Wesley Clark should be the man. His military experience trumps McSame by a long shot and he is outside the main political establishment. Change! Change! Change!
He has been through a run for president so he has that going for him. If Obama wants to live on this platform of change I think he has to go someone like this not to mention his foreign policy creds.
Last week, while McSame was launching his childish attack ads one after the other, and not being able to stay on message for more than a couple hours (first it was the troops in Germany, then it was presumptuousness, then it was celebrity, then it was this, then it was that, etc.), we here at Dailykos were freaking out that he was getting traction in the media (though still wasn't consistent).
Cenk wrote a big piece on how Obama, 'just doesn't get it.'
But seriously, didn't we all learn something about this man in the primaries? Did we not trust him??
We've been tremendously blessed, so to say, that we have had the field of Democrats that we did. And even though my guys (Kucinich and Edwards) didn't win, I'll be happy to vote for Barack Obama in the general election.
But there are some angry voters who have stated their intent to vote for or seriously consider John McCain, and I see this as not only a slap to the Democratic Party, or the Progressive movement, but a slap in the face of many very real people.
If you needed any more evidence that the MSM is in desperate need of a close race, I present CNN's writeup of their most recent poll. Check out this spin:
New CNN Poll: Obama, McCain in a statistical dead heat
With the dust having finally settled after the prolonged Democratic presidential primary, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House.
With just over four months remaining until voters weigh in at the polls, the new survey out Tuesday indicates Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over the Arizona senator, 50 percent to 45 percent. That represents little change from a similar poll one month ago, when the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee held a 46-43 percent edge over McCain.
As has been widely reported, Obama released a new commercial today titled "Dignity" in battle ground states: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
I throughly enjoyed the commercial and thought it would be worthwhile to breakdown why it's effective.
It doesn't matter what state a Vice presidential candidate can help Obama turn BLUE in November... when this campaign pushes into full swing, the only prayer the republicans have is if they scare the crap out of the country and convince the public that McCain is the only candidate who can be a commander in chief who will keep them safe....
They will not start the brain washing until Obama has picked a running mate and they are PRAYING he doesn't pick Clark or Webb.
A supreme strategist...this pursuit of the presidency is chess. BHO is a proven winner and campaign wunderkind. He's fighting a new campaign now, and good strategy is rarely apparent at it's inception.
A loophole exists in the FISA legislation however, in that while civil suits will be effectively impossible to prosecute, criminal prosecution is still on the table. Barack must assume an ascendence to the white house in order to successfully execute any fight to get there. He cannot hope to enact meaningful, lasting justice unless he wins said campaign, and preferably with a mandate in his pocket
Barack has indicated that he would not hesitate to instigate investigations against TCs, and therefore their post 911 enablers, as a criminal concern.
Of all the great things I saw over the past several days, my single favorite moment was the scene in the Chicago office where Barack Obama greeted the volunteers. At the end of a hard-fought primary season, he could have said "yay! We did it" before sending them on vacation. Instead he said that because "we won, we now have no choice. We have to win." Too many people need a Democratic president for this campaign to fail. If the Democratic nominee doesn't win, then the economy will not improve, the war will not end, all of the problems we face will not be addressed. Too many people are now counting on the campaign for the campaign to relax. It is now time to work even harder between now and November.
Note: DO NOT RESPOND unless you read what I had to say, from a few respondees it's clear they aren't seeing my point here, and yes there is time, I am only asking 10 days of what is only 10% of people here, not all 145.
I The purpose for my first diary here is concerning not just the manner in which we--as either Obama or Hillary supporters--treat each other, but the way they treat themselves. This is not an attack towards any one side to either support or welcome the other unconditionally, as it's been clear that since Tuesday and increasingly more so the "unity" mantra has been resonating and doing so effectively. What were once avid Obama supporters who were only a week ago angry at anything related to Hillary's campaign I now see people apologizing to her supporters and offering an olive branch. Similarly, I see what were once staunchly on Hillary's side conceding a tough primary and are happily--albeit with a temporary slightly sad aura--voicing their desire and efforts to ensure Obama wins in November.
While I have posted now not one, but two different post in the past 2 days, on John Edwards as the best VP choice, I want to state a disclaimer:
I think the waiting game has helped the dems
and while I think Obama is narrowed down his choice to 2 people, he should draw out the selection process as long as possible...
I just received a fund raising email from David Plouffe on behalf of the Obama campaign. Here are some highlights:
McCain and the Republican National Committee released their fundraising numbers for May... The McCain campaign raised $21 million, which will be combined with $23.7 million raised in partnership with the Republican National Committee.
That's $45 million in one month... money that will be used to attack Barack Obama and support McCain’s efforts to extend the policies of George W. Bush...
Even more disturbing ...is the way they raised it.
They depend on donations from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And top officials in McCain's campaign have been asking donors to write checks ...to the tune of $50,000 each.
Barack is doing things differently.
This campaign has never accepted donations from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. And yesterday the Democratic National Committee announced that they will follow the same restriction.
We are going to compete in the general election the same way we have all along -- by depending on a movement of more than 1.5 million people giving only what they can afford."
Here is a link to the AP story that tonight Clinton will be conceding that Obama has the delgates needed for the nomination. However, I find the following disturbing:
The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.
We need to go about healing, so I hope that she WILL soon end her campaign and urge her supporters to join her in supporting Obama.
As I write this, Democrats are about 63 hours from concluding our primary season. The end is near. Barack Obama is the presumptive winner of the Democratic nomination for president, and this was never more evident than the remark he gave in South Dakota last night after the rules committee made its decision on seating the Florida and Michigan delegations to the convention.
"I think that Senator Clinton and former President Clinton love this country. They love the Democratic Party. I think they deeply believe that Democrats need to win in November. And so I trust that they’re going to do the right thing."
A friendly but firm invitation into the fold for the last challenger yet to concede. A sign of how the Obama campaign does business. And a sign that the Democratic Party has coalesced behind Obama and pressure now mounts on the Clintons to do the same.
Few of us are privy to the Obama campaign's overarching strategy. (At least few of us who are willing to share.) So, I have spent some time reading the Obama Campaign's tea leaves.
As most of you know, on May 10, Obama launched "Vote for Change," a national voter registration drive with 101 events nationwide on the launch date. While each state had at least one meeting site, many had more. In this blog, I'll run a quick analysis of what we can learn from the locations of the rallies, looking for clues, albeit imperfect ones, about the likely Republican and Democratic veep selections, what is the expected impact of the third party candidates, and ultimately, what states are actually in play.
To begin with a disclaimer: the number of events likely reflect a number of factors, not just campaign strategy. I.e. favors to Superdelegates, amount of registration work that has already been completed, down ticket priorities, etc. The events, however, do provide a very rough, but fun, estimate of where the campaign is directing its attack.
I just got an email from an Obama campaign Voter Contact Director.
They want our feedback and have asked us to take a survey. If you have volunteered for the campaign or have a page on the Obama site you may have gotten one too.
I'm not sure if they sent it to their whole email list or just sent it to donators, organizers, captains or whatever because I've done all 3.
UPDATE: Based on the comments below it looks like this email is going out to everyone on their list- so please FILL IT OUT!
I do Marketing for a living I know first hand how important it is to have the right intelligence to plan your strategy.
Polls today show Barack Obama beating John McCain in Ohio (by nine points according to SurveyUSA) and Pennsylvania (by two points according to Rasmussen). These results may seem surprising since Obama lost each state by about 9% to Clinton despite investing significant time and resources into each state. Concern over whether Obama can reach white working-class voters in this region has been epidemic this spring.
I have spent most of the past fifteen years as a resident of both Pennsylvania and Ohio and have some ideas as to why Obama has a good chance of winning both in November. Below the fold I will ramble about why the news that Obama is leading in both states now is not a surprise, and why Obama has a good chance of winning both states in November.
A new Gallup poll indicates that Senator Obama is now competitive among women, whites, and the less educated.
Support among Democratic voters for Sen. Obama has increased from a four-percentage-points lead in early May to a sixteen percentage-point lead, his highest percentage-point lead thus far.
In the period including May 1st -13th Senator Obama led Senator Clinton 49% to 45% in the Democratic Presidential Nomination Preference among Democratic voters and voters leaning Democratic.
In the period including May 16th –May 18th Senator Obama outpaced Senator Clinton by a margin of 55% to 39%.
