this might be the place

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America -- they have served the United States of America.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose. That's what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. You know, passions may fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. But this, too, is part of America's promise -- the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

• Dear flisters, I have a problem. You see, I'm going to a Barack Obama rally next Thursday (OMGJIWAPFMAWF), and I'm sort of doing the thing you do before a first date. I don't have anything to wear! Is this skirt too flirty? But jeans might be too casual! What do I say if he asks me to commit? So, here are my questions to you, the ever helpful and far-more-experienced-than-I: have you ever been to a candidate rally before? What does one actually do at these things? Do I need to bring glitter?
  
  
• An age ago, I wrote a small McShep ficlet called Shotgun for sheafrotherdon's hands festival. Only just now did I think to link it. Woops!
  
  
• Lately, some V. V. AWESOME people have been pulled into Stargate Atlantis. Here and here are some of recs I've put together. SO FAR. On that note, my del.icio.us account is here; as of right now there are only SGA stories, since all of my SPN favorites are in my LJ memories, but, yeah. It's getting there!
  
  
• Back to the Barack, though. Seriously. Should I make a t-shirt that says something embarrassing? "I'VE GOT A CRUSH" or "YOU CAN BE MY HEAD OF STATE", maybe. Or possibly "I ♥ B.O.", because I am a twelve year old. Would Barack dig it?
  
  
• Off to answer comments now, wheee! I heart you all.