Unca Darrell

AUGUST 31 / Bounce watch

Still waiting for that Obama-Biden bounce

THE OBAMA-Biden ticket leads McCain-Palin by 3.3 points on Real Clear Politics at midafternoon today, 47.5%-to-44.2%. This is:

• down 0.6% from the lead of yesterday;
• up 2.6% from the lead of one week ago;
• up 2.9% from the lead of July 31; and
• down 2.7% from the lead of June 30.

AUGUST 30 / Bounce watch

Still no sign

AS I WRITE, two days after the Democratic convention, Senator Obama is 3.9 points ahead of Senator McCain (47.7-to 43.8) on Real Clear Politics, the same as yesterday. Mr. Obama's margin is 2.6 points better than a week ago and up 1.4 points from a month ago. The margin is down 2.9 points from two months ago.

AUGUST 29 / Bounce Watch

POLLS are lagging indicators, so there's still time. But as of today at 2:00 p.m., it looks like Senator Obama's basketball needs a lot more air.

AUGUST 29 / Collection of phonograph records for sale

OKAY, it's unlikely that Unca Darrell's thousands hundreds tens of readers include anyone who (a) still owns a phonograph and (b) needs a new copy of "K.C. and the Sunshine Band" to replace the one that wore out. But if you do . . . .

Surprisingly (to me at least), there's still a market for 12-inch vinyl. Most old records are worthless, but some are sought by collectors who obsess like oenologists over vintages, labels, and minor gradations of quality.

AUGUST 28 / One month later, he's still toast

On July 28, I said Senator Obama was toast.

ONE MONTH later, nothing has happened to change that judgment. Much has happened to confirm it.

AUGUST 28 / Now some perspective

Being a historic figure is not enough

EVERY WORD of my post congratulating Senator Obama for his nomination is true and sincere. His victory is important, historic, praiseworthy, highly symbolic. But I still plan to vote against him and recommend that you do too.

AUGUST 28 / Congratulations to Senator Obama . . . and America

LET'S SALUTE Senator Obama's well-earned victory and thank him for demonstrating what is possible in America.

After more than 600,000 deaths in the war to free black men, women, and children from slavery, after decades of political progress against Jim Crow laws and moral progress against overt racism, after years of concern about how to achieve full equality of opportunity for minorities -- after all that, a young son of a black man and a white mother will soon accept the presidential nomination of one of the two major American political parties.

His success is a testament to his own courage, hard work, and political skill, and to a goodness and greatness of the nation he would lead, America. 

AUGUST 28 / Christian missionaries plant churches in present-day Turkey

As Paul and Barnabas preach and plant churches throughout the central part of present-day Turkey, they confront Greek mythology (Acts 14:1-28)

AFTER BEEN expelled from Psidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas, the first Christian missionaries, walked to nearby Iconium, then to Lystra and Derbe, preaching the gospel. In each city, they attract new believers and new adversaries.

AUGUST 27 / Ideological diversity, Obama-Biden style

THOUGH HIS LONG CAREER, Senator Biden places "among the center of Senate Democrats ideologically," says the authoritative National Journal. But when he ran for president last year, however, Mr. Biden tacked sharply to the left.

Biden's most liberal year in the ratings was 2007, when he . . . ran in the Democratic presidential primary. His composite liberal score . . . placed him as the 3rd most-liberal senator in 2007, two ticks behind Barack Obama, who was the most liberal senator last year . . . .

AUGUST 27 / Maybe the descend-on-a-cloud machine was broken

REUTERS says the stage for Senator Obama's Thursday night acceptance speech resembles a "miniature Greek temple." Photo here. If Mr. Obama is really going Greek, maybe he plans to use this theme song.