Even though we are all feeling pretty good about the chances Tuesday, here is a way for Obama to get those remaining undecideds and really make this election a blowout.  McCain is trying to play up the "spread the wealth" comment by Obama a couple weeks ago.  Obama should point out that his system as been proven to work, and in a business most Americans are familiar with, Major League Baseball. 

Back in the day, only the teams with massive amounts of money could compete.  These were the days the Yankees, Braves, and other big market teams dominated the MLB playoffs.  The rich got richer because they could bring in more revenue and better sponsorships.  Then baseball started revenue sharing, where the top revenue making teams had to give a portion of their proceeds to the teams barely treading water, a "luxury tax".  After this was implemented, we starting seeing more parity in baseball.  Teams like Colorado, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Minnesota, Florida were making playoff runs, and playing in the World Series. 

Obama could use this as an example of higher revenue making business, or people, paying more and the money being used to help lower revenue maker become successful enough to compete.    I think those on the fence will understand the analogy, and will be able to see that the words "spread the wealth" were meant to make their lived better by giving them a good example of how it works.

Wow, just wow.  Republican dirtbag Brad Blakeman was questioned on MSNBC by David Schuster about how could McCain claim to be against wasteful spending when Palin has spent over $150k on clothing.  Blakeman then tried to turn the discussion to Obama's trip to visit his dying Grandmother in Hawaii.  He said "Forget about the energy that is wasted, what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a private trip when this guy should be humping his bags on a commercial plane or taking a smaller plane. Taking a 767 of campaign money from people who could least afford it is more of an outrage in my opinion." 

I for one have donated $25 from every paycheck to Barack Obama's campaign.  I do not feel my money is being wasted for this trip.  His grandmother helped mold him into the powerful leader he will be for our country.  For that, my money could not be used in a better way.

Here is the link to the Huff Post's article, with video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/gop-strategist-on-palins_n_137226.html

I am a fifth grade teacher in Utah.  I have been teaching my students from day one about the election process in anticipation of these final 2 weeks of the election.  I feel the importance of this election is something fifth graders should be aware of.  In class we have been running elections for class president, and learning about what electoral votes are, how many are needed to become President, and tracking polls from the beginning of the school year.  I have also required my students to watch the debates, and discuss them with their parents, and write a summary of the 3 debates and what they thought.

Today, we had a brainstorming session where I put up one of the candidates names, and then asked for one word responses from each student as to what they thought of the candidates based on impressions from the debated and advertisements we have looked at.  When I put up McCain's name, I some responses like "brave", and "fighter".  I got more responses like "old", "mean", "wrong", and "confused".  More than 2 to 1 were negative responses.  When I put up Obama's name, I got overwhelming positive responses such as "caring", "generous", "nice", and "leader".  These responses were about 3 to 1.  Remember these are kids in one of the reddest states in the Union.  I was very surprised that my 5th graders from Utah had more positive thoughts about Obama than McCain.

In this Sam Stein article posted on Huff Post, Stein tells what it was like being surrounded by Clinton supporters. 

To summarize the piece, Stein recounts statements from Clinton supporters such as:

"[Obama] is a socialist! You know what the Nazi Party was before it was the Nazi Party? It was the Socialist Party."

Also: "Would you rather have a president who had an affair [Bill Clinton] or one who was a murderer [Obama]?"

Stein also said that he had conversations with some of the supporters who showed contempt for Obama and the media.  They went through a list of websites they have blacklisted, including Huff Post.  When he told them he was a reporter for the Huff Post, they stopped talking to him.  He went to eat he lunch, only to be serenaded by chants of "Huff Post sucks, Huff Post sucks!"  Later they chanted "Fox News fair and balanced, Fox News fair and balanced.

At the bottom of the article is video of a Clinton supporter who was kicked out.  If you watch the coverage, you may recognize her voice yelling about Iowa and New Hampshire.  She says that Obama is "an inadequate black man."

John McCain is actively recruiting trolls to spew his talking points on blogs. 

This page on his website asks for supporters to go to various blogs and "go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known."  It then asks those that make comments to "report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center." 

The page gives links to blogs such as dailykos, and also gives helpful "talking points" for users to push.

The latest Gallup poll shows that the base of Clinton's support nationwide is starting to swing towards Obama.   

The poll was conduct May 16-18 and shows a gain of 12 points since the first of May.  The pickups came from Clintons base.  Among Whites, both run to a 47% draw.  With Women, Obama takes a 49-46 lead.  Obama also leads with those with a high-school degree or less 47-46.  Among Hispanics, Obama opens up a significant lead of 51-44.

Here is an article on Huff Post about a Clinton Supporter that supposedly offered the Young Democrats of America $1 million, or 1/3 of their budget, in exchange for the organization and their 2 superdels to back Sen. Clinton.

Can't even buy votes now.

Hillary Clinton held a conference call with bloggers today to tout her case for the nomination. She says she leads by 50,000 votes in the popular count, of course including MI and FL.  She also says that she is beating Obama in the electoral math 311-217.  Looks like the goal posts have been uprooted to Moscow.

Here the link to the call with audio. 

If you listen to the spin put forth by the Clinton camp, the reason for Obama's huge loss in WV is because he can't win the Working Class White vote.  We have heard this ad-nauseum for the last month or so.  But there is another factor at work that has nothing to do with demographics.  Its all about familiarity with the candidates.

In the states Obama has won, he did a tremendous job of getting his message to as many people as possible, either through ads, town-halls, rallies, phone calls by volunteers, or door to doors.  He made himself a known commodity to people in those states.  Even in OH, where he trailed by as much as 25%+, he cut the deficit down because he got people to know who he was and what he stood for. 

He didn't lose OH, PA, and other swing states because the working class wouldn't vote for him.  He lost because more undecided voters went to Clinton.  In my opinion, they broke for Clinton because of the brand name.  They may have wanted to vote for Obama, but still did not have all the information needed to break the tie in their minds, so they went with the name they knew from the 90's. 

In WV and other rural areas, they usually vote with what they know.  Bush won there because of name recogniton, no matter how bad daddy was, and Clinton wins there because they remember that when Bill was the President, the economy was good, so she must be just as good.  They may not have taken the time to get to know what each candidate offered, so they went with the name brand. 

Obama didn't aggressively court the rural vote, sticking to a primary strategy that took him to high population centers to maximize delegate counts.  That is how he will win this nomination.  He solidified the urban areas.  As he shifts into General Election mode, he will start winning over the rural, and blue collar voters.  He will spend more time with them, and show them he will be there for them.  He will probably not have as many big rallies, but spend more time in factories.  He understands that to win the primary, you go where the population is. To win the Presidency, you get the "Regan Democrats" back.  But, you have to do it one step at a time.

Just when it looked like the Obama campaign had shaken loose from being classified as a Muslim comes this op-ed piece from the New York Times authored by Edward Luttwak.

The piece basically says that sense Sen. Obama's father was a Muslim at the time of his birth, Sen. Obama is a Muslim in the eyes of Islamic law. And according to the law, renouncing your faith is punishable by death.

So, I guess that whole little dust up about Sen. Obama's "Christian pastor" was all for naught then?  This stuff just keeps getting worse.  Is this really all they have?  Guess if you can't beat his policies, keep beating the trumped up lies that are all the rage on the net.

Saw this on the Huff Post just a bit ago.  Sure most have seen it, if not, here is the link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/09/clinton-supporters-send-l_n_100979.html

To sum up the story, bloggers at taylormarsh.com got hold of the email addresses of some superdelegates and wrote to them with some very harsh language about Sen. Obama in order to change the minds of some of the supes. 

Yeah, I'm really sure going about it that way will work.