I'm with you about Edwards and I'm from IL and love Obama.  An Edwards/Obama ticket would be a grand slam.  I was originally hoping to see Edwards with Bill Nelson or Bob Graham on the ticket to possibly put FL in contention.  But any ticket headed by Edwards with Obama/Clark/Richardson would work out an Electoral College Victory.

I know this is unlikely to happen but maybe for the next 6-9 months you could have a gentleman's agreement to segregate '08 Presidential politics to weekends (Fri night to Sunday). None of this '08 discussion is BREAKING NEWS!!! urgent - it's mostly speculation. 'Wouldn't it be great if the ticket was Gore/Obama?' isn't political discussion - it's fan boy dreaming. It's the same as saying 'Wouldn't it be great if Tom Brady was the QB of the Redskins?'. Think how much time was wasted talking about Mario Cuomo running for President.

I know what I'm proposing will be called censorship by some and this isn't my blog but a little self-discipline and leading by example from the major netroots blogs just MIGHT keep the ugliness to a dull roar - at least until Labor Day '07.

Am I crazy to think keeping the '08 Presidential discussions to the weekends for a few months could be a productive step?

...is that he said the day after the '04 election that he would definitely not run in 2008. If he flip-flops on that question, what else would he flip on?

On the kos straw poll I had a strong suspicion that Edwards, Obama, and Clark would be the strongest without Fiengold or Gore in the mix.  Honestly I would gladly support any of the 3.  I still have doubts about Clark's ability to run a good campagin, but we'll have to see how much he's learned in the last few years.  If any of these three emerge the winner though we'll have a much stronger candidate than we would with Hillary.

I voted for Obama on potential alone. On merit, I would vote for Richardson- they guy is a progressive governor w/ national security experience. But I think Obama has the chance to be a uniquley great president. If you read his books and speeches, I don't know how you can conclude otherwise.

I went for Edwards right now, but I'm open to a couple more candidates, but definitely NOT to most on that list...

We get the same results at Soapblox/Chicago except Richardson does a lot better. Richardson has much stronger support than  is showing on the dKos poll because of the single vote nature and strategic voting.

Here's our approval vote results:

Presidential Straw Poll (MyDD Candidates) Pick all you approve of:

• Al Gore - 23 votes (22.55%)
  
• Barack Obama - 18 votes (17.65%)
  
• John Edwards - 17 votes (16.67%)
  
• Bill Richardson - 10 votes (9.8%)
  
• Wes Clark - 8 votes (7.84%)
  
• None of the above - 7 votes (6.86%)
  
• Tom Vilsack - 4 votes (3.92%)
  
• Evan Bayh - 4 votes (3.92%)
  
• Tom Daschle - 4 votes (3.92%)
  
• Hillary Clinton - 2 votes (1.96%)
  
• Joe Biden - 2 votes (1.96%)
  
• Mike Gravel - 1 votes (0.98%)
  
• Chris Dodd - 1 votes (0.98%)
  
• John Kerry - 1 votes (0.98%)

Total votes: 102

Admittedly the results are thin because of the small number of voters (maybe 25-30 tops) but the voting method (approaval) has been very good at teasing out general support that is similar to larger polls, including IRV ones.

this is a bit late to the party, i know, but I wanted to chime in a thought about the mydd 2008 predictions.  you should include number of contributions on actblue as a metric of a candidate's popularity.  hopefully that will incentivize grassroots supporters to "stuff the ballots" in a way that actually helps us win.

DavidNYC over at Swing State Project had a diary up about the TX-23 SUSA poll and someone commented about the numbers not adding up.

I think that most people seperate demographics out into White, Black, and Hispanic.

However, the way that the Census Bureau surveys for race doesn't exclude those claiming hispanic heritage from claiming white race.  And most Hispanics check off white as their race.

So I think that there maybe some overlap depending on the methodology used.

The obama supporters (of which I am one) who have bashed you are being political fanboys.  Your criticism is constructive... others on here just seem vindictive at times... Calling someone an empty suit vs asking how they can better serve people are two WAY different sentiment... your comments tend to go toward the latter, which I respect greatly.  I always thought Stollers ran toward the former, but as of late he is being constructive, which I respect.  There are definately faults with Obama, I am a big fan and would never argue that their aren't.  My issue has always been the way peopel have expressed what they feel those faults are... some go after him like he is BUSH for god's sake... and I think everyone of us on here would definately prefer President Obama to Bush, Cheney, or McCain.