There was a lot of freaking out on DailyKos when Rasmussen's tracking poll had McCain taking a 47%-46% lead over Obama, when leaners were included. I was part of that freak out, not particularly because I thought Obama was falling behind in the race, but that McCain had seemingly broken that 45% barrier that had filled me with the confidence that we would win in November. Then, Zogby issued a telephone poll with McCain up 42%-41%.

But, since then, Gallup has bounced Obama to a 47%-43% lead and I assumed that Rasmussen would be soon to follow. Gallup's tracking poll tends to pick up movement in the race faster than Rasmussen.

On the flip.

Ted Stevens, as you know, was indicted on seven counts of making false statements in connection with an investigation into his dealings with Alaska corporate giant Veco and its CEO. In a purely political sense, it was said immediately that this would significantly hurt Stevens's chances of being re-elected and, unfortunately for those of us that want to see Mark Begich get elected, would also hurt his chances of winning the Republican nomination.

Those predictions, according to a new poll by Rasmussen, seem to be confirmed. On the flip.

Bear in mind that Rasmussen released a poll yesterday that showed McCain with a +10 lead in Ohio when leaners were included, so it is possible that they are all over the map right now... but Ohio has 20 EVs and Florida has 27, so I'll take the latter if need be.

On the flip.

For reference, Rasmussen's last poll was: McCain 48%, Obama 41%.

Just reported on MSNBC... I'll link it when there is an official story.

Let's show them that we can keep this train moving!

Here's my pledge: For every person who donates before this diary falls off the Rec List, I'll put $2 in. So, if 500 people donate, I'll drop $1000.

Update: I am gonna change up the pledge a little. I am gonna donate $68 plus whatever the result is below.

Donation Count: 63
Donation Result: $126

FINAL! $194 to Obama!

Say what you want about the conservative movement, but they have been very, very successful at agenda control, or specifically, perpetuating the myth of the Liberal Media, even though study after study done by independent researchers has shown that American print and television media has a strong right-wing tilt to it. And, unfortunately, the progressive movement has been slow to respond to this. In fact, we haven't responded at all. We've let Republicans go on and on about the liberal media and never seek to retort it.

Most of us know that SurveyUSA has been a fairly reliable pollster in the past, and although they royally screwed up the Indiana Democratic primary, they underestimated Obama's support, not overestimated it. Now, we have this poll rolling in...

This poll is coming down the wires right now... Obama 45%, McCain 44%. Moreover, the internals show very good prospects for Obama in Virginia going forward.

On the flip.

Unfortunately for my own ego, many people missed the extensive diary that I wrote yesterday about McCain's top economic advisor, Phil Gramm. Given how much time that the mainstream media has taken to cover the Jim Johnson non-story, I thought it would only be appropriate that someone, somewhere was calling McCain out for (yet another) blatant contradiction. I also expressed the hope that Obama was not simply ignoring Phil Gramm, but instead pocketing the scandal until it can be used more effectively (such as after the conventions).

Turns out, though, that Phil Gramm is not the only Washington lobbyist with a top position in the McCain campaign. Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, has a long list of clients, a long list of betrayals to America and should be exposed for what he is. If Jim Johnson is big enough to get 3-4 days of uninteruptted coverage on cable news networks, then surely Rick Davis is.

More on the flip.

I believe, starting with the Johnson story, we have seen the beginning of a coordinated and comprehensive effort by conservative news and the McCain campaign to undermine Obama's message of change by latching onto any and all advisors that have any history in Washington. It's a bait and switch maneuver... because McCain can't have the story be about Iraq or the economy or education, because if those are the issues of the day, he'll lose in a landslide. We are about to bear witness to the most extravagant (and, probably, expensive) smear campaign in the history of American politics.

What I am more confused about, though, is why the Obama campaign let John McCain get away with this. I've always had my worries that Obama wasn't built for the head-to-head death matches that compose our politics today, and he is confirming that for me. Jim Johnson may have done shady things, I don't know for sure, but why the Obama camp would allow the McCain campaign to drive Jim Johnson out while ignoring their association with Phil Gramm is beyond me. I'm hoping that they are putting the issue in their pocket for later.

More on the flip.

This news is significant on two fronts: it shows that a post-nomination clincher bounce is real for Obama, since Rasmussen tends to overestimate Republican strength and has shown Obama losing to McCain for a while. Also, the fact that Obama has a chance to make up ground on McCain in West Virginia is truly stunning, considering the supposed "can't win Appalachia" message has been spread.

On the flip.

Yesterday, I wrote a long diary entry, detailing the reasons why I thought that Obama should pick Chris Dodd to be his Vice Presidential running mate. I re-iterate that no person or group should pressure Obama on his pick, but I think that a good showing of grassroots support would be appropriate since some in the blogosphere are still neglecting to mention Dodd's name in their straw polls.

It turns out that I'm not the only one that has thought of Chris Dodd for VP. On the flip.

I would like to forget about all the politics for a moment. I know Dodd is not a conventional pick because he does not symbolize Clinton's faction of the party, and he doesn't come from a swing state (although Rasmussen's polling does make you think twice) and he kinda-sorta doesn't add to the ticket an emphasis on issues that Obama does not already have. But his conduct as a US Senator, his life and his legacy as a politician who stands for what he believes in and doesn't give an inch to special interests.

I'd like Barack Obama to choose Chris Dodd as his running mate.

I am going to test everyone's temptation module tonight. I challenge you not to read this transcript, because, as one of the greatest political speeches of all time, you'll want to wait until you hear it delivered.

I'm infuriated. I've had enough of Senator Clinton and the game of chicken she is playing with the Democratic Party, in order to further her own personal ambition of winning the Presidency. When people ask strident Obama supporters why they find it so stomach-twistingly hard to accept Clinton as part of the ticket, the recent speculation about Michelle Obama's "whitey" tape is a good answer.

All along, it has been Senator Clinton's contention that there is a shoe of disaster that Republicans are waiting to drop on Obama once he gets the nomination, and she has been using that justification to stay in the race and further divide the party. It is Clinton's explicit strategy to win the nomination through superdelegate fiat. She has said as much (she has also said that pledged delegates can switch their support, while sending her political operatives to crow about the fact that Michigan gave Obama 59 more delegates than they deemed that he deserved).

More on the flip.

I'm not going to provide a lot of analysis, because, to be honest, I have not really understood what makes the polls dip and bend throughout this primary process. But today, I woke up to some very good news from Rasmussen. Let's take a look...

I watched Clinton's victory speech in Louisville, Kentucky and heard her claim that Kentucky was key to a Democratic victory in November, buttressed by the logic that the state had voted to send her husband to the White House  in 1992 and 1996. She also made a big deal about West Virginia, which also voted for Clinton in these two years and also voted for Dukakis in 1988. I'm simply tired of this purposeful dishonesty on the part of the Clinton campaign, so I thought I'd type this up quickly to get the information out there. News commentators and pundits should definitely be calling the Clinton people out when they say things like this.

On the flip.

In 2000, McCain eviscerated Bush during a debate because the Texas Governor refused to endorse allowing exceptions for rape, incest and the mother's life in the GOP's anti-choice platform. In 2007, during a town-hall debate in Des Moines, Iowa, McCain again reiterated that he wanted to change the party's platform to reflect these exceptions. Let's be clear: Not only did McCain support changing the platform, he used it as a campaign issue and as a means of building his image as a maverick willing to buck the national party.

This "principled" stand will join many other "principled" stands, apparently, in the trash heap since McCain has become the presumptive Republican nominee. ABC News reports that he is dropping his demand to change the platform.

On the flip...

I had to diary this because I think it is simply amazing how low Clinton and her supporters are willing to go to win this nomination.

In a way, I can understand their frustration: Clinton thought, coming into this primary, that she would clean up and be coronated as the nominee by Super Tuesday. She felt that she was entitled to the nomination; after all, she had done such wonderful things like botch an effort to establish national health care and promote the DLC-line of thinking that lost Democrats their majority in Congress for the first time in 40 years. How dare this uppity negro get in the way, she thinks.

But, at a certain point, it gets to be too much. Many of you read a diary I wrote about a week ago calling on Obama to add Clinton to the ticket. I still believe that she would bring significant advantages to the VP slot, but I do not think it is in the best interest of the party. When you compare her speech on the night of the the IN/NC primaries with the speech of Barack Obama, it is clear which figure wants to unite the party and move forward and which candidate is in it for ego and entitlement. In short, Clinton cannot be on the ticket.

More on the flip.