I've seen a lot of people say that Hillary can't possibly win the general election. Frankly, given the overwhelming sense in this country that things are badly off track and a major change in direction is needed, plus the fact that the presumptive Republican candidate can easily be portrayed as promising nothing more than a continuation of the disastrous Bush policies on the major issues of the day, Iraq and the economy, I would expect that either Democratic candidate should be able to win. This is, of course, PROVIDED THAT the negativity of the primary campaign doesn't reach such levels that it makes it impossible for Democrats to rally behind their nominee. I don't believe that has happened yet, but it's certainly something that both Clinton and Obama need to be concerned about.

It is also provided that Bush and Cheney aren't cooking up some kind of scenario involving a national emergency that would allow them to cancel elections and retain power. If something like that were to happen, it would mean all bets are off and it wouldn't really matter who the opposition candidate was.

I was not fortunate enough to be able to hear Senator Obama deliver this speech, but I have just finished reading the entire text, and I have to say I am profoundly impressed. The most striking thing to me was his capacity to recognize both the good and the bad in people such as the Rev. Wright and his grandmother, to understand the concerns of lower and middle class whites as well as those of the black community. The spirit that shines through these words is deeply moving. It saddens me to see how those who continue to dismiss Sen. Obama's appeal as nothing but rhetoric are unable to sense that spirit, or recognize that it is that very spirit which is the necessary condition for us to BEGIN to come together to create the specific solutions to our very real and serious problems that they keep insisting on.

Can you imagine George Bush, or any of those around him for that matter, creating a speech with such depth of undersatanding, historical perspective, or all-embracing human concern? No matter who wins the election in November this country is going to be facing gigantic challenges in the coming years. I believe this speech shows why Sen. Obama provides the best hope, perhaps the only hope, we have for the kind of leadership that can rally all Americans to the daunting task of meeting them.

Did you not hear, or reqad, everything he said about his grandmother? He was very clear in saying how much she loved him and how much she had done in raising him. His point was that people have both good and bad in them...his grandmother, the Rev. Wright - and all of us.

Sometimes it seems that the media is intent on covering every aspect of the cammpaign except the actual issues. Lately we've been "treated" to the whole overblown furor about some admittedly intemperate things Sen. Obama's pastor said, and the deplorable efforts of his political opponents to twist and distort Obama's remarkable speech in which he addressed the issue. (How could anyone SERIOUSLY listen to him and take away nothing more than the willfully perverse notion that he "threw grandma under the train"?)

And then there's the whole flap about how Hillary Clinton described her experiences on a trip to Bosnia. While there are some legitimate issues relating to whether she was embellishing the facts for political purposes, it's still not something that deserves to be the major focus of coverage for as long as it has been.

It's truly depressing to see how much time and effort is expended by the media to manufacture and hype controversies of any kind when what is desperately needed is real examination of the gargantuan challenges that will face whoever winds up in the Oval Office and how each of the candidates intends to address them.

OK, let me get this straight. If I work for, say, an insurance company, and I, as an individual, make a contribution of $100 to a candidate's campaign, then that sullies that candidate foe taking money from the insurance industry? As someone else has pointed out, everybody who contributes has to get their money from somewhere.

It seems to me that the folks at FactCheck.org are being at least as misleading about this as the Obama campaign, if not more so. And his detractors who are gleefully jumping all over this are misunderstanding the FactCheck claim.

The truth is, though no candidate may be perfect with regard to the sources of their campaign money, Obama, overall has a better record on this than the others who are still in contention.

It's looking to me like the election in November is going to hinge on the Democratic candidate's ability to break through the fawning coverage the media seem poised to bless McCain with and get people to actually SEE that his image as a moderate straight talking maverick is simply not the reality, and that a vote for McCain is essentially a vote for no real change in the policies regarding Iraq and the economy (among other major issues)that have proved so disastrous over the last seven years. If Obama (or Clinton) can do that, either one will win in a landslide. There is so much deep dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs that by all rights either Democrat should be at least a full twenty points ahead in the polls. But if the right wing noise machine and their MSM enablers succeed in foisting that false image of McCain on the country, I deeply fear for our future.