Cross posted from The Word Smiths

Recently browsing the blogs, I ran across some posts by a gentleman named Marshall Adame who is running for Congress in North Carolina's Third Congressional District.

I read through his issues pages and found only one issue that I disagreed with, which was stunning considering the wide range and depth of issues he addresses.  He has written for the American Chronicle online, and is reaching out to the netroots by regularly posting diaries on DKos and MyDD.  

His biography is incredible.  A former Marine and a man who was on the ground in Iraq from 2003-06 as the coalition's director at Basra International Airport.  In short, this guy is crazy qualified for the job.

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Cross post from The Word Smiths

For those of you who don't know, the Edwards campaign has produced a :30 ad asking Congress to send the same bill back to President Bush, the same thing I called on Congress to do last week.

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I sometimes go lurking on the rightwing sites to see what they are thinking, talking about and thank my stars I am not a republican.
But, tonight I realized something very troubling about us.
While the Freepers all have a candidate they support, they discuss the topic and their individual support for one candidate or another without flaming.  
If someone posts a negative about one it's framed in a way that is not like a personal attack.  And they discuss it with each other in a somewhat respectful way. They will joke about someone or say they think, say Rudi is a dog, but, there is no flaming and yelling and accusing.
This really bothers me.  We are suppose to be the ones who can discuss and debate without getting nasty.  We are suppose to be the open minded ones who respect the other person's right to support who they want.  We are not suppose to flame and try to pit one against the other.
But, for the past week this is us.  We act like we expect freepers to act.  They are acting like we are suppose to act.
I feel like I'm in backwards world.  next, Bush will be known as a scholar.  I cannot handle this.  It's totally wrong.
Come on people.  We need to show we are better than them.  We have to find someway to disagree with a candidate or each other without sounding like we are attacking and being high and mighty and mean.  We have to show who the better thinkers are.
I say, let's try to bury at least some of the hatchet, quit playing 'gottcha' with the candidates and have real grown up discussions about the candidates that respects the candidate and the supporters.
I don't want us to be worse than Freepers!  geez!  shudder.

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Seems that the former Senate Leader, Tom Daschel, has been very busy.  He has been consulting and helping Barack Obama with his presidential bid.
With 30 years of experience and contacts, especially his 85,000 donor list that is only been rented to Obama, Daschel has used his influence to help the campaign.
It's kind of funny how everyone here fights about the candidates and never pays attention to who is endorsing or helping them out.  It says alot about a candidate when you have the experienced and people of respect and intelligence, like a Richard Clark and the foreign policy community collectively looking to a candidate as their choice.  People in Washington and the ones with alot of experience are not easily impressed.

And excerpt from the article:
Daschle's unusually early endorsement of Obama last February gave the newcomer desperately-needed instant clout among insiders who were resigned to the inevitability of Hillary Clinton, but praying for an alternative. "What Daschle brought was credibility," said an insider close to both men, "and now they have developed a good personal relationship." The two men share a similar approach to both the process and substance of politics: a certain soft-spoken meticulousness, and a desire to blunt the sharp edges of partisanship

Interestingly - tellingly - it was Obama who reached out to Daschle. In 2004, Obama was cruising to an easy victory in the Illinois Senate race, and had a lot of unused cash on hand. He gave a lot of it - some $85,000, according to Hildebrand - to Daschle, who was under White House siege in South Dakota.

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Reading through various clips this morning on the '08 primary calendar, it does not take a genius to conclude that no one knows where this will end up, but it won't be pretty.

In Florida, the House has voted in the committee unanimously to move Florida's primary to Feb. 5 or one week after New Hampshire, whichever is first. And if New Hampshire moves up?  Then Florida will also move up.

Oklahoma is saying they will be on the same Saturday as South Carolina, on February 2nd.

Wyoming Republicans have voted to caucus on the same day as the New Hampshire primary, regardless of the date. Wyoming Democrats are listening to Howard Dean for now, and not yet following suit.

In 2004, seven states held primaries within a couple of weeks of New Hampshire, and already for 2008, sixteen states are in that window. Unlike the 2004, in 2008 there are mega-states like California, New Jersey, Michican and Florida in that mix. More states and more delegates nominated earlier.

New Hampshire's William Gardner is said to be waiting to move the New Hampshire primary ahead of Nevada and Iowa in the nominating process.

Howard Dean is going to be who's left holding the bag with this, as the DNC didn't come up with a solution that was fair across the board, and now, some states are just ignoring the national party rules. What can Dean do to fix this mess?