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BEST OF SPIN CYCLE

John Riley

August 29, 2008

10:20 p.m. - In an effort to defuse the celebrity attack by John McCain, Obama said: In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree. ... And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management. ...I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine.

- John Riley

10:14p.m. - On the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama became the first black man to accept a major party's nomination for president.

6:58 p.m. - McCain's decision to congratulate Obama for his historic achievement in the ad he ran last night was a clever move. ... Putting out an ad in which he smiles instead of sneering and offers a generous congratulations is smart - especially for a guy who once voted against a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. But if he's doing this sincerely rather than smirkingly, why is he ... cackling about Greek pillars behind [Obama's] podium?