Here's the ad I want to see.

Starts with Baracck in front of his Chicago home.

I'm Barack Obama, and this is my home. Thanks to the many of you who bought my book, Michelle and I can finally afford to live like rich people. We democrats love rich people. Some of our best presidents were very rich, but they were very good at caring about the rest of us.

For me, this rich thing is brand new. This is the 2 bedroom condo Michelle, the girtls and I shared,  before we bought the new house.

And this is the crap hole I lived in when I came to Chicago, straight out of college, to work with steelworkers getting laid off by the thousands.  

And this is the apartment I lived in when my mother was on food stamps.

And this little living room? this is where Michelle and her sister slept, in her parents 1 bedroom apartment.

(spot ends with barack back in front of his house)
Coming from where we come from, its great to be rich. We want to build an America where everyone who starts like we did, can  end up where we are. But because when you come where where we came, you forget where you came from

Watching the so-called liberal media turn on Obama for rejecting public financing has been interesting. He has become a flip-flopper - change, they say, we can no longer believe in. But from his supporters on-line, I see a new enthusiam, and a new willingness to donate that is far more fascinating. For decades, presidents have been determined by which candidate did the best job of grovelling for rich people's money. Sure, George Bush won the presidency from inside the public financing system, but as soon as he got into office, he paid off the big business supporters who financed his primaries by eliminating regulations and installing lobby-types into jobs regulating the industries they used to work for. End result? $4 gas, stupid war, worthless dollars and financial markets a wreck. Biggest beneficiaries? Oil companies and defense contractors...the same industries for which the president and vice president previously worked. This does not speak well for the idea that public financing makes the system more responsive to the people. This is proof that the system is, indeed, broken. The point of public financing is not to change where the money comes from. Its to change who the elected respond to. Had Obama accepted public financing, he would now be spending his time trying to get big benefactors to give money to the DNC, to counter the big war chest the RNC already has. Along the way, he'd be racking up huge political debts to trial lawyers, health insurance and energy companies, eager to curry favor with the front runner. The likelyhood that his army of small donors could be switched over to a party aparatus that neither likes or respects them is very slim. So after the election, those fat cats would be first in line, doing all they can to keep energy and health insurance prices high, and Obama would owe them. It would be business as usual... a good man corrupted by the need to beg for rich people's money. But since he flip-flopped on his public financing promise, he has stayed true to the vision of his supporters...the vision of a president who works for them, instead of the fat cats. Rich people are still free to give, but they do so knowing that this campaign doesn't belong just to them. And what is the first thing we see him doing with this money? Opening up voter registration drives in all 50 states. He expects to win by getting more taxpaying little people to vote. He is scaring Republicans with the idea that more people and more states will be important in November. Pundits may see this as unfair, but how could politics be any more democratic than that? And odds are he will be more sucessful than most, because there is a huge army of little people who want to help. Students and grandmas who have more time than money, willing to phone bank and knock on doors. Obama plans to use his cash to channel their energy into votes. And those little people are like little sharks, smelling blood in the water. They see the panic in the eyes of the fat fish who have been gobbling up all the political spoils, and using it to preserve a system that works better for Wall Street than on Main Street. I am not sure Obama will be a good president or a great one. But I am sure he has awakened a real hope in regular folks, that if they get up off their butts, write a little check or spend a little time, they can make a difference. He will undoubtedly be ridiculed for having more money, just as we saw Hillary make fun of his crowds, as if there is something evil about a candidate that people actually want to support. The road ahead will be difficult. On talk radio, corporate America's multi billion dollar free contribution to the Republican party, they are already comparing his movement to the Nazi's. Look for a campaign of fear that pulls out all the stops. But along the way, the little people have learned something. $20 bucks at a time, they toppled the strongest political machine the Democratic Party has seen since Roosevelt. But that was easy compared to what lies ahead. It will be very interesting to see what happens in America, if little people really can conquer the big bucks. America's monied interests will not give up without a fight.

Cleary afraid to debate the Obamas on policy, the Republicans are playing the "They Hate America" card, and all of its permutations. The ace and queen in this deck are "he went to a racist church" and,  his wife "isn't proud" of her country. On Father's Day, I find this particularly offensive. So I write this to honor my father.

In some ways, this is not unlike the campaign that defeated John Kerry, who looked too "French".  At its heart, the argument is "he's too different."  And when the candidate is Black, and most of the voters are not, the line separating "too different" from "too Black" is thin indeed. The terrorist fist pumping "baby's mama" lovers at Fox crossed that line long ago.  

This becomes particularly dicey for Michelle Obama. Unlike her husband, whose black father only came to the US in 1959, she is the product of all of America's shameful race history. The right is making the false claim that to be disappointed in that history means she does not love America, so she's not qualified to live in the White House. The logic that Hannity and friends sell is that any Black who is not "over" racism is a crazy radical who hates the country. Since this group includes pretty much every black person I know who is not a Republican, it's a logic that disqualifies almost all African Americans from the nation's highest office. It is time to call Bullsh*t on this crap once and for all. If he were alive today, this is the argument my father would have made.

Let me one more time point out the complete duplicity and lack of logic in this argument. Obama tried it once in his first Rev Wright speech, and it got blanketed over by the loud shouters on Fox and the radio.

Black Americans have a different experience than most whites. We are not talking slavery or ancient history. We're talking current events. Our families, our fathers, our lives, right now. We could no more deny it than we could deny the entire black community.

I'm talking about the real life experiences of our families. Almost all of our parents were denied equal access to everything from jobs to education to free choice of where to live. It includes being born into a ghetto, because that is the only place our parents were allowed to live. It includes going to under funded public schools, because in so many places, when integration became the law, many whites with money either fled to the suburbs or to private schools, taking their cash and involvement with them. It includes, even to this day, 1/3 of black children being born into poverty.

Great scholarships, high income and political success are wonderful things to achieve, but to many African Americans who have "made it", there is also the sadness of knowing how far our parents could have come had they been granted equal opportunity.  If you only think of your personal success, then maybe you could be Rush Limbaugh proud.  But if you look around the black community, or drop by your mom's house in the old neighborhood, there's a good chance you'll get pissed off. Pissed that this is where the federal government  put the projects back in the 60's, and where the local government allows crack houses to flourish today

As I write this, it is Father's Day. I have achieved great success in my life because of his efforts. I earn enough money that John McCain's tax policy benefits me better than Obama's.  My father was one of the smartest people I know. When he died, one of the teachers at the school where he worked said he would have made a better principal than most of the ones he worked under. But he wasn't the principal, he was the head custodian. He was mopping floors and cleaning toilets until the day he retired. It was the best job he could get and he made the best of it. My success is his success, and he died as he lived, a very proud man.  He left no debt and he owned his own home. Sadly, it was only worth about $25,000, because it was in a black neighborhood. So don't tell me I don't have the right, on Father's Day, to be disappointed in the country that told him that a janitor was all he could be.

This disappointment does not consume me.  Most days, it never crosses my mind.  But on Father's Day, it always does. To deny it is to deny the struggle my father endured to make me what I am. If Shawn Hannity  thinks that's what I need to do to prove I love my country, I have 2 works for him.  F off.

I wish this was not my reality.  But the stain of the past doesn't disappear when they hand you a degree and a nice salary. This doesn't mean I don't love America. It means I love her in spite of her faults, and it means I have a continuing commitment to helping the country overcome its history. 

I can't love America the same way John McCain does. When his daddy was Admiral, my daddy was mopping floors. And when his granddaddy was Admiral, all the Blacks in the entire Navy were mopping floors. But they still volunteered and went to war, even when their commanders didn't think they were brave enough to fight. So who loves America more? The cook on the ship who couldn't vote in 15 states, or the Admiral who dined on the meals he slaved over?

So when the right wing-nuts say Michelle Obama, because she remembers similar indignities imposed on her own parents, can't be first lady, what they are really doing is hanging a 'Whites Only" sign on the White House. The very thought is un-American.

It was with great sadness I saw that the headline on Politico following the Sunday talk shows is all about Diane Feinstein saying Hillary won the popular vote. It immediately triggered the same on-line argument we've been having for the last 6 weeks. Before this week, the popular vote argument was either crucial or destructive, depending on one's perspective. Now, it is only destructive, and we on-line have to be the ones to stop it. 
The media is addicted to the fight. Its been great for ratings and generating page views.  But guess what? The primaries are over. Obama is the nominee. Stirring up this, or any other dispute, legitimate or not, serves no purpose except to help elect John McCain.  Unless that is your goal, you need to think long and hard before you engage in another on-line fight with someone you need as an ally.
No one in the media has any vested interest in stopping the fight. They are looking at a long, slow, boring summer, and will do anything to keep the passion going, and the ratings high. I suspect that the average Clinton voter is ready to move on. But the folks on line, on both sides, are the ones with the most passion. We are also the ones watching Hardball, and generating the page views. Its up to us to show some dicipline. 
After McCain won the nomination, Dems watched with glee as Rush and the wing-nuts continued to attack him. But they are now united. Only we can deny them the similar spectacle of a long, protracted squable over a war that has is already over.If you are still p*ssed, take Hillary's advice and turn that passion on the guy who wants to prolong the war and end reproductive rights.  If you are an Obamabot, show the same dicipline your candidate displays. Be cool. Show some understanding to the people you just defeated. The real campaign starts right here, right now. Obama vs. Clinton is over. If you are still fighting that fight,  its political suicide.  Just say no.

The Obama strategy is very interesting at this stage. Rather than put up the dukes, and spend time exposing the hoax of her popular vote claim, Obama's folks are like "we're 20 supers away. Ignore her, she's already beaten. Invest this time going after McCain. He's made 4 major gaffes in a week. He's the real target."

It gives the Clinton's a free media space to push their "popular vote" case all weekend, while CNN is pretending Puerto Rico counts. But the Obamans understand the actually important days lately were Saturday in the committee, and tieing blue collar Indiana, which proved whites outside Appalachia will vote for him, making Hill's wins in WVA and KY as relevant as P.R.

Instead, the Obama campaign  has decided it is a better strategy to not fight over her popular vote screed. I suspect inside the party, this fighting, from 150 delegates behind, is starting to piss off the important people, who worry about her damaging the nominee. Most agreed she could fight till the end of the primaries. She will look pathetic to them if she keeps this up another week.  Still, it appears clear the networks will put her on the air as long as she keeps opening her mouth. 

In light of this, I marvel at what is clearly Obama's strategy.  Ignore her, declare victory and move ahead. Next week, he will be able to stand up and say "I have done everything I can to pacify this woman except quit.  In my most televised speech, I called her a role model for my kids. I agreed to split  Fla and Michigan in the way even Hillary people on the rules committee agreed was fair.  I haven't taken a swing at her in a month. I've been campaigning against her and McCain for 2 months and I'm still winning everywhere except Appalachia. Wright and the church are history. My name was hardly mentioned in the Resko trial. "

Critics will call it arrogance, but this guy really knows how to keep his cool. To survey the battlefield and calculate which target matters and which one doesn't is a rare skill. Republicans beat Kerry because he miscalculated the impact of swift-boating. Obama beat Clinton because he targeted the right states and she didn't. Even against his his biggest problem, Wright, you can't say he hasn't been taking quality shots. 3 responses- dramatic speech, dump Wright and dump church; maybe later that some would like, but they were all decisive, and more 5 months is a long time for Repugs to flog that horse.

Critics say he's an empty suit. But he is a skinny black guy with a thin resume and the middle name Hussein. And he just beat an awesome candidate who started with a 20 point lead and the most valuable brand in Demoratic politics. 

Maybe its time to admit this guy has uncommon political skills.  While Hillary flailed away last week, Obama took on John McCain head on, besting him over both the G.I. Bill and the gaffe over pre surge levels.  A Democrat holding off Hillary with one hand and beating a Republican war hero with the other over National Defense.  While also manuvering the rules committee sucessfully.  Again, that's surveying the battle field, chosing the right targets, and hitting them all dead on.  Uncommon political skills. 

With this new popular vote ad in S. Dakota, Hillary shows she will never give up. Obama will have to kill her. Interesting that he chooses to do it quietly, effectively, in the only way that counts, with delegates, instead of a big TV showdown. He gives up not a single anti Hillary soundbite. He's learned the networks only need one.

It may be November before we know if this strategy is effective. But I think we can tell what the Repugs think. Its been months since their main mouthpiece, Rush, has had a bad thing to say about Hillary. Talk radio remains a 24-7 Obama hate fest, while Terry M calls Fox fair and balanced. The right is still trying to help her win. That's because they are very good at picking the right target.

Everybody needs a little love, especially after losing a bruising battle. Obama folks need to make this as easy on them as possible. The candidate himself has been extending the olive branch in every speech since Indiana. In her desperation, Hillary instead had to stir up the hornets nest, and the hornets are still mad and want to sting.

But remember, they are mostly good, honest, passionate Democrats. If they regain their common sense and channel that hate towards McSame, Dems will win more than the presidency. Just imagine the combined force of all those pissed off women, excited African Americans and inspired young people. Imagine the Senate, House, and Governors races they could win together. Imagine true health care reform, sensible energy policy, and 150 thousand brave Americans no longer being used as cannon fodder.

We can keep calling each other Hillbots and Obamabots, but lets make them terms of endearment. We cannot let the right exploit this family fight.

There are an extraordinary number of "I'll never vote for B. Hussein Obama" postings on the web.  I wonder how much of it is really from Hillary people, and how much is Operation Chaos. After all, the B. Hussein construction comes straight from Ann Coulter, who accuses Hillary, and most Dems of treason. Hillary supporters can't be taking cues from her, can they?

More likely its the right, trying to keep Dems from Unity. Fight Back. Make up. Make peace and fight together. Hug a Hillbot today! They are our sisters (and brothers), Gotta show 'em some love.

We're having  great party over here. Y'all  come!

What the Clintons are doing is making everybody crazy. Between "hard working white people", comparing Florida to Zimbabwe and now "assasination-gate", they have the entire party in a tizzy. And its on purpose. They are broke and losing. Being outrageous is the only way they can get on TV for free.

Lets face it. The real reason the assasination bit hit home is that everyone knows Hillary's only chance to win is if there is a huge meltdown somewhere. If they have to create it themselves by ripping the party to shreds, thats fine with them. So that's what they are trying to do.

Everybody needs to cool off, step back and try a little common sense. 

1> Florida. The fact is Hillary's lead was exagerated because Obama never campaigned there. Everywhere he did, he closed the gap. He has every right to claim he's being cheated if she gets to keep that advantage. Likely outcome.The committee will go 50-50 split or give the state half of its delegates. Hillary will protest, but so what. It is now clear she won't stop screaming until she wins, or until November.

2>Michigan, on the other hand isn't even asking for the Hillary solution, "all for me, none for him".  The only possible choices are 50-50, or giving Obama the uncommitteds, with a possible 50%  penalty. The committe vote is not binding, but I would expect the SuperD's to respect the party process. If these 2 states go the way Hillary wants, the Dems will ose at laest half of their black votes and the repubublicans take back congress. The party isn't suicidal. Or is it?

3> The popular vote. Has anyone noticed that Hillary is only close because she got 600,000 more votes than Obama in California and New York, 2 states Obama would certainly carry?  In the rest of the country, she is almost a million votes behind.  This so called metric actually makes her look less electable.  The media only helps her hype it because they want to keep the drama going.

4> She is becoming more toxic on  a daily basis. Obama, first in his desire to not damage a Democrat, and more recently for fear of alienating her supporters, has not attacked on her almost daily gaffs.  Her negatives have to be through the roof. But if she can do white voters and assaination and sniper fire, isn't it likely she will continue to screw up? Obama gave her an absolute pass on 2 of them. Think the Republicans won't ponce? Plus they already have  Hillary care, stolen WH silverware,travel gate, her brother's cash for pardons, Rose Law firm records, not to mention Bills problems. The Republicans have been working on those attack ads for 7 years. Now,imagine the Viral Emails they'll send out about Vince Foster. She keeps saying she's the better candidate, but she proves otherwise on a regular basis.

5>. Obama, on the other hand, has held up remarkably well, in spite of  Wright and Bittergate. His support has only weakened in places where race is a major factor...he's still winning everywhere else. He's winning and 12% still think he's a Muslim. He's laid off Hillary, but she and McCain attack him daily.  Still, polls show him beating Mccain in Ohio, doing as well as Hillary in California, putting new states like Virgina, Colorado, N Carolina and Nevada in play.
Against McCain in the last 2 weeks, he gives as good as he gets. He's fighting off the inexperience tag, and its gonna be hard to tag him as an Anti American Jew Hater when his uncle helped liberate Buchenwald. 

There are just way too many reasons for the supers to go Obama. It may be before June 3, or in the week follwing, but most have said all along they will respect the wil of the voters. Once they factor in how the NY-Cal vote totals skew the poplular vote metric, there will be no reason left to give it to Hillary. "Look at me, I can fight dirty."  just isn't much of  a campaign slogan.

Its amazing how many Obama haters on line  sound exactly like any 5 minutes of the Rush or Hannity shows.

There is a reason those radio guys are  a 24-7 Obama hate fest. They hope to destroy him now because they know how easy it will be to get Hillary next. All they have on Obama is Wright and Ayers, and they fear the guilt by association will wear thin by November. Hillary, on the other hand, they have 16 years worth of ammo for.

Clearly Hillary, grasping at straws to keep herself afloat, will accept the help of these wing nuts. But any Democrat parroting the same lines as Limbaugh would have to be drunk to believe he would ever do anything to help the Democrats win. The Repugs know Hillary starts with 50% negatives that are deeply ingrained. They fear that one day people will figure out that its kind of silly to believe a half white guy raised by a white family is a racist, or that he's a muslim, or that the name his Daddy picked 40 years ago is relevant to anything. Next, they might figure out the lobby types Hillary and McCain have been worshipping their entire careers are the real  reason nothing good gets done in DC, and a president not beholden to them, one who gets his money from regular folks, might actually work for the people instead of the corporations. Thats why they must destroy Obama now.

These guys are pros at getting blue collar types to vote against their best interests, which is why their jobs got exported and their sons get sent to this illogical war.    Their deepest fear is that Obama, with his easy smile and non-threatening manner will convince poor whites that they have more in common with democrats than with 100 million dollar Cindy who makes 5 million a year by just existing. 

Barack's supporters get called Obamabots, but I have  to see them support the party of big oil, fend for yourself health insurance and send our jobs to China to make the stuff at Wal-Mart cheaper.   Seriously. Think gas would be $4 a gallon if Bush hadn't ripped middle east peace to shreds because his neocon buddies thought it would be easy and fun to start  Democracy? After seeing how wrong the Republicans have been, and what a mess they have made of  the world, why do so many still obey Limbaugh's marching orders? Its got to be more than the fact that Obama's ex-preacher said some things as wacky as what Hagee preaches.

Guess what. Rush and Hannity can afford $20 gas. And if they can again con blue collars into voting against their best interests because they think Obama's ex preacher hates America, $20 gas may be the least of our problems.

This is what all the smart people, it seems,  are missing. McCain lovers point out he barely knew Hagee, so can't be held to his whacky beliefs, while Obama bashers say  "20 years in the pew Barry" must remain welded to Rev Wright's most controversial thoughts.

But this ignores the fact that the basic defense supporters make for both Wright and Hagee is identical.

Rev Hagee says he prays, and God's will is revealed to him. He believes  God wants Israel united, so the Messiah can return. Revelations tells him God sent the hunter, Hitler, to chase the Jews there, because once they control both sides of the Jordan river, the end times will come.   If nuking Iran speeds things up, then bring it on. Hagee believes God hates sin and sinners like Homos must be punished, hence Katrina.

How is this any stranger than Rev Wright saying God will damn America for its sins,  like Indian genocide, Slavery and Jim Crow, CIA Assasinations like Diem, proping up dictators like the Shah, torture, and tens of thousands dead in Iraq for no good reason?

Both men pray, read the bible and preach what their God leads them to say.  Evangelicals call it Prophetic preaching, the exact same words Wright's backers use in his defense.

Now Hagee is on TV several times a day. Do we think the millions who listen to him share his views, which critics label anti catholic, anti-gay, and pro Israel because it brings the rapture closer? 

Now that Hagee has helped McCain beat the Evangelical Mike Huckabee, he has called Hagee's comments crazy.  Obama  has likewise denounced all of Wright's controversial views. Critcs see both moves as cynically political.

Now the logical thing for the nation to conclude is that "preachers can be led to say a lot of whacky stuff, thats why the founders put in all that stuff about seperation of church and state."

People who attend church have all sorts of releationships with their pastors. Some hear the whacky stuff as metaphor, others believe it literally. Millions including Hannity and O'Reily stuck around and defended the Catholic church, because they know some screwed up priests don't define the church, even if the Bishops and the Vatican failed to protect their children.   No one would accuse those Catholics of approving of the crimes their leaders covered up. We cut them some slack, and pray their church gets it together and keeps doing the good things Catholics do.

Sadly, few will grant Obama's church the same slack. This will not happen, because for now, Wright is the only smoking gun his opponents have. It lets the Limbaughs repeated say "racist preacher = scary black guy candidate whites can't trust". They will bring him up every chance they get. McCain even managed to get a Wright jab in while denouncing Hagee.

Personally, I believe the relationship between any person and his church or preacher is none of my business.  There is no religion that people of some other faith don't think is crazy. Many Christians believe billions of non believers will burn in hell. Most of those billions don't even think hell exists. Radical Islam wants to slay all non-believers. I don't agree with any of them, but as long as they are not violent or threatening, I defend their right to believe it.   

I personally pray for a world that lets anybody believe anything, as long as they leave evryone who disagrees with them alone.   This political season, America seems to be headed in the opposite direction.

Having worked so hard to split blacks from brown, and low income whites from educated and young ones, Clinton is now doing all she can to p*ss off voters in Florida and Michigan. Come on, no normal person gives a damn about delegates and conventions, but she goes down there and tells them the party is treating them like slaves, and Obama is the man holding the whip? Won't that make it impossible for him to carry that state?

She says she wants a Democrat to win in November, but her every action shows she only cares about herself. Maybe she just does not consider the damage she does to the man who has already beaten her soundly by playing by the rules. Or maybe she does.

I now think her final plea will be to declare that, after the mess she left for Obama in Florida and Appalachia, he has no chance, so they have to nominate her. And if that happens, she'll still lose Ky and WVa to Bush III, after Republicans unleash all the stuff they've been storing up on her for 16 years. Plus, betrayed blacks will refuse to vote for her. When Blacks in Detroit stay home, Michigan goes red. When Blacks don't vote in Cleveland and Cinncinatti, Dems lose Ohio. KC and St. Louis will cost them Missouri, Philly and Pittsburgh will cost them Pennsylvania and then its over. And this will screw up the hopes for dozens of governor and congressional candidates counting on the increased turnout. The war will go on and lobby types will continue to rule the nation.

Hillary will be personally responsible for turning Democratic joy into disaster. She is, without doubt, the most selfish politician of our time. She is totally willing to destroy the party to win the nomination.  She has no more thought of how she'd win after blowing up every major democratic coalition than she thought about what to do after super Tuesday. 

There is a reason all of talk radio is still a 24-7 Obama hate fest. They have a boat load of crap ready to hurl at Hillary...stuff Obama was too classy to touch. 

The Democrats only hope is that her Florida performance spurs still more supers to declare. But to Hillary, it won't matter. The only facts that count, like the only states that count, are the ones that work in her favor.