I get so tired of people acting as if political party dictates the values of our citizens.  In my view, it might order those values, but there are some key issues that we all agree on.  Who do I mean by 'we all'.  Well check out this message board from an independent newspaper in Nebraska.  What is so amazing about this?  This is the most contentious message board you could probably find.  We've duked it out on poverty, healthcare, rape, abortion, religion, etc., ad nauseam.  But when it comes to the first ammendment and independent Nebraskans, 9 out of 10 agree.

JOHN MCCAINS MAJOR PROBLEM

At least last week's "this is not an impeachment" hearing in the House Judiciary Committee did something real. It proved that any so called "Progressive" who remains a member of the Democratic Party is part of the problem, not the solution.

Today's Gallup poll,  see the site, shows Obama at 48% and McCain at 42%. UPDATED

I agree with mcjoan that this wasn't the best compromise Democrats could get.  At the same time, the FISA compromise wasn't worth a quixiotic fight, either.  At the end of the day, below the fold is what this election is about:

An argument that Republicans will try to make for McCain to independents is the experience argument. This argument must be confronted directly. The primary idea of the Republican version of this argument is that the length of time that one has spent in Washington is the primary criteria by which we should choose our Presidential candidate.

The following is attributed to Mary Ritter. Used with permission, and short because it should be.

This comes from a discussion on MyBO, which was very civil but complicated.

It breaks down many ways and speaks to an issue close to my heart.  "We are all Democrats here!" and other well-intentioned unity statements miss the overarching message Sen. Obama puts forth.

We are more than even that.  I am an Indie - as are many of us - and quite a few are Republicans.  If you try to parse and caveat to be inclusive it devolves into PC madness.

It's simple.  We are Obama folks.

-chris

I have not yet met one person in Washington, DC or Michigan who is excited to vote for John McCain.  Can a candidate win if he doesn't inspire?  

And, has a candidate ever won the presidency by offering as his central policy a scaling back of government programs while average americans are suffering through a recession?

Lou Dobbs apparently cannot come to terms with the fact that the GE is going to be Obama vs. McCain.  Maybe the anti-immigration loudmouths didn't end up controlling the debate like he thought.  McCain's relatively friendly immigration stance certainly doesn't rub him the right way and we all know Obama's success has been driving him up the wall these past few months.  Anyway, he's got a poll on his website right now (link -    http://loudobbs.tv.cnn.com/    ) about whether Hillary should run as an independent and right now its 61-39 saying that she should.  The fact that he even put a poll like that up is pretty ridiculous, but hey - it's Lou Dobbs.

This guy.

I am beyond ready to talk about the general election, actually. It feels good. You know that shower you take after mowing the lawn in August? That's how good this feels.

It feels like a tall, frosty glass of lemonade -- or if you prefer, a Tanqueray and tonic -- after busting your ass for that ingrate of a boss all week.

And other things as well. Point is, I'm ready to talk about it. Wanna join me?

Here is what independents Jacqueline Salit and Fred Newman had to say about Obama recently:

Salit:

There was talk today about Obama's vulnerabilities. What are the steps that Obama has to take, do you think, to address them and what does he have to project to bring the country together and to pursue the goals of his candidacy?

Newman:

He's already doing that, don't you think? He has to simply continue the campaign that he's set in motion.

What he's going to do, obviously – and he's done this already – is to say that McCain is simply a third term of Bush and the last thing in the world the American people want is a third term of Bush. It turns out, in retrospect, that they didn't even want a second term of Bush.

It was about 10:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Savings time when Indiana was called for Sen. Clinton. She won according to most of the MSM 51% to 49% or about 22,000 votes over her Democratic rival Sen. Obama.

In responding to thejoshuablog on Talking Points Memo, I realized something had been fomenting for a while, and may be threadworthy itself.  The idea that the mass hysteria we are all suffering through might actually be a disease.  It is one of the few things that would explain the statistics that he outlined in his post.

CBS Poll: Support for Obama

PREFACE:
I've been a Green Party member nearly my entire adult life. Frankly, there's never been a Democratic candidate for President that I've found appealing. (In fact, it was the rise of Bill Clinton, coupled with Democrats' adoration of him, that actually made register Green in 1992.) Each time there was a Democrat that I actually liked and would consider voting for (who actually shared many of the views I have), he lost to a candidate that I considered inferior in the primaries: Brown instead of Clinton 1992, Bradley instead of Gore in 2000, and Dr. Dean instead of Kerry in 2004. Each time I've ended up either not voting, or voting for Ralph Nader. However, HOPEfully not this time...

This is OUTRAGEOUS

The West Virginia Secretary of State's office and county election offices in the state are refusing to tell independent ("no party choice") voters arriving to early vote at the state's 55 voting locations that they are entitled to vote in the Democratic primary, stating that they are forbidden to do so by law.

"The Obama campaign will lose thousands of votes during early voting if this situation isn't corrected quickly," Victoria Baker, a former Republican who is an Obama supporter in Huntington, WV, said Sunday. "The Secretary of State's position is not supported by the law," according to Roy D. (Don) Baker, a West Virginia lawyer familiar with the situation. "It is wrong," he said. Mr. Baker, a Democrat, is also an Obama supporter and Ms. Baker's husband  

156,199 West Virginians are registered as independents eligible to vote in West Virginia's May 13 primary according to figures released over the weekend by the Secretary of State's office. That represents 13.2% of all registered voters in the state. These figures include voters who registered before last week's April 22nd registration deadline in the state. Early voting began April 23 and ends May 10.  

I just sent in my change of registration - I am now an Independent/Unaffiliated voter, or as we put it in New York, "No Party."

I have to tell you all, it feels liberating, to send a message in my own small way that I'll no longer stand with a party that allows one of its major candidates to pit white working-class people against black people.  It feels good to no longer have a part in a party whose Superdelegates sit on the sideline and allow the probable nominee get battered.  I feel relieved that I no longer have to sit in a party that retains power-brokers who think blurring the lines with Republicans is a way to victory.

By the way, at this point I'll tell you that Rock the Vote is such a great tool, and makes changing registration incredibly easy.

After the win in Iowa ( I knocked on more doors than I care to count) I never dreamed it would go this long.  What I now find myself wondering is this: If Hillary Clinton does win this thing, what will happen to the three groups that Obama has won with?

NY Times Thursday blows a Trailer Park Sized hole in the Clintons' electability fantasy.

Exit polling and independent political analysts offer evidence that Mr. Obama could do just as well as Mrs. Clinton among blocs of voters with whom he now runs behind. Obama advisers say he also appears well-positioned to win swing states and believe he would have a strong shot at winning traditional Republican states like Virginia.

According to surveys of Pennsylvania voters leaving the polls on Tuesday, Mr. Obama would draw majorities of support from lower-income voters and less-educated ones — just as Mrs. Clinton would against Mr. McCain, even though those voters have favored her over Mr. Obama in the primaries.

And national polls suggest Mr. Obama would also do slightly better among groups that have gravitated to Republican in the past, like men, the more affluent and independents, while she would do slightly better among women.

Why is Hillary weak with Educated Voters? Men? Blacks? Western State Democrats? Young Voters???  Fun Decision-Tree: