McCain will beat us over the head! Yes he will no matter what you do. Like voting for AUMF prevented the Repubs from beating up on the Dems???

Unless you stand up for some principle and deep rooted American values like liberty the voters will see right through that. If they want the bombs at any cost guy they'll go for the real McBomb - not some wishy wash politician with no convictions.

This has been a close contest that has travelled many states and brought out an amazing number of people. The turnout for Dems is just astounding.

Wisconsin is the tipping point. Obama has the momentum and the traction. Even if Hillary wins in TX & OH the margins will be too small to matter. The tide has turned and it will take Obama to the nomination.

In time the Demcratic party will unite in a historical and super-energized general election campaign. With the tsunami approaching we will see many more Repubs call it quits.

For the first time in a generation we will see a wave of popular support providing a majority vote and the Dems firmly in control. It's even possible for a 60 seat majority in the Senate or enough Repubs shell shocked by the Nov results to support a mandate to get some serious things done after 8 years of unmitigated disaster.

Its a season to be hopeful! And finally fun to be on the winning team.

Wisconsin is the tipping point!

Obama's got both momentum and traction. The Democratic nomination is for all intensive purposes over.

This Nov the Dems are going to win big time with a massive popular vote majority. A nice governing majority to get things done.

It's finally going to be fun after 8 years of darkness!!!

...to have some fun by voting for Hillary and getting a nasty convention battle with super-delegates and Bill.

This whole thing reminds of Wall Street and the earnings expectation game that has given us beat the numbers by a penny every quarter style of management. Managements get to goose their stock prices, reap tremendous rewards through back dated stock options in the short term and when the companies are run into the ground the employees are all shafted and their pensions non-existent at which point middle class working Americans pick up the tab.

What's amazing is how the very blogs that criticize corporate media are so focused on the horse race and spinning how their horse is doing in the race rather than if the progressive/liberal cause is doing well. No one is focused on if these candidates mean what that they say and if they are really going to stand up for the working people and the constitution.

"First is that I know she will be a partisan warrior. I'm not ready to give up the fight that they started but that we've been waging over the past several years; I'm not ready to give in to the Broders and Brooks's who insist both parties are equally culpable in the havoc that the Bush administration and a Republican congress has wrought and that unity, in and of itself, is the answer."

-- Todd Beeton

Being a cynic I expect both candidates to validate right wing frames.

But Hillary a partisan fighter? Yeah. Going on Fox when every Dem candidate so far has put them in place for being so virulently partisan. And is Karl Rove going to be the moderator of this debate?

I guess she needs to dip into the Murdoch well once again since Jan was a relatively slow month.

I am deeply concerned about Obama's "unity" message. We've seen how bi-partisan compromise has worked out  in the past - accept the right wing position and sell out the progressive. But this takes the cake - Fox does not even pretend to be fair and balanced. At the end of the day all one needs to do is look who are some of Hillary's key advisors - Penn, McAuliffe, Emmanuel. And Obama's advisors are equally part of the beltway cocktail circuit.

Between triangulation and post-partisan what is a progressive voter to do?

"First is that I know she will be a partisan warrior. I'm not ready to give up the fight that they started but that we've been waging over the past several years; I'm not ready to give in to the Broders and Brooks's who insist both parties are equally culpable in the havoc that the Bush administration and a Republican congress has wrought and that unity, in and of itself, is the answer."

-- Todd Beeton

I hope your check (ahem vote) has not been cashed yet.

Being a cynic I expect both candidates to validate right wing frames.

But Hillary a partisan fighter? Yeah. Going on Fox when every Dem candidate so far has put them in place for being so virulently partisan. And is Karl Rove going to be the moderator of this debate?

I guess she needs to dip into the Murdoch well once again since Jan was a relatively slow month.

I am deeply concerned about Obama's "unity" message. We've seen how bi-partisan compromise has worked out  in the past - accept the right wing position. But this takes the cake - Fox does not even pretend to be fair and balanced. At the end of the day all one needs to do is look who are some of Hillary's key advisors - Penn, McAuliffe, Emmanuel.

Between triangulation and post-partisan what is a progressive voter to do?

Yes it will. High time that every state got a chance to weigh in. Better than coronations.

Its amazing to watch the supporters of Hillary and Barack slug it out.

I hope you guys never meet in a bar after a few drinks - there will be some blood on the floor.

Please keep up the entertainment though. Its kind of fun to see all the froth :)

And I hope this nomination goes all the way to the convention. Better than WWF!!

Don't be too sure he will not take many independent, anti-war and fiscally conservative Dems. And there are many of those in Blue states such as NY & CA. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate with an unequivocal stand on the Iraq occupation and the cause of the hatred in the Middle East. He's raised $7 million in the last quarter.

Stephen Colbert, IMO, is polling that segment of the population. A third party candidate is a very viable option in todays political climate where the beltway Repubs are tied to the Bush-Cheney hip and will do nothing to stop the meat-grinder in Iraq and the beltway Dems in Congress are actively supporting through their actions the shredding of the Constitution (FISA, AG investigations, contempt, etc) and although they talk a big game are voting to fund the occupation at ever higher levels of funding.

I think a 3rd party candidate will draw from a different demographic this time. Independents that are tired of the beltway elite who only work for their corporate paymasters and who want a candidate with a definite stance towards preserving the Bill of Rights by keeping the national security intelligence apparatus out oof our homes, email and phones and will also get our troops out of the Iraq quagmire with clear and definite timeline.

Why can't the DNC, DSCC and DCCC spend some money running ads on how Bush and the Repubs don't support the troops by ensuring they get all the proper rest, training and equipment prior to deployment. And why they are hurting the troops by extending deployment times. And why the military has won the war but cannot be in the middle of a civil war and occupy another country that does not want to be occupied.

The polls will go off the charts IMO.

As David Ignatius writes in Cheney and the Saudis Bush has already decided and we already know this that any withdrawal will be left to the next President. Cheney is in the Middle East this week to assure the Saudis and Jordanians that the US will only be escalating in Iraq. Also it seems they are working on a coup attempt to install the CIA agent Allawi by toppling the Maliki government.

What is clear is that Bush and the Repubs keep buying time. Every month they say we need another Friedman Unit. Now its we need until Sept to see how the surge is working. In Sept it will be the surge is working but not as well so we need to escalate troops further and we have 35,000 more troops going in and we need until April 2008 and we must give the troops on the ground a real chance to "win".

The question is which coalition will fracture first the Dems with the Blue Dogs breaking with the Support the Troops Out of Iraq caucus or the vulnerable Repubs concerned about their elections in 2008?

The problem with guys like Hoyer is that they don't have the pulse of America. They are always like general's fighting the last war.

They had to be dragged screaming and kicking to make the 2006 election about Iraq and their change of policy. Now they are willing to cave into Bush aqnd the corporate media spin so that they don't have to get into a bruising fight over the change of policy. What they don't realize is that by doing that they now also take responsibility for the war with no political benefit. They have let down the American people by not forcing a new policy to get out of the quagmire. They will pay a price in 2008 - but it probably doesn't matter to them as they are with the DC cocktail circuit crowd.

The Repubs are not doing any worse than the Dems at this stage. I worry we'll be stuck with a bunch of underwhelming candidates from both parties and then voting for trhe lesser evil. Not the kind of dynamo we need to get us out of the ME mess, can tackle the huge economic problems from trade to outsourcing to wage income stagnation. Someone that can be a real leader in rebuilding America. Because we are going to have to do that.

Do we have to settle for the same old warmed over candidates??