Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee and the long candidate wars that have raged since early 2007 is now over.

Within 60 to 90 days, both party nominees will select vice presidential nominees.

I suspect that John McCain will pick either Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee or Charlie Crist.  I really have no interest in who he picks at all so I will not dwell on it.

What is of interest to me is who Barack Obama will select.

I am hoping for Senator Jim Webb because he can connect with those "hard-working whites" that Hillary Clinton claims to own.  He also counters John McCain's military and national security credentials and lays to rest the questions of "patriotism".  Most importantly, he places Virginia in play.

Most cities in this country were built around the automobile, and in many places public transportion is now almost non-existent, even in large cities.

Public transportion that existed prior to the automobile were dismantled by the emergent automobile industry in a move that came to be known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal; General Motors managed to remove over 100 streetcar systems nationwide by 1950. By the time antitrust investigators could go to work, the deed was done. American mass-transit was "dead".

Great American Streetcar Scandal

Hillary Clinton cannot win the 2008 Democratic nomination.  It is too far gone for her now.

The problem is not that Hillary Clinton is still in the race. She has every right to be. It is that she is running the kind of race that she is. Having failed to convince voters of the viability of her own candidacy, she is now committed to proving the unviability of his.

Hillary once said it takes a village to raise a child. Now she seems determined to destroy the village in order to save it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

Why is Hillary running?  

It is not for herself, but to save Bill Clinton's legacy.  

Why will she not drop out?  

Because this campaign has further damaged that legacy and they are now doubling down on the table.

Rome grew from a small agricultural settlement on Italian hills to a world superpower through expansion, military conquest, economic dominance and political assimilation.  It lasted for over 1200 years and evolved from a city-state kingdom, to a democratic republic, to an autocratic empire. Rome's culture and self identity was molded and inspired by the older culture of Ancient Greece.

America has grown from small agricultural settlements along the North American eastern seaboard to a world superpower through expansion, military conquest, economic dominance and political assimilation.  It has lasted 400 years since the Virginia and Massachusetts colonies and has evolved into a vast continent-stretching republic.  America's culture and self identity has been molded and inspired by the older culture of Great Britain.

A smart political operative said within earshot of me yesterday that if Hillary has more metaphorical bombshells to drop on Obama — and this operative has heard secondhand that she does — she'll do so between April 16, the date of her next debate with Obama, and April 22, Pennsylvania's primary day. The timing, of course, is so she doesn't get asked about it by the moderator or confronted by Obama.

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.c...

I know it is from National Review and we should consider the source but it does look like the Clintons are following the Mutually Assured Destruction path because her own campaign is now spinning around the drain.

What could this be?

Remember when Hillary whispered something to Edwards after a debate about Barack's past?

A historical narrative to follow..

I love YouTube, that video sharing website where users can upload, view and share silly video clips.  Created in mid-February 2005, it has forever changed media.  Democratizing and internationalizing it.  

So, who is winning the YouTube primary race?

Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the lone Republican senator to vote against the Iraq war, calls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton one of the "Democratic Bush enablers" who failed to stand up to the president.

In a new book, Chafee, who is backing Clinton rival Sen. Barack Obama, skewers Clinton and other Democratic White House hopefuls who said they were duped by Bush into voting for the war.

"Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill," Chafee writes. "They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment, in my view."

http://news.aol.com/...

First, I have to say that Barack Obama has already won the Democratic nomination and is very well on his way to becoming our next president.  

This is exciting not because Obama will replace Bush but it will be the end of the age of conservatism that has dominated both parties (i.e. Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman and the DLC gang).

What does that mean for us, down here in the local municipalities and school departments?

I am working on a letter to the editor.  I would love feedback and input before I send it in.

The New Republic reports that Michigan "plans to get out of its uncounted delegate problem by announcing a new caucus in the next few days."

Said the source: "They want to play. They know how to do caucuses. That was their plan all along, before they got cute with the primary."

"Michigan Democrats had originally planned on caucuses after the legally permissible Feb. 5 date, but then went along with top elected Democrats, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who pushed for an early primary."

The Hotline confirms the story.

http://politicalwire.com/...

Senator John McCain is now officially the Republican nominee for the 2008 Presidential contest.

Looking at the red/blue divide of 2004 and it looks like John McCain has a better than 50/50 chance of winning the White House for the Republicans for a third time in a row.

George W. Bush is no where on the ballots so his radioactive disapproval poll numbers will not really matter come November.  

49 percent favored Clinton, 40 percent were for Obama and 11 percent were undecided.

http://www.projo.com/...

Click here, https://www.ri.gov/..., and enter your address to find your polling location.  

Polls are open until 9:00 pm local time.  Try to vote at non-high-peak hours to avoid long lines; best times would be between 9:00 and 11:30 am, 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm and 7:30 pm and 9: 00 pm.

Immediately after you have voted, head to your closest Barack Obama for President headquarters and volunteer for "Get out the Vote" operations.

What we have here is not a cult nor is it just a movement, what we have here is a popular uprising.  

The pent up energy of the populace has been spurred not by Barack Obama but by Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law stating that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

After the George W. Bush Error of hanging chads, Iraq, Swiftboaters, Katrina and everything else since the first year of the 21st Century, the population has decided that it has had enough.

Barack Obama can best articulate this reactive energy.

After canvassing in the ice and snow this weekend for Barack Obama in Rhode Island, I have gotten myself pretty sick.  It was not the cold weather as much as shaking numerous hands (how do professional politicians stay healthy?)

Anyway, watching the Clinton campaign flailing this weekend, I am pretty confident that this race will be over on March 4.

After we have selected the nominee, the nominee selects the running mate.  So, who will it be?

Despite the excitement of the presidential primary season, this time of  the year are the Dark Times in New England, otherwise known as February.

The cruel month in between football and baseball seasons where the temperature rarely raises into the forties.

Snow and ice frost over the trees, roads, houses and cars.

The wife of the Illinois senator visited Rhode Island yesterday to try to parlay his national surge into Rhode Island support in the run-up to the state’s March 4 presidential primary.

"We’ve learned a lot this year," Obama told a CCRI gathering estimated at 2,200. "We’ve learned that people are hungry for change. ... Hope is making a comeback. I like it."

http://www.projo.com/...

According to the pundits, Rhode Island is a solid Hillary Clinton state.  Boy, the sense on the ground sure does feel like they are wrong.

"...I simply can't side with somebody who participated,
whether willingly or unknowingly, as she claims,
in something that has been so evil."

-- Michael Moore on Larry King Live

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