Obama should start using a simple attack line.

So, once again, McCain, your campaign staffer Michael Goldfarb decides to take a swipe at Daily Kos by saying of us:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

How fucking condescending. And yes, I know you made Mikey apologize, but I'm not done with him yet.

Sorry if this is poorly writen, but I really wanted to be the first to get it out.

I can't believe Obama would just blurt this out. But evidently, Barack has indicated who is VP will be. Obviously it is a bit annoying because I cannot imagine Obama deserting the big names.

As we all anticipate Barack Obama’s Vice Presidential pick and as we play the veep-sweaps and as some of us, state how certain choices will be great while others will be horrible.  Some have even said that some possibilities might even cause us to lessen our degrees of support for Obama; I want to make a point, using a thought exercise.  Let’s travel through an alternate history.  In this history we elected a person, who for most Kossacks, would be one of the worst possible Vice Presidents.  How would the world have changed?

The fictional Vice President I am referring to is, if you hadn’t guessed, Joe Lieberman.  In my alternate history, I am assuming that the SCOTUS allowed the Florida recount to proceed and as a result Al Gore and Joe Lieberman won the Electoral College and were sworn in January of 2001.  Okay, I think for most of us – Joe Lieberman is far worse than any of the names being mentioned this year as VP.  So if he and Al had been declared the winners in 2000, where would we be today?

Sometime in the next 1 – 200 hours, most of us that read this site will be getting a text message. We all have opinions, some stronger than others, about what the name in that message should/must be. One thing we can all agree on is that Senator Obama and his staff have spent far more time and effort thinking about all the possible permutations than any of us. They have more resources and more information than any of us to decide on who the running mate should be. The decision they make will be a hard one, but they will have made every possible effort to make sure it’s the best one.

By now many bloggers are familiar with issue as to whether John McCain's Cross in the Sand Story is really a good story that was quite simply lifted from the Gulag Achipelago, a book written by one of McCain's own heros, Alexander Solzynitzhn.

One of the things people have been trying to do is to simply pinpoint when the story supposedly took place as well as to determine the first time the story was recounted by McCain.

In the process of trying to satisfy my own curiosity, I came across some interesting tidbits I thought I'd share.

Today's USA Election Poll results show that Vermont leads all 50 states in support for Senator Obama's candidacy at 63%, and ranks as one of the lowest in its support for McSame, revealing that Vermont is blessed with only 29% of the sort of folks who still drink the koolaid.

Vermont has the lowest McSame support in the nation.

WhooHoo.........

Senator Obama,

I know so much is at stake for our country and that you and Michelle are going to be the best President and First Lady in modern American history.  But I just want to encourage you to select a Vice President that will be rock solid steady and has your back.  The right man for the job is General Wesley Clark.  I'm not sure what your consultants are saying about General Clark, but please consider the wisdom contained in the below excerpt from Andy Ostroy's recent Op-Ed.  Thank you Barack!!!

I have supported Obama from the first day, mostly by donating money but later by writing letters to the editor in support of Senator Obama. Here in Dupage County I am part of the Democratic parties’ letter writing group, now when we write letters we share them with the group for feedback and critiques. One day a letter came to my inbox that slammed Obama in favor of Clinton. I was surprised to say the least and I dared to ask the writer, someone I had never met but had agreed with on many occasions, why such anger towards Obama? Her response was an eye opener and in the weeks to come the "leader" of the letter writers had to separate us – well at least is a metaphysical over the internet e-mail sense. After that it was flame on – instead of just supporting Obama I went after Clinton and her supporters which kicked off my first ever diary on Kos.

Cross-posted from DMIBlog

Today the Drum Major Institute (DMI -- where I'm director of research) released its first annual Survey on the Middle Class and Public Policy.  The nationwide poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group, aimed to learn how those Americans who see themselves as middle class (the vast majority of us, it turns out) think about the direction of the country, public policy ideas that could improve the nation, and their relationship with their own elected representatives. What we found were middle-class households filled with "fearful families": Americans worried about the present, pessimistic about the future, but not nearly so divided on issues of public policy as the typical media reports of a country divided by red and blue might lead us to believe. In fact, there’s broad bipartisan support for a range of progressive policies.

How do we get Jack to run for POTUS???  He definitely DOES NOT beat around the bush:

Read his commentary here:  

http://www.cnn.com/...

In an outstanding diary, "My Response to the Feedback from the "Cross in the Dirt" Rickrocket describes the means by which John McCain use his POW "legend" to block scrutiny and discussion of his conduct and ideas.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Barack Obama - and those of us who support him - have to bring a knife to the fight.  

We have to destroy the "Legend of John McCain".  Given the truth about the man, it shouldn't be too hard.

Either it just might be Obama/Gore... or I've completely lost my mind...

I have several reasons why I think this may be possible.  Please at least hear me out and let me know what you think!

Believe it or not, I haven't really spent a lot of time until recently speculating on who Obama's VP pick will be.  What I've thought and said consistently is that I will support the ticket, no matter who it is (yes, that includes Hillary Clinton).  I've also said that I completely trust Obama's judgment.  I've recently started thinking it's going to be Al Gore, and have begun to get very excited about that possibility.  When I've expressed this thought, I usually get one of several responses.  They are:

"I'll bet you one million dollars (or some other ridiculous sum of money) you're WRONG!"

"That would never happen.  Al Gore himself said he's not interested."

"You're crazy."

OR

"You know, I think it's unlikely, but I've been secretly hoping that myself."

A week from today the Democrats will begin their nominating convention in Denver. This seems like a good time to recall the incitations to violence that were voiced last April by Rush Limbaugh:

Screw The World! Riot in Denver

I am no writer, but I am going to try to offer my perspectives on the state of our republic. When do we begin to discuss the issues that will shape the future? President Bush was a figurehead that read the teleprompter and could repeat simple phrases. We need to campaign against the Republican Party, not against Bush. He is not worth it.
We need to examine the policies advocated by Republicans and the obvious failures of Republican government. At first glance, the word "incompetence" comes to mind Remember Katrina?  How is that balanced budget going? The War on Drugs? How about deregulation of the financial industry? How is that working for us? Deregulation of the airlines, good idea? Food safety? Foreign Policy? Would the Republicans prefer more or less democracy? Why does The United States hold the most prisoners per capita, in the most profitable prisons in the world? If the leaders of the three main factions in Iraq were to admit to John McCain that The Surge worked, and the USA won the war, can the troops come home?
Who would replace Dick Cheney as Chief Executive in a McCain administration?
I want to see some discussion of ISSUES. The Repubs have a lot to answer for.

There is so much to write about!

So Hillary came to the area yesterday.  Obama campaign locals were encouraging people to go.  And I was curious to check it out, too.  See what the crowd was like.  An hour ahead of the doors opening, this was what I found:

This was about the same time that people had been asked to show up to volunteer.  But they had all the volunteers they needed by then.  Española is the county seat of Rio Arriba County, a heavily Democratic, largely Hispanic county which went for Hillary on Super Tuesday.  It is said that people in Rio Arriba wouldn’t vote for Obama unless Hillary came in person to ask them to.  And so she did.  

It was a dutiful performance, with a ritual feeling to it.  The laconic mood was perhaps related to a hot day, and a non-air-conditioned venue.

John McCain is absolutely right...the media isn't covering him enough! It's totally unfair and I expect the media to correct themselves immediately.

This must stop. I'm expecting a 300% increase in the number of stories on McCain.  If the media is having problems coming up with stories on this wonderful American hero, I've provided some ideas after the fold:

Welcome to the first official Kos diary to announce the news that everyone will receive by e-mail.  This diary will updated when the announcement is actually made.  But the important thing is that this diary is here first.  Here we go:

BREAKING NEWS:  (Insert Name) is Obama's VP Pick.

Link to mainstream source will go here:  www.xxx.com

"A blockquote from the mainstream source, which basically just repeats the VP nominee's name, will go here."

More pre-formatted text below the jump.