Morning Hors D'oeuvres

George will continues his disemboweling of McCain.

Per Ambers and others, it is no longer acceptable to ask questions of the McCain campaign.

Andrew and Ta-Nehisi think it will backfire.

Andrew on the slippery slope between presidential democracies and dictatorship. Also, on “deference” to Palin. In his words:

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Marc updates the Atlantic’s electoral map. The big takeaway is that – despite the noise around the republican convention – nothing much has moved to the right. He also thinks it would be really stupid for the Obama campaign to be spreading viral videos, a claim that Ben basically debunks.

Matt sympathizes with Tucker Bounds for having to explain the smoke and mirrors that is the McCain budget plan.

And seriously, if progressives and liberals don’t grow some balls now, when will they?

Totally unrelated, but Matt is totally right with respect to The Wire not winning any Emmys. Here is Jacob Weisberg from Slate:

“It’s like them never giving a Nobel Prize to Tolstoy,” said Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group and a correspondent for Slate.com. “It doesn’t make Tolstoy look bad, it makes the Nobel Prize look bad.”

HuffPost starts to push the “Keating Five” meme. Video from Countdown as well.

Matt Littman has a good debate formula for Obama. Democrats are right on the issues; make sure you expose McCain's supposed strengths - the surge, experience, bellicosity - his weaknesses.