I am an Obama supporter.  I'm not someone who trashes the other candidates.  Look, we all get caught up in the candidates we believe in, but there is no question that anyone in the Democratic field will change our country for the better.

But I'm depressed.  I feel happy for Hillary.  I think she's great.  A strong candidate.  A huge change for the country.  A great potential president.

Still, I'm depressed.  Barack is something different.  A once in a lifetime candidate.  Someone who has the potential to really change the debate.  I think we need that.  Hillary can win the debate.  That is huge.  But she is part of it, she can't change it.

I'm sad that, as I see it, New Hampshire did not vote for the bigger picture.  It was rally behind who was down.  It was vote for change -- vote for the woman. All great reasons.

But this year, it was a lost opportunity for a real change not just in our country, but in our politics.  We still need it.  I hope we get it.

Obama still has a great shot.  Even if he doesn't win, the Dem candidate can make this country much better.  But sadly we will have lost out on an amazing chance to really create a movement.

I submit this diary not to add to the uproar over Kos' now infamous post writing off Ford in the Tennessee Senate race.  Instead, I merely wanted to share the encouraging numbers that have come up in last 24 hours or so.  Any shift towards Corker has now not only abated, but the momentum is clearly with Ford.

Numbers below the fold...

SurveyUSA is out with a new poll showing Francine Busby within 3 points in her second go round against Brian Bilbray in California 50.

Bilbray (R)     49%
Busby (D)       46%

Likely Voters. MoE 4.1%.

I'm sure many forgot about this race after the special election, but it is clear that this is still winnable.  You need further evidence?  How about the fact that the NRCC has dumped several thousand into the race over the last week or so.

Things are definitely looking good when the Republicans need to scramble to try to hold on to a seat they won a few months ago with the exact same candidates.

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the Senate races in 2006.  Included is a discussion on changes from last week and other notes from the last week of news for the Senate campaigns.  Last week's rankings are here.

Short diary, but I hadn't seen any attention given to the new Connecticut poll released by ARG today.

It shows Lieberman ahead of Lamont 47-45 with only 3% going to Schlesinger/Others.  This is pretty much in line with the recent Rasmussen poll that had the race at 45-43 Lieberman with 5% going to Schlesinger.

The other recent poll on the race, by SurveyUSA, has Lieberman with a sizable lead: 51-38.  But hopefully that one is merely an outlier.

OK, so the headline is clearly overly optimistic.  But the recent news is very good and seems to be getting better (a Laffey win and I would be dancing in the streets).

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the Senate races in 2006.  Included is a discussion on changes from last week and other notes from the last week of news for the Senate campaigns.  Last week's rankings are here.

I apologize for the short diary entry, but you must take a look at this new ad by VoteVets.  It's a great ad against George Allen that focuses on Allen's vote against appropriating money for more modern body armor for troops in Iraq.

According to the VoteVets site, they are going to run similar ads against other Republicans.  Donors to VoteVets get to choose the next Republican targeted.  Give them some money, this is a great way to go on the offensive against Republicans and get them on the defensive regarding national security and supporting the troops.

Also blogged about at TPMCafe.

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the Senate races in 2006.  Included is a discussion on changes from last week and other notes from the last week of news for the Senate campaigns.  Last week's rankings are here.

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the Senate races in 2006.  Included is a discussion on changes from last week and other notes from the last week of news for the Senate campaigns.  Last week's rankings are here.

With my weekly senate rankings so popular (1 whole comment on this weeks update!), I thought I would provide a ranking of competitive House races as well.  Hey, I'm enough of a political dork to do it on my own, so why not share it?  In any case, it is important to know where the races that matter most are to target volunteer efforts and donations.  Plus with the push for the Netroots Candidates in full swing, it is interesting to see where the races fall in the whole scheme of things.

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the Senate races in 2006.  Included is a discussion on changes from last week and other notes from the last week of news for the Senate campaigns.  Last week's rankings are here.

With two polls released today on everyone's favorite topic, the Connecticut senate race, I thought it would be interesting to look at the party breakdown in the most recent polls out there.

Below the flip are the party breakdowns for the most recent ARG, Rasmussen, and Quinnipiac polls.

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the senate races in 2006.  The races are ranked by most likely to switch parties and I have separate rankings for seats currently held by Democrats and seats currently held by Republicans.  Last week's rankings are here (I've dumped the color coding because it seemed to cause some problems on certain browsers).

Following is my weekly updated ranking of all of the senate races in 2006.  The races are ranked by most likely to switch parties and I have separate rankings for seats currently held by Democrats and seats currently held by Republicans.

Each race is also color coded as follows:

Safe Democratic - Dark Blue

Likely Democratic - Medium Blue

Leans Democratic - Light Blue

Toss Up - Purple

Leans Republican - Light Red/Orange

Likely Republican - Medium Red/Orange

Safe Republican - Dark Red

Some props for Rahm Emanuel please.  According to the NY Times, this is Emanuel's response to the Lamont victory in CT:

"This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the head of the Democratic House Congressional campaign. "This is not about the war. It's blind loyalty to Bush."

Following is my ranking of all of the senate races in 2006.  The races are ranked by most likely to switch parties and I have separate rankings for seats currently held by Democrats and seats currently held by Republicans.

The approval numbers are from SurveyUSA's most recent 50-state tracking poll and are as of July 25.  The polling numbers are the most recent from Rasmussen.  Cash on hand numbers are the Second Quarter numbers filed with the FEC (accurate as of June 30).

I'm sure this diary is just what everyone wants - another diary on the Ohio Senate race.  But hear me out, because this diary is really about something much more.  It is about the nature of the Democratic pary.

Now that another diary has hit the recommended list on the Ohio Senate race, and afer reading the comments it has engendered I believe a discussion about the nature of a political party is warranted.  And, specifically, what the Democratic party is.

Take a look at the new Rasmussen poll on the Maryland senate race.

Cardin - 49
Steele - 35

(Steele and Mfume are basically tied - 42-41 Steele).

Cardin is up by 14 points on Steele!  It is obvious that Steele's problems are real.  His communications director and campaign manager are truely jumping off of a sinking ship.

This is great news.  If the Dems don't need to end up worrying about holding Maryland it really only leaves Minnesota and New Jersey as potential lost seats.  And both of those have to be considered to be Dem leans.