Umm ... this is how connected I am ... I worked for both Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first African American governor from the key state of Virginia, and with much of the Obama team in Daley's office ... and yet, I couldn't score a job with the Obama campaign.  Not that I'm complaining ... I can't think of any real value I could have added to the effort ... what was I going to do, write a better speech than Favreau?  Not likely.  Handle debate prep better?  No.  

So, no, I'm not connected, I just happen to know the players involved.  I'm no more likely to land a job in the Obama administration than anyone on mydd.com ... actually, since they know me, perhaps I have less of a chance.

Yes, well, I wasn't permitted to deliver the speeches, unfortunately.  Axelrod told me before I took the job that writing for Daley is a great challenge because you can't give him any words with three or more syllables.  

But thanks for the insult anyway ...

I'm hoping she runs against Martinez for the Senate in 2010, I think she's great.

You need a mix of policy and political types in the White House.  I think a lot of people in the lefty blogosphere have a naive view of how governing actually works.  I was Mayor Daley's speechwriter, meaning that I worked with David Axelrod a lot ... Axelrod didn't always get his way in the Mayor's office, policy often overrode him, and I'm sure he'll expect a similar atmosphere in the White House.  Just because you have a voice for the politics doesn't mean that politics is always going to win. Michelle Obama was a policy wonk in the Mayor's Office, President Obama is going to have enormous respect for the wonks and won't just cave to the gurus. The bottom line is that Obama trusts Axelrod and that's exactly who you need in any government office, someone you trust completely.

Oh come on ... Axelrod and Emanuel are NOT DLC types.  

As someone who has worked with David Axelrod in the past, this is a guy with a lot of governing experience ... he's been Mayor Daley's political consigliere for 20 years.  You'd be surprised just how little ideological politics there is in Chicago ... Axelrod had a huge hand in creating that atmosphere.  He will be the ice to Rahm Emanuel's fire, the guy who looks for a way to make every policy issue an opportunity to forge consensus and lower the political temperature.  We're going to miss him here deeply, I'm sure the Mayor is in mourning right now.

I agree, Merkley is going to win it ... the bulk of uncounted ballots are from Lane County (Eugene) and Merkley is winning that county by 20 points.  Only 1/3 of the Lane County vote has been counted, if Merkley keeps up that margin, he should pull ahead by about 15,000.

Wow, I finally agree with Gerson on something ... it was a terrible speech.  Very poorly written and constructed ... my God, you have to put some rousing stuff up front to give the speaker some confidence.  I nearly fell asleep 15 minutes into that ... and it never really got better.  No specifics, no contrast.  A complete waste of 45 minutes.

This ad is a huge blunder for McCain, ironically for the same reason why it was a mistake for Kerry and other Dems to cozy up to McCain in 2004 ... when McCain came out forcefully for Bush at the convention and beyond, it gave his attacks that much more credibility.

Hillary Clinton is a good loyal Democrat and she's going to go after McCain hard, no matter how much he might feign admiration.  And when she and Bill do that at the convention, McCain's going to be the one with egg on his face.

Just look at the difference between the generic ballot models and the horserace ... Obama is now underperforming the generic ballot by about 10 points.  These voters constitute the 2008 election swing voters.  The problem for McCain -- these voters are FAR more liberal than the typical swing voters.

That's why he has to attack Obama over celebrity and character ... and use surrogates like Lieberman and (he hopes) Clinton and Powell.  But those are typical Democratic voters McCain is going after and he needs to win them overwhelmingly, without demoralizing his base.

This election is still Obama's to lose.

Oh, I could name a lot of non-Hillary choices that wouldn't be yawns ...

Al Gore
Colin Powell
Chuck Hagel
Gen. Anthony Zinni

Too bad he can't double-down on celebrity power and tap Schwarzenegger.  

Generally, I take an Allen Iverson attitude when it comes to the Veep ("we're talkin bout VICE President.")  But those names would cause a bigger stir than Hillary.

I agree with you, Jerome, but I think Obama might be too squeamish to take on McCain directly on this issue, it might have to come from surrogates without his direction or even approval.  Whoever shut up Wes Clark did a grave disservice to the campaign.

Oh my God, John Aravosis is in a tizzy ... let's dump Obama for Hillary.  Yeah, that will solve everything.

My friend, campaigns are tough long slogs, lots of ups and downs.  There's a lot about Obama's approach that can be second guessed, I think he should be more aggressive in defining McCain, but you can't say "I told you so" based on August polling.  For one, it's impossible to know where HRC would stand at this moment if she had won.

Personally, I voted for and supported Obama because I thought then and still believe now that he'd make a better President than Hillary Clinton.  It's just my opinion ... I'm sure you disagree.  I never thought it would be easy.  

Obama will make a confident pick, he doesn't think he can lose, he will pick a VP who he thinks will make him a better President.

And that's why I'm predicting Sam Nunn.

Conservatives are adamant that the anti-Christ will someday lead the European Union, so they have to play this question carefully.  The whole point of raising it is to have the opportunity to associate Obama with the words anti and Christ ... as in, Obama is against Christianity, a Muslim.  The fact that the Christian Right consistently answers, well, I doubt that he's the anti-Christ, makes them seems somewhat fair minded, but still allows their meme to grow.

The "answer" in this case, from some Christian Right news broadcaster, is that questions like this -- and the question about whether Obama is similar to Britney Spears -- will keep coming up because Obama is a celebrity.  That was the last word on the subject.  So two right wing memes ... Obama is anti-Christian and Obama is a celebrity ... were promoted without a word of opposition.

Of course, all of this will be moot if McCain names Lieberman or Ridge his VP.  The Christian Right will walk away from McCain if he sticks it to them on abortion.

That is not an accurate description of the report.  Do you forget the last word, the Christian Right radio commentator saying that because Obama is a celebrity, it's fair game to compare him to the anti-Christ or Britney Spears?  Or what about the "Barack Obama, the Antichrist?" chyron that was on not only through the segment, but for at least a minute after the segment was over.

Dog whistle is right ... it doesn't matter that they debunked the idea that he's the Anti-Christ, CNN just featured the right wing meme that Obama is anti-Christian.