I'll bet that Obama never has much less than a five point lead for the rest of the campaign.

I lay some of the blame at Obama's door.
As soon as he was assured of the nomination he turned South, figuratively speaking.
He voted for FISA.
He disowned public financing.
He went on preaching to evangelicals.
He waffled on his commitment to withdraw troops from Iraq.
He waffled on his commitment to the right of women to an abortion.
And, of course, he went on to treat Hillary Clinton and her supporters like dirt.

People who wanted change, myself included, found our heads swimming.

Another minor shock: on Olbermann's softball interview with him, Obama seemed bemused and slightly disappointed that Lieberman did not acknowledge that Obama had campaigned for him. One would think that Obama, the anti-Iraq war guy, would want to forget that particular foray into panderdom.

Because if what we're going to hear in that time period are more lectures from Obama about not taking lectures from McCain, and more variations of "they're picking on me!" the trouble is going to continue.

The day Obama figures out that the more passion and energy he saves for reacting to what he sees as McCain/Palin's personal attacks, instead of channeling that energy and passion to the issues, will be the day he might start turning this around.  But, for me at least, he seems to care more about himself than the voters.

Maybe he should announce ahead of time, 3 of his cabinet choices that would motivate his base. Sec of State, Attorney General and Sec of Treasury. These 3 could then go out and campaign of their platform. We'd have three proplr out there constantly pounding on issues rather than personalities.

Palin undoubtedly was a game-changer.

But I think her main role was to show that McCain was serious about winning.

Remember, McCain has always had fairly high favorable ratings. About on a par with Obama. And he had the race tied prior to the Dem convention.

You know how in a movie, when you see the villain slip a potion into "our heroes' drink, the action on the screen becomes moot because we know the fix is in and our hero will soon be unconscious. That's how I felt when Hillary trounced Obama in big state after big state, with increasing numbers and momentum. Yet the surreal flim-flam and state of denial by those"Leaders" was a breathtaking betrayal unfolding before our very eyes.
The calls for Hillary's surrender became ever more shrill and mean spirited, even as the action on the ground was screaming a different story. If I had a dollar for every comment I made to whatever medium I could reach that this situation was exactly why the Special Delegates were chosen, I'd be a rich man today. Their duty was to insure a Democratic victory, but with the entire Democratic Old Guard locking arms, and understanding that a Clinton victory would mean their iron grip on Power and "business as usual" would be history, they became clones of the Republicans of 2000, fixed the deck, and set the stage for the disaster unfolding before us today.