We all hate how the results of the 2004 Presidential election came to pass.

We are all working hard to make sure that result is not repeated in 2008.

I think I've found something cool that could help Democrats and progressives everywhere visualize what could be in 2008.

More after the jump.

We know there are lots of smart, creative visitors to this site every day.  And together, we are far smarter and more creative than any of us alone.  Best of all, we know that Actual, Real Live Obama Staffers come here and check out what's going on!  So, calling the Great Kossack Group-Mind!  Let's work together and try to come up with some great ideas for future Obama for President commercials.

Those who aren't quite ready to post an ad idea, please feel free to comment on why other people's ideas will or won't work, and to offer suggestions on how they could make them better.

Just to show how easy it is, I'll go first.

No one wants to keep the Republican out of The White House more than I do.  I support Obama and I will vote for him.  

McCain has won praise from the media for all of his bluster and tough talk on Russia.  These are the folks he refers to as "my base" and that have cozied up with the Senator for bbq at his private residence, so it's not surprising that they're eating up neocon John's act.
http://www.cnn.com/...

However, people that are looking objectively at the Georgia conflict are reaching a different conclusion.  Had we pursued the policies recommended by McCain in the past years regarding Russia, we would have forfeited most of the means we currently have at our disposal to put pressure on them.

Lately, again, in an attack that is hardly link-worthy, John McCain took Barack Obama to task for taking his presumptuous trip to Iraq... and for not visiting Iraq since, get this, January 2006! How stupid Obama must be, to mount a 50-state strategy in a year where, yes, there are 51 states. With a July 2006 population of 26,783,383 (and falling), I'm pretty sure the McCain camp is counting on Iraq's 40-50 electoral votes in November, even though Iraq's "Caliph" endorses our guy.

John McCain, it seems, is running for Emperor. And perhaps that's a fitting issue to address in this campaign, the first (to my knowledge) where neither candidate was born on mainland U.S. Two candidates from colonial reaches of empire strive to address its overextension. With PNAC's progenitors putting their tail between their legs and running, let's take a look at the election through colonial lenses, as you travel with me to the once-sovereign nation of There'sMoreland.  

Image: Blank Black Screen for 3 seconds
Audio:Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick (Old alarm clock/bomb style ticking sound twice per second. Ticking continues thru ad.


Announcer(soft non-attack voice): "Which John McCain are you going to vote for?"


Image on screen for 15 seconds: Boots/Helmet/Rifle fallen soldier image.
Text overly: 4144 american heroes dead
Audio: only the audio clips of John McCain: "Bomb bomb bomb Iran" "Iraq" "Russia" "War" "War" "War" "That's not too important. What's important is the casualties" "Q:Troops in Iraq for 50 yrs? A:Make it a hundred...that would be fine by me." "...cold war. This is an act of aggession"


Image on screen for 9 seconds: Distraught 50yr old couple at kitchen table with bills image.
Text overlay: # Jobs lost
Audio: only the audio clips of John McCain: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood" "Q: At what point do you move from middle class to rich A:How about $5 million"


Image on screen for 3 seconds, split screen: One side McCain hugging Bush, other side McCain and Bush holding birthday cake.
Text overlay: Large ? mark in middle of screen.
Audio: Old alarm clock goes off ringing loudly.

Given the ugly scenarios and development sequel to the military tactics by the Georgia state against South Ossetia and the emphatic response by Russia in a similar manner, one is left with the fundamental question of how did this happen and who might have started this pseudo- cold war II?

Hi Guys!

As you, no doubt, know by now, I own a retail store.  And, being uberblue, I carry blue merchandise, and not red merchandise.  So, for example, if you want a coffee cup where all the red states turn blue when you pour in hot water, you can buy it from us.  If you want a coffee cup where all the blue states turn red, you'll have to buy it somewhere else.  

As it happens, we also have the widest selection of jigsaw puzzles in Chicago.  So, when the new Obama and McCain puzzles came out, we bought the Obama puzzles, and not the McCain puzzles.

JUMP!

This should be viewed as research.
As I watched the McCain ads and then saw the change in the polls, the fever, the chills, the abdominal pain and the "oh crap" feeling started; I had been struck by the 2000 Gore-Bush anxiety virus. Instead of just listening to the pundits explain the significance, I decided that it was time to see what the research says about negative campaigning and campaign ads. Do they make a difference? Are they effective? Does McCain have a chance of success if he continues to use them? Is it wise for Obama to refrain from using them? Here are the results. It's a long one.

I have distilled the basic conclusions of each and I have included a more detailed explanation if you wish more information and the source. The first set of numbered items correspond to the items that follow below. Just match them.

I have made my own conclusions about the research but I would really be interested in what others think; thus, I have not given mine. They’re in my head rattling around looking for some logic and common sense. So, does Obama have anything to worry about? Should he join McCain in negative campaigning?

I was over at Factcheck.org today. Unfortunately their analysis of Obama and McCain stretching the truth lately hits both of them about the same. There is this letter John McCain wrote Barack Obama in 2006, however:

McCain (letter to Obama) Feb. 6, 2006: I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. ... I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won't make the same mistake again.

Straight talk?

Hi folks.  First-time diarist here.

The rest of my family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) are very conservative, and this year is no exception.  My son has just turned 1 year old, and over the Labor day weekend, my wife and I will be with my family.  The last time we were all confined together was Thanksgiving of 2007, and my uncle and I got into a shouting match over universal health care.  Very uncomfortable situation. (more)

All hands on deck – McCain is 5 points ahead in a Reuters/Zogby poll.  Many Obama supporters have been waiting, with baited breath, for the proverbial "other shoe to drop," and now it has, but without not much of a bang.  If Obama’s post-trip "bounce" was not a sustained one, McCain’s post altar-call bounce is not likely to survive the end of the 2008 Olympics, the announcement of Obama’s choice of a running mate, and the start of the Democratic Convention.

Has anyone else noticed that the only potential veep pick that Republicans have gone out of their way to slam is Tim Kaine? If they really thought Kaine was such a terrible choice, wouldn't they stay mum instead and secretly hope Obama would end up picking him?

Why then are they trying to scare Dems off of Kaine?

Might it be because they think an Obama / Kaine ticket would win?

I'm simply concerned that in Obama's efforts to skew the ticket to garner the middle, he is ultimately abandoning the base that has carried him to this point.

Update: Changed Title to reflect my sentiment.

I just found this on HuffPo and had to post it.

Looking at these pics I wonder who is really elite in this election

Please Jump...

Ok...so here we are less than a week before Obama's coronation at the Democratic National Convention.  His VP pick should be named any day now, and the media and political junkies are waiting by their cell phones for the text message from the campaign with the announcement.  Will it be Biden, as all current "indications" tell us?  Or will Obama "go with his heart over his head" and pick Kaine?  Will he thumb his nose at many in his progressive base and go with Bayh?  Or will he thumb his nose at Hillary Clinton's "18 million voters" and name Sebelius?

I think (THINK) he's playing all of us and will go outside of the box...

Here's what the Obama camp and the Democrats need to do to win this election.  It is simple advice that unfortunately Democrats never heed to during a national election

TPM has posted some of McCain's prepared remarks to be delivered later today. They are framed as McCain's response to Obama's complaints from yesterday about attacks on his patriotism.

Yesterday, Senator Obama got a little testy on this issue. He said that I am questioning his patriotism. Let me be clear: I am not questioning his patriotism; I am questioning his judgment. Senator Obama has made it clear that he values withdrawal from Iraq above victory in Iraq, even today with victory in sight. Over and over again, he has advocated unconditional withdrawal -- regardless of the facts on the ground. And he voted against funding for troops in combat, after saying it would be wrong to do so.

He has made these decisions not because he doesn't love America, but because he doesn't seem to understand the consequences of an American defeat in Iraq, how it would risk a wider war and threaten the security of American families.