(Cross-posted from Obamaism.org)

    Though I didn't have the chance to glue myself to the whole day/night of DNC coverage, I was at least able to catch some big hitters.
    Mark Warner (former Virginia gov) showed why wonky isn't always bad: he was not the most exciting guy, and his speech was not exactly the "Obama 04" speech. But people understand that details on creating jobs and other economic stuff are not always light and fluffy; MW's somewhat technical-tinted presentation added some intellectual ballast to the evening. --Warner wouldn't have been a bad Vice President!!

    Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana was somewhat in the same vein, though more exciting and excited. His presentation was largely about energy issues, and his joke about McCain's proposed $4 billion tax break for oil companies not being the kind of "change" we need echoed a "change" pun I'd wanted to make for a while.

    (kinkiness below)

I loved Hillary's response yesterday to McCain's ads and their attempt to use her words (not to mention one of her supposed former supporters) to divide Democrats.

“Let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads,” she said in an appearance at a downtown hotel. “I’m Hillary Rodham Clinton and I do not approve of that message.

McCain's tactics remind me of 2004, when the Republicans had so little confidence in W, despite all his advantages (incumbency, fundraising, "war-presidentness"), that they actually started funding Nader's candidacy to siphon off votes from Kerry.

They say some people are all things to all people.  The amazing thing about Joe Lieberman is that he is wrong to all people - but yet the media and a select few others seem to think he is credible for that very reason.  I think if you look at the rundown, you'll be impressed about how Joe Lieberman can be wrong about BOTH sides of an issue.  

If he was in the circus, I think he'd be "Amazing Joe."  I can hear the barkers now:

The Economy  Watch as he attacks Republicans while simultaneously boggling the minds of moderates and liberals!

• In a New Hampshire debate in 2003, Joe Lieberman said:

  We can get the economy going again. We need a Democratic president to make it happen.

• Next week, Joe Lieberman will be delivering a speech that will discuss, in part, the Republican plan to "get our economy back on track."  And, in 2005 (and often before and since), Lieberman argued that the war in Iraq was in America's best economic interests.

Stunning news released several days before the actual occurrence of the news involved shows that the Republican campaign intends to feature Joe Lieberman's ego in a prominent role.

I just saw a friends status update on Facebook and almost fell out of my chair.

"Going to stop by Western Union during lunch to see if the telegram from the McCain campaign announcing his VP has arrived"

Well that's about how it goes. I kicked around the idea that it was coming via snail mail to all his top donor supporters first. Or perhaps he is tapping it out in Morse Code. Even the pony express with a horse getting lost with the mail would have been faster.

John McCain has made some pretty bipartisan moves. He crossed the aisle from taking the generally Democratic position that Bush tax cuts are burdensome during a time of war and increasing deficit to the Republican position of saying repealing them hurts the middle class. He was against torture up until late during the primaries, when waterboarding became okay. He crossed many aisles to not vote on a bill extending veteran's educations benefits that passed 92 to 6.

Though he's for offshore drilling, he's still against drilling in ANWR. Though he voted against funding for solar and wind energy research, he at least admits "global warming is not a Hollywood invention." He's a proponent on cap-and-trade on carbon emissions. He supports stem cell research while believing life begins at conception.

News reports today and yesterday note that Joe Biden was first elected to his U.S. Senate seat in 1972.
For some reason none of the news reports seem to be mentioning it, but that would suggest that his sixth term is ending and he's up for re-election in 2008.

Joe Lieberman faced a similar situation in 2000 when he was picked as Al Gore's running mate and he was up for re-election for his senate seat. Lieberman solved his problem (if not Gore's) by running for re-election to his senate seat at the same time that he ran for V.P.

So does Biden follow in Lieberman's footsteps?...

"I am your brother Joseph," proclaimed Joe Lieberman to the controversial end-times pastor, John Hagee from the podium at the annual Christian’s United for Israel Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 22, 2008. For Lieberman, it was the second time in as many years that he likened the politically connected pastor to Moses.  "Like Moses," stated the senator in 2007, "He's (Hagee) become the leader of a mighty multitude even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the Promised Land."  

You’re probably thinking, who cares about Hagee?  He’s yesterday’s news.  Think again.  He and many others like him still remain very much in the political picture.

He’s best friends with Jilted Joe Lieberman.  

OK, so I've been seeing the smug 'holier-than-thou' way Republican pundits have been responding to Obama's picking Joe Biden as VP, and I think we need to respond by giving them a little of their own medicine.  They really like to play the "attack no matter what" game, but there is no reason we can't do the same.

From here until the day of the pick, Democratic strategists and pundits need to repeatedly express the strength of Mitt Romney as a running mate for McCain, based on his "economic credentials", polling data, etc.  Then, IF McCain is actually stupid enough to pick Romney, we shift directly into "how many houses does Romney have?", and fit Romney into the "McCain is out of touch" argument.

If, however, he picks someone that isn't Romney, we say something along the lines of:
"You know there's been a feeling among the public building that John McCain is too wealthy and out of touch to understand the problems of ordinary Americans, and I see his rejection of Romney as a surprising and Frank admission by the McCain campaign that that viewpoint has validity."

This is what I would call educated speculation.  However, such a scenario is possible.

As you may or may not have heard, Joe Biden has chosen to downgrade his worth to less than that of a container of above room temperature urine by moving his relationship with Barack Obama from AIDS test confidante to running mate. I say downgrade because the Chairman of Foreign Relations is a powerful, powerful man. After all, both Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf gave Joe Biden a call during the crisis last year which culminated in her death and his ouster. Only later did they bother to call our roof-raising excuse for a president.

This means that Joe's ending his 36-year Senate career and relinquishing his Chairmanship, increasing to 2 the number of guys named Joe who will no longer be chairing Senate Committees come January of 2009.

I am pleased and proud to announce that NONE of the "worst possible VP picks" included in my DKOS poll http://www.dailykos.com/... was actually selected. In order of unpopularity, we successfully prevented the naming of:

Hillary Clinton (21%)
Geraldine Ferraro (15%)
John Edwards (12%)
Evan Bayh (12%)
Carrot Top (10%)
Jesse Jackson Sr. (9%)

and seven other truly terrible posibilities. Can the netroots use collective power to blackball candidates? YES WE CAN!

Congratulations, Joe, and thanks, Barack, for listening!

Right-wing hitman Ted Sampley famously accused John McCain of being the "Manchurian candidate" when McCain challenged George W. Bush in the 2000 GOP primaries.  Sampley's vile character assassination foreshadowed the swift boat attacks on John Kerry in 2004 and were just as baseless, but fallacious as that may have been, McCain does have an unspoken and under-reported agenda that is surprisingly transparent and solidly documented.  While perhaps not a member directly, he orbited like a satellite around that now-defunct neocon flagship, the Project for the New American Century.

Yes, McCain is confused on the basic details of his life.

How many houses does he have?

"How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have?"

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you"

"I know, discocarp," you're saying. "In today's world, who can keep track of things like that? Its amazing he can even remember what kind of car he's driving with his busy schedule! So cut him some slack on his houses."

You're right! It wouldn't be surprising to learn he can't keep track of what he's cruising around in.

In our news interview, he was asked what kind of car he drove, he could simply not answer.  As with Politico’s question about home ownership, he didn’t know and had to ask a nearby aide.  "A Cadillac CTS," she told him.

WTF is this nonsense?

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OMG dood. we r FKD!

      ...

DOOD!

      huh?

whr the FAHK R U?

      y r u ylg?

fckn gzr stuck loafr deep in dog shit, thn in mouth. DIPSCHMDT IS BALLISTIC!!!

      lol. ths wr nc shz

more vwls pls

      I CNT. cn brly type. hogtd

WTF is this nonsense?

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Most of us who can recall 1988, 2000, and 2004 are getting a little bit of a deja vu feeling these days.  Yes, it's still fairly early, yes the atmospherics of this race visibly favor the Dems across the board, and yes, Team Obama (TO) has a field organization whose strength probably is not showing up in the polling data right now.  OTOH, seeing Obama's once-solid lead dwindle to nothingness on FiveThirtyEight.com, the site that many of us trust the most*, stirs up some painful feelings of deja vu.

There are many arguments that can be made as to why the once comfortable gap has evaporated in recent weeks.  Even more arguments can be made as to how the gap can be restored.  A quick examination of the relationship between Sen. Obama and his one-time Senate mentor, however, highlights a core problem facing the Obama candidacy.

I may be a Rhode Islander now, but I was born and raised just outside New Haven, CT.  I was born in the same hospital as George W. Bush, which is pretty darn freaky.  I also had an apartment (for a short time) two blocks from Joe Lieberman's house, in the upscale neighborhood near Yale Golf Course along Forest Road.

WTF is this nonsense?

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FCK ME

?

lbrmn got a BBRY. wnts me to teach hm to txt.

Y? whose he gonna txt?

he sez he nds to txt all hz supprtrs at a moments notice

Well, big surprise. Joe LIEberman is going to speak at the GOP convention.

AP - Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate in 2000 and now an independent who is one of John McCain's strongest supporters, will speak at the Republican National Convention, an official said.

Joining the ranks of another turncoat Zell Miller (do you remember him?), LIEberman will praise the virtues of the GOP, while dissing the Democratic presidential nominee. He will probably be nearby when McCain gives his acceptance speech, perhaps hidden behind a curtain (like the Great Oz), prompting the old guy with pertinent information, (like where St. Paul is located).