Today two Presidential campaigns came full circle, each finding in the other a piece of their core message.  Since 2004, both Barack Obama and John Edwards have been talking about One America on the national stage -- in different and complimentary ways.

It seems entirely fitting, then, to see them together on the stage tonight, talking about the goal they share.  One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

In 2004 I voted for Edwards.  In 2008 I voted for Obama.  I am happy to see them campaign together for the change we need this November.  One America just got a little bit closer.    

I came back here on Friday.  I came back to my hometown, to the city where I was born and raised, to team up with my fellow Hoosiers working for Obama.  I've been working almost nonstop since I arrived, and in five hours I have to be up and on my way out for GOTV.  My feet are aching, I haven't had a real meal since 8 this morning, and I'm not sure when I'll have one again.  

But my heart is soaring, because Indianapolis turned out big for Barack tonight.   In spite of rain, in spite of the late hour, in spite of everything that has been thrown at his campaign for the last two months.

21,000 Hoosiers gathered in the heart of the city, in the shadow of the historic War Memorial, to be part of a movement for change - a multiracial, multigenerational coalition determined to take back our government and make it work for us again.  I never thought I would see this -- not here.

If this can happen here, it can happen anywhere.  It can happen everywhere.

Yesterday, I wrote about Changing the Math:

Lots of people think Barack Obama is a lawyer.  Turns out he's a mathematician.

As we know, he can count delegates.  He has deployed his forces strategically to keep the delegate count close even where he's at a large structural disadvantage (OH, PA, CA), while identifying the places he can run up the score (the month of February).  This is the kind of campaign I trust to figure out electoral vote math.

Now we learn Obama wants to harness the power of technology to reshape who wields power in the electorate.  He wants to bring in enough new voters to destabilize all our assumptions about where and how Democrats can win.   Obama's potential to "Change the Map" just got bigger - with an unprecedented 50-state voter registration drive that can change the electoral math for a generation.  

Today Joe Andrew endorsed Barack Obama, saying  

Winners redefine the game.

.  Vote for Change is a signature Obama initiative - it redefines the game.

Lots of people think Barack Obama is a lawyer.  Turns out he's a mathematician.

As we know, he can count delegates.  He has deployed his forces strategically to keep the delegate count close even where he's at a large structural disadvantage (OH, PA, CA), while identifying the places he can run up the score (the month of February).  This is the kind of campaign I trust to figure out electoral vote math.

Now we learn Obama wants to harness the power of technology to reshape who wields power in the electorate.  He wants to bring in enough new voters to destabilize all our assumptions about where and how Democrats can win.   Obama's potential to "Change the Map" just got bigger - with an unprecedented 50-state voter registration drive that can change the electoral math for a generation.  

This program will not only help put Obama in the White House, but also pay dividends for Democrats all the way down the ballot in November, and even bigger dividends for the Democratic Party in years to come.  

There are deep forces at work here, while we're busy talking pastors or whatever the color and model number of this week's kitchen sink is.  Forget the sideshow.  Barack Obama is busy Changing the Math.

Like I've said before, one key reason to support Obama is his clear dedication to the 50-state strategy.  I was with some other Bay Area volunteer leaders last night getting briefed on a brand-new campaign initiative that takes this to a whole new level.

On Saturday, May 10, Obama for America will kick off a 50-state, nationwide voter registration drive on an unprecedented scale.

So while Barack Obama is still facing a primary opponent, he is already thinking way ahead to the General Election.  And he's thinking not just about how he can eke out a swing state victory - he's thinking much, much bigger.  He's thinking about how to build the Democratic Party nationwide by bringing in more new voters than any national candidate ever.  He is doing it the same way he's set record fundraising levels and won more delegates, states and votes than Hillary Clinton.  

Gate, meet your latest crashers.

As we all know, yesterday Barack Obama delivered one for the history books.  Many here and elsewhere have heralded his speech for its eloquence, depth and moral clarity on the racial divisions that Americans continue to struggle with.  Commenters have remarked on its honesty, integrity and call for understanding on all sides.

Yesterday, Barack Obama formally crossed "the Swiftboat Threshold."  The attacks he faced over his personal association with a religious figure are a textbook example of what we now call "swiftboating."  

This is the test that we now demand Democratic nominees be able to withstand.  Obama has passed it with flying colors.  And, as usual, he refused to take the conventional approach.  In the end, swiftboating succeeds by instilling fear in candidates and their supporters.  All too often, even "successful" Democratic responses reflect that fear by avoidance, distance or escalation - strategies which only encourage more attacks.

Instead, Barack Obama showed very clearly he is not afraid.  He will not run from who he is.  It turns out the only thing we have to fear from swiftboating is fear itself.

A truly great speech has both a powerful text and a powerful context.  Barack Obama's speech today in Philadelphia had both.  Coming to the podium this morning, everyone said he needed to respond to and explain his relationship with Rev. Wright.  He did far more.

He took on the much larger and more difficult problem of racism - one of the most painful moral and political divides in America.  He reminded us what we owe to each other across that divide, from both sides.

Almost four decades ago, a Presidential candidate often compared with Barack Obama confronted a similar context.  Facing the charge that you are not "one of us" because of religion, then-Senator John F. Kennedy responded by laying claim to who we are.  

The United States has a unique history, marred both by the gravest intolerance and the most expansive promise of inclusion.  While recognizing the reality of one, these Senators asked us to live up to the other.

Tomorrow voters in four states will participate in selecting our nominee.  Voters in 38 previous primaries and caucuses have had their say.  Turnout is through the roof.  The Democratic Party is excited, engaged, and  very serious about making the right choice from an incredibly deep field.

The media has twice tried - and mercifully failed - to presumptively coronate our nominee and short-circuit the process.  Before anyone voted or caucused, we were informed that Senator Clinton was going to win this thing going away.  The days between Iowa and New Hampshire we were informed that Senator Obama would take it after only a couple of contests.  Shockingly, real people all over the country decided that they would determine their own destiny, and demanded that these two remaining candidates prove their worth.  And they have both fought hard to win the chance to stand as the nominee at this crucial time.

As a supporter of Barack Obama, I see this as the best possible scenario.  He has had a golden opportunity to show what he can offer to the Democratic Party and the nation - not just the politics of inspiration, but of participation.

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm sitting in NY while my Valentine and our kids are all the way across the country in CA.  I'm missing them, and I'll only be away 48 hours.  But I'm doing work that I care about, and that might even matter a bit in the larger scheme of things.  It's a painful tradeoff.

So this news item about Barack and Michelle Obama especially caught my eye:

He's taking Valentine's Day off:

A sign of confidence? A little thank-you to his wife for tolerating his presidential ambitions?

In the thick of his primary battle with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama is taking Valentine's Day off. Obama and his wife of more than 15 years, Michelle, are spending the afternoon with their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, before going out to dinner in Chicago, according to his campaign. No events, no interviews, no nothing -- just a little family time and a little romance. No word yet on gifts, or whether he's still got that BlackBerry on his hip.

He misses his family.  He needs to take one night to put them first, in the middle of the political fight of his life.  I'm liking his priorities.  

It's early, yet.  Still dark out.  The polls open out here in California in a couple of hours.  I'm waiting for my ride down to the campaign office.  Somehow Election Day doesn't feel right unless it starts before dawn.

It is almost a year to the day.  In early February, 2007, I watched Barack Obama's formal announcement that he would seek the Democratic Presidential nomination.  I had already decided then that I wanted to support his run.

Back then, I had no idea that I would be sitting here on the edge of my seat.  I could never have forseen this year.  I had no idea I was about to embark on this wild ride that has been the California campaign.  Right now, I am beyond fired up.  This is the most important thing I have ever done in my life.  I am right in the middle of the most exciting and significant Presidential contest in California in more than a generation.  And my experience gives me hope.

I really don't have time for this, you know.  I have all kinds of responsibilities I've been shirking.  I've barely seen my kids this week.  I'm living on coffee, chocolate, bad pizza and adrenaline.  I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.  

Being part of the Obama campaign feels like the most important thing I've ever done in my life.  The stakes couldn't be higher.  And we've gone from nowhere to serious contenders after months of tough, almost invisible work.  Finally, we are seeing the results, we are gaining.  Will it be enough?

In less than 72 hours, the polls close in California.  I've got hope.

Last Wednesday, I gave my perspective on Obama's California field operation as a volunteer member of one of the Congressional District organizing teams - The 100,000 Things You Need to Know About Barack Obama in CA.  One of the things I talked about was our commitment to retail politics in California at a level that hasn't been seen in more than a generation.

On Saturday, we set a statewide goal of making 100,000 phone calls in a single day.  As far as I know, that would set the record for single-day political phonebanking in California.

Late yesterday, I got the final number:  more than 220,000 calls.  I'm not surprised, because the Oakland phone bank where I worked was flooded.  More than 300 volunteers came in to make phone calls just at that one location.

This weekend we set a phone bank record, and picked up critical new California endorsements, including Rep. Xavier Becerra and the San Francisco Chronicle.  We have our work cut out for us here, but now we have added momentum, too.  California is in play.  

Or the 5,080 things.  Or the 53 things.  I'm talking about the "insane" Obama campaign strategy:  running a grassroots field program in California.  Can't be done, right?  Too big, too expensive, not worth it.  He's doing it anyway.  And I love being part of it.

Here's just a few of the elements:  100,000 phone calls statewide in a single day.  5,080 precinct captains.  Volunteer-based organizing teams across California's 53 congressional districts.  Canvasses and phone calls up and down the state.

I can tell you (and I have) about the many reasons I am volunteering basically all of my free time to try to make Barack Obama the next President of the United States.  But the way he genuinely believes in running a grassroots, 50-state primary campaign is a huge one.

And it is perhaps (with apologies to  Just Angry for borrowing your title) the only thing you need to know about Barack Obama.

The race is on.  Nobody is getting pre-emptively coronated by the media.  Not Clinton.  Not Obama.  Thank god.    

This is as good as it gets.  Two serious candidates.  The stakes couldn't be higher.  The Presidency of the United States.  And someone is going to have to win this nomination the old-fashioned way.  With the big win in Iowa, there is no question Obama can compete on every front.  He has the money.  The tide is turning on endorsements.  But he is depending on us to bring it home.  

Si se puede.  Yes we can.    

That's the first line of Barack Obama's victory speech in Iowa last night:  "They Said This Day Would Never Come."  And it gave me chills.  

I didn't know, way back in January when I decided he was the right candidate for me, if he could really pull it off.  The odds were against him.  He was doing everything "wrong."  His model was radical, visionary, and widely misunderstood.  The risks were enormous.  But the payoff, if it worked, would be huge.

Last night we saw the payoff.  It was huge.

Obama For America.  That's the official name of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  Just three words, but they sum up an entire political philosophy.  John Edwards For President.  Hillary For President.   Obama For America.  

Today is the final of three essays on what Obama For America signifies.  In Part I, posted Wednesday, I showed how Obama For America lives and breathes a 50 State Strategy, unheard of in a primary campaign.  Yesterday's Part II analyzed Barack Obama's model of governance -- FDR meets social entrepreneurship.  

Today I complete the series by analyzing Obama For America as a framing strategy - defining progressive values as fundamentally American, challenging us to live up to them, and convincing us we have the power to make change.  Obama's unique ability to sell the Democratic party to Americans makes him a potentially realigning political figure.

Obama For America.  That's the official name of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  Just three words, but they sum up an entire political philosophy.  John Edwards For President.  Hillary For President.   Obama For America.  

Today is the second of three essays on what Obama For America signifies.  In Part I, posted yesterday, I showed how Obama For America lives and breathes a 50 State Strategy, unheard of in a primary campaign.

Today I will analyze Obama For America as a governing philosophy - how it permeates Barack Obama's approach to policy and leadership.  Obama For America as governance has two key components:  maximizing stakeholder participation while maximizing citizen engagement.  These principles align Obama with an emerging social entrepreneur model that may be the future of progressive politics.

Part III, tomorrow, will complete the series by analyzing Obama For America as political framing, and why it can both win elections and grow the Democratic Party.

Why Barack Obama for President?  Because he is running For America.  Because his campaign holds the potential for a national, long term, progressive realignment.

Obama For America.  That's the official name of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  Just three words, but they sum up an entire political philosophy.  John Edwards For President.  Hillary For President.   Obama For America.

Today is the first of three essays on what Obama For America signifies.  Here I reflect on how Obama For America lives and breathes a 50 State Strategy, unheard of in a primary campaign.  When Barack Obama famously challenged the red state/blue state dichotomy, it was appealing rhetoric.  Now we know it is more than some pretty words.  Obama for America is running a bold national electoral strategy that is good for Obama, good for the Democratic Party and good for progressive politics.

Why Barack Obama for President?  Because he is running For America.  Because his campaign holds the potential for a national, long term, progressive realignment.