Today Barack Obama announced that he is about to announce what we all knew he'd be announcing -- he has formed an "exploratory" committee to look into a run for the 2008 Democratic nomination for POTUS. This is looking good!

All the news anchors this morning seemed breathless with their uncontained excitement. Here is a brand new in the works poll from top of the leftie websites, Daily Kos.

Who is your favorite potential 2008 candidate from the list below?
Bill Richardson	640 votes - 5 %
Barack Obama	3181 votes - 27 %
Hillary Clinton	462 votes - 3 %
John Edwards	4408 votes - 37 %
Wesley Clark	1989 votes - 17 %
Mike Gravel	33 votes - 0 %
Dennis Kucinich	484 votes - 4 %
Joe Biden	125 votes - 1 %
Chris Dodd	95 votes - 0 %
John Kerry	110 votes - 0 %
Tom Vilsack	110 votes - 0 %
11637 Total Votes   Go add your own vote if you like! As a former leftie, I placed a straw vote for old time's sake. Now, are there any of you left who still want to wager that Hillary will be the nominee of her party in '08? I'm still accepting all bets. (and counting my money!) Whaddever, I have a feeling that the 2008 presidential election is going to be much more fun than the last two! Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

3% for Hillary is evidence that their survey is worthless, not evidence that she won't be leader of the party.

I mean come on. George W Bush is quite possibly the most disliked person on earth right now, but if I heard someone report he was polling as low as 15% in San Francisco I'd call them a liar. 3% is nonsense, especially with Kucinich at 4.

Absolutely it's a worthless poll as far as scientific polls go, Jamie.  There are others that still show Hillary with a 10 point edge over Obama but they were taken before he announced he would announce.  We'll have to wait a month or so for the more accurate numbers.

If you are so convinced of Hillary's primacy, you may want to take the leap and commit to it here and now.  It's not so far away now, you know.  In less than 18 months we'll have a pretty good idea who the candidates will be. 

But here's my point -- If the largest leftie website -- Daily Kos -- scores only 4% for Hillary, that should tell you something. It should tell you that which I already know living among the Democrats in the Golden State -- the largest state in terms of electoral votes. HILLARY IS NOT POPULAR WITH MANY MANY DEMOCRATS.  If I could tell you the many times and the many ways I hear this from Dem friends, neighbors and family members!  Sure, they'd vote for her if she got the nod, but I do not know a single Democrat who has Hillary as their first choice.  The only reasons she polls high in the first place are her name recognition and nostalgia for her husband -- both the man himself and the last years of the 20th century.

Whoever becomes the next president is going to have to have not only a strong party base BUT will also need to pull votes from the opposite side of the aisle. Do you really really believe there are large pockets of Republicans who can pick up the Democrat slack and vote for Hillary????  If I haven't encountered the Hillary devotees amongst Democrats, I can't say I've ever read about a Republican who thinks she's their pick.

Of course not. Which is why she will not be the Democratic candidate in '08.

Now Obama! Watch the tidal wave of talk as the days roll by. The usual drift is "Oh, sure, he's charismatic as all get-out but lack of experience." And the follow-up -- "Look what experience brought us with all these old cronies with years of DC background."

The fact that Obama is about as different from Bush as anyone and perhaps as close to the symbolic Bobby Kennedy as possible mitigates in his favor.

The charisma factor cannot be overlooked.

The freshness factor too.

He can communicate, a feature so sorely missed these past several years.

He's got a fabulous wife and two young daughters.   

He's the American Dream - mixed racial background - eclectic past.

He's not ANGRY!

The Unity Factor.  I loved the way he deconstructed John Edwards "Two Americas" campaign stump speech.  At the 2004 Dem Convention Obama said in effect there were not "this" America and "that" America, etc.  There is only the UNITED States of America. 

Big time fact of life = the press is madly in love with him. 

My money is on Obama. My money, previously on Mark Warner who wussed out several months ago, is now being shifted to Obama.

My question for you, Mr. Quebecois, is are you man enough to put some of your Canadian $$ on it?

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

His voting record (by that I mean lack of) will help him too from what I can gather...

Did Hillary Clinton vote in favour of the Iraq war ?

Yes, but...

Uh, she's formulating a response to that as we "speak." It's been along the lines of not having been given accurate info from the White House and the war not being executed as well as she and the Dems would have done. So it's not as if her party line will be "I voted for it before I voted against it..." or anything that could be perceived flippy-floppy. Won't make THAT mistake.

Anyway, it's all interesting but she will be a mere colorful distraction with warehouses full of donations but in the end... well, you know what I predict. She said smugly.

Where the heck is Jordan??? You gotta figure he's had some thoughts on the subject.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooo out there, Jordan!

Susan

PS The poll as it stands today. Realize that partisans for each candidate can send their minions over to vote and in this poll, you can vote more than once. John Kerry ought to give it a rest, huh?

Still, here it is with 22,000+ votes:

Who is your favorite potential 2008 candidate from the list below?

| 22083 votes

There you go you furriners!  I told you so!  Leo's Girl story may be anecdotal but I think she and her mother are representative of a large group of Americans. We'll see how things go, but I may be part of the same group. 

Then there's my Republican neighbor who met him in DC and loved both Obama and his wife.

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Okie dokie, Erwin!  I take that as another vote for Obama?

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Woman is not equal to man.   In Kazakhstan we say, God,

then man,

then a horse,

then a goat,

then a dog,

then a woman,

then a little kratzooey....

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Well, maybe you should cultivate a healthy sense of humor then, Erwin.  Things are going to get much more amoozing as time goes by and we wouldn't want to end up an old sourpuss curmudgeon, would we?

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Why do I have a hard time believing this is so?

Oh well, way to put a screeching halt to any advancement of the subject. 

Guess we'll just have to wait and pick it up another time if the best you have to offer is a retread of the stunningly stale Bush-Cheney-Dumb-Evil triple-yawn commentary that's so... so 2004, as Jazz might say.

I'm outta here anyway as I have the exciting task of finding just the right paint samples.  Four different outlets so far have not yielded me the perfect shade of green.

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"We cannot allow a mine shaft gap"

I agree with your post D. Except I'd say it is the social fundy conservatives who really have the problem with Rudi and his pro abortion, gun control, gay friendly big city dressing.  I think they disaprove of McCain as much if not more. The base may have to accept Rudi, if they want the Reps to keep the White House. Ordinary Reps-not so put off by Rudi's social lib trappings. They see the law and order guy.  IMO.  

Up above ? 

Is that "...I read everyday, people are..."or "...I read [ that] everyday people are..." ? D?  ordinary people? Oh, I think it's the former. A far right blog maybe.

Danwhy didn't want to get specific on that "Rep board," huh? As I recall once before when you were monitoring the right, it turned out to be the Free Republic. You're not subjecting yourself to that again, are you, Danwhy?

Any Republicans on the Gazette regulars over there?

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"We cannot allow a mine shaft gap"

Give up some love for Bill Richardson, great guy and very popular with the voters here in New Mexico. He probably wouldn't win because he's from.....well New Mexico. He's done a lot for the state though, brought jobs and energy conservation technology and projects to the state. He also served under Clinton and Bush as U.S Secretary of Energy and UN ambassador for the U.S. He has not officially announced any presidential run, and I doubt he will, but look for him on ticket as a top dem VP candidate.

R_Flagg

I check Daily Kos maybe once a week -- maybe less -- depends on what's in the news.

For my daily stuff, I begin with Drudge , which is my default start-up page, then Google News and BBC.

I also check Jerusalem Post , Asharq Alawsat and Al Jazeera pretty much every day.

Roger L Simon , Pajamas Media , LGF at least weekly. I like Yoni the Blogger for Israeli updates even though he is now in the US.

A new fave is American Thinker .

Almost forgot -- no day is complete without the Hollywood gossip of Defamer . 

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Defamer's even better at work, 'cause then it seems more illicit.

Anyway, I don't have a strong guess who will take the lead in either party, at least not off the bat.  McCain and Clinton are -- I'm going to make up a word -- the pre-cumbents, as far as I'm concerned.

There's Obama, but I'm not sure he's serious this time around, I think he's just in to end the speculation.  He'd take it if it was handed to him, but he seems to genuinely know he's a n00b, and I think he's the type to look at the long picture.  Of course, it's also possible that he's just a hell of a salesman.

McCain could get surprised, yet.  If a challenger to McCain started to show any momentum, I think a lot of people who are asking "who else but?" right now might be tempted to switch.  I don't see who that would be, though.  I think we all know it isn't Jeb, and never will be now.

The Obama craze reminds me of some of the "can't miss" candidates from the past...Ross Perot, John Glenn or, to a lesser extent, Al Gore.  Before a candidate starts campaigning, no one disagrees with his position or the war, abortion, income redistribution or anything else because almost no one knows what those positions are yet.  Candidates end up looking less perfect once the public sees them on the news every night, even if they did run a successful company, pilot the first US manned orbital mission, or invent the internet and serve as the inspiration for "Love Story."

I like the longshot odds on Richardson as the Democratic nominee if he really wants it.  And even though 2008 should be a cakewalk for the Democrats, Rudy and Mitt seem like the two most electable individuals out there right now.

"Anyway, it's all interesting but she will be a mere colorful distraction with warehouses full of donations"

Sadly, this is will probably be the case. It's just so darned frustrating that, in the 21st century, we still don't have a female President or even a VP let alone a President who is anything other than male and white. Are really that many people who won't vote in anyone else not even for a nomination let alone the office itself? It bums me out. When was the last time we had a fremale candidate for VP? Was it Geraldine Ferraro?

 Aren't all you ladies pissed? I'm pissed.

Mike, your 2cats

THIS JUST IN!

Zogby poll:

Barack Obama 23%

Hillary Clinton 19%

John Edwards 19%

Tee hee.

Rumor* has it the race will be pretty much wrapped up by December.

Susan

* Dick Morris, who is often wrong...

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Hillary's team is looking into Mr. Obama :

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Obama_2.htm

Hmmm, I've been hearing/seeing this popping up all over today with each side saying the other is planting stories about Obama. 

I think he will have to face the same kind of music that JFK did as the first Catholic running for President.  Seems almost quaint now.  

I also think that Obama has been pretty forthright about his hybrid roots and I don't think a father he never knew should account for much.  An atheist mom from Wichita and a lapsed Muslim Indonesian step-father either.  He says he's a Christian.  I believe him and think he should not be held responsible for the eclectic circumstances he faced growing up.  Let's see what he's made of NOW.

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin