Obama is holding an event in Parma Ohio, in a school I think. Larege enthusiastic crowd, although it does appear to be a high school. He had to work very hard to get the crowd to settle down. This will be a "Town hall" style meeting, so he is giving a short speech, and then he will answer questions.

I am going to fill in with some X's now, so you guys miss as little as possible.

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According to the Dallas Morning News, Gore and "other Senior Democrats" are discussing getting involved in the race to prevent the dreaded Super delegate clusterfuck. Quotes from the DMN below;  

Right up front, this diary was inspired by "Where I call your butt out"... and I would have commented there if not for the 400+ comments already, and besides the whole freak-out over "personality cults is a pet peeve of mine anyway.

I am a Deaniac, having gotten involved for the first time in '03... and I fit the stereotypes of a Deaniac very well. If we can get people into office that actually represent me, I will probably no longer live on this blog. I care about GLBT rights, because I am an L, I care about abortion rights because I am a woman and because both my mother and my sister had backstreet abortions, etc... But I don't care enough to live here full time. I will always be more active than I used to be, but that's because I am more conscious now of my responsibilities as a citizen. I am here because I am a citizen, not because I am an "activist" in a traditional sense, or because I am a rabid partisan. In the past, the guys I got excited about never got off the ground, but they could be Dems or Republicans. They were Powell, Cuomo, and McCain. What does all this have to do with my provocative title? Answers below.

My guess is that this is a very important time for the campaign as we shift from retail to wholesale. I know Obama has  organized well in many states, but Obama is a retail politician, Hillary has been sold as inevitable for way over a year, and she has universal name recognition. Clinton is a resume, Obama a persona. In order to close the sale at this stage will take ads. Now, I have heard that neither campaign has the money to really do the traditional ad blitzes, but We can change that.

Commentary later, from The Nation;

Great speeches don't matter if no one hears them. Barack Obama delivered a riveting speech about America's moral crisis this weekend, calling for a united movement to overcome the nation's moral deficit and mounting economic inequalities. Political observers praised the address, the reporters covered it--53 mentions in major papers--yet it's been largely overshadowed by the escalating fight between Obama and the Clinton's... But it turns out the public found Obama's speech anyway...While cable news shows gorge on campaign sparring, Obama's uplifting speech is absolutely dominating YouTube. The 34-minute address from Ebenezer Baptist Church is currently the fourth most viewed video in the world on YouTube, trailing two Britney Spears clips. Not only is that unusual traffic for a long political address – people also like it. On Tuesday, viewers voted it the second most "favorited" video in the world.

I don't know, I have been hot and cold on Bill lately. He was great when he took on that little weasel on Faux, but lately he really isn't impressing.

What really gets me is that Bill isn't just "overshadowing" Hillary, he has taken over. Cafferty said that Bill was talking incessantly about "my Administration" on the stump today, not about his wife. It's the old Ram being challenged by the young buck apparently, after all Bill was the "change candidate". His behavior has become rather unseemly, and not fitting to his status as a former President. I mean, can you imagine the clips of Clinton calling Obama a "fairy tale" in a Republican commercial?  

I know all the pundits are saying so, but the truth is all she stopped was his coronation, which is a very different thing. We forget that it was only 2 months ago that Clinton looked like the sure winner because a few days ago it looked like Obama was going to rap up the nomination just like Kerry did in 2004, on his first attempt to grab the brass ring. But this isn't 2004 when Dems were so desperate to beat Bush that they quickly rallied behind the "winner" of Iowa.

Even with Obama's narrow loss we have seen a whole raft of endorsements come his way from "establishment" folks, and now the LA Wave has published an article about the excitement Obama's performance thus far has generated in the grassroots.

Quotes below...  

Very early results, at precinct 214, 86 people turned up for the Democratic cacaus in '04, this time 267 people have... 3 times more folks according to MSNBC. This site is a REPUBLICAN leaning precinct. Tim reports that there is evidence that this is happening across the state, and that they are having trouble fitting all the people in. Early indications are that there are more folks there for Clinton and Obama "than the other candidates".

Not looking good for Edwards, but they did say that second tier candidates might go Obama's way out of the fear that if Hill wins it's all over. If Obama wins they might live to fight another day.

My stomach is starting to rev up, how about yours?  

The Washington Post has a spotty record overall, but in this case I think they are spot on when they connect the dots regarding the recent attacks by surrogates of the Hillary campaign on Obama, as well as the possible fallout among African Americans.

From the WPO;
It has unfolded mostly under the radar. But an important development in the 2008 Democratic battle maybe the building backlash among African Americans over comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Clinton that could be construed as jabs at Sen. Barack Obama's race.

Move after the break...

Remember when Hillary Clinton followed up Bill Shaneen's Obama=drug dealer rap with; "I've been vetted, there will be no surprises?" Turns out that claim may ring false. According to an article out today, there is a Bill Clinton-Cayman Islands connection;

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg)--Former President Bill Clinton's decision to reconsider a business relationship with California billionaire Burkle reflects concern those financial dealings may embarrass his wife's candidacy ... financial disclosure forms by Hillary Clinton show that Bill Clinton, 61, has a financial stake in three investment entities registered in the Cayman Islands by Burkle Yupcaipa Cas.LLC.

More after the break.

Frank Rich has penned a great piece this week on the Romney speech and why Oprah matters more than the pundits realized. The real kicker is at the end however, when he argues that the real reason Obama is on the rise is the divisive politics the Republicans have been pushing for years. Here is the money quote;

For those Americans looking for the most unambiguous way to repudiate politicians who are trying to divide the country by faith, ethnicity, sexuality and race, Mr. Obama is nothing if not the most direct shot. After hearing someone like Mitt Romney preach his narrow, exclusionist idea of "Faith in America", some Americans may see a vote for Mr. Obama as a vote for faith in America itself.

My thoughts on why he is spot on and Obama might have it in the bag below.

What's the new hot scoop on Obama? More breathless kindergarten revelations? No? The awful truth the Clinton mashine just dug up is that gasp, he isn't a politician at all, he is the real "real deal", a public servant. And the oppo proves it.

How you say? Well, as dumb as the Clinton attacks were today, they had to throw something out there. So they did, they threw out what their oppo had turned up... that Obama dreamed of being the president in grade school, while I was dreaming about being Spiderman.

Get it? This guy is cleaner than clean, the Clinton's simply aren't that stupid. They used this because it was all they had.

Seymour Hersh spoke at UC Irving on Tuesday as reported in The Nation, and pulled no punches regarding the trouble we are in regarding the Mideast:

Even after Bush's term ends, "much of the damage is yet to come", Hersh said. "the problems for the next president maybe intractable". "They say the surge has worked", Hersh said. "But do you think that someday we will get the oil deal in Iraq? They'll burn the fields first. We're hated in Iraq", he stated.

The money quote regarding Obama follows below.

First let me say that I am an Obama fan, but none the less, I think he did a great job. He didn't dodge on Rezco, saying that although the land deal wasn't slimy it was a mistake...not just because Rezco had been indited but also because he was a contributer. He dealt well with Potato Heads constant attempts  to get him to say he would attack Iran if they didn't give up their nuclear ambitions. He explained the difference between preparations for meeting with Iran and "preconditions", pointing out that demanding that other countries do as you say prior to meeting isn't in fact negotiating.

Most importantly though, he summed up why he is by far the best candidate to nominate when Russert asked if Hillary could win. His answer is below...  

Although without the !!!, I have to admit. Indeed, their announcement that Peak Oil has officially arrived was fairly low key. In a story about the new spike in crude oil prices, Gibson observed that the 100$ a barrel milestone was about to be breached. Following that he stated that prices were unlikely to fall soon according to experts, because supply is decreasing while demand is increasing.

Got that? Every aspect of our lives is based on unbelievable cheap energy, energy so cheap that it makes sense to get your food from at least 3000 miles away and to kill of local agriculture. How much longer is that going to work as the price of oil keeps going up as supples decline?

Supply is decreasing while demand is increasing is the very definition of Peak Oil.  

Juan Cole of Informed Comment caught this juicy quote from a Stanford round table discussion entitled "Courting disaster: The fight for Oil, Water, and a Healthy Planet". The round table discussion included the likes of Thomas Friedman and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, as well as General John Abizaid.

From The Stanford Daily Online;

While Hennessy, Matson, Friedman and Bryson discussed green technology, the subject of America's operations in Iraq was also a hotly debated topic. Abizaid, who was formerly the Commander of the United States Central Command, quickly established a connection between the the two topics. "Of course it's about the oil, we can't really deny that", Abizaid said of the Iraq Campaign early in the talk.

Funny thing is, they have been denying it all along. But now Abizaid has joined Greenspan in stating the obvious.

Thank god no one was badly hurt apparently, but it's still scary.  From the WPO;

Hampton, Iowa--A campaign van carrying the wife of Senator Barack Obama collided with a motorcycle on a two lane country road in Central Iowa on Tuesday, sending the motorcyclist to the hospital.

Long story short: After the van started a left turn a motorcycle plowed into the left side of it. The motorcyclist was driving at high speed and the driver had passed many other vehicles on the left. Apparently he was trying to pass again when the van began to turn. No one in the van was hurt, although the van was totaled. The guy landed in some soft grass, but wasn't wearing a helmet. He had a cut on his head, but was conscious and lucid when taken to the hospital. The campaign rally was canceled because Michelle said it was not the time to campaign, but promised to return.

Update [2007-10-9 19:40:16 by PLS]: MSNBC just reported the story on Hardball.

The current goal on the Obama website is an astonishing 350,000 individual donors, and 500,000 donations. There are less than 24 hours left until the deadline, lets get cracking people...it can easily be done. You can give as little as 5$'s and help make history, lets push Obama over the top! At 6:00 pm, the ticker sat at 346,679 individual donations and 495,241 donations. This goal is easily within our reach if we all do our part, and I think everyone should even if they support another candidate. I heard on the news the other day that Obama was coming close to trumping the whole Republican field on either number of donors, the number of donations, or perhaps both. Even total dollars is possible as I was concentrating on something else and tuned in part way through the few lines the MSM thought this fact merited. Regardless, think of the waves that would generate, if the headlines declared that more folks were excited by one Democratic candidate than by the whole Republican lineup! And even more humiliating to the Repugs, this guy is running second in a strong field.

More below