You want to diss Axelrod, who is running a winning campaign, but you don't mention Mark Penn?

Ok.

You say that now, but what happens if Axelrod meets McCain's team and the entire right-wing attack machine this fall. Can Axelrod's slick media strategy be enough when the GOP throws everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink at Obama? Stop thinking short-term and start thinking about November.

What it means is that Obama is nothing more than anactor saying the lines someone scripted for him.

If our nominee is one who sells words for inspiration, and then we find out more and more that it's not his words but his handlers' words, then it's easy for the Republicans to "bamboozle" him as an EMPTY VESSEL for BORROWED WORDS.

This smells like defeat.  I'll vote for whoever ends up as the Dem nominee, but I have a bad feeling about this.

Yes, you're right.  And, thank you.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/

I was over at Politico and under a story about McCain a poster brought up a You Tube appearance by someone named Sinclair that has over 400,000
hits. Sinclair says some damning stuff about Obama and is undergoing a lie detector test paid for($10,000) by an outside group. He now has a lawyer. It is not a nice story.

A number of posters on this site have repeatedly claimed that Obama would be the better president because of his more successful campaign.  hahaha  Reminds me that, with that kind of logic, W should have been a brilliant president.  W raised tons and tons of money, carved deeply into traditionally Dem voting blocs, and coopted some dem issues.  

Guess governing and campaigning are two very different things after all.

What you see is not what you'll get.

When you want to make an acquaintance with someone at a party?  What do you do?  You spend time with that person.  You spoke to him, hear his story. You won't form an opinion of a person at the first meeting.  You gotta know him better spend more time with him.  

Two weeks later, you found out that what he told you was not entirely his opinion after all.  Hmm......you normally have a flag up in your head.  Why did he let me to believe that 2 weeks ago then?  What was his motive?   This situation applies to any normal human relationship.  If you still blindly believe the guy after you found out what he told you is not entirely true, you will find yourself handing him your pocket soon.

I mean: what interests does he represent? What does he want?

He does seem to be the svengali here, but there seems to be a dearth of information about what his endgame is.

Any thoughts?

formula: 

Find a candidate with a great personal story- intelligence- good and lofty aspirations.

. Market them as outsiders using hope and change to define them. Uniters not dividers if you will.



.Axelrod's campaign with Deval Patrick in Massachusetts proved effective- a win for a candidate of aspirations but limited experience. The catch for Axelrod is that the proof is in this pudding-

- the hopes and dreams of a successful campaign have been shattered by the inability to follow through. "How does a campaign framed on these themes endure? The answer is simple-they do not.

. Nobody followed Deval's lead in this election (even though he was joined by Ted Kennedy & John Kerry) so that romantic notion that we are bringing in so many new people and that they are energized by the "new" politics and provide a staunch and strong political force moving in one direction is just nonsense."

Obama lost Massachusetts by 15!  Axelrod-the wizard behind the curtain-Maybe he's more qualified to be President than his acolytes!

It's not clear to me what the point of this diary is. Of course Axelrod is doing something for Obama--he better be for all the money the campaign is paying him.

But it's obviously false to say that Axelrod is creating Obama's message for him. Unlike any other national politician in America living today, Barack Obama has written two non-ghostwritten books. The first one was written fifteen years ago before he even entered the political arena. Both of them accurately capture Obama's authentic self.

You can know a couple of relevant things from reading Dreams from my Father and The Audacity of Hope. The first is that Obama is a master wordsmith and a brilliant writer. The second is that everything written in those books are entirely consonant with Obama's political image and the message of his current presidential campaign. As further evidence, both the famous 2004 DNC speech and his presidential announcement speech were written by Obama himself.

Obviously David Axelrod, as a competent consultant, helped out. But fundamentally Obama's brand is his own creation and his message springs directly from his own life experiences.

No matter what you all say above, the fact is Exelon paid bribe (called lobbyist money in other words) to Obama via Axelrod. $230,000!!! For changing the language in the bill to favor Exelon instead of common people in Chicago.

Who is blind? Those who ignore such reality:-)

I just can't believe some people. The attacks on Obama on this site have been so low lately. I usually tell myself I will not respond to any of them. But it's been bugging the hell out of me and I'm sure many pro-Clinton people on this site can relate because of what they witnessed at dkos. So my patience has reached a limit tonight and I'm responding to an asshole diary. Obviously, I am also discomforted by so many of the attack diaries on Hillary. It makes me want to barf all over my computer. Neither of these candidates deserves to be attacked in such low, baseless ways. They are both much better than that.

I understand that there are some legitimate concerns from some Hillary folks about Obama's inexperience in Washington. Fine. I can't wait until you are pleasantly surprised. I know that will take time, however. I know that there are concerns about how he will do in the general election. I can't wait until you are pleasantly surprised when Obama beats McCain. I cannot convince someone to feel how I feel or see what I see, but I am confident in Obama and believe time will alleviate those valid concerns. Listen, I support any voter who does research. I support voters working so hard for their candidates. I support all these positive pro-Hillary diaries because I like seeing this excitement created by our wonderful candidates. I sincerely believe that you will see Obama is a good, strong candidate and will make a great president. If Hillary becomes nominee I will be really upset that Obama lost, but I would not be upset that she is the candidate. I'd be out waving a Hillary flag. But that's just me.

But this low brow stuff is just bad news all around. Are you deranged enough to think of this ridiculously intelligent man is a puppet? Are you honestly deranged enough to believe Michelle Obama has never been proud of her country? Are you so out of touch that you think millions of people in this country are glossy-eyed cultists, and only you and your friends know the "truth" and what is real? Do you think anyone is falling for the feigned sincerity of a discussion about whether Obama is a Muslim and/or killed his mother? God, gag me with a spoon! It's Rush Limbaugh bullshit! It's idiotic, it's like dumbass mean kids in junior high writing about each other on bathroom walls. It's bad for the party, it's bad for the country, it's bad for human beings! Your candidate is FAR more admirable then this crap. And my candidate is much better than garbage like the idiot heckler going after Bill.

And on that note, I also want to state that many of the Obama supporters I know do not hate Hillary, in any way. The Obama folks in my circles are proud of the Clinton administration and proud of the Clintons. I look up to Hillary as a woman. In fact, she has for so long been the woman I most admire in the country. I happen to prefer Obama. I wont go into my reasons here.

I love discussing this primary. I loved mydd and dailykos after they provided me a nice cozy liberal place during the 2004 elections. Does anyone know where in the web you can go to have an intelligent discourse (I promise no comments like this one from me)? A place that the dumbasses from both sides don't know about yet?

P.S. the anger in this comment is not directed at most of the Hillary supporters, who are awesome and completely sane. So most of you can disregard this here ranting and raving.