Yes my title is indelicate; Barack Obama need not "stoop" to my level to make his point.

The beauty of this most recent gaffe by HRC is that it fits perfectly into the Politics of Hope "meme" or whatever you smart political types call it. So Hillary believes (doesn't matter if she really believes it- she said it) that a new terrorist attack on America would be good for the G.O.P., and she is so good at beating back the right wing machine, we should elect her in case- GOD FORBID- something hideous like that happens.

Actually, Barack is at the moment just hitting his stride in the mid-court. Hillary mishandled the ball and after a brief scramble, Barack has picked up the ball and has gathered himself and indeed is streaking down the court on a fastbreak. Biden and Dodd and indeed the WNBA phenom who turned it over will only be able to look on helplessly as Obama goes vertical and slams the ball through in a rim- democratic primary- rattling SLAM DUNK.

Barack Obama, should he and his campaign seize it, have a very bright line with which to distinquish themselves from HRC and the 100 years of DC experience. I do not think Barack saw this opportunity coming neccessarily, indeed I think one could argue they got lost in the scramble for a news cycle or two, but now that they have secured possesion of the ball & have a clear path to the hoop, I think they will find the scars they suffered in the process were well worth it.

Obama has two powerful issues now, and both have the benefit of Hillary saying something silly on camera by way of contrast.

In cooperation with my wonderful daughter, who will be voting for the first time in 2008, I submitted a question for the debate contest that focuses on the Troy Davis case.

If you are interested in this case, please watch the video and share it with others. Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/contests_layout?n ame=DemocraticDebate&v=DckwoGivGxQ&a mp;goto=1447

if the link is flawed, we are entry # 1447 in the contest.

For starters, I am sort of new to this site and generally enjoy it quite a bit.

I find this Obama "losing buzz" stuff quite amusing and as a rebuttal of sorts would like to relate my personal experiences to date with the Obama For America campaign.

First of all, I live in Greenville, SC, home of the notoriously fundamentalist christian school Bob Jones University. My congressional representative is a conservative Republican and our Senators are R- Lindsey Graham, who is absolutely villified in this county as being a "moderate", and R- Jim Demint, who is being praised for his staunch opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill. Demint, you may recall, said during his campaign that single mothers shouldn't be allowed to teach in public schools. He won this county with little difficulty.

That having been said, I am quite proud that the next President of the United States, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), will be coming to Greenville Friday for a campaign rally. I'm not a political scientist, but I doubt he'd becoming here if there were not significant interest in his candidacy.

I have attended two "official" campaign organizing meetings in Greenville; the first, shortly after his announcement, drew approximately 75 people. The event was professional in organization and informative in content. There was a multimedia presentation that seemed pretty damn Pro to me. The staffers running the show emphasized the importance of the individual and the responsibility the individual must assume in promoting the candidacy of Senator Obama. They gave us a specific list of tasks around which to organize our efforts. One thing that impressed me was that the staff was sincerely grateful for the participation and the enthusiasm of those who were volunteering for the campaign.

The second meeting I attended was last Saturday in preparation for the "walk for change" national canvass. The meeting was at the main branch of the downtown library and about 50 volunteers were present in addition to the "official" camapaign staff. Again, I was kind of blown away by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the folks running the show. Those of us who did not come with a partner were quickly partnered up. We were given very practical and organized maps and voter lists and scripts (although the staff emphasized that we tell our own story and not follow the script verbatim). We were given numbers to call should we have any problems and each canvassing team had leaders who would stay in touch with each other throughout the day. Those like myself who had never canvassed were given enough support to succeed. I was blown away by the professionalism, leadership and organizational ability on display, and I remember thinking that if Greenville, SC can do this, then the sky is the limit for this campaign.

We got a lot of people involved and engaged in this campaign for the first time. We collected a great number of supporter cards and were able to speak face to face with quite a few leaners and undecided voters. I think we made a difference this weekend, and I think that in the coming weeks the "polls" and perhaps even the more coveted "buzz" will reflect this tremendous grassroots effort.

My friends, we had 10,000 people knocking on doors across the country. If my fellow volunteers in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Timbuktoo had a similiar experience, we're going to reap the benefits.  

This is a true people powered, bottom-up movement, and I'll just continue to do my thing and we'll see where the race stands in the weeks and months to come. I believe that Barack may need, in the not so distant future, to get a little bolder, and yes, perhaps even sharpen the rhetorical knives a bit. It may be neccessary eventually, but I believe that right now Obama is earning the trust of his supporters and of voters gernerally. Believe it or not, he is still in the process of introducing himself to much of the country. I believe we have the potential to reach a whole new level with this campaign. Good luck to the Clinton and Edwards campaigns and indeed to all the campaigns.    

Folks I pretty much admire the way our candidate has urged citizens in Republican areas to contact their Senators and Congressmen to persuade them to change their vote about the supplemental. This is the way democracy is supposed to work and I admire Barack Obama for bringing our attention to this. Some dismissed his strategy as unrealistic, etc., but the truth is that just because something is unlikely to succeed does not mean it is not worth attempting. I believe the "16 votes" strategy was exactly the correct approach.

 But with today's news of a new bill which would fund this fiasco through September, isn't it a moot point? I put a question mark there and in my title as well because I'm not sure, really. But if this bill is passed, isn't it true that George Bush can simply and correctly claim that Democrats more or less came around to his way of thinking and decided that our troops and new General and "the surge" deserve a chance to succeed?

Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.
  Folks I pretty much admire the way our candidate has urged citizens in Republican areas to contact their Senators and Congressmen to persuade them to change their vote about the supplemental. This is the way democracy is supposed to work and I admire Barack Obama for bringing our attention to this. Some dismissed his strategy as unrealistic, etc., but the truth is that just because something is unlikely to succeed does not mean it is not worth attempting. I believe the "16 votes" strategy was exactly the correct approach.

  But with today's news of a new bill which would fund this fiasco through September, isn't it a moot point? I put a question mark there and in my title as well because I'm not sure, really. But if this bill is passed, isn't it true that George Bush can simply and correctly claim that Democrats more or less came around to his way of thinking and decided that our troops and new General and "the surge" deserve a chance to succeed?

Can we, and can Barack Obama, accept this?

in it's implications. this is not to say that Obama is similiar to Reagan in philosophy, but rather in style. Indeed Barack is a true counterpoint to The Gipper, philisophically.

It's too bad that most Republicans don't believe in stem cell research, because if they did they'd be one step closer to cloning Reagan, which after watching the first GOP debate seems to be about all they care about.

George Will is not a right wing christo-fascist/ neocon. He's the quintessential anti-welfare state conservative, to be sure, and we'll likely not agree on much, but I do respect his opinion. He is a Republican who is not, in a word, scary. Kind of like the Governor of California. I would put Christine Todd Whitman in this category also. So many of these "moderate" Republican voices have been marginalized by the Rove/ Bush red meat to "the base" style of governance.  

I think the last straw for George Will and company may have been the recent GOP debate, wherein half the candidates disavowed evolution, one promised, with a maniacal grin, to follow OBL to the Gates of hell, and all pledged fidelity to the 40th POTUS, R.I.P.

George Will pointed out that despite the panderings evident in the debate, the 2008 candidate closest in spirit to "The Great Communicator" is Barack Obama.

As I read this profile of Obama in The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/ 05/07/070507fa_fact_macfarquhar, our campaign, which had hitherto seemed inspiring, innovative, and mercurial to me, began to click, strategically speaking.

"Obama is, obviously, running for President: it's not that he isn't hungry for converts but that his way of courting them is subtle... That is Obama's theory of speeches, and it seems, also, to be his theory of campaigning: don't try to score huge points at every moment, don't kill yourself for every vote--a campaign is a long, slow story, and you don't want to exhaust your audience or yourself." Obama: "Let me explain it to you in sport terms. It's like we're in a basketball game, and someone's gonna steal the ball, and I'm gonna miss a free throw, but we're gonna win the game. You can't get yourself worked up over every little thing that somebody says about me or you're gonna go crazy."'

Hillary is ahead in every single poll, and bless her heart for it, she's a sound candidate. However, the first votes will be cast some 9 months from now.