I love Senator Obama, I do, and I've already voted for him and would do it again. Yet sometimes his inflated rhetoric does get on my nerves. Instead of talking about the "politics of tomorrow" I wish there were something more meaty like the "politics of health care." Or the "politics of balancing the budget." Does he really think he's going to "sneak" issues in on voters only after he's sitting at that enormous oval office desk?

Personally, I'm getting tired of the politics of tomorrow and the politics of yesterday. What about the politics of today?

Seriously. Mr. Obama, give it some thought. Don't forget the myth of Antaeus....in Greek stories he was the son of Poseidon and Gaia and strong provided he remained touching the earth (his mother). Heracles, discovering this weakness held Antaeus up in the air in a giant bearhug that crushed & killed him. Keep one foot on the ground, good Senator, in order to preserve your strength and ours....

When and where did Obama say that he would nuke Iran?

???

Just for the record, my parents didn't pay for my college education. And I appreciate your points about Clinton too. I just don't agree that people won't vote for Obama or that he can't win with white voters. He's been doing it. I agree about the sneeze....he's an unknown and unknowns can drop fast in public value.

Yet for almost a year I've been following the ins and outs and I've been amazed at the places he hasn't misstepped. I think Clinton and Obama both have that quantity of being easy to underestimate. So maybe you're right and the whole thing won't happen. I expect Clinton (especially with her clout in the party and famous superdelegates) to win the nomination, but either Clinton or Obama can beat McCain if the party and all of these "activated" voters get behind them. The fact that so many more people have been voting in this primary/caucus stage (between two and three times as many at many polling stations) is auspicious, not matter who the nominee is. If this many people are voting Democratic now, are they really going to switch back to McCain in a general election? Or stay at home? Anything is possible, but I think his temperament, his stance on Iraq (more more) his (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran) are going to damn him as much as anything.

We'll see how it goes. But don't underestimate Obama. He's had some amazing grassroots organization in state after state and is still hanging on. Barring that sneeze (that I think he won't make) I think he can carry his own in a general election. With voters across the strata.

peace.

I want to say that I like reading your posts and that you provide good reasons to support Senator Clinton's run for the white house.

I was wondering what you thought about four things though:

1. The Clintons not releasing tax information until she is the nominee. Given controversy over the donors to his library and his ways of earning money since he was in office--could this be a problem that the Republican Spin Machine will go nuts over?

2. What do you think about a statement in Newsweek that quoted McCain's campaign manager as saying that he wasn't going to run a bunch of negative ads on Senator Obama. What do you think that means? Do you think this means that there WILL be a lot of negative ads run against Clinton?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/107581

Why Clinton and Not Obama? Seriously--I don't know why he said that or what it means.

3. I wondered if you had read the New York Times story about Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/08cnd-obama.html?hp

No one interviewed who knew him in High School or college remembers his alleged drug use. Do you think its possible that Clintons aides have blown this out of proportion and that it's not going to be an issue for a lot of voters?

4. Pork barrel spending. I've read that this is McCain's "pet" issue and since he worked so hard on ethics reform he might go after Clinton for her pork barrels for New York. Also her famous "you're not living in the real world, Russ" comment to Feingold about campaign finance reform would open a door to attack on her for taking PAC money (which I've read that McCain does not). Do you think the opening is there for her to be attacked? I know that Clinton's supporters have said Obama's legislative record is nothing to be much proud of, but he did work with McCain on the ethics reform bill, so McCain probably can't go after him for that, and he also worked with McCain on a bill reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So both of them have a history of working across party lines to pass important climate change legislation and ethics reform bills.

Just some thoughts.