It's official....

Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond of all time, surpassing Sean Connery.

When "Casino Royale" came out, I think most of us Bond fans were blown away with Craig's portrayal of him. But in order to be fair to Mr. Connery, I decided to hold back on such a big switch until I saw the second movie with Craig. We saw it late this afternoon, and I now feel that it is time to give the Number 1 spot to Daniel Craig. This takes nothing away from Mr. Connery, and I'll always have a special place in my heart for his suave Bond, especially because those were some of the finer Bond films in franchise history. And the sixties decor and clothing were pretty cool, too.

However, I love it that they've taken Bond in a different direction with Craig...they've reminded us that James Bond does indeed have a license to kill. His air of menace and cold blue eyes never let us forget that he would have no qualms whatsoever about snapping someone's neck with his bare hands.

"Quantum of Solace" isn't groundbreaking, but who goes to James Bond movies to see groundbreaking? It's a typical Bond movie with lots of great action sequences and a creepy villain that you can't wait to see get smacked around by James. A couple of beautiful women who are charmed by James, and plenty of political intrigue. James is still trying to come to terms with the loss of his love in "Casino Royale," Vespa, and what he believes was her betrayal of him. Will his desire for vengeance mean the end of his MI6 career, and his good relationship with M? Who can he trust? Can he even trust his own government?

Good stuff, but as always, the chase sequences and fights are what makes this movie a hell of a lot of fun. The movie opens with a bang as we watch a high speed car chase in the mountains of Italy. There's also a chase on foot through various homes and churches in Italy, and a plane chase. James gets to beat the crap out of several bad guys. My favorite, though, is the final fight with the creepy villain. I'll say no more.

If you like James Bond, you'll love this movie. If you don't...what's wrong with you?! Totally kidding--Bond isn't for everyone. If you're not a fan, this movie won't change your mind. If you are a fan, go see it in the theater. It's a blast. Literally.

I haven't forgotten to tell you about our evening at Studebaker last night. I'll work on the pictures tomorrow and make a slideshow for you (if I can remember how to do it). Suffice it to say, for now, that I think it was a hit! Ken is working on a slideshow for his blog, so you can see pictures of the event there. My pictures are mostly of the cars.

"That one."

First of all, would everyone please say a little prayer for Cousin Shane's cat Boris? He thinks she might have had a stroke this morning, and I'm waiting to hear back from him. I'm in distress over this, and I know it's ten times worse for Shane.

Update: Boris is okay! She somehow got her head stuck between the dresser and a chair, and she must have really freaked herself out trying to extricate herself. When Shane found her, she was panicky and her back legs weren't functioning well. She also appeared to be blind. The vet said there are still some problems with her legs, but he gave her a cortisone shot, and Shane said that her vision is improving. Whew! I said now Shane has to figure out how to keep her from sticking her head in places like that! Shane says he has widened that space. Ha ha. I'm glad we can chuckle about it now. I felt so bad for both of them!

I heard late yesterday that the Secret Service is investigating the incident in which someone yelled "Kill him!" at a Palin rally, because they take "every threat seriously." Yay for the Secret Service! I hope they find out who the guy is so his inexcusable behavior can be exposed. I suppose some people think it's easy to hide in a crowd and get away with something like that. Not so much these days!

Well, I can't disappoint the one reader who wanted to hear my take on the debate. Ha ha! Thanks, Betty! Nah, I was going to write about it anyway. This is merely my opinion of it, although I'll include some poll numbers.

I thought Obama was the clear winner. He seemed incredibly "together" and unrattled, answering the questions with details and empathy for the "common man." As McCain was speaking, Obama sat in the tall chair, seemingly very at ease. It was a little harder for McCain to sit in that chair easily, and he seemed uncomfortable much of the time. McCain seemed a little rattled in the beginning, and several of his references to Obama were quite snide, including the "that one" comment. Incredibly disrespectful. He tried some lame jokes that must work well at his rallies, but fell really flat in this forum. He came on a little stronger at the end, but he didn't get the win, let alone the "knockout punch" that many were saying he needed last night, and the town hall is supposed to be his strong suit.

We watched CNN's coverage of it, and they had a small group of undecided Ohio voters that were giving their responses during the debate with a little meter. I know these things are extremely unscientific, but I think they can be a decent indicator of initial responses. Obama seemed to do really well with women--a couple of times plateauing out at the highest level! (When he was talking about when his mother was dying and having to deal with insurance companies, for example.) What was really astounding to us was how the negativity caused the levels to plummet--and that usually happened with McCain. On the rare occasion that Obama said anything remotely negative, his level dropped slightly, but Ken and I got to laughing about how as soon as McCain started being nasty, we'd make a diving motion with our hands. It was a huge difference.

I'm sure it played well to the GOP base, but it seems that the McCain campaign's negative tactics of late are not getting a good response from independents and undecideds. Another group of undecided voters in Colorado had similar responses to the Ohio group, with a very interesting statistic on favorability ratings. Pre-debate, McCain's rating was 48% favorable, 46% unfavorable. Post-debate numbers were 56/36%. Obama's numbers? Pre-debate: 54/36%. Post-debate: 80/14%. Those are even better numbers than Bill Clinton received in town hall meeting formats, and Clinton did great in that kind of forum. The McCains also took off right after the debate, but the Obamas stuck around and talked to the crowd, connecting better with people.

Initial polls: CNN had Obama winning the debate by a margin of 54% to 30%. In the CBS poll, it was Obama 40%, Tie 34%, and McCain 26%. As one of my email friends put it, McCain came in third in a two-person debate.

Early on, when McCain was looking REALLY bad, Ken said to me, "This is it. He lost the election tonight." I don't know if we can pin it down to one debate, but I think the past couple of weeks, yeah, probably (although there's still a month to go). He needed to play to undecideds and independents, not his base, and he didn't succeed, any more than Palin's rallies are garnering their campaign any of that support. She got the base, she's playing to the base, and the base is the only one that really likes her. Her numbers are dropping like a stone among the voters that they most need to reach. In early October, an ABC poll showed that 35% think that she has the experience necessary to be president (down 12 points from early September) and 60% don't believe she has the needed experience (up 15 points from September).

Just this gal's opinion, although the poll numbers are real. No, I didn't make them up. That would be dishonest.

I'll give McCain an extra point, though, for using the word "apparatchik." That's just such a cool word, all Spy vs. Spy, James Bond-y, and junk. (Don't forget--"Quantum of Solace" November 14 in the US!)