Ben Smith over at Politico posted an email from a colleague relaying Obama's genius response to Hillary's throwing down the guantlet today.

Firing back at Hillary's criticism of his NAFTA mailers here, Obama said tonight that she can't pick and choose from her husband's administration.

"You can’t be for something or take credit for an administration and 35 years of experience and then when you run for president suggest somehow you didn’t really mean what you said back then," Obama said to applause at a rally of about 5,000. "It doesn't work that way."

He said Clinton had in fact supported the trade deal that is blamed for thousands of job losses in the industrial hub of this state and that is viewed as something akin to cancer by Ohio Democrats.

"The truth is that Sen. Clinton supported NAFTA before she ran for president. That is indisupatable. She called it 'a victory' in her book. She told people it has proved its worth. T hose are facts."

This is the perfect response and Clinton opened up a long overdue opportunity today for Obama to nail her on the 35 years experience argument. More below the fold.

The new Time poll this am shows that Obama beats McCain 48-41, while McCain and Hiliary tie, 46-46. It makes the point that independents break for McCain when he is matched against Hiliary, but they go for Obama when the match up is Obama v. McCain. This has always been the crux of my argument for supporting Obama. (There are other arguments to be sure, but this is the one that makes the case to me.)

Link:

TPM story

If you aren't yet a James Wolcott devotee, i suggest you try him out...he's a staple on my daily blog roll...he doesn't post every day, but i find myself waiting with tail-wagging enthusiasm for each new post. His elegant prose works a sardonic take on media and the tragedy of Bush II into a regular splash of cold water.

His characterization of today's passage of the bankruptcy bill:

more below the jump

Today at the confirmation hearings of Condi Rice, Sen Voinovich, R-OH was questioning her on how negatively America is viewed in the world.  He expressed how astounded he was at how much anti-American sentiment abounded in the areas of Europe he had visited. He lead into his request for her plans to alleviate this by commending US moves to respond the the tsunami disaster in southeast asia. This is an almost exact quote of the first sentence of her answer:

"I agree that the tsunami was a wonderful opportunity and we are getting great dividends from that..." (with a smile/smirk)

echoing the sentiments of other diarists such as in ssolice's "public health now dead on dkos", the topic of health care these days (agreed far less sexy than voter fraud and DNC chair politics) raises the question: if a diary is not read by anyone, is there really a diary message? However,  it is a powerful (if somewhat murky) current in many other issues as raised in bonddad's diary on "weekly economic wrap up". Therefore, I think it deserves regular, if largely unread mention.

An article with good brushstrokes on some of the issues in healthcare can be found in today's NYT.  It serves as much needed exposure about the real issues in health care that are not going to be solved by BushCo's Health Savings Accounts.

more below the fold.

BushCo has bought into the idea of "health savings accounts" as designed by a couple of economists named John C. Goodman and Mark Pauly. These guys hang out at a conservative Dallas think tank and Bush has been smitten with their ideas for some time now. A recent university alumni rag with high circulation featured a completely unbalanced piece about Goodman and his ideas as "an answer to health care costs". (prefer to be vague to reveal few specifics about myself)

These accounts ARE NOT AN ANSWER to our nation's health care problems. I agree with the framing diaries on this site that we should not call them "health savings accounts."  more on why below the fold...

If anyone was wondering if BushCo noticed those kids who protested with a sit-in to voice their concerns after the election. They did. The secret service visited Boulder High School.

What better way to squelch dialogue and civic involvement than to hound the young patriots with your goons.

Denver's NBC affiliate, Channel 9 has the story.

In the spirit of working on the "frame" war that we desparately need to join, I am posting this diary to discuss the judiciary.

After being whipped all weekend (despite efforts to avoid mainstream media) with Rove's diatribe about taking on "activist judges"..i realized we do not have a counterpoint to this frame and it is going to be one of our biggest issues. Judges are going to be deciding everything from what our kids learn and say in school to personal reproductive issues.

I believe we can engage the otherwise general apathetic public about this.

MILLIONS TO THE STREETS: Let's turn inauguration day into "NO MANDATE DAY" on 1/20/05.

this diary comes from a thread that is growing in the main page post "Sit Down" by DHinMI (good stuff there, by the way.)'jenifera' floated the idea in the mainpage thread. the name cames courtesy of 'willyr'.  'Mesoalchemist' offered the idea of making it international.

let's see how many of the 55.4 million who voted to for Kerry would be willing to come? we could get all the orgs involved. (moveon, act,..)
We could do it in DC, state capitols, and locally. It would be invigorating. We could get enough media attn to steal W's thunder.

We have to start planning now. (Who's gonna design the T-shirt?)

I appreciate the recommended diary on by galiel about getting what this election is really about. I think that diary nails the critical crossroads this country is facing. This diary is NOT to rehash the hit-the-nail-on-the-head-ness of galiels diary and your excellent posts.

this is a "praxis" version of that topic. below are a list of organizations dedicated to protecting the separation of church and state. maybe we should funnel some of our energies and resources in their direction. (it might be a therapeutic start.)

I am sure many of you got this mass emailing from the DNC, but I thought is warranted a diary's worth of celebration and attention. Sounds like the Kerry campaign is going to give them a run for the money in Colorado. Nice to know that all those donations we are throwing their way are making a difference.