I've been looking at this site electoral-vote.com, which compiles recent presidential polls and puts them together into a projected electoral map.  The site currently has Obama up 317 electoral votes to John McCain's 221.

One thing you learn when you do campaign work is that if you can keep your opponent below 50%, you have a shot, no matter what else is going on.

Cross posted to Sinister and the Randi Rhodes Show message board.

As a white, working class voter, I've been pigeonholed like crazy in this election. Yes, I voted for Clinton during the primary, but my objections to Obama were certainly not racial. Rather, they were based on a few things. First of all, I was pissed at Obama for the whole Donnie McClurkin fiasco last year. I was infuriated that Obama would stand on the same stage as a vicious homophobe, and then not apologize and fire McClurkin from his "gospel tour" when McClurkin's hateful views were uncovered.

Beyond that, though, I didn't think Obama had enough gravitas to go with his charisma. I, like a lot of folks, first thought of Obama as an "empty suit" with little to offer but inspiring rhetoric not backed up by the experience necessary to make stuff happen.

If anyone saw Grey's Anatomy tonight, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that it was a seriously groundbreaking episode.  I just wrote a letter to the editor of my local paper about it, and I encourage you to do the same, or to contact ABC to commend them for running the episode.  I have a hunch they're going to get some hate mail about it.

***SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT***

The episode had a plot line about a gay soldier and his boyfriend, and addressed not only gay relationships, but the insanity of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, in a very real and poignant manner.  I've never seen such realism in a gay portrayal on network television.

Go below the fold to see my letter.

Howard Wolfson is creepy looking. I finally figured out why.  See below the fold.

This is a question for my fellow Jewish Kossacks, and is intended as a break from all of those diaries out there about the Pennsylvania primary.

I'll preface this by stating that I'm a Reform Jew, and my tradition tells me that I should always try to learn about particular faith traditions and mitzvot and figure out whether and how they can apply to my own personal Jewish experience.

We all know the five forbidden grains for Passover: wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt. Those are the only grains technically forbidden by the Torah on Passover. However, there's also this nebulous area of "kitniyot" that includes everything from corn to peanuts. Only Ashkenazi Jews follow the prohibition against "kitniyot;" Sefardi Jews do not.

I got on the Howard Dean bandwagon right after the disasterous 2002 midterms, and I didn't get off till the bitter end.  This cycle, I did not see a candidate like Dean, a galvanizing figure who had two components necessary to move me: gravitas and charisma.  Sure, there was plenty of gravitas: Richardson, Biden, Dodd.  And there was plenty of charisma: Edwards, Obama, Clinton.  But no candidate had both.  

And here's a quote that proves why:

"I think there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process," Carter told U.S. television network ABC News’s "This Week."

I listen to Air America Radio at work sometimes.  Randi Rhodes was one of my favorite hosts.  

Recently, Air America suspended Randi because she said some, shall we say, undiplomatic things about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro.  Randi has now left Air America radio, and will begin a new show on a local talk radio station in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.

I've been torn about this situation since I heard about it.  I was one of the first to jump on Don Imus when he had his little "nappy headed hos" moment.  Thus, I had to ask myself whether this situation was different from that one, and if so, how, and, most importantly, should I be angry at Randi, or should I be angry at Air America?

Also posted to Sinister.

Two things in Obama's speech really stood out to me:

...he had seen that Americans have "the capacity," as he said that night, "to project the 'I' into the 'thou.'" To recognize that no matter what the color of our skin, no matter what faith we practice, no matter how much money we have – no matter whether we are sanitation workers or United States Senators – we all have a stake in one another, we are our brother's keeper, we are our sister's keeper, and "either we go up together, or we go down together."

This paragraph touches on something that's profoundly wrong with the politics of the reactionaries and ultra-capitalist libertarians on the far-right fringe who control so much of the political dialogue, especially in certain parts of the country, like Oklahoma.

One notable thing about last night. I crunched some Texas numbers (via CNN). Take a look at this:

Total Democratic primary vote: 2,807,329
Total Republican primary vote: 1,317,008

Now, look at this:

Democratic primary vote for Obama: 1,354,553

Obama's vote, which represents roughly half of the Democratic primary vote, is larger than the entire Republican vote.

In Texas.

We're gonna kill 'em.

Update: Lighten the fuck up, people.  Seriously.

ABC News article about McCain waging a 50-state strategy has this to say about California's electoral history:

California has 55 electoral votes, far more than any other state. It has not gone Republican in a presidential election since George H.W. Bush defeated Walter Mondale in the Golden State in 1988.

Here's the link.

I guess ABC news went through a wormhole where Dukakis wasn't the Democratic nominee in 1988.

Cross-posted to Sinister.

Sinister is officially endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.

The truth of the matter is that this blogger has not always liked Hillary Clinton.  I found her too calculating, too politically manipulative, and I doubted the authenticity of what she claimed to represent.  At this point in the campaign, those criticisms must take a back seat to the larger question of which candidate will best represent the Democratic Party and stands the best chance to take back the White House in November.

Isn't Obama the candidate who featured an "ex-gay" preacher, and when confronted about it, shoved a gay preacher at the very beginning of his "gospel tour" to be largely ignored - and did NOT remove the "ex-gay" preacher?  How "progressive" is that?  And why has it gone off the news radar?  There are a lot of folks for whom that was a really big deal.  Like me.  And that's why Obama will never get my vote.  

Fine, I'll expand my point...

(Updates moved beyond the cut)

Cross-posted to Sinister.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/...

Here's what struck me:

Among Democrats polled, former North Carolina U.S. Sen. John Edwards came in a distant second to Clinton but he had the highest favorable rating among all voters -- 44 percent. Edwards won head-to-head matchups with Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, and he came within 3 percentage points of Huckabee.

Oklahoma hasn't voted for a Democrat in decades, folks.  This is excellent news.

On the other hand...

In (dis)honor of Senators Reid and Lieberman, I present this tune from Keane as my "Song of the Day."

See more below the fold...

This is cross-posted to Sinister.  Go there for photos of the event.  

Read on in "there's more" land.

30 Oklahoma Democratic legislators have endorsed John Edwards for President.  I just received an e-mail from the Oklahoma for Edwards campaign with this press release attached:

(cross-posted to Sinister)

Republicans have used "marriage" as an issue to stir up voters for years.  Conservative pundits sow terror into an easily swayed electorate by railing against the "homosexual agenda" and how the GLBT community threatens to destroy "traditional marriage."  This hurtful rhetoric stirs up voters and causes vicious, bigoted legislation to be written into state constitutions, denying an entire class of people the rights and privileges enjoyed by the rest of society.

Progressives haven't found a cohesive counter-argument to this hateful ideology, and have largely resorted to pushing the issue aside as a "wedge issue," one that is used to "distract voters" from the "real issues" such as health care, social security and education.  While the other issues are critical, and must be addressed, the issue of marriage equality is hardly a wedge issue to those of us being wedged by it.