As does John Edwards.

The real story is that he was doing 100 in a Prius.

If you'll shuffle, you'll deal.

I know a really good hit site on John Edwards.  Should that be a subject for a diary?  It's not about what a politician can take, or what the reality of politics is.  It is about this site, if it stands for anything, and how does it contribute to the political discourse of this country.

This is a non-story and shouldn't be the subject of a diary.  It is his son.  Leave him alone.

First off, the 15% commission is usually on a set amount of money, often the first 1 million spent, and then goes down on a sliding scale as more money is spent.  That's how it works.  There is nothing inherent in the Flat Fee scenario that makes it necessarily better or worse.  The entire advertising world exists on a markup basis and it is not a corrupting influence in the decisions made.  You always balance it with doing a good job for your client or you don't stay in business very long.

I doubt very much that Jerome knows the specifics of the financial arrangement between Plouffe/Axelrod and Obama.

The criticism is pretty childish.  Making money off of media buys in advertising is a respectable business.  There is nothing sinister about that.  Jerome's comments are entirely personal, there is nothing ideological to them.  They are personal attacks on people he doesn't like.  

Great find.  Thanks.   Will need to be spread again and again when the book comes out.

This reminds me of certain Mets fans who continue to question Omar Minaya's every move when he completely turned around the franchise in two short years.  Obama just set the all time record for most donators in a single quarter.  I think he may just know what he's doing.

Professor, if you think affordable Health Care and more coverage for all rises to the level of abolishing slavery then we have two very different views on what reality is.   Trouble is I see very little real grasp of reality in your statements, if it's acceptable to throw around the old my reality is better than your reality which is actually Joe Lieberman's reality.  You want an incentive structure for consensus building?  Well try removing the non-negotiation clause in the Prescription Drug bill to get their attention - something which Obama does before they sit down at the table.   You say you want reality based plan of how to accomplish something and then you go off and start quoting Frederick Douglas.  Well to give you a quote, when I read this post what I heard in my head was Allen Iverson without the questioning inflection saying, "Health Care. We're talking about Health Care.

Actually Hillary would make a much better VP for Obama than the other way around.  She can be an uber-Majority leader to keep the caucus in line when it needs it, she's better at fighting dirty which is preferable from a less spotlighted position, and it de-emphasizes Bill and the potential harm he could inflect if the Republicans throw another scandal at him.

Are you suggesting we are going to pass Health Care reform in the next four years without negotiating with Insurance and Drug Industries?  We all know Dennis has the plan, but there is not a chance in hell we jump from the most corrupt health care system in the industrialized world to a single payer plan in the first term.  We've already had a glorious failure in the Clinton Administration. Obama has a strategy that gets us that base accomplishment to build from, to keep chipping away, to keep struggling, to keep building...

He also enacts the toughest legislation to date, and continues adding to that, on Ethics reform and open government which continues to weaken the influence that the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies have over this issue.  That's why he has made Ethics reform a central part of his campaign because it is connected to everything we want to accomplish.  It is why immediately after passing the legislation that makes earmarks public after a bill is passed, he went out published his earmark requests along with 40 or more other Congressman.  This is the crux of ever passing any Progressive reforms in this country and it is very interesting he's ahead of the pack on this earmark issue, including Dennis Kucinich.

Bruh, you crack me up...but in a good way.  But please don't become a speech writer.  I think Obama's got you beat in how to turn a phrase.

But to go to the heart of what you are asking (are you asking?). Obama has a few good one-liners and one of them speaks directly to how he approaches health care reform.  He says to the Insurance Industry and the Pharmaceutical Industry you have a seat at the table but you don't get to buy all the chairs.  He very clearly wants to walk into that negotiating room with a mandate from the nation that it insists on health care reform now.  But he also adds to his position by reserving one of those chairs for the Automotive Industry, one of the chairs on his/our side.  The deal he's laid out to the car companies is if you raise CAFE standards on your cars, if you start becoming an ally with us in the environmental crisis, then  we will take care of your health care costs for retirees.  Suddenly he's got the Automotive Industry in there as a lobbyist for the people on the Health Care debate.  It is a slight insight into how he works, how he looks for the connectedness of issues and uses them toward a greater good.  He builds consensus by looking for the places we can all  help each other.