Some of you may remember my proposal for the Democratic primary to decided by dance contest.

I tend to avoid political cinema because it's usually unbalanced and heavy-handed, and the art inevitably suffers from the attempt to communicate an unambiguous message. But W. received some decent reviews, has been a box office success, and concerns a subject dear to my heart. I should have stuck to my principles. The best thing about the experience of watching it was the half-hour nap I slipped in between Dubya's decision to invade Iraq because of the alleged WMD's and his shocked realization that there were no WMD's in Iraq.

When you enter the Guggenheim from now until January 7th, the first thing you will notice is a blindingly gaudy marquee seemingly hung over the entrance by glowing blue chains. Frank Lloyd Wright was not available for comment at the time this article was written, but there were reports of muffled banging heard in the vicinity of his gravesite. The marquee was designed by artist Philippe Parreno. It's a fitting introduction to the Guggenheim's new exhibition, theanyspacewhatever, for three reasons:

Hey daggers. Today is dagblog's one month anniversary. We're off to a
great start. We've generated a lot of material in a short time (at the
expense of work and sleep). A few of our posts, including SarahPalinGrrrrl's Sarah Palin Tribute Page, have gone viral and generated a
lot of traffic. Discounting the big traffic spikes, we're now up to about
500 visitors a day, so thanks for reading us. If you like a post, you
can always help us to grow our readership by clicking any of the

In a surprise move, the McCain campaign has announced that it has fired the public face of the campaign, Senator John McCain. Campaign spokesperson, Nancy Pfotenhauer, announced the decision to dumbstruck reporters at a hastily arranged press conference on Thursday:

"As of this morning, Senator John McCain has been placed on indefinite administrative leave. John and the campaign leadership have agreed that he is not a good fit for the campaign right now. The parting was amicable, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors."

Obama is leaving the campaign trail for two days to go to Hawaii because his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, is gravely ill. To respect the family's privacy, they're not releasing any information, but the implication is that she's near death. Ms. Dunham helped to raise Obama, and they were very close. With his mother having passed away, this must be very difficult for him, especially at this time. I hope that she recovers and lives to see her grandson become President.

The economy and Bush's unpopularity would have made it tough for McCain to win the election no matter what, but as I predicted last February in one of my first political blogposts, Overestimating McCain, John McCain has played a weak hand poorly. I base my argument on the radical assumption that content matters. Whether delivered in rousing speeches, angry debates, or snide ads, if a candidate's message fails to resonate with voters, he or she is unlikely to prevail.

North Korea is set to make an "important announcement" on Monday amid speculation over the health of its leader Kim Jong-Il, a Japanese newspaper has reported. The Sankei newspaper said there was speculation within Japan that the announcement could be about Kim's death or a change in government brought about by a coup. The 66-year-old Kim disappeared from public view in mid-August and failed appear on two important national holidays, leading to speculation that he was seriously ill.

From Mike Allen at Politico:

G: Hello readers. I have a very special guest today: Joe the Plumber, who has exploded from obscurity to celebrity faster than a photogenic moose-hunting governor. Joe, thanks for coming to my blog post.

J: My pleasure, Genghis. I've always dreamed of being interviewed by a blog with a readership of 10 or 11 people.

G: Think big, Joe. We're going for 17 today. I'm honored that you accepted the invitation. I'm sure that you're in high demand since you became the cause célèbre of the presidential debate.

At the top of the results, you'll see a paid ad for Obama:

Who Advises John McCain?
Over 177 Lobbyists Run His Campaign Watch Obama TV Ads and Donate Today
BarackObama.com

Those guys are smart.

John McCain's campaign may be facing an uphill battle, but he and his staff still have plenty of ideas according to notes from a campaign brainstorming session. The notes were leaked to major media outlets from a source close to John McCain who asked not to be identified for unidentified reasons:

When I'm bored or anxious, I like to play with the interactive electoral college map over at RealClearPolitics.com. They set it up for you based on the latest aggregate polling data, but you can change the configuration at will. Obama has been ahead all along, but you had to turn several gray "toss-up" states to light blue "leaning Obama" in order to give him the win.

This post is not about a break-up or a political conversion. It is literally about how I lost my religion, more or less, and became an atheist. I thought about posting it yesterday but decided to spare the believers who care about me from witnessing me commit sacrilege on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when we are supposed to beg for God's forgiveness in case he left us off the Book of Life this year. I don't think there is any evidence that atheists suffer from higher death rates than believers, so whatever the drawbacks to atheism, premature death does not appear to be one of them.

In these dark days of negative politics and collapsing markets, I just want to call out a feel-good art project to warm our chilly hearts. A few of us associated with DagBlog organized a nationwide Obama fundraiser over the summer with fundraising parties in multiple cities across the country and around the world. I worked on the NYC event which took place at a loft in Brooklyn.

The Republican presidential hopeful John McCain let his frustration with the US economy boil over today. When asked in an interview about the challenges his campaign faces, McCain responded, "Look, it's no secret that the economy favors my opponent." Asked to elaborate, he replied, "This country is in crisis. Now is not the time to point fingers. But everybody knows that the economy caused this crisis, and I think everybody knows why it's doing it."

I spent the debate blogging as a 16-year-old, and I have to disagree with the assessment of a Biden win. The experience was, to be honest, very weird. Writing as SarahPalinGrrrrl in previous posts did not require me to get into her head. She and I maintained a respectful distance from one another. But during the live blogging, there was no time for that. I had to be SarahPalinGrrrrl. OMG. As a result, I listened to the debate the way a 16-year-old might have, or at least how I imagine that a 16-year-old might have.

Politico: John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

We just launched, and we're still working out kinks in the blog. The RSS feed on the main page was down, but it's back, baby. So get your DagBlog posts hot off the blog at http://dagblog.com/rss.

John McCain on the state of the economy

1/10 McCain: I don't believe we're headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.

Huzzah, the fundamentals are strong!