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Last night, Joe Biden specifically dropped the stat that Obama will give tax cuts to 95% of Americans, and hopefully Obama will hit that note again tonight and reiterate that 80% of Americans will get a bigger tax cut from Obama than they would from McCain.

There's no reason to let McCain cruise along on public ignorance.

ObamaTaxCut.com

The power of words has taken center stage at this convention.  Speeches from Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and many others who have spoken over the last three days have brought cheering crowds to their feet and have brought tears of joy to the eyes of many.  Here are some word clouds from the convention (click image to enlarge):

Joe Biden:

Bill Clinton:

Hillary Clinton:

To try out your own hand at illustrating the convention's speeches, head on over to Wordle.

From: http://www.gallup.com/...

And that's just the bounce on the basis of what happened Monday.

The voters are only STARTING to process the reaction to Hillary's fantastic speech Tuesday.

Wait until they see what happens after people were introduced to Biden, with the support of Bill Clinton and John Kerry!

And our nominee hasn't even made made his case yet!

Schweitzer was the hit of the conventioneers Tuesday night, and he made a pretty good impression at the Big Tent yesterday. Goldy asked a few questions and caught his Q&A session here.

In fact, as Barr's website reports, both McCain and Obama failed to file the necessary paperwork by the August 26 deadline to get their names on the Texas ballot. But Obama wasn't counting on winning Texas, and McCain most certainly was. Of course, there will probably be some state-level shenanigans which end with the law being twisted (or broken) to put McCain on the ballot, but what does it say about John McCain that he didn't even care enough to get his name put on in a legal, timely way?

Biden, yesterday, on John McCain's service:

"These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader."

And the McCain camp's weak tea response:

The McCain campaign immediately struck back at Biden last night, saying, "Joe Biden is right. We need more than a good soldier, we need a leader with the experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief from day one. That leader is John McCain."

Something's missing from this response...something doesn't read quite right...oh, that's right. No mention of McCain as prisoner of war.  

I guess when you're told that being in a prison for five and a half years does not qualify you to be president, you can't really reach out and play the POW card without looking, well, silly. Bravo to Biden for disarming McCain of his ubiquitous "POW defense."  Day 1 on the VP candidate job, and Biden is already demonstrating that Obama made a wise choice.

In today’s Washington Post On Faith section — a prominent feature of WaPo’s website — you’ll be heartened to know that the mainstream media is helping to educate us all about the roots of our next President’s name. To wit:

Barack Obama shares with past American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, and Benjamin Harrison, the distinction of a notable biblical namesake.

More after the fold.

**Disclaimer** - I posted this about 2 weeks ago but it got lost in the commotion of Daily Kos.  I'm re-posting it now because it's message is more significant now on the day that Barack Obama will be officially nominated.

Tonight, Barack Obama will deliver his acceptance speech for the 2008 Democratic Party Presidential nomination to millions of viewers across the United States.  It has been a long and uplifting journey from his announcement in Springfield, Illinois on that cold and sunny February 2007 day, to his statement victory in Iowa on January 3rd, 2008, and finally to his official clinching of the delegate count on June 3rd, 2008.

This event will be truly history in the making, as the reality of the first black major-party candidate for President becomes official.  The journey from the 14th Amendment voting rights to the first black Presidential nominee has been filled with discrimination, intimidation, violence, and assassination, so the night of August 28, 2008 has sacrosanct qualities for all Americans, especially black Americans.

But what really does this moment in American history mean?

The GOP and it's leading spokespersons (well, Rush Limbaugh, but if it's all you got...) are all ready to make a huge fuss over the stage at Denver's Invesco Field.

Apparently there are columns in the backdrop.  Oh my.

What kind of hubris it would be to use columns in the background of a US electorial speech?  How assuming, how arrogant, gosh, how un-American can you get?!?

Here's a sneak preview:

Most of you are familiar with Godwin's Law, the notion that if you rely on Hitler or Nazi comparisons in a debate, you automatically lose that debate.

The general election has brought us The POW. The POW is used frequently by the McCain camp and Republicans to deflect from valid criticism of John McCain's politics and policies:

When the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a close Bush ally, publicly questioned McCain’s marital infidelities, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war.

When Dems attacked McCain’s healthcare plan in May, McCain responded by noting his background as a prisoner of war.

Asked by a local reporter about the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain responded by talking about his background as a prisoner of war.

Accused of possibly having heard the questions in advance of Rick Warren’s recent candidate forum, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war.

As with Goodwin's Law, the utterance of "POW!" this campaign season is a surefire sign that it's game over for the Republican trying to defend John McCain. After all, if you can't respond with substance, but rather have to resort to raising an issue McCain himself has previously said shouldn't be exploited in a campaign, you're pretty much backed into a corner.  

So what should we dub this diversionary tactic?  McCain's Law? POW'd? Share your ideas below, and in the meantime, check out this brilliant video:

POW!  You lose.

We had a great time last week with the Democratic VP Prediction Thread, where the bold and the foolish could go out on limbs all over the country (substantially burdening America's trees) and just... "call it".  There weren't any shockers, but good times were had - we laughed, we cried, we called one other stupidheads - we'll tell our grandchildren all about it some day.  

So here we are again.  McCain will pick his partner in (war) crime today or tomorrow, and make as much noise as possible to distract everyone from the good vibes emanating from Denver this week.  

Who's it gonna be?

I generally do not like using bad events as campaign fodder, but I think passing on this opportunity would be a huge error by the Obama Campaign.

Judging by the reaction of hundreds of bloggers watching Hillary's speech in The Big Tent Tuesday night, the verdict was unanimous...she absolutely nailed it. From her opening:

I'm here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat, as a proud Senator from the state of New York, as a proud American, and as a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

...to her line that needs to be made into an ad immediately:

It makes a lot of sense that next week John McCain and George Bush will be together in the Twin Cities, because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.

...Hillary was on fire. She skewered John McCain, gave her unequivocal support to Barack Obama and she threw down the gauntlet to her supporters, declaring that nothing less than "the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance."

From start to finish, it was a powerful speech that left no question where her loyalty lies, what she expects from her supporters, and of course, what she thinks a John McCain presidency would mean. There was so much in her speech that is worth highlighting, but for me, this was the most powerful moment of the entire speech.

My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President.

This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.

How do we give this country back to them?

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.

And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my
daughter got to vote for her mother for President.

This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and
never give up.

How do we give this country back to them?

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked
her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.

And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

Kudos to Hillary on a job well done.

I was recently lucky enough to interview Joe Garcia, the Democratic challenger in Florida's 25th Congressional District, and Daily Kos Orange to Blue Candidate. I'm happy to report that Joe is a genuinely awesome guy, and everyone in the organization was enthusiastic and really helpful. They took a lot of time to address my questions for PULSE, a small bi-monthly magazine in Naples, FL, and even though it's mostly distributed in the next District over from FL-25, I'm hoping the message will reach young people in Naples eager to make a real difference in a local race. I also wanted to share it with all of you.

Joe Garcia's Website

August 29th was also the day that Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, while John McCain and George W. Bush was laughing it up on the airport tarmac with a huge birthday cake in front of them.

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One of Vermont's "local" papers has a piece in it this morning which I noticed was an AP piece seconds into reading it (I hadn't looked at the byline yet).

I'll give an example.  The piece quotes Biden:

"Barack Obama will bring down health care costs by $2,500 for the typical family, and, at long last, deliver affordable, accessible health care for all Americans."

It follows that up with the "fact" about the story:

Obama's health care plan does not provide for universal health care coverage. He promises to make it affordable and would require children to be covered, but not adults. Estimates of how many would remain without insurance vary. Hillary Rodham Clinton said during the primaries that Obama's plan would leave 15 million people uninsured.

You know what's interesting about this?

It doesn't contradict what Biden says.  It presents the "fact" as though it's contradictory, in a format suggesting there were facts missed, but Biden refers to "affordable" health care, and the AP hack piece responds with a comment about universal health care.

More, after the fold, all of these from the August 28th edition of the Brattleboro Reformer, "FactCheck: The fuller story in Denver by Darlene Superville"

I've watched every day of the DNC so far, practically gavel-to-gavel. And I think several factors are going to come together as real post-convention polling starts rolling in.

I think we're going to get a plus-10 bounce out of this convention.

What do you think?

You may or may not be familiar with the way the US justice system works. 95% of cases are plead out or settled. Meaning that less than 5% go to court. The art of the deal is one of the most important skills for defense attorneys to posses. The system cannot handle it if everyone went to trial. The other feature that comes with this dealing is that the little fish turn over on the bigger fish. This means that these fish who inform are given a lesser sentence, even when the fish is particularly rotten. In this case the rotten fish is Jack Abramoff,