No, it's not at all... (0.00 / 0)

...but, I say, don't fear the Olympics!  We can get news in... why?  No one really watches the olympics.  All they have on TV is gymnastics and swimming, gymnastics and swimming... and the occasional U.S.basketball game...

I think Obama needs to keep on campaigning hard and forcing himself into the news. You know McCain will...

His new team is good, but predictable... They are replaying the 2004 election to a T.  We know what plays they are going to run.  I expect the convention to be exactly like the one in 2004.  They will even have their Zell Miller (i.e. Joe Lieberman)...  Hopefully, Hagel will speak at our convention... at least Lincoln Chaffee....

I can't believe we're losing... but, we are... It's amazing how good Republicans are at this game.  the party of big oil is actually using high gas prices to their advantage!  Talk about incredible chutspah!

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

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by: lord_mike @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:01:04 PM UTC

Americans (4.00 / 2)

nice people. not so smart.

Michael Bloomberg, prince of corporate welfare

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by: Will @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:08:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Not about gas... (4.00 / 2)

It's about character... McCain's ads have been basically all about assassinating Obama's character, and they're working.  This has nothing to do with energy policy or gas prices or even any issue at all, and purely to do with making Americans distrust Obama.  The same needs to be done to McCain, and we are failing miserably at that.  I'd be surprised if these two ads moved anything.  They almost certainly won't change the debate.

Like Chris says, something needs to shakeup the campaign and attract media attention.  Republicans understand this perfectly, which is why they just launch outrageous attack after outrageous attack.  The attacks are just so outrageous that the news can't help but say "Wow, look at this crazy new attack by McCain... what will it do?" and then they play it and talk about how freakin crazy it is, and because it's so crazy it starts to get in people's heads.  Hell, HuffPost says that Republicans are accusing Obama of infanticide now... expect this to pop up in an ad sometime soon.  This is exactly what the "Swift Boat ads" were, and this is exactly what the "Celebrity" and other ads have been.

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by: leshrac55 @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:26:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We are not losing (0.00 / 0)

Obama is ahead of where Gore and Kerry were, he is ahead in the electoral votes, and there are more twists and turns left in this election.  Because of the time difference most people will watch the Olympic updates in the evening and not much else, unless they have an interest in a specific sport.  Obama is going to take a week off to visit his Grandmother in Hawai'i.  McCain will take time off too because he tires easily.

Be patient.  This is more like 1980 than 2000 or 2004, and McCain is very vulnerable.  The electorate is much more skeptical about the GOP and even though Obama arouses skepticism and fear in some voters, even hostility, enough will come home to the Democrat in the end.  He's running a smart campaign given these factors, and when you add in his field operation and voter registration gains, we are going to make it.  Enough Americans are smarter than you think, even though 25% aren't too bright or are just scared and anxious.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

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by: Mimikatz @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 17:18:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I really dont see the problem. (0.00 / 0)

Obama's windfall tax idea is brilliant and just, the ad is a good counterpoint to the universally reviled ads by the Mccain campaign, and Obama, as of 1 pm on the 5th, has a 3 percent lift in the Gallup national trend (ie yesterday) and I predict (omg he is going to spoil his perfect record) that Gallup will have Obama up again today at 2pm (51 minutes from now).

Don't relax people, as we want a landslide, and need to work strongly to get it, but Obama has positioned himself brilliantly for a strong win, "given current trends"

I look forward to more brilliance from the Obama campaign.

--

The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky

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by: HousesofProgress @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:17:39 PM UTC

I was right! Hooray! (0.00 / 0)

Obama is up by 1% the Universe is unfolding as it should. Lets put the crimanls in jail and the Honest People in Office! 4% over two days!

--

The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky

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by: HousesofProgress @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 17:03:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Does Obama want a landslide? (0.00 / 0)

I'm not seeing it.

First viable black and female candidates suck all the oxygen out of the Democratic primaries, laying waste quickly to the rest of the field. Rock star image finally (barely) gets Obama over the finish line first (or blame Clinton's campaign if you prefer for how long it dragged on). Obama is inexperienced. No one really knows who he is, so it will be easy for Republicans to redefine him as necessary, right up until November. If it's close at the end, the GOP will frighten lots of white folks to get off their asses and vote at the end of the day when the lines are always the longest to add to election night confusion. There isn't going to be a landslide with the playbook Obama's using. He absolutely should be much further ahead at this point. That he is not is a big problem.

Most folks don't know much about Obama except that he's the first black candidate for President (loses him 30%-45% of the electorate right there whether voters come right out and admit it or not); and Obama not only isn't willing to define himself more clearly, he seems committed to remaining unknowable. His policy ideas in his ads aren't persuasive; gobbledy-gook numbers and comparisons that Americans have seen countless times over the past thirty years and immediately dismisses as pandering.

His rock star persona will be used against him repeatedly from now until he almost wins in November. Forget about a landslide. What Americans will learn about Obama from now until election day is what a lot of us deep in the Democratic fold have known about him from the beginning: he's trying to be everything to everyone by proactively defining himself as standing for nothing. I don't know Obama. Don't know him; don't trust him.

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by: NealB2 @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 19:55:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh pooh ===this is Fox newws recap (0.00 / 0)

The republicans who have run everything in washington forever have screwed everything up. Everything: from the economy to defense, from foreign relations to domestic jobs, from the jobs being exported overseas to the kids being killed for lies in Iraq, from broken bridges falling down to police looking in your bedroom window. The republicans are screwing everything up. Barack Obama is respected and liked and trusted because he knows its broken, and he knows its the corruption that broke it, they gather in large numbers to hear him say that oil companies and Bush and McCain have built a system that is wrecking America but it can be changed, America can be made more perfect again,

Thats what Obama wants a mandate for, and so do we, and so do we

--

The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky

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by: HousesofProgress @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 05:01:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Windfall (0.00 / 0)

I think the campaign needs to stop using the term "windfall profit tax". I guarantee you 90% of the american public doesn't even know what that means.

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by: boomersun @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:23:42 PM UTC

why? (4.00 / 1)

They understand 'profit' and 'tax' and they sure as hell understand that the oil companies are making huge profits. So they understand that this 'tax' will take away some of their 'profits' and give it back to the voter.  

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by: adamterando @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:35:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Obama's problem (4.00 / 1)

right now is that his advertising is not as interesting as McCain's, which is enabling McCain to drive the agenda.

Say what you will about including Paris Hilton in an ad, it got people talking about it.  Obama's ads are competent, but they aren't going to get people talking about them.  

I disagree that the race will go on hold during the olympics.  Twice since 1988 elections made signficant turns UNRELATED to the conventions ('04 with the Swift Votes, '88 with Willie Horton).  

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by: fladem @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:32:30 PM UTC

Right... (0.00 / 0)

Why does this happen every time?  Democrats seem to think no one will pay attention until labor day anyway, so they go to sleep until then.  I think Kerry's "strategy" was to basically go dark in August... right when Swift Boats happened.  That didn't happen this time, but McCain has certainly been good at sucking away all the conversation by launching despicable ads, which again, no one will care about in the end.  The only thing they'll know is that, wow, that Obama guy sure can't be trusted.

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by: leshrac55 @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:43:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

More fundementally (0.00 / 0)

I think there is simply a creativity gap between us and the GOP.  They understand how to get people's attention better than we do.  In part this is because of Drudge, which is simply by far and away the most single important media entity in politics.  

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by: fladem @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 17:01:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Kerry ran out of money (4.00 / 1)

That's why he went dark.  Obama is NOT running our of money and he is campaigning much more vigorously than McCain.  A $5 million ad buy is not "going to sleep" even if he does go to visit his grandmother during part of the Olympics.  How many times does it have to be repeated--this is more like 1980 and the debates are going to be a big factor.  

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

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by: Mimikatz @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 17:22:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

He didn't run out of money... (0.00 / 0)

He had just accepted the Democratic Nomination and thus had the public financing... He just thought he would CONSERVE money for later and allow 527's to take up the brunt of the work.  Granted, he was in a tough position with the GOP going over a month later (and thus able to continue raising and spending money), but still, it obviously turned out to be a strategic mistake.

In any case, I said that I know Obama's not going dark now, but it also seems that they thought they wouldn't need to hit McCain very hard yet, while McCain is obviously not playing by the same rules.

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by: leshrac55 @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 23:43:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

DNC Event List (0.00 / 0)

Off topic- But does anyone know of a listing of DNC events that is out there?

The best list for events during the DNC I've run across so far is at

http://www.metrohikers.com/dnc...

you need to do the free registration for the site, but the event list looks pretty decent and apparently it's updated daily.

if there's anything else out there...please share!

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by: jhngrn @ Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 16:56:37 PM UTC