Barack Obama

Barack Obama gave an incredible speech tonight.  I’ll get the video up ASAP.

John McCain says he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave he lives in!

Obama appears to have selected Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate.  According to ABC News, the Secret Service has been dispatched to Biden’s house.  This, in addition to the growing list of people confirmed not to be the pick, makes it all but certain.

If Joe Biden isn’t the pick, then give some major credit to the Obama Campaign for pulling off quite a stunt….

UPDATE: CNN is also reporting that they have confirmed that the pick is Joe Biden.

Just a thought, but perhaps the Obama campaign overplayed their hand by letting the hype build so much on the Vice President pick?  It seems that Bayh and Kaine are out (or so Andrea Mitchell claims), so Joe Biden looks like the probable guy.  But after a week or two of the media talking about Biden nonstop, won’t it just be a major let down if it’s him?

OH MY GOD IT’S… oh, it’s the guy they said it was.  That’s kind of boring… lame…

Which is why I’m going to go out on the line and say it’s not Biden (or Bayh or Kaine).  It’s gotta be someone no one is expecting (Hillary!), or this big build-up was kind of dumb.

Paul Krugman gets it right, as usual, in his column today.  The Obama campaign could be destroying McCain on the economy, but just doesn’t seem to be doing so:

Why isn’t the Obama campaign getting more traction on economic issues?

It’s not the Republican offensive on offshore drilling. It’s true that many Americans have apparently been misled by bogus claims about gas price relief. But as I’ve already pointed out, Democrats in general retain a large edge on economic issues.

Nor is there any valid basis for the complaints, highlighted in Sunday’s Times, that Mr. Obama isn’t offering enough policy specifics. Delve into the Obama campaign Web site and you’ll find plenty of policy detail. And the campaign’s ads reel off lots of specific policy proposals — too many, if you ask me.

No, the problem isn’t lack of specifics — it’s lack of passion. When it comes to the economy, Mr. Obama’s campaign seems oddly lethargic.

Maybe Obama just doesn’t have the passion for economic issues.  That’s fine, everyone has certain issues that are most important to them.  But the economy is where Democrats win.  As much as the American people are against the war, McCain will never lose big on that issue (or other national security issues).  The way to beat him is to focus on the reasons for our failing economy (8 years of Bush-McCain economic policies).

Barack Obama raised $7.8 million dollars today at 3 fundraisers in California.  Looks more and more like he will absolutely dominate McCain on the money front.  If this fundraising pace keeps up, McCain doesn’t stand a chance.  He won’t be able to compete at anywhere near the same level as Obama and will be overwhelmed in state after state.

Barack Obama, in a statement Monday, said that Georgia should be admitted to NATO:

“I have consistently called for deepening relations between Georgia and transatlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for NATO, and we must continue to press for that deeper relationship,” Obama says.

I’m glad to hear him taking a strong position on this.  Had Georgia been admitted to NATO earlier, Russia would never have invaded.  It would have pissed the Russians off, but they wouldn’t have invaded.

In other Georgia and Russia related news, Russia today ordered a ceasefire.  What this actually means is yet to be seen.  Russian troops are still in Georgia and show no signs of leaving, they just aren’t actively attacking at the moment.

Barack Obama hits back at McCain with “Embrace”:

In a year when voters want anything but a Washington insider, this is exactly the kind of ad Obama should be running.

Barack Obama isn’t going to let ignorance steal this election:

Barack Obama sent a letter to the DNC Credentials Committee requesting that the Michigan and Florida delegations be seated in full in Denver.  While I agree with Obama that they should be seated with full delegations, I think he made a mistake here.  He should have let the full delegations be seated when they had the original meeting.  He had the nomination wrapped up at that point (for all practical purposes) and should have used the opportunity to bring the party back together.

The argument from many in the Obama camp was that if they gave in, it would look like they are beholden the the Clintons; it would have made him look weak.  I don’t think it would have though.  He still would have won the nomination, and would have lessened the tensions between the two campaigns.  Furthermore, by requesting full seating at this point, Obama is essentially acknowledging that his motivation previously was simply political.  This type of thing goes against the image that Obama has built of himself, and could hurt him a bit.