Do the past eight years deserve a four-year extension?

That is the central question of the upcoming election. Not Sarah Palin. Not the novelty of her candidacy. Not John McCain's decision to pick her.

For as long as we debate Sarah Palin, we are falling into a trap designed by Republicans to distract us from the question that will decide this election.

Again -- do the past eight years deserve a four-year extension?

The question is not whether Sarah Palin makes you feel good. Rather, the question is do the policies of the past eight years make you feel good enough to continue for another four?

The question is not whether John McCain was smart to pick Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee. Rather, the question is whether he is wise to continue the policies that led to the collapse of our economy and massive setbacks in Afghanistan.

Yes she's different, but John McCain's agenda for the country is the same as George W. Bush's. Yes she's interesting, but John McCain wants more of the same.

With or without Sarah Palin, John McCain agrees with the Bush Administration 90 percent of the time.

This November is not about Sarah Palin. It's about whether you support the Bush record. And whether you want four more years of it.

I agree with Barack Obama: we should leave Bristol Palin alone.

There is plenty to criticize about her mother -- Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- without attacking the private life of a pregnant 17 year-old.

My blood has boiled when some of my Republican congressional colleagues have impugned other people's patriotism, have marginalized their religious choices, have Swift-boated and smeared. As if the merits of their argument are so weak they have to weaken their opponents' personal credibility and integrity.

Let's not stoop there.

I'm confident that Democrats will win the argument that Washington Republicans don't deserve a four-year extension of their policies. We will win the argument that the once-moderate and independent John McCain lurched to the right to win the Republican nomination. We will win the argument that Senator Obama's plan for ending our oil addiction is bolder than Senator McCain's.

We will win the argument that Senator Biden is more prepared to step into the role of Commander-In-Chief than Sarah Pallin.

But I believe that that children of politicians are not political children; that their personal decisions are not public fodder (so long as public ethics aren't breached). America critically needs an uplifted debate about issues rather than recriminations over a pregnant 17 year-old.

Of course, that raises a parallel question: Is John McCain's wife also free from criticism. Are her riches, the seven homes, the business interests, fair game? A qualified "yes."

These are fair to pursue, in my mind, to the extent that they are part of her husband's experience and shape his policy judgments about helping people pay their skyrocketing home-heating oil bills this winter, or their college costs; or rebuilding the wealth of middle class communities where home equity is spiraling.

The private lives of their kids, however; and Biden's and Barack's and Palin's, deserve to be left out of this campaign.

I'm proud of Senator Obama for drawing that line so firmly and so quickly after the McCain campaign disclosed the news about Bristol Palin.

Now let's focus on what really is news: what kind of country we want our children to grow up in. No matter who they are.

Friday:

After the Democratic Convention had ended, after the speeches were made and the confetti settled on the ground at Invesco Field, I had a quiet dinner with a few members of my staff. A young African-American family sat at the table next to us. The parents wore t-shirts sporting Barak Obama's image. They had two daughters â�" I'm guessing about ten and fourteen years old.

I can't imagine what that night truly felt like for people only two generations removed from being banned from tables at certain restaurants; who were told they couldn't drink from certain fountains, learn at certain schools, or live in certain neighborhoods. I can't imagine how it must have felt to watch a black man stare solemnly into a camera and say to 80,000 people packed into a stadium and an additional 40 million American television viewers: "I accept your nomination for President of the United States." However, I can imagine them tucking their children into bed that night, and reminding them that this is a great country. That we should we be especially proud of a country that went from Jim Crow laws to discourage blacks from voting for sheriff, to a place where an African-American just secured the nomination to run for President.

Sure, it's self evident. But special moments need to be savored.

Some say this election will divide us. Don't tell that to the family that sat next to my table that night; or to the waitress or the customers who I overheard. Or even to the guy at the kosher deli in Commack that I visited when I returned home Friday night. For all of us, America had done something very special on a warm Thursday night in Denver, Colorado. For all of us, a barrier was broken and a dream fulfilled. You may agree or disagree with Barak Obama on a specific policy. But there can be no disagreement with the quiet pride in country and democracy that I saw at the table next to me in the restaurant that night.

There's plenty in America that needs fundamental and profound improvement. Our energy policies, our infrastructure, our health care, our schools, even the quiet discrimination that still percolates deep in many of us.

But even hardened cynics had to stop, at least on Thursday night, and say that on Thursday, the best qualities about America had proven themselves. That at the Democratic Convention, American democracy defied convention.


Wednesday:

Today in Denver, I held a press conference with my colleague Rep. Anthony Weiner and Jim Kessler, Vice President of Policy for "Third Way."

We've been working together to help Democrats advance a "Middle Class Success Agenda" aimed at helping middle class families get ahead of the game. The battleground in this year's election is the middle class. As Democrats, we need to ensure that middle class voters know we aren't just there for them in times of need, we're also there to help them achieve their goals, like sending their kids to college.

In the last decade, the cost of tuition for public universities has gone up 80%. This morning, Jim explained that college costs have increased faster than any other consumer product but one: cigarettes. Middle class families are being squeezed by education costs, energy costs, taxes, and health care costs.

So today, we proposed several ideas that we'll work on in Congress to ease the squeeze. Among our proposals: college tuition tax credits, investment in infrastructure, health care portability and COBRA reform, renewable energy tax credits for families, and Alternative Minimum Tax reform.

Over the last eight years, Republican policies have undermined the middle class. Here in Denver, we've seen Democrats unite for working families. Last night in the Pepsi Center, Democrats raised signs advocating for a "Strong Middle Class." This November is our chance to show American voters that there isn't just one political party for the rich and one for the poor, but there is a party answering to the majority of us who fall in the middle