I am starting a weekly post called the "The Reverend Jeremiah Wright You Are Not Helping!" Award.

This week's award goes to The Idiot Brother Heckling Obama in Florida.

Brother!  YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!!!

I love how Barack  handled it, he got all gangsta on the fool's ass!

Well it's finally happened...The John McCain campaign has gone dirty. John Mccain's all for it!  So much for the maverick, and the different kind of campaign.  After Obama did so well in Europe, McCain said " Well, ok, the only way I can beat him is by destroying his character. I don't have anything myself."  I wonder if he was smoking a cigarette lit by Satan when he decided to sell his soul.

Let's see he's called Obama, unpatriotic and a  traitor even. 

He's compared him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Seriously.  I'm not making this up. I'm not embellishing. I don't need to, he's actually doing things this horrible. Honestly I didn't think he'd go so negative this early. I mean where can he go from here?  I guess he could come out with an ad claiming Obama will rape and impregnate all white daughters in America.  That could be lower.

Now McCain is accusing Obama of playing the race card.  Apparently Obama mentioning that he's different and that people might use it against him is off limits.  Preparing people against false attacks using the race card? 
I'm incredulous. But hey, negative attacks work right?

Well, ok, since McCain is going there. I say, let's go there too. I want Obama to feature ads highlighting McCain's age, his confusion, his lack of intellectual vigor .( Like creating an Iraq and Pakistan border when none exists) His unpatriotic votes against the troops.  ( He voted against the new GI Bill, because hey? who wants soldiers getting educated. We need them to run Iraq for the next 100 years.

Attack! Attack! Attack!

Also since Obama is such a celebrity in McCain's eyes, he should keep it up by meeting more people, having events in major cities across the country leading all the way to the convention in Denver. What about a surprise trip to support US Olympians? I say go with it. Americans love celebrities.

Speaking of that, how about a picture of Obama with Brad and Angelina's twins???

In case you've been under a rock for the past week, let me inform you Obama has been on a World Tour. All the cool kids went with him!!!
Can we be honest? Have you seen the pictures? Well, do you want that America? To be loved and adored.
Can you even imagine John McCain causing that kind of excitement and hope around the world? Gramps wouldn't even have the energy to  keep up.
This was my first and best reason for supporting Barack Obama's for President. He is the most likely to restore our image around the world.   If we are going to solve our really large problems, energy, fighting terrorism, creating more favorable trade agreements; we need the world's help or at least not open hostility.

Enough said.

Tonight I dreamed that I was in Iraq.  I wasn't a soldier, I was just a normal person visiting the first McDonald's in Iraq, run by a hardworking Iraqi woman who was frustrated but hopeful. I wished her the best as I left the building to meet my parents. My father opened the car and put the key in the ignition, then all of us suspecting a car bomb ran away from the car as quickly as possible. The car did indeed explode but we survived and tried to draw a few others to safety with us.

Psychologically, I know what this dream represents for me.  There are times when I feel like my life is chaos and I'm just doing my best to survive.  Hopefully I'll help a few people a long the way and be kind to others.  Perhaps that's really all we can ask.

Politically, this dream served as a reminder to me of how lucky I am.  I woke up from my dream but that is reality for millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, natives and soldiers, men and women and children.   When was the last time you saw something on the news about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

No, I'll wait.


Exactly. I am just as guilty of "war fatigue" as the rest of America. I've chosen to focus almost exclusively on the "horse race" element of the 2008 campaign. That's a mistake.
We must be vigilant that we don't forget the reasons this election is "historic" and a "change election" (whatever that means, every election is by definition a change election). If we stay focused on the reasons we need change in this country as opposed to the game of politics, I have no doubt we will be triumphant in November.

One of my school colleagues has been spreading lies about Obama. Telling people Obama is Muslim, that he swore in on the Koran.  
I'm sorry but that is just unacceptable to me. I told him when he came into class today " Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim. Please stop misinforming people."  Of course, he then claimed that was "what he heard" and " many people beleive it's true." 
Uggghhhh. These are the moments when going to an evangelical Christain university bother me, but I had hoped for better from a graduate student.  It would take very little research to discover the fallacy of those claims, yet some people are like sheep and will passively accept whatever is told to them.  

I may have been too confrontational in my approach, but I would hope if someone were spreading lies about me someone would stand up and say something. 

Today, I took one for team Barack. Hope he appreciates it.  

I must say it's encouraging that he is winning all these states. I've decided that I am refocusing my Ph.D program preference to schools in  states that went for Obama.  Which means Hello! Washington and Colorado, See Ya New York and California!  
I really think the fact that he is doing well in red and purple states continues to prove my point that he is a more viable candidate in the general election.

I'm going to pound this message home, because if I can change just one person's mind in a race this close it will be worth it.  Today's message of why Obama is a better candidate comes from conservative Peggy Noonan writing for the Wall Street Journal.

I actually laughed out loud at a David brooks column:
"Obama offers to defeat cynicism with hope. Apparently he’s going to turn politics into a form of sharing. Have you noticed that he’s actually carried into his rallies by a flock of cherubs while the heavens open up with the Hallelujah Chorus? I wonder how he does that."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/opinion/08brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Ok, I'm hungover, so I'll make my analysis quick and easy

Clinton: White women, working class people, latinos, Coasts
Obama: White men, educated people, young people, black people, Middle of the country

McCain will win the Republican nomination.  I said it before, I'll say it again. If it's McCain/ Clinton McCain wins a landslide victory.  I hope Obama gets the nomination, but the old school establishment politics combined with Latinos nonsensical hatred of Black people will give Clinton just enough in the end. ( I think she will win Texas, which will decide it) And we shall see another Republican president, against all common sense.

Good morning! And a special shout out to New Hampshire!  My one experience in New Hampshire involved the biggest Margarita I have ever seen in my life. It was bigger than my head!!!


But I digress!

Barack Obama is leading the latest New Hampshire polls by an average of  7 percentage points!!!
Check out my new favorite site for political junkies http://realclearpolitics.com

Honestly, I'm amazed that it's turning into the tidal wave of support that I had so hoped for, I thought it would be a long, hard slugfest. It may still turn out to be that very thing.  Ironically, I feel a bit bad for Hillary Clinton. It's got to be devastating when everyone was preaching for months, nay, years that you were preordained for the presidency.  This, of course, was one of the great blunders of her campaign. In a change election, Hillary is now screaming "I've been around FOREVER!!!! You KNOW me!" Yes, we do. But we don't want we already know, what we already know isn't working.  I have no doubt her head is in the right place, it's just that somewhere Ms. Clinton lost her heart. Maybe Bill permanently broke it in the Oval Office with an intern. ( Unlike many, I believe Hill really loves Bill. Maybe not a Danielle Steele kind of fiery, sexy passion. But a lifelong, partnership "we are in this together to our last day" kind of love)
Whatever the reason, Clinton seems tone def to the country's  desire for, well, Danielle Steele fiery, sexy passion.  And isn't that what Obama is really selling? That we can be passionate about our country again? That we don't have to cower in fear. We don't have to hate everyone else. We can love this place, our home. We can be friends with other countries. We can do GREAT, BIG things not just practical, reasonable ones.  It seems to me that in this time of great, big crisis what we need is a leader of  grand vision.
Barack Obama is that leader.


We'll see this evening if New Hampshire agrees with me.