Tonight, our fearless founder Markos was at the Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn Heights for a little talk, some questions, and a lot of books to sign.
It was nice to be in a crowd of smart, progressive people (sorry for being redundant), especially how so many of us have tortured ourselves watching that other crowd on tv the last three nights.
Well, I've been waiting for this. The Old Gray Lady has its first editorial about McCain's pick of Sarah Palin.
It is blunt...they do not like it.
If John McCain wants voters to conclude, as he argues, that he has more independence and experience and better judgment than Barack Obama, he made a bad start by choosing Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
At 1:25am my phone dinged with a text message....from the New York Times. It said that Barack Obama had chosen Joe Biden as his running mate. It confirmed what we pretty much already knew for a few hours already.
I shut the ringer off and went back to sleep. When I woke up this morning, I saw the text message from the campaign. It came to my phone at 4:25am.
I was happy. I like Joe Biden. He is smart, scrappy, and yes, he knows Washington inside and out.
I found this article last night and was amazed. This is one of those things that really gives one an idea of how different the Obama campaign is from anything that has come before, and how well they are tied into technology.
As we all know, Obama will give his acceptance speech at Invesco Field in front of 75,000 people. Of that group only about 4,500 are actual convention delegates. The idea of 70,000 or so screaming other supporters is just the beginning. The real story is how the campaign plans to get those 70,000 members of the public to bring in as many as 37 million new voters for Obama. You see, it’s more than a speech that night, it’s the world’s biggest phone bank.
Well, the pictures from Berlin were truly something. The Newseum in Washington, DC, publishes the front pages of over 600 newspapers from around the world every morning. I thought some would be nice to share here.
I hate to waste a diary entry on this, but there is something on MSNBC First Read that smells very Swift Boatish.
Some right wing assholes are digging around for Obama's senior thesis from Columbia. They of course are convinced his secret plot to overthrown the United States and send all white people to the moon or some shit like that is there.
In scrolling through several hundred photos of today's visit to Israel, I came across one of the Senator Obama's hand written message in the Yad Vashem guest book.
As the primary race went on we saw some pretty miserable stuff said on the both the Clinton and Obama sides from their various supporters. On the Clinton side, the worst thing is the threat/promise that many of her supporters will vote for McCain come November.
Obviously, nothing could be worse than a split party that results in a McCain win.
In today's NY Times Science Times section a short essay titled Reparing the Damage, Before Roe. A retired gynecologist, Dr. Waldo Fielding give us a vivid idea what a McCain presidency would result in.
Well, everyone's favorite fake Democratic senator, Joe Lieberman is at it again. We have seen him slowly morph into a right-wing nut on most issues related to foreign policy, now it he is moving his metamorphasis into domestic ends and it is not good.
Censorship of the internet. In particular, Senator Joe wants to have say over what can be put on YouTube.
Well, people here on Staten Island had a feeling this was going to break soon enough.
Our Congressman, Vito Fossella who was arrested in Virginia for DWI a few days ago. When he called a lady friend of his to pick him up, people wondered who is she. Then it came out that she was divorced about five years ago, but has a three year old child.
Today Hillary Clinton said the magic words, that she is in this race until we have a nominee. Well, that will occur no later than May 20th- regardless of what happens with Michigan and Florida. She became our Mike Huckabee.
Continuing to run gives Hillary the opportunity to accomplish a couple of important things. Firstly, she can continue to raise some money to help with her debts. Secondly, it gives her the chance to campaign in a different tone, a little more concilatory, repairing her and Bill Clinton's image and reputation after what was a rather nasty campaign.
Well, maybe there is a silver lining to the Wright misery.
In tomorrow's editorial, the New York Times not only commends Sen. Obama for his repudiation of Rev. Wright, but asks why Sen. McCain continues to court people like John Hagee.
The Times writes that this will, unfortunately not end the overall problem of race in the election:
It was the most forthright repudiation of an out-of-control supporter that we can remember. We would like to say that it will finally take the racial charge out of this campaign. We’re not that naïve.
Finally, after a long day of coming close to swinging a cricket bat through 42 inches worth of Korean plasma wonder...I finally can watch a show that cuts through the Clinton bullshit and tells us the truth.
Chuck Todd said it- If this was a state election, we’d call it. It is over. It is impossible for Clinton to get the lead in pledged delegates. That is why we don’t hear them talking about it anymore.
I am sure you have been receiving many letters, e-mails, and phone calls similar to this one. I am writing to ask you, no, plead with you to step back into the limelight for a moment or two in order to do two things:
First, to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President.
Second, to publically say that it is time for the race for the Democratic nomination to end that Senator Hillary Clinton should face the realization that she can surpass Senator Obama in elected delegates.
