The Iraq war might be near over. But only if Obama is elected.  If you think this nation can't keep an ally in a war in spite of a sovereigns decision for peace you should look to the sad demise of bloody tyrant Diem- former President of South Vietnam.  Diem was just too obvious a tyrant for his own good - he never sued for divorce from the US. He was rather permanently replaced anyway by a less obviously bloodthirsty tyrant.  This has not been the only time. Consider the 1950's Iranian nationalization of oil.   The CIA admits a  more directly led a coup for the Shah and against nationalization.  We hired mobs to riot against a democratically elected government which folded in favor of an absolutist.  
To ensure the next coup doesn't keep the war going Obama must be elected.

  There is the finger pointing about the Iraq war events left to argue.  Finger pointing will not win the next election likely.  But it still might.  And if it does this Iraq war seems likely to find a way to continue.  Because the McCain camp has one doozy of a finger to point.

Because of this

Before you click any more links let me warn you that this is not a joke.  McCain is not sane.  No one who knows the ghastly buisness of war and as a policy maker makes light of an impending bloodbath is sane.

If you fail to do everything you can to avert a McCain Presidency how do you think the next generation of victims to this ghastly war without end should evaluate your inaction now?  

Do Kossacks have any use for Obama?

Many have decided that having seemingly stunk up the joint with sins including his FISA sellout/flinch/blunder real progressives have no more use for Obama. (My own belief is that Obama accommodated Congressmen petrified of the security debate coming in the general election.  If that was a tactical error it is one he can correct and will when he is President.)  For those who believe his vote was a sin motivated by a lust for office or some other grave character flaw i would remind that even the musk of the skunk has some good uses.  It is the base for many great perfumes for instance.  So even for those who hate Obama enough to cast a vote for McCain's proxies in the Green or Nader camp  you should not give up this great crowd gatherers potential without pause.    

How can you put this mans abilities to use for victories you want even if you think him a sell out or a blunderer?

Gallup poll has the Presidential election a dead heat today.
 
Do many remember the stakes of this election?  Have we lost sight of the forest for staring at the bark of one tree?  
 
Are we really in the middle of an election that will decide whether we escape a debilitating decades long war in the ME.  Are we really in the midst of what looks like the start of a great Depression in our own times and deciding whether an inarticulate beer tycoon and senator by marriage might end hopes of a recovery in our lifetime.  

The Lone Blue Star is coming!  

Even in the deepest most dismal and downtrodden  corner of Bush Texas hope has taken root again.  The latest poll puts
Texas just a pale shade and not the deep red you might expect.  Texas is no more than a strong leaner for Bush with Obama within 10 points.  Millions of people live in that turning bastion formerly polluted with bush's miasmic philosophy.  We have to liberate them from the straglehold of the loons in charge there.  And we are!  

We may not get the Presidential contest outcome best for Texans this year but it's not far off. The Texans had allredy started tthis tumbleweed revolt and Obama is pouring resources into that misgoverned but soon better place.

For those of you with a deep streak of cynicism about Obama there is still common cause in this effort to change the electorate and the quality of our representatives from the roots up.  

Politico reports there is more life left in this race.  This is a comparatively bright opening salvo.  These Iraq surge success and stay the course ads need a response for the MSM that will report these initial 527 policy ads considerably more than they will later - any bright ideas? Or should we just concede the surge is a success we should continue to build on for 100 soon peaceful years in Iraq?  Bush had less of a case for success in Iraq in 2004 I suspect so don't take this argument for granted please.  Should we really contest the Iraq surge success most or ask where we go from here?

In case you feel the current at most 6 point lead for Obama is one we can count on for half a year remember there are downstream races that depend on winning every round we can on the top end of this ticket.  Obama has huge coattails. But only if continues to win the fundamental arguments on policy.

Ads in the can for the GOP 527's are some of the grimmest imagery on crime.  These future ads will be impossible to respond intelligibly to since they strike at irrational prejudice and use barely disguised racial appeals.  If these policy debates fail then McCain backing 527's are ready to slime things up.

Maybe Obama is a sell out. Hey, it's possible.  Maybe he has a fat ticket to some super corporate payoff for selling everyone in the country down the Haliburton river.  Why else would he sell out other than a big payoff?  To be exalted by Bill Kristol in print some day?  Maybe he wants a knuckle bump from a grateful Steve Forbes?

If you think any of that's likely you obviously haven't been paying attention to the most important indicator of a man's future.  His past.

Obama will stay true to his past - putting him on collision course with both Forbes and Kristol.  They know the battle lines.  Many of you obviously don't.

Huffington's front page is proclaiming an eminent article in a news weekly on the delinquicy of McCain's property tax on a luxury beach condo.  This is a gift of some dubious value.

There are no magic bullets.  McCain and every candidate rises fom such silver encased projectiles impact to bare their fangs again. If there is peril in such high impact stories it is that they distract from McCain's real problems.  

January 29, 1969

This is the date the environment became part of our national consciousness.  

This is the place the environmental movement started in response to a horrendous disaster - a catastrophic  oil spill that devastated the coastline of Santa Barbara.
This is an outrage - McCain will recall the past horror of this once again beautiful place that only millions of dollars, and lifetimes of hard work restored.

This is the place McCain brings his impossible to swallow story that he is now an environmentalist. All the while he touts his invisible environmental credentials
he leaves the oily footsteps of his destructive offshore drilling plan.

What gall this oily McCain has!!!

There seems  little hope on FISA. Mr Obama had to publicly state support for FISA just so his amendment to kill it would have better support. The amendment would result in an eventual veto according to President Bush's announcements on this FISA bill once it is shorn of telecoms immunity. That amendmment will be voted on this week thanks likely only to Obama's status as our Presidential candidate.  He has used his leverage to get this vote.  Obama's amendment  is the only realistic shot at ending this FISA.   Many were confused by the necessity of supporting a bill one plans to amend. But faint praise for this FISA may well be best way to most effectively gain support for the amendment that will kill this bill.   You are fiddling with your ornery recriminations while there is yet a way to extinguish this Constitutional blaze.  Obama is still doing all humanly possible to end this FISA.  And you pledge instead of helping this good man and this great candidate  to avoid support against a monstrous candidate.   If you really are experts on legislative process and the personalities of these Senators tell us a better strategy for gaining the votes needed.  Or do you prefer the tyrant in waiting described below to our legislative champion.

I realize purists want clearly drawn lines of battle and a decisive quick rejection of this FISA bill.  You won't get it. The votes arn't there.

Sometimes you wake up a thousand miles behind on something important  like this - as we all have.  

All the speeches listened to by few on the senate floor won't change those numbers.  Nor is this a good issue to take to the public with an expectation they will hold Representative accountable soon.  It's too complex to fit in a 30 minute program much less 60 second sound bites on the evening news.  And realisticly the vast majority would hear far less than 30 seconds.

If this one is stopped it will be by a sleight of hand and an appeal for a favor froma the next President.    

The FISA battle hasn't even reaches the Senate.  And many on this forum are deserting the last chance to strip it of it's odious provision - Telecom immunity.  With friends like some here no movement can prevail.  The battle hasn't even begun in Barracks chamber.  Too many are  busy damning Obama for not being omnipotent instead of helping him win.  If Telecom immunity passes one cause might be these summer soldiers leaving the field before the issue is decided.  An up or down vote solely on Telecom immunity is near won today by Obama. That is a huge victory to get a separate vote on Telecom immunity.  Now where are the Senators who will vote with Obama to cleanse this FISA bill of Telecom immunity?  Why are you not rounding those votes up?  Because your too busy engaging in this circular firing squad?  Call your Senator and tell him to help Obama end Telecom immunity or look in your own  miirror to find one reason why this battle was lost.

Never has the press man crush on McCain  been more evident than on reporting about public finance.  The press has  ignored the cheating of the public system McCain just accomplished in the primaries. They failed to report McCain's bad faith negotiations with Obama on this races public financing - indeed the negotiations are not even an item in the electronic media.  Finally there is a failure to report in the context of last years Presidential contest.  The history of 2004, and the attempt by McCain forces to repeat the unanswerable Swift Boating of Kerry is at the heart of Obamas decision not to accept public funding.  We won't be without a weapon in this fight after last time.  

Mccain's plan to allow oil slicks on every beach in the country following his offshore oil drilling renaissance turned out to be a not so slick move.  It seems a recent government review of McCain's plan shows that off shore drilling would have a very Modest effect on prices that wouldn't begin until 2030.  Of course oil executives would have increased revenues from the government coffers as 'incentives' immediately.  It's a plan with no effect on gas prices but it would give aid to those deserving of our taxes through welfare for the gouging oil companies.    

Today McCain pulls out the bigger guns - the nuclear madness option.  Mccain wants to wed us to the most expensive method of producing poison ever devised =- a method that currently kills thousands every day.

I want to spend a few words in defense of poor Johnny McCain. Charitably McCain doesn't know enough about much to have any firm opinions on tough questions.  Can a man with easy convictions borne of a soft mind ever be convicted  of inconsistency.  McCain has the defense of being shallow.  With no strong opinions on any question he must be excused for abrupt changes of course as this mornings cave to the oil lobby.

Exhibit I in his defense is an entire article devoted to  Johnny's frequent admissions that he just can't add   Maybe it's that communist suberfuge of carrying!

Less charitable opinions were ventured by the Obama camp today.  

All the words spoken by and about candidates and their lives and causes profoundly change the country.  Many of the well honed arguments in public forums like this can enter and shape the outcome of greater public dialogues including elections.

But their is a more traditional role that rank and file political enthusiasts alone may fill.  At the end of the election day the campaign that has identified, motivated and moved their supporters to the polls best wins often decisive margins of votes.  This entire logistical effort of Getting Out the Vote (GOTV) does entail a lot of creative exchanges with potential voters.  It is also a mountain of work requiring small armies.

Follows a status report on those armies in this political year and how their efforts are shaping and are shaped by the leadership of candidates as well as a call to arms:

McCain's recent postures in the Senate were sufficient to nail down the nomination.  But only under extreme duress.  The GOP infighting was beginning to look an awful lot like an old and often accurate joke about the Democratic party. That's not a party it's a street fight.  Cooler heads emerged to nail down the nomination for McCain.    

McCain might be a heretic on many old matters but he was never the total apostate Huckabee became for the financial priesthood that can veto any nomination.  The sainted religious right hated Romney's past and repented lapses of faith in defense of abortion more than Mccain's more secular sins.  So McCain became for both camps an acceptable alternative.  He was always the hawks first choice which put him over the top.  

But beside those hawks McCain has no base - and that small mostly academic base of McCain's has no fundraising clout.  McCain's worst problem now - what constituency  wants him enough so that they will contribute enough to make him competitive with fundraising titan Obama?  The answer - crickets!    

Among the causes of the incredibly poor quality of the McCain campaign is a real ambivalence over whom messages should be tailored toward.

Especialy the last  GOP campaign directed most themes to the hard core conservative base of the Bush GOP.   McCain slavishly followed Bush lines in the primaries and seemed ready to follow the base rally strategy.

But that first Bush campaign lied well to appeal to moderates using the exact same lie delivered in the same type setting as McCain's declaration of seperation from his Bush vow's.  

Now that the nomination is decided we hear McCain is that old maverick fellow again. McCain doesn't even want to be seen in the same room with Bush anymore.

McCain as Bush's runaway bride won't work.  There are too many recent quotes that contradict this massive flip flop.  As Mother Jones documents - McCain embraced Bush before he started running away from their record together.