"I didn't decide
to run for President to start a national crusade for the political reforms I
believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In
truth, I wanted to be President because it had become my ambition to be
President. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision and I thought it
was my one shot at the prize."

-Senator John
McCain

Excerpt from his book: "Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir" (2002)

I have never seen such god-awful, terrible, stupid, sad displays of journalistic incompetence since the reporting in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. These past few days in particular I have been watching the cable news anchors float the "fact" that Obama had shifted his position on Iraq. They also seem to think this upcoming visit will be his first ever. Campbell Brown said "first time ever" tonight and I nearly croaked. That was the first time I had seen her broadcast.. obviously it will also be the last.

It occurred to me that the majority of these talking heads do not care one bit about the news, or the world, or people. They can't, if they did they wouldn't do such a poor job, no? I understand if you are hosting a live daily news program you can't be expected to know everything, but this is nothing short of taking McCain campaign talking points and passing them off as actual news.

Still, shouldn't something as basic and important as to whether or not the Democratic nominee for POTUS has in fact changed his position on Iraq? And if you don't know and you think it's true because John McCain's campaign keeps saying it in print; don't you think that's something you should check on before saying it on your live television news broadcast? News shows ya know? The kind of show people watch with the understanding that you are telling them the facts?

Coming up next; Barack Obama shifting his position on ending the war? His comments today seemed to say so. You decide when we get back!

So today they all got exactly what they wanted. Barack Obama was talking to the press like they were adults! Clearly this was something the press is not used to. (Did you know McCain's plane has a couch!?) They jumped on his words as breaking news, Obama has flipped on Iraq. The McCain campaign naturally had been waiting for this and the press played right along. Later we got the story of the second press conference and the was reported was something like this.

OBAMA SAID WE ARE STAYING IN IRAQ FOREVER

THEN HE SCRAMBLED

AN UNHEARD OF RIDICULOUS SECOND PRESS CONFERENCE!

REALLY TRIED HARD TO CONVINCE US

NOPE, NOT BUYING IT

BUT YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND

It's a basic outline of the same script they all used. Then we had the next story: John McCain is Awesome in Columbia!

How sad. I miss Tim Russert. At least he cared.

Obama campaign on Clark ...

"As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Why cower on this? What a bunch of pussies... Bill Maher is right. If Obama keeps this up it is the surest way to lose this thing. How lame indeed.

As someone who has been rooting in a very serious way for Obama since the summer, as someone who is a broke college student but still managed to travel the country to volunteer in January and again in April, as someone who has donated to his campaign time and time again, as a voter I feel disappointed in Barack Obama.

This began with his opting out of public financing, which truth me told I didn't care a lot about but it certainly didn't play well and has a lot of folks (especially netroots) pretty upset, but that will pass once we get closer to November. My personal theory is that he should have opted in because I don't think he is going to be able to raise the kind of money he thinks he can, the economy is shit, I haven't given him a cent since he clinched the nomination simply because I haven't had the extra money, and now that I do I don't want to give him a cent.

My disappointment grew when Obama caved on FISA.. I couldn't believe it. My roommate and I are gay for Obama but we haven't even been able to discuss FISA-Gate because we are at a complete loss for words. Frankly she is so much more into this campaign than I am that I am afraid to bring it up her. It's a quiet disappointment we both share but feel too disheartened by it to even discuss it or try to make sense of it. What could possibly bring one to the conclusions Barack reached?

It continued today when he threw Scarlett Johansson under the bus, I don't really care about anything related to that other than his less-than warranted response:

"She sent one email to Reggie, who forwarded it to me," Obama said,
referring to his 26-year-old personal assistant, Reggie Love. "I write
saying, 'thank you Scarlett for doing what you do,' and suddenly we
have this email relationship"

Why? Why present it in that way?  I am disappointed in Barack and if this continues it will be a tragedy. Perhaps he should worry less about gaining votes from those in the middle and care more about the people who got him here. Maybe he should be worried about losing our votes.

There have been other, more minor incidents but they all speak to the same thing: Barack Obama sold out and became a regular politician. The fear now is that he won't realize it and snap back into focus. I don't want to vote for just another politician Barack, I want to vote for a man with ideals and a backbone, not someone who does what is most convenient politically. Obama will win this race, I just hope he can do it the right way.

Mark Halperin has the scoop.

Two make surprise guest appearances with Obama joining via satellite and Edwards appearing with Clinton on set.

Episode airs on Comedy Central at 11:30 pm ET.

Does anyone think this will stick?

With all the fuss and false controversy about Obama possibly being condescending to working class voters by the Clinton campaign; I'd be interested to see how they respond to this very clear, very bitter statement from then First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Let me just start by saying that I don't hate Hillary Clinton by any means. I have no reason to; I don't even know her personally. I do however think that she has shown her true colors in this campaign, I was someone who spent years defending the Clintons and now I feel like a dope for doing so because as it turned out; the critics were right. And yet huge numbers of people can't see this; they can't see the psychological mind-fucking by the Clintons on a constant basis, they can't see the constant re-invention of the truth, they can't see the fearful and divisive politics that the Clintons have long railed against that they are now the embodiment of. With the Clintons it seems that they now stand for everything they once claimed to stand against. We all stood against it right there along side of them, remember?

I think it's very sad to see these constant anti-Obama comments that are posted all
over the internet (ABCNews.com, Huffington Post namely)  that are
filled with known inaccuracies, gross exaggerations, racism, smearing
and the like from <i>Democrats</i> and Hillary Clinton does
nothing but help lead these people down deceptive paths of
reinforcement. I can't believe it. I would expect it from Republicans,
but not from Democrats. I just never would have guessed that after 8
years of this travesty of an administration that
<i>Democrats</i> would be subjected to this kind of thing
and I'm even more shocked that <b>it is working.</b>



Democrats smearing Democrats; Mmmm.. Karl Rove doesn't even need to run the McCain campaign.

Don't you folks want something better than this? This constant stream
of feuds and name-calling? Sure it's entertaining and it gives you a
reason to watch the news, but isn't it all just a little bit
disheartening? Shouldn't we want better than that? Shouldn't we talk
about the issues and what we can do to make this a better country
before it all comes crumbling down around us?

Say what you will about Obama but the difference in the two individuals notion of politics and leadership should be rather clear by this point. We have one candidate who acts like an adult, has the most comprehensive policy details (which can be easily found online) and who can see a better America, a candidate who got into this race as he puts it "not to tear each other down but to lift this country up." We have another candidate who acts like this is high school, she insults and taunts and accuses others of things she herself is guilty of. (Self-Esteem issues anyone?) She constantly beats the drama-drum and is the personification of ambition. Ambition to win, not for any reason other than to win.

Regardless.. people need to start <i>accepting</i> the fact that Barack Obama is <i>likely</i> going to be the Democratic nominee for President and we all just need to calm down a bit. The only way we are going to get anything accomplished after these eight disasterous years is if we work together to get it accomplished. We have two years to make the first decade of the 21st century something more than <i>this</i>.