for Clinton's reelection campaign. Schoen thinks Obama’s Hawaiian vacation may convey a similar message to voters.

Over recent weeks, women working to elect John McCain as our next president have been guest-posting here at BlogHer. Today, I wanted to join them in doing so, for the specific purpose of talking about education in America and what John McCain plans to do to improve it.

John McCain admits he is a not a techno-geek and barely knows how to use the Internet. Barak Obama is seen with fingers flying on his BlackBerry when he travels and has raised millions of dollars using the Internet. The technology gap between the two men has raised a considerable amount of discussion of late. How important is what the candidates say about technology? How important is the role of technology in the plans, platforms, proposals and agendas that the two campaign about?

I'm watching the candidates sweep through the midwest while I sit at a coffee shop in the midwest and look around. My cousin and I were just chatting about how she rarely sees her husband, who's working in another state. He had to go where where the work was, and it wasn't here in Michigan. He comes home a few times a month and his kids and wife go about life here in Metro-Detroit as though it's just normal for Dad to work out of town. My other cousin, a teacher and administrator, has nothing on her mind but budget cuts.

On Monday, John McCain visited Pennsylvania, where he attended a meeting with small-business owners to discuss jobs and the economy. While his remarks on energy earned plenty of press coverage, his comments on strengthening small businesses, and thereby promoting future economic growth, were less noted. As such, I wanted to use this post to highlight some key aspects of John McCain’s plan to help them.

I don't know how else to write this, so I'm just going to be blunt. It can be very depressing to hang out in metro-Detroit. I've been back "home" visiting family for 48 hours now, and the stories of lay-offs and foreclosure and moves out-of-state are overwhelming. In all honesty, downtown looks terrible. The suburbs are littered with for-sale signs. My family and friends continue to keep on, keeping on. At a family gathering on Sunday, the typical occurred. We ate and the kids ran around.

The week in race in politics was a wild one with John McCain accusing Barack Obama of using race as a wedge issue and Obama continuing to deal with insinuations that he is both too black and not black enough.