Crossposted at Strategy '08

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor that presided over Jenna Bush's wedding ceremony and is considered a close personal friend of President Bush, absolutely ripped into John McCain today on a conference call with reporters.  Rev. Caldwell took issue with Senator McCain's remarks that he made at the Sturgis bike rally last week when he volunteered his wife for the rally's "beauty" pageant, the Ms. Buffalo Chip pageant.  For those who were not familiar with that story, the Ms. Buffalo Chip pageant is a topless modeling contest, that among other things, involves a section with a banana.

Much more below the fold.

Crossposted at Strategy '08

The Center for Responsive politics has come out with a new study on donations from military personnel to presidential candidates, and the results are actively embarrassing for Senator John McCain.  Despite McCain's own veteran status and a media narrative that paints him as a foreign policy expert (despite all evidence to the contrary), the troops which have the most on the line have The Center for Responsive politics has come out with a new study on donations from military personnel to presidential candidates, and the results are actively embarrassing for Senator John McCain.  Despite McCain's own veteran status and a media narrative that paints him as a foreign policy expert (despite all evidence to the contrary), the troops which have the most on the line have overwhelmingly favored Senator Obama with their donations.

More Below the Fold.

Crossposted at Strategy '08

The McCain campaign today has agreed to return $50,000 in donations collected for him from a Jordanian foreign national, Mustafa Abu Naba'a.  The McCain fundraising questions started out two days ago, when the Washington Post noticed that a large number of contributions being raised for McCain by Harry Sargeant, a Florida defense contractor, were coming from unlikely places such as an auto mechanic and unregistered voters.  Yesterday, the NYT reported that a number of those contributions that Sargeant raised were not raised directly from him, but raised from his Jordanian business partner Mustafa Abu Naba'a.  These contributions were raised again from people who were very unlikely sources of donations, including several people who did not intending on supporting McCain for president.

Today, the McCain campaign must finally be feeling the heat, because the AP reports that the campaign has agreed to return $50,000 in donations that have been raised by Mustafa Abu Naba'a.

More below the fold:

Crossposted at Strategy '08

The McCain story of McCain's questionable fundraising continues to get more interesting. For those of you not familiar with the questions raised so far, a fundraiser named Harry Sargeant has been bringing in maxed out donations to McCain from questionable sources, including an auto mechanic and other unregistered voters.  Senator McCain also received a donation of over $60,000 (between his campaign and the RNC) from a Hess office manager and an Amtrak foreman living in Flushing, Queens who still drive a 1993 sedan.  If you'd like to read up on the story you can do so here.

The NYT has a piece out today that raises more questions about the contributions that McCain has raised from Harry Sargeant, particularly the contributions raised from one family, the Abdullahs.

Much more on this below the fold

Crossposted at Strategy '08

This list of McCain's questionable donors continues to rise.  On Monday, Dansac highlighted a TPM piece that revealed that Alice Rocchio, a Hess office manager, and Pasquale Rocchio, an Amtrak train foreman, together donated $57,000 to the RNC.

Today, the Washington Post has a pretty explosive story about some more unlikely contributions that were sent McCain's way.

The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.

Much more about this below the fold.

Crossposted at .Strategy '08

I just got back home from Obama's town hall at Gibbs High School today.  I was one of the 1500 who was lucky enough to get a ticket to see him speak (the demand for the tickets was enormous).  This town hall turned out not just to be another town hall, but quite a memorable one.  It included new major policy proposals, protests from an African American socialist group, and a wide ranging Q&A session.  And most important of all, it had Senator Obama on the top of his game.  

I have to say that IMO, Senator Obama is even better in town hall format than he is giving big speeches.  I got to see him live when he came to Tampa in May to deliver a speech to 15,000 people, and it wasn’t nearly as good as this town hall.  This event reaffirmed everything I believe about Senator Obama’s candidacy, and why I think he is the best presidential candidate the Democratic party has had in a long time.

Join me below the fold for the full (and fairly lengthy) recap of the event and all of the madness that ensued.

Cross posted at Strategy '08.

I want to start off by saying that I am very happy to see Senator Obama finally hit back hard at Senator McCain for his ridiculous attacks. His new response ad is very effective, and his comment about John McCain needing "to talk more about what he is for and not just what he's against" was the kind of effective soundbite we need to hear from the Obama campaign more often.  I hope that this is the start of a more aggressive response by the Obama camp to John McCain's ridiculous behavior.

In the spirit of being more aggressive, the Obama camp needs to start hitting back at the notion being spread around that he is somehow an elitist.  Ever since Senator Obama's "bitter" remarks were taken out of context during the primary, the media and Senator Obama's opponents have been trying to paint him as some sort of elitist who is out of touch with the working man.  

More below the fold.

MICHELLE FLIPS OUT OVER LATEST OBAMA LIE!

I couldn't believe the headline either, but I saw it staring right out in front of me as I was in the super market tonight.  And it was from a powerhouse of journalism, the National Examiner.

Yes, I know, crazy right? The Democratic nominee for president, a man we all spent a lot of time working for, is about to have his marriage fall apart.  It's a sad development for a presidential candidate with so much promise.  It appeared that he had a really good shot of winning the presidential election, but now that's all gone to hell in a hand basket?

Why is the Obama's marriage blowing up? What was the lie that Obama told Michelle that made her so mad?  I don't know, I didn't read the article.  But the headline was on the cover of the extremely reputable National Examiner, so I know if must be true.

Cross posted at Strategy '08

Another day, another John McCain flip flop.  But unlike the others, this one is actually getting media coverage, and drawing him a sharp rebuke from his conservative allies.

On Sunday, John McCain told reporters on his campaign bus that he would keep all options on the table when it comes to social security, including raising taxes.

"There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table," McCain said. "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."

This is a complete flip flop from Senator McCain's previous tax position, and is a similar position to the one his campaign criticized Senator Obama for holding.

McCain's latest antics I've been thinking over the last few days about how we can hit back harder at John McCain.  Each day of Senator Obama's tip overseas, John McCain increased the level of his libelous rhetoric to ridiculous heights, basically accusing Barack of being an America hating terrorist lover who hates the troops.  His actions are despicable, and make it clear that he's one of the sleaziest presidential candidates in recent memory.

The Obama campaign is hitting back, but the truth is that they will never hit back as hard as McCain will attack them.  While McCain can through every slander and lie Obama's way with little recourse, if Obama was to attack him even half as fiercely, he'd face a media firestorm.  

So I think we need to have Senator Obama's back, and I have a few ideas of how below the fold.

You can't make this stuff up.  A month ago, John McCain blasted Senator Obama for suggesting that Osama Bin Laden be captured and tried at an international court similar to the Nuremberg trials.

Let me be clear, under my administration Osama bin Laden will either be killed on the battlefield or executed. Senator Obama’s failure to comprehend the implication of the Supreme Court decision he embraced and the historical precedent of Nuremberg raise serious questions about judgment and experience and whether Senator Obama is ready to assume the awesome responsibilities of commander in chief.

Of course, as with almost every position he's held, John McCain flipped his position in a complete 180 degree circle today in an interview on CNN.

More below the fold.

Crossposted at Strategy '08

In news that is sure to make Joe Lieberman's head explode, a new poll came out today that shows more Israeli's would rather see Obama elected president than John McCain.  The poll, which I found on Huffington Post, shows that Israeli's favor Obama by a 37-28 margin.

Even more positive news from Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East: a new poll by Israel Radio shows, for perhaps the first time, Israelis preferring Obama to John McCain.

When asked "who would you rather see elected as the next president of the United States," Obama bested John McCain by a 37-28 margin. While far from a decisive advantage -- 35 percent of Israelis chose "no preference" or some other answer -- the poll reflects a notably different state of affairs from previous surveys, which generally showed McCain with a large advantage over Obama.

This is the first part of a new semi-regular series I will be doing called Focus on Florida.  The purpose of this series is to give people insight into the politics of Florida and how Obama will make a play for Florida's 27 electoral votes.  Despite Obama's poor showing in the delegate-less Florida primary, Florida is definitely a state than can go blue this year with enough effort from the Obama campaign.  So far, the Obama campaign has risen to the challenge, and shown that they intend to make Florida a top priority this year.

The first diary in this series will be about winning in the I-4 corridor.  For those of you unfamiliar with Florida geography, the I-4 corridor refers to the area in Florida that borders the 132 mile stretch of the I-4 highway, which runs spans central Florida from Tampa in the West to Daytona Beach in the East.  For those of you familiar with Florida politics, you already know that the I-4 corridor is considered the holy grail of Florida politics.  Win the I-4 corridor, and you're almost guaranteed to win the state. With North Florida and South Florida usually canceling each other out (North Florida going Republican, South Florida going Democratic), Central Florida is the key battleground area up for grabs in the state.

Crossposted at Strategy '08

Frustrated that his dare to Barack Obama has backfired badly on him and has caused Barack to ride a wave a great press, the McCain campaign has been striking back at the media.  The McCain campaign has released a pair of web videos (yes, apparently someone on his staff has learned how use the youtubes) mocking what they see as a media bias towards Senator Obama.  The McCain campaign seems to be goading the media, hoping that they will finally focus more on him than they have Senator Obama.  Well Senator McCain, it appears you may be getting your wish, although not quite in the way you would have hoped.

Tonight the Politico went live with a hard hitting piece that draws attention to all of McCain’s recent "gaffes".  And by "gaffes" they are really referring to major screwups that Senator McCain has made that shows he lacks even a basic level of foriegn policy understanding.  This piece has been picked up by other news outlets, including CBSnews and Yahoo news, where it was earlier one of the top viewed stories.

More after the jump.

John McCain's habit of "forgetting" things has reached a new height, and the MSN is finally starting to take notice.  I was over on CNN.com this morning (something I am starting to do less and less), and the headline to the ticket was "Oops! McCain misfires on Obama attack".  Earlier this week, John McCain, trying to show that he was tough on terror, the "Straight Talking Maverick (tm)" tore into Obama for not being present in the Senate to vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment.

The only problem?  McCain also missed that vote.

More below the fold.

I just recieved a new email from the Obama campaign, and it reminds me of what drew me into this campaign. The Obama camapaign is soliciting our input in forming the Democratic party platform.

Every four years, the Democratic Party assembles a platform that outlines the party's position on a number of issues.

Traditionally, the drafting of the platform is not open to ordinary people.

This year, that's going to change.

For two weeks in July, people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities to discuss the issues and share their input. The outcome of these meetings will be reviewed by the Drafting Committee as it creates the final Platform.

Join me for the full email over the fold.

There hasn't been a superdelegate thread for a while a number of new updates have occurred tonight, so I thought I would start a new thread.

Today Obama received a steady stream of Super Delegate endorsements throughout the day.  He received the endorsement of 7 Superdelegates in total today.  However, three of those SDs are from MI/FL, who only receive half a vote each.  This gives Obama a total of 5.5 SD votes today. He also received the endorsement of 2 FL Edwards pledged delegates, which brings his total delegate endorsement number to +6.5.  This brings Obama's magic number down from 46 to 39.5.

Obama received the endorsement of:

Connecticut State Party Chair Nancy DiNardo
Virginia DNC member Jerome Wiley Segovia
Michigan DNC member Brenda Lawrence*
Michigan DNC member Lu Battaglieri*
Florida DNC member Janee Murphy*
Washington DNC member David McDonald
SC Representative (and House Majority Whip) Jim Clyburn
*Gets 1/2 a vote due to R&B sanctions.

For her part, Clinton received the endorsements of 2 Superdelegates today:

Louisiana Party Chair Chris Whittington
New York DNC member Irene Stein.

My fellow Obama supporters.  Tonight is a night of celebration.  We have won a decisive victory in North Carolina, and although we are just shy, Indiana went about as good as we could have possibly hoped. Tonight, the message is clear.  Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Even the mainstream media and the pundits are finally acknowledging this fact.  There will be pressure in the coming days from both the media and those inside Senator Clinton's inner circle for her to suspend her campaign in the coming days.  It may be tomorrow, it may be a week from now, or it may be after June 3rd.  But one thing is clear.  This campaign is winding down, and we have won.

So I have a simple request for my fellow Obama supporters, below the fold.