Barack Obama is getting a psychological boost from Allstate ads featuring actor Dennis Haysbert. These commercials may end up helping Obama win in November.

I learned a new word this week, and it comes by way of the Boston Celtics.  Doc Rivers introduced this word to his team as a way of uniting them in a common cause: to win a championship.  So far it seems to be working.

None other than Nelson Mandela once described the Bantu word this way:

    "Obuntu (sic) recognizes that my humanity is bound up with yours."

The word also means justice and respect for every person.

Is it any surprise that Obama has seemingly tapped into the spirit of Ubuntu during his historic run for the presidency?  I think it is the perfect description for how he has run his campaign.

Events this momentous are few and far between, and sadly they are usually tragic events: where were you when JFK was shot, or Bobby; where were you when you heard that the Challenger/Columbia had been destroyed; where were you when the planes hit the twin towers?  Tragedies all, but not this time, to quote one of my favorite people in the world.  This time we bear witness to a positive event, an historical moment in American history.  Where were you when Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination?

Yeah, I know, no one here likes Zogby, but their tracking poll in PA was pretty darned accurate, much to my displeasure, hoping beyond all hope that Sen. Obama would win PA in an upset.  But take a look at this:

About a month ago, someone here in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, stole my Obama yard sign and replaced it with a McCain sign from across the street.  No problem; I returned the McCain sign, and ordered another yard sign, making another donation to Obama while I was at it.  Fast forward to last night...

Even though I've already donated this month, twice actually (just had to take part in that million dollars in one minute thing!), I responded to Barack Obama's request for another donation this morning.  Now, you must know that I am not a rich guy; I live on a strict budget being a single, stay-at-home dad with two kids (who eat a heck of a lot).  I don't have a lot of extra cash lying around.  But this is important to me!  We have to get Barack up and over, and soon!

I've fallen for the trap yet again.  I swore I would never get my hopes up again, not after Gore in 2000, not after Kerry in 2004, nope, never again.  Until...

I had always liked and respected Sen. John W. McSame, and even voted for him in the 2000 primaries because I liked that he pushed back against the Republican establishment.  Then came the moment of truth for Sen. McSame, and sadly he was not able to show his quality.

I can't believe it!  I thought for sure today would be the day.  Howard Dean essentially asked the supers to go ahead and make their decisions now.  Where are they?  Why are they waiting?  What are they waiting for?

I'm just one man, and there's a limit to what I can do.  I have so many hopes for America and the world, but it's such a daunting task to try to make any meaningful change.  I do the little things each day to help (and I won't go into detail because I think talking about one's good works diminishes their importance dramatically), but the little things I do don't seem to sway the direction of the country or the world. So what can I do?

How has the MSM missed this?  Oh, that's right, they're preoccupied by the bitter thing.  Here is yet another case of Hillary changing her tune in response to the changing tide (like being for the war when it was popular, and then being against it when she started running for president). NOW, Hillary says that she WOULD have discussions with Iran with no conditions.  Let me see, where have I heard that before?  Oh, that's right, Barack Obama said it first, way back in July.

The 24-hour news cycle, and the morphing of the mainstream news and information media into something just short of tabloid journalism may eliminate any chance this country has of ever electing a truly great president again.  How can it be otherwise when a candidate's every comment and every gesture and every flaw is put under a microscope while the important issues of the day are viewed by the media as nothing more than boring afterthoughts, something to be covered absent a more titillating story?  

While I have to admit that I'm dubious about some of the information posted on Debka.com, they have been right from time to time.  I hope they are not right this time.  I came across this little tidbit today:

According to British media, the US is set to attack Iranian military facilities. DEBKAfile’s military sources add that the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf.

More after the fold.

It's pure and simple: stop watching television news.  The withdrawal symptoms may be severe for those of you who live and die by what the pundits say, but the end results are pure bliss.

This has been a very important week for Barack Obama.  While many may not look back to this week and single it out as the game-changing moment of the campaign, there is a definite feeling of something having changed during this time.  It may be the drip, drip, to trickle of new super delegates, it may be the hints dropped by Jimmy Carter as to who he may be endorsing, it may be the general consensus by the big wigs in charge of the Democratic Party that supers ought to start making their decisions sooner rather than later.  But something has definitely changed.

Yup, yesterday was no fluke; today's Gallup results show that Obama remains at 50%, while Clinton added 1 point to reach 43%

As per the Gallup website

http://www.gallup.com/

Barack Obama still holds the lean nationally.

Like many of you, I watched with great excitement and anticipation as the primaries and caucuses fell one by one into either Barack Obama's camp or into Hillary Clinton's camp.  While it was very apparent that Barack Obama was attracting a lot of positive reviews and general excitement from the media (so much so that it single-handidly resurrected the life of the fading SNL), I also noticed very early on that there was a strange kind of reverse bias going on in relation to how the media was covering the Clinton campaign.