Last night my wife and I were watching Sicko again, and I was struck by the interview with one of Britain's early labor leaders, explaining that socialized medicine was something that Britons pulled together out of the horrors of WWII. Going through the fire of that war brought them together in a way this country has never been able to do. Some day we will have a black man for a President. Why not now? I don't believe Senator Obama is ready to be President. I believe Senator Clinton is far better qualified to lead, and, believe it or not, to best a man like McCain. But you know what? For me, this is the end of a journey I began when I sat down at a lunch counter in Austin, Texas in 1961 and said: I'd like to eat here if everyone can. Senator Obama is not my first choice, but I'm going to make him do.

Obama will easily win if he runs on a platform of leaving Iraq in 6 months, of not earlier. For some reason I haven't seen or heard him commit himself to such a position so far. He gave a speech the other day about ensuring the troops have "proper rotations" which sounds like "Iraq forever lite".

In short, if he wants to win, he needs to run as the "anti-Bush" on all fronts and scrap all that unity nonsense. The GOP is not our friend.

Another thing we're forgetting. Has McCain or Cindy McCain really been vetted?

A nice article here concerning some mid-east history in light of McCain's glowing endorsement for the wonderful country of Pakistan.

http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/mccains-holiday-from-history-in.html

For various reasons, I will never be an enthusiastic Obama supporter (yes, I am, in fact, a lower order of human being).

Interesting post, Leonce. You might have done better without the snarky cheap shot, but whatever. Just sayin'.

That aside -- Your analysis of racism is scary and hard to argue with. And you can add to that the "OMG BARACK HUSSEIN OSAMA OBAMA IS A CLOSET RADICAL MUSLIM WHO WENT TO A MADRASSA WHERE HE LEARNED TO HATE AMERICA AND WILL DESTROY AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND HE DOESN'T SAY THE PLEDGE AND HE WILL TURN US INTO A JIHADIST CALIPHATE AND DOOM US ALL1111!!!1" meme that's already circulating virally in Rethugland.

On the "national security" thing, well, we'll just have to point out that the Republicans are, um, wrong, and nothing they have done since Sept 2001 has actually improved safety in the US. It would have been much -- much -- easier if the Democrats had, from (ahem) Day One, called the Rethugs' bluff and identified this misbegotten military adventure for what it was and explained why it would make us less, rather than more, safe; and otherwise confronted head-on the Republican scaremongering in the service of Perpetual War. To his credit, BHO was far ahead of HRC on this, although he has backtracked (somewhat) in the Senate. There's something about truth, strongly and consistently stated, that can blow away lies. But oh, well, they didn't, and that may well be a weakness going forward. Exit polls from WI of course showed that the economy is top on Americans' concerns. That could certainly shift somewhat if the Bush regime raises the Terrah Alert, as it is almost certain to to, although the economy is so bad, and getting worse, that I suspect it will remain a much stronger contender for Americans' attention than it was in, say, 2004. And to that end, Obama is far better positioned than HRC to explain the truth: that this occupation has cost at least half a trillion dollars already, is costing over $12B a month, and describing what that could buy in the US economy (like healthcare, for example, and ending dependence on, uh, Iraq's main export, which ain't turnips.)

The key on the national security issue in the fall, IMHO, will be differentiating ourselves from the Rethuglicans, rather than trying to be like them. That's a losing battle. Wasn't it Truman who said that if you give people a choice between a Republican and a Republican, they'd take the Republican every time?

Of course McCain will call up the demon that was used so successfully against him in 2000 (remember when Bush/Rove successfully planted in the public mind the idea that McCain had -- gasp -- a black baby? Again, we have to be ready for it, know that it will "take" in some segment of the American public's mind, and hope that it won't, especially among the younger voters whom Obama is drawing out (and all indications I've seen suggest that the younger voters are much less likely to buy this particular brand of bat pucky.)

Remember, though, one thing that you mentioned briefly -- and that's that between BHO and HRC, polling suggests so far that McCain beats HRC and is only even with BHO. And the reason for that is that conservatives hate the Clintons. It's irrational, it's unfair, but it exists every bit as much as the racism you describe so strongly. I suspect that very few people who would refuse to vote for a "n****r" would vote for "that b***h" either. Those selfsame conservatives tend to hate McCain too, of course, but I think (and my impressions from what I've read suggest) that they might just stay home if it's a McCain-Obama race, but just might hold their noses and vote McCain if it's a McCain-Clinton race.

I think you've done a great job in identifying just a few of the challenges we will face in the fall. We need to get them out, face them squarely, prepare for them, and crush them through superior organization and a liberal (I love that word) dose of the truth. And work our asses off.

Cheers,

g