The Final Days

I loved this entire story! Every chapter and every word. It took me days to get through this but I must say, job well done. It was very respectful to both camps.

Thank you so much for letting us in on what happened behind the scenes.

I hate it when Newsweek lies. Gov. Palin did not refuse to go on stage with John Sununu because of his stance on abortion. He has a 100% voting record against abortion. Duh, Newsweek. What a hack rag.

"jstacey": Rock bands, beer, knackwurst, lottsa money... How many could John McCain or Bush, or whoever would have gotten so many people to even attend, waive flags, and not go beserk because yet another American told them something. I seen and been to beer festivals. This was not one of them.

Oh, and by the way, I don't buy that the MSM caused this election result.....I'm a skeptic.... And, so far, you haven't offered any more reliable or believable sources....

A 40 year republican

When I don't have a rough draft of my research paper on the feminist role Zora Neale Hurston played in the testosterone-laden Harlem Renessaince tomorrow, I will blame you, Newsweek. I just spent several hours pouring over your insider coverage. It is riveting! Hope you'll hire the English Lit grade one class shy of a degree. :D

Mwalimu is correct. Robert Jordan is the protagonist in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." That means either the reporter accidentally typed "A Farewell To Arms" instead of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or McCain was mistaken in his attribution. Since the article pulls the reference from Salter's book, which was presumably fact-checked, I'm led to believe this is merely an editorial typo on Newsweek's part. Still, it would be helpful if the magazine could post a clarification.

Great reporting, but seriously, halfway through I was laughing every time I read the word "bridled" again. Did your thesauri go missing?

I checked the internet, just to be sure, since I read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls when I was a high school junior about 46 years ago. I was right. Robert Jordan is the hero of "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
NOT "A Farewell to Arms", as this article states. Robert Jordan was fighting the Spanish Civil War along side leftists, socialists, Communists and anarchists, who among other things wanted to re-distribute Spain's glaringly inequitable wealth. Their enemy was Francisco Franco, a Fascist, who want the rich to keep their wealth. After World War II, we aided Franco's Fascist regime because it was anti-communist and because Spain let us have some air bases. In those days, human rights and democracy took a back seat to fighting Communism.
Is it asking too much to expect leaders to at least know something about the books on their reading list? Or am I merely being a left-coast elitist if I insist on some degree of intelligence from those who want to rule our country? In any rate, this little tidbit is another of many reasons that I am glad Obama won.

The truth of the matter is that one received preferential treatment at the expense of the other???s unfairly adversarial false accusations; in any event, under those circumstances there would have never been an opportunity to ???have evened the uneven cries of Americans.???

I am just glad that it is over. People who go through life misusing their level of power, advantages, and associations that they have to benefit their selfish needs and to hurt others, there will be a reckoning day for those people. Whether it be by fate, God, or whatever, they will surely reap a harvest of the same fields of evil wrongdoing that they have planted, it is an unfailing law, they can count on it.~

It's refreshing to see flaws in men both painted as untouchable by their own campaigns and dirty immoral bastards by the other. I only wish this sort of thing had been available before the election; it might have evened the uneven cries of Americans everywhere as they attempted to drown each other out with things that were not even that important. Obama is not perfect and McCain is not vile, nor is it the other way around. They are both dedicated men who gave it their all, and that's all that needs to be said.

A tell-tale sign of insecurity is a passive-aggressive demeaning remark that hides the real self. Let???s be clear about things shall we? I am not one who is in to corrupt behaviors. Such as stealing, lying, hacking, gossiping of one's personal business, revenge, and so on and so forth. I think that the reader can get the idea here. Having said that let me also say that a person with integrity cannot coexist with someone of little or no integrity. The say opposites attract, but in many cases, the same alike are drawn together for the obvious reasons mentioned above; people hell-bent on having corruptive behaviors do not mix well with someone of integrity; it is like trying to make oil and water mix.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
At the end of everything
Is the beginning of something new
You set the stage and opened the door
So in the future be careful what you ask for
A look inside didn???t make me afraid
It was the belief that corruptive behavior made you unscathed
He will come in integrity wearing all blue
I thank God that "he" is not you
It would take a miracle to make amends
So the time is here for the end
So this is goodbye to a once called friend

I confess to being unable to stop reading until the end, even knowing the ending. Although I've been an Obama supporter from the start and I would have voted for whomever the democrats nominated, back in 2000 I remember thinking that if I had to have a republican, I could live with McCain.

I still believe him to be a good man, if somewhat uneven, but frankly, with more character than either Bill Clinton, both Bushes, or Palin.

McCain has little to be ashamed of, much to be proud of, and I believe will work hard in the Senate to help us get out of so many of the messes we are in. In five years we will look back at this moment and note it as the start of his final chapter. It will be a chapter worth reading, and when it's done, we will owe him our gratitude.

As for Obama, the real work begins, for all Americans.

Writing is wonderful. Behind-the-scene conversations are enticing. Fact-checking appears shaky, which is a big no-no, especially when rumors are also included in the same piece. Actual news has all been reported before. Hopefully, Obama will run the country as well as he ran his campaign. Glad it's not McCain's unsteady hand about to guide our nation!