And he just sunk to third with this crap.  

i was just now commenting on larisa's blog... she's traveling in a 3d world country and experiencing a fair amount of anti-american sentiment, and i was reflecting that i get the same here in argentina... however, as always, when i show warmth and goodwill and a willingness to accept people as they are, people almost never fail to reciprocate... folks are still very warm to the american PEOPLE, they just don't care for our government, and who can blame them...

i happen to care very much for my country and hate to see what a relatively small group of criminals is doing to it... i don't spent most of my waking hours blogging because i hate it...

obama had better get a goddam clue... he's already lost me...

Part of what's really annoyed me is that I live in Illinois and like many here, I was aware of, and impressed with, Obama before he made that speech that made him a star.  He has an impressive progressive record here, is a compelling individual who commands attention and I just kept thinking I wished the rest of the country could view him in the light of his entire record, rather than the face-of-Obama that is being revealed by a random interview answer here or a line in a speech there.

Problem is, over the last few weeks, I've had to concede that those answers and lines are adding up.  And that, perhaps, just maybe, instead of wishing those who became aware of Obama after he became a national figure would think of his record before, I had better pay attention to what he is doing now.  I can't help feeling that he has traded the genuine possibility of greatness-in-the-making, for a packaged, processed, homogenized version of an image he once, briefly, evoked.

It may be bad choice of advisors and handlers, but he chose them.  

So bash away BTD and all you other Obama-bashers out there: at this point I'm just hoping you get his attention and he comes to his senses before it's too late.  

I (still) want to believe.  

belittling Dems to try and make yourself look great is simply awful

America the Ideal (the the current incarnation) is the best way to govern that the world has seen. Our strength is in our Ideals---human rights, transparent democracy, equal justice for all and adherence to the Rule of Law, not of men.

When we on the left criticize American policy, we get called the Blame America First crowd etc. We know how strong the Ideal is, and we LOVE what AMerica stands for and that is what we want to protect.

The only way to get most people to agree that torture and rendition and bullying and preempitive wars are WRONG, is to make them understand that we are undermining our REAL STRENGTH, which is to be the moral leader of the free world.

We need people to understand that the soft power of Ideas and Ideals is stronger than guns or money or Islamist terror. But to survive the Right Wing attack machine, we have to start by becoming proud of what America is, and how the REPS have tarnished it and taken away our real power and influence in the world.

Interesting-Obama's fundraising last week was notable in almost approaching HRC's in dollar amount, but the most significant thing was the indication that there were actually more people behind that money. HRC has the bucks-up donors, essentially.

All of a sudden, across the "liberal" blogs, Obama turns into an imus-critter.Sprinkled with notes of   "we-should-just-accept-Hillary"

I understand what the spokesperson said about something the left was not accustomed to-speaking of the promise of America. Hello-all you mostly white folk bloggers, with financial comforts--try to think for a moment what Obama's "promise of America" theme might resonate with immigrants. Asians. Mexican-Americans.

and think of JFK worship--how we embraced a young president, the first Catholic one, with political connections up the butt (Daley machine endorsed, especially)

Let me remind you--what was John Kerry's tepid promise? "Let America be America Again" Fine as an intellectual construct, but who, on the left, among the Dems, actually gave consonance to that theme? Besides the fact that it was lamely phrased, sounding more like Fritz Perls therapeutics.

Richardson-creds for foreign policy thangs. dodd for current anti-war soundings.

Don't be stupid. Hagel would beat them all in a heartbeat--Hagel is anti-Iraq war and a good looking man. That will trump HRC in an instant.

Obama v. Hagel would be a race that I think Obama could win. (and yes, I will send the Je blague diary about Matthew Shepard/Rachel Corrie/Daniel Pearl to Obama hisself.)

And I will ask him to weigh on guiliani's response  to the African artist who depicted THE VIRGIN MARY WITH DUNG at the Brooklyn Museum years ago.

anyway, must return to the "vipers" at marisacat, my "den sweet den", all declared dead by M-shock and others, yet, strangely we live. MCat has earned her cynicism and I love her to death, and she is the cynical standard that one must apply to.