You are naive beyond belief if you think that Hillary Clinton, the arch triangulator of all time, wouldn't have moved to the center once she were the nominee.

And I would suggest that, if the delegates weren't prepared to rebuff the African American vote in June, then they're no more likely to do it in August unless there was such a massive collapse in Obama's polling that he himself volunteered to withdraw for the good of the party and the country.

Posted at July 8, 2008 9:37 PM in response to A National Delegate "Uprising" Coming in Denver?

And don't forget to copy and paste to them Russell King's herculean effort to compile all McCain's flip-flops: 48 of them!

(You know Ambinder's posted that McCain's campaign has compiled a list of 17 Obama flip flops?

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/07/mccians-recordsetting-flipflop.php

Posted at July 8, 2008 9:25 PM in response to Scraping at the teflon

I read this yesterday and was surprised that Donald Sutherland could come up with such waffle. I don't know why I'd assumed he was highly intelligent and had presumed he was a rigorous thinker, but that post sure put paid to that image.

Obama under the influence of McAuliffe? What's next weeks instalment? Another LA 'expert' trying to persuade us that Penn's taken over from Axelrod?

Posted at July 8, 2008 9:20 PM in response to NYT Op-Ed: MacAuliffe Strategy Ruining Obama's Chances?

`He's already reached saturation'

Does that mean you think his campaign can't increase voter registration between now and November?

Posted at July 8, 2008 9:04 PM in response to The Big Sort

I'd be more interested to know whether or not they've asked for Bill Clinton's library records...

Now THAT would be news

Posted at July 8, 2008 8:57 PM in response to Obama's Search Team Begins To Vet

Have you seen McCain's new ad -
“Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics … can.”

It's on The Page

Posted at July 8, 2008 8:34 PM in response to Don't Get Fooled Again

I think the magic ball's a big mistake - it's such a distraction.

Maybe it works ok for people who are into ouija boards and other `fey` stuff but for realists it's a total turnoff.

It's triviliasing - surely, the last thing you need when you're trying to sell something so serious.

Posted at July 8, 2008 8:21 PM in response to Health Care Group Being Promoted By Elizabeth Edwards Goes Up With Ad

Well I wasn't thinking of *her* singing it

I had envisaged a massed choir. Something simple - I love this version - not professional which makes it more touching somehow.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7PCFkY6LoTw

(We have a fabulous choir here called `The Choir of Hard Knocks` - a group of homeless and unemployed people that a professional tenor got together and worked with. They've become very popular and it's been marvellous for them - built self-esteem etc.)

Posted at July 7, 2008 10:43 PM in response to Time and place.

Thank you. :-)

Catch 22? yeah...

I have to admit I always find it slightly unnerving when Obama cites JFK as a role model: eg negotations: one of the reasons why Kruschev thought he could get away with putting the missiles on Cuba was that, when he'd met with Kennedy he'd concluded he was inexperienced and weak, and I always steel myself for Republican attacks on that. (And I figure they don't need reminding of how disastrous the Bay of Pigs was and how JFK had been duped into it by the CIA and the Generals

(Must admit I always find it slightly annoying that it's always JFK who gets credit for the handling of the missile crisis when I've always thought it was RFK who came out of it the great hero. I suppose it was both of them, but for me it really is Bobby who shone.

Posted at July 7, 2008 9:38 PM in response to Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

But I remember many people were depressed during the primaries when the campaign kept talking about delegate math instead of more emotive messages.

In fact I think we all need to bear in mind that the primaries only ended a few weeks ago and Obama's main focus since then has been to reintroduce himself to the general, rather than primary, electorate. Think how long McCain's had to do that - something like four months - and what a balls-up he made of it.

Posted at July 7, 2008 8:48 PM in response to Is Obama Controlling his message?