BARACK TO THE FUTURE

Due to frantic preparations for the DNC, we'll be delivering an abbreviated WIR this time around. Of course we urge all interested members to keep an eye on the twin pillars of our coverage: the
relevant portion of the Propeller Blog and the
Propeller at the DNC Group page. In both of these locations, you will find video and blog posts throughout the next week. (And again, we encourage you to sign up for our dedicated
DNC Twitter feed, which will enable two-way communication between our team on the floor and the Propeller community. Please do participate--we want to hear from you.) Meanwhile: virtually all of the most popular posts from last week involved the two candidates. "
The Obama Muslim Myth" scored the highest in both categories, with 155 votes and 571 comments, along with racking up 38,259 page views. For
jovial, the persistent rumor of Obama's Islamic faith was "a hateful and malicious attack on the young senator from Illinois." Another member,
protoham, was willing to cynically exploit the Muslim myth, even though he had plenty of other epithets on hand: he called the candidate "a 100 percent left-wing, tax-raising, socialist nut." But
slate came up with an eminently sensible answer: "Both sides use slander to attempt to win, but is it the right thing to do? I'll vote for the man I feel is the best I have to vote for. Whichever one wins by the will of the people will be my president. I will most likely not be very pleased with either, and I promise to speak against the things the winner does wrong and give him credit for the things he does right." A related story, "
Barack Obama fails to shine alongside John McCain," expressed some doubts about the candidate's performance at Rick Warren's Saddleback Form, and rang up 84 votes and 474 comments. Addressing Obama's own characterization of his teenage toking as a "moral failure,"
memestryker said: "Bush used cocaine, Clinton smoked pot. Who cares what they did as kids? Personally, I wouldn't want a president who had been a teetotaler his/her entire life."
Dottie654 seconded that emotion: "If every one of us who experimented with drugs in the 60s and 70s was put in jail, there would have been no room for the real criminals. Do you honestly think Bill and Hillary didn't pass the joint around?" Added
Georgia50: "I think Obama acquitted himself well under the circumstances. He was honest and candid, and that's going to matter to a number of Christians." Other relevant stories included "
Barack Obama chooses Kathleen Sebelius for Vice President," with 114 votes and 421 comments, and the strictly factual "
Is Obama The Antichrist?" Racking up 65 votes and 332 comments, the latter story generated some fairly blunt responses. "No, he isn't," said
david_nwpa. Another member,
HMMace, gave the idea a little more credibility: "Obama is the Antichrist, and his birth certificate is forged." Replied
sabretooth: "Judge not lest ye be judged.... See ya in hell, my friend." But
uc2it, with a theology degree under his belt, had an even more vehement response: "First of all, I don't believe in the Antichrist.... After going through a century with Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and maybe a dozen other despicable players, I find it disingenuous to even have an asinine article like this." (On a lighter note,
chuck-the-canuck chimed in with: "I have it on good authority that he is actually the tooth fairy." I'll check under my pillow come Election Day.)
BIG MAC

On the other side of the aisle, John McCain was also the focus of numerous top stories. "
McCain: 'Today We're All Georgians'" earned 67 votes and 290 comments.
DropkickaLib thought the story was a cause for celebration: "Whooooa! A Propeller top story that doesn't contain some form of Bush- or Republican-bashing in the title!" (Replied
UnusualSuspect: "No one's stopping Republicans or conservatives from posting articles. It appears the people who come to Propeller tend to be more moderate to left-of-center, that's all.")
Glee also thought highly of McCain's comments about the rumble in the North Caucasus: "And the libs are still thinking dialog will solve every problem. Take a good look at Georgia and let's run over there and chat with Putin."
Natureboy begged to differ with the Republican candidate's declaration of solidarity: "Georgia initiated this conflict by a military assault on Russian peacekeepers and by bombing the capital of South Ossetia. They bought the ticket and now they're taking the ride." Replied
Coatl: "The real victims here are both Ossetian and Georgian civilians who have been killed by both armies." There was also "
McCain protests NBC coverage," with 67 votes and 270 comments.
BB64 argued that the whole "cone of silence" dispute was a smokescreen whipped up by Obama's faltering campaign: "This whole rumor was started by Obama operatives when their guy didn't do well. They needed spin to attack McCain with a story. They feel their guy needs to hit a home run every time." Not so, insisted
silvera: "Just because McCain is an ex-POW and professes to be a Christian does not mean that he can't be a lying, deceitful weasel." (But come on, say what you
really think.) As for
joeeddie, he declared McCain the winner, but hardly rated the victory a TKO: "Obama did just OK and McCain did better than OK, not great. I give Obama credit for accepting the invitation. It took a lot of what Jesse Jackson wanted to remove from Obama for him to enter that forum." There was also "
McCain's 'Cross in the Dirt' story stolen from Solzhenitsyn," with 105 votes and 173 comments. For
bigurn, the charges of plagiarism leveled at the candidate were obvious poppycock: "What are the odds that two people in the same century drew a cross in the ground? Gosh, hundreds of millions of Christians. Millions of interactions with other cultures." And
flyonthewallz also came to McCain's defense: "I have no doubt that the man's faith and stubbornness were part of the structure that allowed him to survive his ordeal. Even if the 'cross in the sand' is only a parable, I am not going to knock it."
AND DON'T OVERLOOK....
Despite the abundance of political hand-to-hand, there were some lighter moments as well during the last week. "
Russia Evil After All," rang up 109 votes and 81 comments. Said
BronxBomber: "Hey, leave the commies alone! I happen to like borscht and caviar with my beer!"
Happy31 also expressed some reservations about beating up on the Russkies: "An embargo on strippers and fur hats would be a bad thing." And in a week with more aggravated tears than laughter, there was also "
Johnson & Johnson Introduces 'Nothing But Tears' Shampoo To Toughen Up Newborns." The
Onion article rang up 85 votes and 49 comments, including this riff from
Charlson: "Mail in five lids from the shampoos and you can get a porcupine quill teething toy in the color of your choice: bloody red, hold-your-breath blue and not-my-child pink." But then the conversation took a detour, to Propeller's anti-LOL spam robot. "LOL is not spam," said
dandt1612, having just gotten a comment removed. "It's all in how you LOL," explained
ind06. "Did you LOL in a derisive way, or in a happy hearty way, as I am LOLing now?" But apparently the prudish robot has been up to some other tricks. "The other day I blew kisses to
bluetexasvalley in the threads," said
BronxBomber, "and they deleted it! " We'll do anything to preserve our PG-13 rating, folks.