I have never in my life managed a campaign or tried to run for office, myself. Perhaps, when my kid is grown, I may run for something like the Community College Board or School Board, but for now, no. However, even with the zero experience, I think I would know better than to release an internal poll like this that shows my party's presidential nominee trailing in perhaps the most crucial battleground state of the 2008 election.

Things have changed around a little bit in my Senate rankings. But instead of an analysis of which seats are more likely or less likely to switch from red to blue, it has simply become now just a matter of which seats are more likely to flip.

Call this diary a missing person report, but where the hell is the Republican National Committee's ground game? At this point four years ago, they were out in full force kicking our asses in terms of organizing, micro-targeting and voter contact. Not only was Bush re-elelcted, but Republicans picked up several Senate seats and picked up two governorships. But I don't see or hear anything this year. All I hear about is the number of field offices Barack Obama has not just in battleground state, but in red states all across America. We also hear the lack of offices set up by John McCain. So the question is, what is the RNC up to? Are they basing their strategy on ads? Have they thrown their downballot candidates under the bus? What do you all see in your parts of the country??

I write this diary as someone who has lived in the City of San Francisco for a relatively short time. Those who know me also know that I am wedded to neither the Mayor nor the progressive movement, but the overall sentiment of residents is so strong, it’s impossible to miss: The Progressive Wing of the Board of Supervisors is in deep shit. It’s not so much what they have done that puts them in danger. I would argue that most of their actions have been widely supported by residents. But whereas voters had no chance to vent their frustrations during the mayoral election, they will have ample opportunities to do so this November in the November elections. Crime, immigration, cleanliness and out-of-control overtime are the issues I hear repeated over and over. Are fairly or not, voters are set to cast their votes for candidates who give voice to those issues, just as they elected progressives in 2000 t send a message to Willie Brown. Here is an amateur’s take on a few key districts:

Being a Latte Liberal in San Francisco, you know I make a lot of trips to Starbucks. Of course, it helps that there is one on almost every corner in my neighborhood, making it easy to walk over. Therefore, when I read  this article in the LA Times, I was a little taken aback when I read that McCain needs such a large entourage to go get make a run.

No, it is not a mistake, I wrote the words "Parking Lot". Yes, John McCain also forgot about the $1 million parking lot, according to The Hotline.

Congressional Quarterly has long been a favorite publication of mine, but their journalistic standards is slipping these days. The perfect example can be found in today's article on the Wyoming primaries and what they mean for November. With a title like this, you would think the races were all in the bag:

After going though the 22(!!) local ballot proposals put before San Francisco voters this November, I have pretty much made my decisions except for one: Moving the elections for Mayor, District Attorney other city-wide offices to even-numbered years.

On one side of the ledger, it will increase participation and save the city the costs of holding elections in odd numbered years. On the other hand, it can be argued that the issues before the city are so important that we should avoid the distractions that are naturally caused by presidential and gubernatorial races. All these arguments are valid and I thought I would open up this diary to discussion among fellow San Franciscans and others who may hold their local elections during even-numbered years.

Given the direction in which this race was heading, I did not expect to write anymore diaries about the NY-13 for a while. But, according to the New York Times, the state Democratic Party decided to remind voters that Republican Robert Straniere is an even bigger sleaze than his own party says he is.

I will be the first to admit that I have been slow catching up on my California political history, so when I read this article from the Sac Bee, I am beginning to wonder just how many people actually did lie during the 1982 election for Governor of California, in which Republican George Deukmejian narrowly defeated LA Mayor Tom Bradley.

As much as I like to make fun of right-wing hypocrites, I remind myself that I have to be careful about throwing the first stone. Of course, in the cases of Larry Craig and Mark Foley, they hand us the stones and beg us to throw them. I don't plan to discuss the details, but today's revelation about John Edwards bring home to me a painful period of time for me and my own family. To be honest, I did not at all believe the rumors that I first heard in 2007. That is why, even in the heat of the three-way primary battle between Edwards, Hillary and Obama, I never brought it up when Edwards supporters were ripping into my guy. Even when the "pictures" came out, I still did not believe, but here we are.

This cannot be good news for Anne Northup.

It's a fairly quiet day politicall, so at the risk of being negative I thought I would use my diary to go through my own "hard realities" as they pertain to the presidential, Congressional and state elections. If some do not make you happy or you disagree with some or all, feel free to argue your point. But please, do not shoot the messenger.

I do not like to come to this site for personal advice, but it is a matter that affects not me, but the life of another person and the greater good of my neighbors with whom we share this building. You see, when you live in a big city apartment building, especially one that is downtown, you grow to care about and for your neighbors just as they do the same for you. However, the implications for one person involved are considerable and that is why I wanted to seek out opinions before making the next move.

In my last job before I moved from Michigan to California, I was a grant writer and capital budget analyst for a major transit agency in the Detroit area, and it was a difficult period for us. The bottom fell out of the national and state economy and funding was sometimes difficult to come by. Demand for transportation, on the other hand, did not decrease and we constantly felt the pinch of these two pressures.

I'm going to go way out on a limb and call it. Barack Obama has chosen Evan Bayh as his running mate. According to NBC:

Those people who personally know me also know that I have been struggling with my weight and diet oer the past couple years. Fortunately for me, my 6'4" frame gives me a little room to spare. But I will be blunt, I feel fat and Tim Russert's recent death was a wake up call. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Obama is just not fat enough to be president.

Maybe it is just me reading the tea leaves, but if I am interpreting this report from The Hill, Ted Stevns is throwing the Republican Party under the bus by requesting that his trial takes place before the election.