Here’s an assessment of the presidential candidates’ logos. Politics aside, I think Obama’s logo is pretty brilliant.

Interesting tidbit: the typeface of McCain’s logo is the same as that used on the Vietnam Memorial.

Pam is dead-on about why Hillary Clinton has been tanking. Some choice quotes:

Our country’s issues with gender bias places everything Clinton does under a microscope…. However, I would argue that gender may play less of a role in this race because of the broad demographic voting patterns we are seeing here. I think the problem is that the woman is Hillary Clinton — it’s quite possible that a woman could have faired better in this race, just not this one.

The problem isn’t the policy positions, I think the main dismay among the Clintonistas is that the voters are responding to something Obama has — charisma and a message that connects — that she cannot match, and that they don’t know how to successfully counter that.

Unfortunately it’s pretty hard to wag your finger at the American public and tell them not to be fooled, or that they are stupid for thinking with their hearts, not their heads. That doesn’t garner more votes, in fact it can cause blowback.

Hillary is now trying to win the nomination by brute force, with the help of idiots like Mark Penn. While Obama’s campaign entices and inspires, her campaign tries to tell people how stupid they are for wanting to vote for him. It makes her seem tone-deaf when it comes to people skills. Is this how she’d run her presidency?

If she manages to bounce back and become the nominee (it’s possible; there’s a debate tomorrow night and another one next week, and debates have a way of turning things around, and Obama has been diffident during debates), I’ll fully support her. She’s a Democrat with Democratic policy ideas and she’d be lots better than McCain. And I still want to like her. I don’t like not liking her.

But she’s not making it easy.

There’s been a meme going around for a while that Obama is all hope and sunshine and no substance. Clinton and McCain have both used this argument in the last few days. And witness this political cartoon today:

The thing is, it’s not true. Obama has plenty of substance. Just look at the Issues section of his website, which is filled with links to specific proposals on various subjects. He doesn’t talk about it much, but there is in fact a there there.

Carpetbagger does a good job of unpacking the meme.

(By the way, I love the word “meme.” Such a part of the Internet age. Remember when “memes” were just called “ideas”?)