I've been in a friendly, yet heated, political argument with my uber-conservative friend for months now. I always have the answers, and usually he looks foolish. Not because he doesn't know his stuff, but because he's defending policies and ideals that in and of themselves are ridiculous.

Today was a an eye-opening day for me. I live in Houston, a cultural melting pot where hints of southern racism still linger. I knew it existed, but I never encountered it personally in my 20 years on this earth until a few hours ago. Of course I've seen it on TV, in movies, and on the news, but today I came face to face with the misguided element of ignorance that is racism. I'll explain more below the fold.

I am most definitely voting for you, and doing so with as much pride I had in you as the day I heard you speak at the Democratic Convention in 2004.

As everyone is pretty much familiar now, Lanny Davis wrote an article for Huffington Post citing several things Obama "couldn't resist" doing.

I read it, and I have my rebuttal (which I actually proffered in a comment I made on another diary).

Below the fold is Lanny's list, and then mine.

As we are all now aware, Hillary Clinton seems to poll well in some swing states like Florida, PA, and Ohio, while Obama lags a little behind her. That's not to say, however, that Obama does not have good news of his own, as evidenced in California, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. That is also not to say he will not eventually win these states where she is currently performing better.

But as for the CURRENT polls coming out, I'm not too worried when I see her do slightly better, and I'll briefly explain why below the fold.

Last night should have been a big night for Obama. He could officially declare that he has won a majority of the pledged delegates awarded during the primary season. That's fantastic news, as it essentially means he cannot lose unless all the superdelegates flock to Hillary in the next few weeks (which is incredibly unlikely when you look at the fact that he has gained an average of about 4 a day to Clinton's usual 0-1). But I wasn't very excited or happy last night when he reached that milestone.

I'll explain my personal reasons for being unhappy below the fold.