I really think we're going to absolutely crush McCain. Now that a nominee has all but been chosen, Obama's poll numbers have SHOT up vs. McCain. Even Rasmussen, notorious for putting democratic candidates 5 points back from other polls, has Obama winning +3. This morning, I logged on to check all of the recent polls, and found this one, from La Times/Bloomberg:

Obama 46, McCain 40, Undecided 9

Crosstabs and more on the other side.

http://time-blog.com/...

So, I logged on to thepage.time.com just now to find something pretty striking. It is of the possibility of a Clinton-Obama deal that would force Clinton out of the race in exchange for a few concessions. After reading it, I would not mind this deal in response to her withdrawing. She is not going to be forced to be Obama's vice president if this deal is correct, and the entire media narrative will be like in the old looney toons commercials, whenever the main character laughs as two baddies are fighting each other.. then they stop and start growling at the cowering toon figure. That could be what McCain faces, REALLY soon... More on the deal beyond the fold:

This seems very legit, guys, not like the last few "50 superdelegate" claims that linked to not-so-reputable news sources. This is great news for Obama and would put him ahead of Clinton by 16 superdelegates. It would also open the floodgate for more superdelegates to step in the race. My guess is that the 50 superdelegate rumors were true, and that Obama drip-drip-dripped 20 of these delegates over the last week. This built up momentum as he slowly turned the faucet on... and now...

I will be posting all of the polls along with the sources here as I get them.

Early Indiana turnout heavy in strong Obama counties

Early voting in Indiana could offer some encouragement to presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who needs a victory in its upcoming primary after a tough few weeks on the campaign trail.

Obama victories in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on May 6 could help him regain momentum in his nomination fight against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama has been on the defensive because of comments by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and his own comments about people in small towns growing bitter.

About 20 percent of the 127,000-plus absentee ballots received as of early Friday were cast in three Indiana counties — Marion, Monroe and Lake — that political observers believe Obama is strongly favored to win.

Lake County has a large population of black voters and is in Chicago's shadow. Obama has typically won big among college-age voters, and Monroe County is the home of Indiana University in Bloomington. Obama's campaign sought out IU students with voter registration and early voting drives and a free Dave Matthews concert.

In only a few hours, the Guam Democratic primary will begin.

http://www.cbsnews.com/...

Political watchers may be focused on next Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, but those states aren't next in line on the nominating calendar. That designation falls to the territory of Guam, where four delegates are up for grabs in caucuses tomorrow.

And in a tight Democratic nomination battle in which every delegate counts, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not ignoring the oft-overlooked territory, which is about 20 hours from Washington D.C. by plane but just a few hours from Japan.

Here is the meme, to set the stage, from the Clinton Camp:

As the Pennsylvania primary approaches, Sen. Barack Obama has tapped into an unmatched wealth of financial resources in an effort to deliver the electoral knockout punch, outspending Sen. Hillary Clinton by a margin of roughly 2.3-to-1 on ad buys alone.

According to figures provided by a campaign source, Obama has spent $11,246,573 in media purchases in Pennsylvania, almost 3 dollars ($2.78) for every registered Democrat in the state and roughly $1.87 million a week. Clinton has spent $4,852,541, a bit more than $800,000 a week.

Hopefully, we can use this diary to colaborate every leak, every number, every figure we hear and analyze them with respect to the current election process. So far, this is all we know:

Today, something extraordinary happened. For the first time in 30 years, the federal government is considering decriminalizing up to 100 grams of marijuana, and decriminalizing the not-for-profit transfer of up to an ounce of the controlled substance. This will have an extraordinary impact on many American's lives. Should this bill pass, gone are the days of the federal government kicking down grandma's door for smoking marijuana to alleviate her pain. Gone are the days of college students with so many hopes and dreams losing all of their scholarships and going to jail because they had the audacity to buy a plant. This is too important for us to pass up, it is social change in the making, and if this bill passes, it will be historic.

Let me make the case for better marijuana laws, in case many of you need a little more information to support this bill.

So, I am writing this to inform everyone that our actions are not in vain. We can get a concession or two out of ABC, possibly even an apology. We need to let them know that we will NOT stand up for shoddy journalism anymore. We need to contact their advertisers, who are already in bad economic times, and let them know that we will NOT support them if they continue to advertise on ABC. We need to fire off emails to ABC, tell them that we have stopped watching their programs and call for a little bit of common decency in journalism. We need to let them know that we feel shortchanged.

We already are, and don't think that the world isnt listening to us. We are on the precipice of making a difference here, and at the end of this diary, I will have plenty of action items for you, DailyKos readers, to follow up on.

I would first like to say that I visit MyDD often, just to read the opinions of those who are a little bit more center-leaning in the party. I care about a lot of the same issues that those on MyDD care about, and I remember a time where there was not nearly so much animosity between Daily Kos and MyDD. That being said, Daily Kos has always been the more respectable site to me... more issues than candidates are talked about, people here tend to be a little more left-leaning, and the intelligence level here is very high. Every site has its ups and downs, its good diaries and bad diaries, but upon checking MyDD today, I was floored to see a diary coming from our fellow democrats...

It read... Lou Dobbs is Correct.

McCain, in my eyes, represents the republican view of science and technology. He employs a series of beliefs that have little to no scientific standing or evidence, and goes against scientific findings. First, it was his pandering to those who seek to remove evolution from public schools. Then, it was his stupid position on vaccines and their "risks of autism." Now, its condoms and whether or not they help prevent AIDS, as well as McCain's position on sex education in the united states. His support for bush's policy on sex education is not even nearly as egregious as his statements here. I don't even need to editorialize, here it is straight from the horses mouth:

http://www.youtube.com/...

So, enough of Reverend Wright. Preachers tend to say things that piss people off, and with so many religions and so many beliefs, somebody is bound to get offended. However, if they so desire to examine Obama's life under a microscope to search for every imperfection in every person he's ever touched, associated with, or observed, then we can do the same with McCain.

Lets start with the words of his own pastor:

"No other ethnic group in the United States has been decimated more by abortion than the Afro-American community. The war being waged upon innocent captives in the womb is led by Planned Parenthood. The strategy?Convince the targeted community to accept their eugenic racist plan by selecting one from their ethnicity to promote it."

But there is more...

I posted this diary a few times. Each time, I've said for the people who have read it not to send it to the rec list. I still do not want you to send it to the rec list, because I don't want it to all into the wrong hands. However, now that there is a strike going on, it seems like there will be fewer Hillary supporters on the site, and furthermore, there are few republicans on the site right now until the general election hits.

Right now, Obama is taking some serious heat. But, sometimes its easy to lose sight of the fact that in the end, its almost 100% certain Obama will come out ahead in pledged delegates, ahead in the popular vote, and almost certainly ahead in the superdelegate count if superdelegate endorsements keep coming in at the rate they are coming in. However, right now, we need to be powerful and get our voices heard to the media. You need to flood the media with well-written responses to the current media frenzy. Let them know you are NOT happy with the coverage as a whole, and let them know what you think. So, here it is, with two rules...

USE BLIND CARBON COPY
DO NOT RECOMMEND

I thought long and hard about this. I did not want this to fall  into enemy hands. In 2004, I started a list of media email contacts that was about 600 people long, here at dailykos. I released these contacts after we had a nominee. This turned out to be a BAD idea, because republicans were visiting the site en masse back then. I saw my list posted on freep, and realized I had made a mistake.

I am only leaving this up for 10 minutes, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Get your txtpads ready, get your fingers a clicking, and get ready to do some crazy copy-pasting. I am about to post an email list of nearly all of the news media outlets in the country. It is up to you to use this wisely.

Remember this...

blind carbon copy
Feel free to recommend now, so that others can ask for the list and you can distribute it

If I catch a single one of you not blind carbon copying, and trust me, I'm watching, I'm going to be very pissed off.

Right now, that is not certain. Sure, she won the primary, but remember that there were many factors going into the primary that may not have been present in the caucuses. Remember that Hillary Clinton's campaign said "it's about the delegates"

"Clinton picked up 65 primary delegates to Obama's 61. But the Obama campaign expects to win the Texas caucuses, which means Obama may net more delegates than Clinton when all the delegate's are finally settled."

http://www.kvue.com/...

CNN just ran a piece about how the Texas two-step may have favored Obama. Surely, the reports around show a moderate win for Obama in the caucuses, and a very small win for Clinton in the primary. How can we explain this discrepancy? More beyond the fold:

As soon as the speech is done, someone try to find it, and I'll post it.

http://www.news.com.au/...

"ARACK Obama pummelled Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the latest round of their battle for the White House nomination today, earning momentum and valuable delegates with big wins in Washington and Nebraska caucuses.

Senator Obama registered comfortable victories in both states, outscoring Senator Clinton by margins of roughly 2 to 1, according to media projections.

His triumphs will boost the Illinois senator's campaign to be the country's first black president, after a fierce Super Tuesday duel that saw the two share the honours.

It was not immediately clear how many delegates Senator Obama picked up from his victories today with the two locked in a tussle for the 2025 delegates needed to win the party's nomination for November's presidential elections. "