The number of US soldiers currently deployed in Iraq is roughly equal to double the attendance at Barack Obama's rally in Portland, OR on May 20, 2008.

I've heard other parents say that talking to their kids about procreation is the hardest conversation they have. That conversation was a breeze. Tonight, I had the most serious conversation I've yet had with my 7 year old son.

More serious than the conversation about why his dad and I divorced (mostly because that happened when he was 4). More serious than the conversation about not talking to strangers (mostly because that happened when he was 3). More serious than the conversation about how important it is to tell the truth so that people are inclined to believe you rather than doubt you.

He asked me why George Bush was president, and he is too smart to take "because more people voted for him," for an answer. His immediate follow-up question was, "Why did so many people vote for him when he's such a bad president?"

My son was less than a year old on September 11, 2001.

This weekend I drove south from Washington to volunteer for the Obama campaign. They had plenty of staff in Portland, so my son and I were assigned to rural northwestern Oregon -- home to working Americans, hard-working Americans, white Americans.

Americans who are voting for Barack Obama.

Many more pictures (click for more detail) and the full story after the jump.

It was early April when an Arutz Shiva article by Gil Ronen entitled Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance came to my attention. More than once, it was forwarded to me directly or cited in blog entries claiming they'd found Obama's Achilles heel with Jewish voters. At the core of Ronen's piece was this quote from Ali Abunimah describing an encounter he had with Obama in 2004:

"As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, 'Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.' He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy [and said:] 'Keep up the good work!'"

Ronen goes on to describe Abunimah's apparent close relationship to Obama and flesh out his case for what Obama was "hiding." There was just one major problem: The article he cited by Abunimah arrived at no such conclusions.

For Mothers Day, my brilliant 7 year old son and I went to see Cake.

It was a gamble. Luckily they didn't play "Nugget."

When my boy was just 3, I used to listen to a lot of Cake in the car. We had just moved back to Washington state from Santa Cruz. The teacher in his room at preschool was also originally from Santa Cruz. This is probably why she could barely stop cracking up long enough to describe to me how, on his second day there, he had put a terracotta flower pot on his head, turned to her, and said, "Miss Molly, look! I'm a pot-head!"

Anyway, the next story Miss Molly told me was that he was singing "Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell," to himself on the playground. She commended me for my taste in music but suggested I should impress upon him the importance of not singing that particular song at school. I switched to a heavier rotation of They Might Be Giants in the car after that.

Lately, though, Cake has been back in the mix.

I've received an invitation to a "Victory Dinner" with John McCain, a fundraiser for his campaign and the Republican party.

Once I got over the sticker shock:

• Victory Dinner - $33,100 per person.
• Photo Reception - $10,000 per person/ Contribute or Raise.
• VIP Reception - $2,300 per person.
• General Reception - $1,000 per person.

I kept reading. The real story (though no big shock) is in the state parties he's raising money for. Read on to find out who -- and for something you can do with your time and money instead of posing for photos with McSame.

The number of delegate math diaries at DailyKos likely exceeds the number of undeclared super delegates in the Democratic party. Why, then, was I compelled to write one of my own?

First, there was Howard Fineman's article, "Obama's Plan to End the Race." In it, Fineman reveals that the Obama campaign figures superdelegates will have the mandate of a majority of elected delegates to use as a basis for their decisions after May 20th.

Then, there were the diaries and comments this morning opining that the May 31st meeting regarding seating FL and MI could go in Clinton's favor, thereby forcing Obama to appeal and ask that they simply not be seated, which would be seen by voters in those states as a real attempt on his part to disenfranchise them (as opposed to the months of Clinton spin claiming he was trying to disenfranchise them when he wasn't).

So with Axelrod's comments to Fineman and the Chicken Littles as my impetus, I decided to crunch the numbers and see what impact the May 31st decision might have on the nominating process.

Edited to add: I am not suggesting that I agree with this particular proposal. I am suggesting that it's fun to contemplate and chew through.

Earlier this week, Kossacks and Obama supporters raised over $20,000 for Congressman Ben Chandler after the word went out that Clinton supporters were inundating his office with angry phone calls and e-mails. It was a great example of what Obama supporters can do when they are properly motivated and a path of action is clear.

The central theme of Obama's campaign is to respond to negativity and despair with willingness to make changes and embrace hope. His grassroots organization and his fundraising machine are proof that this is possible even in an environment where frustration and disenfranchisement are at the highest levels most of us can remember.

To this end, I want to direct the Kos community to the ActBlue fundraiser page that catalogs Obama's superdelegate and elected official backers who are also running for office, and ask shamelessly for your recommendations so that we can spread the word and spread the wealth as we did for Congressman Chandler.

The link and some more specific suggestions below the fold.

My son was once sent home from school for punching a boy on the playground. He said to me, "He pushed me down first!"

I replied, "And you got caught, and you were punished for hitting him back. Learn from that."

I don't care who uploaded the video with suggested-reading subtitles. I don't care what people are convincing themselves they've heard. I don't care if it was a plant from an opponent's campaign preying upon the naivete of enthusiastic supporters with little political experience who never watched The War Room before.

I care about how it's perceived in the media, and I will not be party to hysteria. I care about whether Democrats can argue clearly and forcefully for the validity of the principles upon which the party is founded. I care about the progressive agenda emerging as the clear-headed and inclusive policy platform for the 21st century.

I had the privilege today to attend a small event with Howard Fineman, on tour to promote his new book The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates that Define and Inspire Our Country.

Having just gotten my signed copy, a book review will have to come later. But we had a good Q&A session with him, during which I asked:

17 years ago Wolf Blitzer and CNN brought the first real-time look at a war zone into American living rooms. Today, a half-dozen 24 hour news networks justify their existence by catering -- or in some cases pandering -- to different viewer demographics.

In the modern media environment, what responsibility do journalists have to disclose their biases, and how much responsibility do journalists have for shaping the narrative?

His response to the question, and the fascinating statement that gives this diary its title, below the fold.

I've commented on this numerous times with regard to strategy for callers and canvassers in Indiana's open primary, and wanted to flesh out my thoughts more fully. I'd be preaching to the choir here if I were simply to extoll the virtues of Barack Obama to the latte-sipping, Birkenstock-wearing, Prius-driving liberal activist crowd, and I don't think we need another diary in that vein.

But what do we say outside of this bubble to our Republican family members, our independent friends, or those Republicans we meet who have little incentive to vote on the Republican ballot in a primary and who are considering dabbling in the Democratic race? To me, the most important question we should ask them is:

How would you feel if Hillary Clinton was inaugurated in January 2009?

I'm beginning to think they're on a mission to disenfranchise me personally any way they can.

Way back in February, I sent a letter to the Clinton campaign explaining why I was no longer supporting her bid for the presidency. It was an eleventh hour conversion: a few days before the Washington caucuses I started reading Mrs. Clinton's comments about the states she hadn't won, and about caucuses in general, and what I read drove me to say, in part:

I take great offense, not easily forgiven or forgotten, at being told I don't matter as a voter. But I take greater offense at being told the election will be decided without me, and that you as a candidate are not asking us, the people, to elect you -- you are telling us, the people, how it's going to be.

I've lived in that country long enough. I will fight tooth and nail not to live in it any longer.

I wish I could have voted for the first woman to run for president in the United States. But of course, to hear you tell it, you don't need me.

Their latest set of goalposts is kind of like saying they're going to kick a field goal through the basketball hoop...Read on.

Do you remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs from school?

In essence, you must have certain needs met before other things become important to you. In order to care about other people, your survival needs must be met. If you have food and shelter and safety, you can start forming relationships. This continues on up the chain, through families and communities and countries. When our needs are met, we can begin considering the world around us in new ways beyond just, "Where is my next meal? What am I competing with other people/communities/countries to get?"

Now think about this in line with living in a depressed economy in a small town in America.

The Obama Campaign has made a habit of not distributing "street money" to ward leaders in previous elections, and they've said they don't plan to do so in Pennsylvania, either.

Yes, we all know that by now.

To some, it sounds like a moral victory simply on the grounds of not filtering hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed by individual donors down to GOTV workers who end up with only $10 or $20. To others, it sounds like callous disregard for how hard life is in Philadelphia's poor neighborhoods and how valuable the ward volunteers' work is.

You might be surprised, though, to know what the Obama campaign has done in Pennsylvania in the four weeks since the last primary. Join me below the fold to find out.

By now, everyone knows the story of how Mark Penn, CEO of Burson-Marsteller and former Chief Strategist for Hillary Clinton's campaign, asked to be relieved of his Chief Strategist duties following his "judgment error" in meeting with a Colombian ambassador to help push the Colombian trade agreement through Congress.

But there is so much more to the story. Keep reading after the fold.

Hillary Clinton's most recent swipe at pledged delegates -- her appeal to North Dakota caucus delegates to switch sides and vote for her -- has raised my blood pressure more than a can of V8 could.

You see, I understand that pledged delegates are not, according to DNC rules, legally or procedurally bound to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged. And I also understand that because of the way slates of delegates are filed, it's highly unlikely that pledged delegates from primary states are actually going to change their votes (unless, of course, they are pledged to a candidate who's dropped out of the race or suspended his campaign).

But what has me going is the way she's targeting caucus states. And that's because caucus states are different. I know. I live in one.