Barack Obama Elected President!

[David_Vickers]

I hope and think that the VP choice for Obama will either be Hillary Rodham Clinton or Al Gore. I hope it's Hillary, maybe with Al on his team in another capacity, Maybe Secretary of State.

[Ryan]

And so the bullshit begins....

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/arc...-pin-in-it.html

While a number of speakers -- such as Railroad Commission chairman Michael Williams and Mike Huckabee -- have praised the advance of Barack Obama and what it means towards a colorblind society, at least one vendor hasn't gotten the message.Obama Button0001.JPG

At the Republican state convention, a booth hosted by Republicanmarket was selling a pin Saturday that says: If Obama is President will we still call it the White House.

There were other pins that weren't necessarily conveying the positive, inclusive, united front that has been portrayed during the convention. One said, "Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Deportation" and another, "I will hold my nose when I vote for McCain"

[Roman]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200806170003?f=h_column

[Jess]

It would seem at some point that someone would say, uhh, that button is really in poor taste. How in the hell does something like that make it all the way to the convention?

I'm leaning now toward Bill Richardson being the VP nominee. I thought it was going to be Clinton until the COS pick.

[GHJunkie4Life]

I think the crowds reaction during Al Gore's endorsement of Barack Obama is a clear indicator of how most Obama supporters feel about Clinton on the ticket.

I found it to be hilarious. HRC is just a power hungry politician. She doesn't deserve the spot and she deserve to be rewarded for all the divisions she's caused in the Democratic Party.

As for Al Gore theres no way in hell he'd want to be VP. Maybe he'll be in the administration or serve some special role related to the Environment but I highly doubt he'll be VP.

At this point I'm leaning towards Biden, Ed Rendell, or Bayh. Maybe Richardson although I don't think he'd really be that big an impact in terms of bringing more voters over to the Blue side...

[Southofnowhere]

Richardson gives Obama the Hispanic vote in a major way but won't help him with women and working class folk.

[EricaKane70]

I thought Michelle did a great job on the view today. I don't believe like some that she needs some media and public training. She explained the whole, "this is the first time I've been really proud of my country," statement well enough for me. My god people she made one mistake and that was taken out of context, give the girl a break.

[Jess]

I'm one of them who believes she needs media and public appearance training. Anytime she has to explain something, it is taking her off message. I think that candidates win when everything about the campaign is disciplined. If she makes a mistake then the questions she is asked is about the mistake, it's not about what she should be talking about that day. When she makes a mistake, Obama has to answer questions about the mistake. Whether we like it or not, I think a lot of coverage of campaigns can be classified as gaffe patrol. Maybe the gaffe doesn't do any long-term harm, but I think not talking about what you need to be talking about at that time does.

[Jess]

I agree about women, but what about working class folk? I think he could help there. I apologize Ryan and Roman. I messed up trying to combine the two quotes.

[Wales2004]

Even though I can see your point, I am not certain that she needs any training and I think experience is teaching her that words can easily be twisted into something other than intended at the time they're spoken. What she said was much ado about nothing. It boils down to whether or not someone saying "For the first time in my life I'm really proud of my country" means I've never in my life been proud of my country or not and that depends on who sat down and analyzed the statement. There is no way she or anyone else can control the desire of Fox and elements of the GOP and others to make her seem like she's someone to fear and distrust. It's easy enough for them to turn innocent gestures into terrorist jabs. There are probably people who even after seeing it done many times over the years, still brought into the notion that it symbolized terrorism because the Obamas did it. Look how easy it was to scare Dunkin' Donuts into pulling that add with Rachel Ray wearing a scarf that was said to be terrorist garb.

Barack Obama is going to take heat for pledging to use public funding and now backing down from that pledge. He, unfortunately, needs to spend lots of money to fight against constant smears since this election is rooted in how frightening McCain, the GOP, and other elements want to make him and I'm not talking about national security or foreign policy. The greater part of their message is he doesn't look like us and he can't be trusted.

He faces more unique challenges because of the fear mongers. One of two young Muslim supporters wearing scarves who were denied an invite to sit behind him during the MI event, is now not only asking for a personal apology but an invite to sit behind him at another rally. Normally this sort of thing would not be an issue except for the fact that he is being painted as a Muslim which is another fear tactic and I suppose whoever denied this woman and her friend the invite in the first place was probably concerned that footage of them would be blown up by the media and GOP as evidence that Obama is in cahoots with Hamas. At some point he and his wife need to stop spending so much time focusing on who they are not and just focus on who they are. Some people may accept them if they get to see them and some people won't accept them no matter what.

[Jess]

You are right. If people are going to believe he is Muslim simply because a Muslim sits behind him on a stage, then they are not going to support him regardless. McCain is going to run this campaign exactly as big George Bush ran his campaign against Dukakis in 1988. It's going to be ugly and there is always going to be some ugly ugly issues below the surface. There will ads that allude to discriminatory things without really saying them and people like Rush Limbaugh will be using the airways in pretty hateful ways. Also, I think there will be a heavy duty internet rumor campaign. I also think Obama's internet campaign can probably beat that.

On Michelle Obama, it was not just that she tripped over her words. It was that it floated out there so long before the campaign dealt with it. It is very much like the Rev. Wright stuff. Things like that can not sit around for a month. I do hope that Obama brings in some thugs to help him with his campaign.

[Roman]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1828132020080619

[Southofnowhere]

McCain already has stated that he wouldn't try to stop the GOP "Swiftboat" types from trashing Obama so Barack had no choice but to opt out.

[Jess]

I agree. The "independent" campaigns absolutely game the system. I think McCain is going to be every bit the skanky campaigner as other republicans have been.

[bandbfan]

I always liked BR during the primary, but I think he'd do better to pick someone who will get more of Clinton's voters. If Obama thinks he can win the southwest (NM, CO, NV, and put AZ in play), he might not need BR.

Anyway, I haven't read all 159 or however many pages, (so I don't know if somebody has mentioned it) but do you guys know about

electoral-vote.com? It's pretty awesome.