I think it remains to be seen how Kaine is going to play it. He defends the 50 state strategy publicly, but there are signs that there will be changes, the firing of state organizers stands out as chief among those signs.

That said, though I do think the strategy will be amended, we'll see how much and how positively or negatively.

I don't know about political calculation, and surely there was a lot of inspiration involved, but if you look at the rejected logos I linked above, I think the choice was the right one.

Obviously it's hard to look at these things objectively, but the logo that was chosen is definitely one of the strongest if not the strongest of the options.

Huh, I missed that connection to McGovern, very interesting.

Well, yes, I suppose, but I tend to think these swings are somewhat inevitable.

Sure, there are always swings in culture. 60s and 70s hippies and radicals gave way to 80s and 90s culture wars and conservative revivals. Prediction can be a fool's game, but maybe we're on the verge of a swing in another direction.

The Times article isn't very clear, but one would hope that Obama would at least have this secure version to talk to his folks.

As far as I know, there aren't any laws outlawing things like email. But there are hefty disclosure laws, and all Presidential communications are subject to subpoena, so the liability issues are high. That combined with security issues inherent to the Internet at some level and most Presidents just choose not to use email. It's not that it's illegal, but changes in rules or procedures could make it more easier to be used.

Yes, but I also know that the CIA, military intelligence outfits, and other top secret folks use email (and IM and the wider Internet) all the time. So there has to be some way to keep security up if these folks can do it.

Yeah, I fully expect crime to be a big issue in 2012.

To put it another way, Obama set about reclaiming common sense. He talked to Americans like adults - and he certainly values intellectualism - but he talks to people within their experience.

The Republican party would do better if they realized common sense does not mean dumb.

Absolutely. I mean, I'm being a bit unfair by noting Republicans haven't got it yet. Their still largely stunned, grasping at straws. It might take a while to wake up.

Yep, I agree. On a micro level, it might not look like ideology has much to do with winning elections, but if you pull back and look at trends you'll see how wrong that is.

This has the potential to be a realigning election, to remake what the terms right, left, center, urban, rural, values, and bipartisan mean. And if so, ideology will shift with it.

I mean, Democrats use rhetoric to win elections too, rhetoric they sometimes don't follow through with, but yeah, in general, Democrats are more interested in governing well than Republicans.

And I'm not sure how to prove it just yet, but I believe that beyond all else, the American people respond to good governance, especially dramatically good governance.

I'm not convinced they run the party, but they are powerful. They were hit with a real blog by Huckabee's defeat, and that led to a lot of them being pissed off about it.

They won't go without a fight, and it's a division we would be smart to exploit, but I still see the neo-cons being in control (though losing power), though of course, neo-con supremacy is contingent on Fundie support.

I'm hoping both paid and volunteer organizers around the country are staying as involved and being proactive. We're really going to have to draw these people out.