Life Rising

The new Gallup poll numbers just arrived for today. The tide has officially turned - Obama 47; McCain 45. This is the first lead Obama has had in this poll since prior to the Republican convention. Combine this with the results of the Hotline /FTD Tracking poll this morning showing Obama up by 4, and we can all let out a big exhale. Over on realclearpolitics, the in-trade market odds now favor Obama for the first time in over a week. As for the electoral map, in a no-toss-up scenario, Obama leads McCain 286 to 252. Virginia appears to be going blue.

States to obsess over: Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and New Mexico. He can win without Virginia and Ohio, but it would be so much sweeter to have them along for the ride.

Barack took his time. He let the Palin phenomenon wear off. He refined his tactics.

He'll win. He's got the vision. He's got the plan.

Chillin' for now!

A Campaign Strategy Session with David Plouffe

A lot of good information in this video regarding battleground state strategies.

Looks Like a Big Mac Attack to me

hmmmm.....

Brutal Sarah

Cultural differences aside, there are certain things that are tolerable and certain things that are not. Aerial shooting of wolves and the barbaric shooting of 13 wolf pups in the head approved by Palin after the mother had been shot is not something most of us will tolerate. We've seen what happens when a president and his party govern to their own personal interests. It must never be allowed to happen again. Please see youtube link below.

Clearly Real

A new poll just released by Hotline/FTD Tracking has Obama up 46 to 42. 909 registered voters were interviewed between 9-13 and 9-15 for this poll.

Hey drillers....I'm chillin' watching the numbers on realclearpolitics moving back to the Obama column. Looks like the smooth sailin' with McPalin is hittin' some choppy seas. Not sure if the "fundamentals of the McCain campaign" are sound afterall.

Thoughts of a Grandmother

...excerpts from a recent conversation with my 91 year-old grandmother.

"Mark, honey, you know I adore Barack Obama."

"Really; I kind of like him myself."

"But you want to know what I say about John McCain, Mark?"

"What?"

"He's a perfect asshole."

And that's what it's like chillin' with Grandma.

What Is, Is. What Will Be, Will Be.

I believed in 2004 that we'd be judged harshly by the rest of the world if we kept Bush in office, and I believe we, indeed, have been. New alliances, perhaps hostile to our long term interests, are forming all around us. With our new found penchant for unilateralism (Bush Doctrine), our president’s obsession with oil, defense and personal wealth - and his limited abilities as a statesman - we are weaker and more insular, mired in a political morass that has already rendered America less relevant. Were it not for the fact that we can - and do - instill fear in others because we spend more than the rest of the world combined on our military, we'd be crushed. If the American people are foolish enough to do it again - at a time when polls show that 80% of us don’t approve of the direction we've taken - then we deserve what we get from the rest of the world, not to mention what we're handed by our next government. Our fiscal house is near collapse. Our national debt is near $10 trillion. Many Americans, including the McCains, are paying 30% on their credit card debt. Many of them, and many others, are America’s “foreclosed-upons” - landing homeless on the streets, literally. We learn, now, that if the GOP has their way, some of them won’t get to vote in Michigan. And, we've had the good sense to let close to 50 million of our own go without an insurance policy on their health. This suggests that we seem to care only for ourselves, but not our next door neighbor. We seem to misunderstand the relationship - not to mention the [American] value - between the health of our citizenry to the health and security of our country. Our hamburgers are fatter than ever, and so are our people. Diet Coke is not working. America is not well by any means.

We're at a tipping point. While half of us don't see the problem, half of us do. I believe the Obama campaign finally reached their tipping point with the new ad released by Republicans regarding children’s education legislation supported by Obama. That was the Willie Horton moment we knew would come. If I'm right – or perhaps, better said, if we’re lucky - Obama is another Lincoln: I suspect he’s somewhat reclusive, very brilliant, deeply contemplative, dark in some corners of his soul, passionate about saving the union from itself, and able to persuade us first, then lead us out of our self-inflicted quagmire - toward a more promising tomorrow, not to mention a more perfect union. I have to believe that while he begins to hit back, he's generally suspending his judgment, seeking the wisdom from his better angels and taking his time in thoughtful preparation for a major statement – and a major political move. If that sounds like hope, it is. He was wise to give the excitement generated by Sarah Palin a week or so to cool down; at the same time, the Republicans were smart to milk this new, if not ephemeral, wave of enthusiasm for their new cowgirl – in this case, one part Eskimo. The polls are turning back in Obama’s favor. Palin threatened Putin and her favorable ratings are way down. McCain – in his newly tailored shiny suits (courtesy of a well-suited NYC tailor) – continues to speak in code (“…I’ll appoint judges who do literal interpretations of the constitution”) and project dementia (“..the economy is sound”). Obama’s next moves will determine the race. The Audacity of Hope was yesterday. The Audacity of Clear Economic Vision & Clarity is his call to arms today. He has so much to gain. It’s still very much his to lose.

Are John McCain and Sarah Palin agents of change? No. Are they today’s latest GOP pawns in a cynical “Ex-Change” of two warn-out, hawked-out, radical taxers and record deficit spenders for two new ones? Yes. A cloud hangs over one-half of the electorate, obfuscating their judgment and potentially leading us to an even more dangerous and, I’m afraid, more fatuous future as a country. I choose to think, to hope, to anticipate, that our better angels will prevail.