The XX Factor: What women really think.

Live by the Sword ...

That said, I don't like to engage in too much schadenfreude because, well, I think it's uncharitable, and I believe it comes back to haunt you. It's partly why I've quelled my outrage at the McCain camp's nastiness—ever since the sneering, community organizer-mocking speeches of Guiliani and Palin at the GOP Convention, I've been dying to see the Democrats hit back as low below the belt as they were being punched—the jeering at helping laid-off people recoup their lives. (Call me a bleeding-heart liberal, but I think it rather mean-spirited to mock someone for trying to help people who'd lost their livelihoods, which is essentially everything. I bet none of those laughing had ever been laid off.) But they haven't as much as they could have, and I think it's actually paying off. Obama—at least currently—isn't the one imploding. There's still time left in this campaign; that all might change. But it's nice to see that taking a bit of the high road does actually turn out to pay off at times.