Yes, its a factor, because without a doubt, we have voters that still believe that, unfortunately. How big a factor remains to be seen.

The book I've read on the '28 election, by Allan Lictman, took on the notion that prohibition was the issue, diving deep into quantitative analysis to show that it was Smith's Catholicism that was the deeper conflict, and became the most important determinant of the election.

The movement conservative are delving deep into making the 2008 election the biggest yet, in terms of the cultural war. The Wright issue, and the 'moral relativism' that many liberals have wandered into with their defense of Wright, has given an opportunity to exploit that they are not going to back away from, regardless of how in the sand the progressives head remains over Wright.

The national polls that Obama supporters trot out are meaningless-- that's CA and NY and IL, the big cities, probably bumping up even more over Obama and the mainstream praise. Anyone who's looked at the internals of the red and purple polls out since March 13th though, has seen a startling undermining of both Obama and Clinton. Even those that still show Obama leading, it's by a slim margin at best. McCain has pulled ahead of Obama 314-215 in the EV, according to electoral-vote.com

"that we were essentially blowing our big chance at a realignment by nominating a Woman or a Black when the country still wasn't quite ready for it."

That's the sort of logic that will always keep America from being "ready" for it.

One can always avoid failing by simply refusing to even attempt.

I think a 55/45 Obama comeback, win in a loss, is very possible.

My vet friends are on the fence after Tuzla, but also because of Wright.

Facebook currently offers better tools for political organizing, but both -- as well as other social network sites -- are very useful platforms.  Eszter Hargatti's "Whose Space?" looks at the different demographics of the different sites http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/har gittai.html  

The book looks interesting; I'll check it out!  The blog has some good stuff as well...

for my 2006 US Senate Primary v Herb Kohl.

Running with Censorship, Privacy rights, Iraq, and the DrugWar as lead issues, the demographic fit perfectly.

First step; friending bands in gthe State. many promoted the campaign at their shows, and a few put plugs on the back of their gig fliers.

The "browse' function enables you to get users within a set radius of a desired Zipcode (sorted by recent login), or use "search' for an interst, within the State, ie "Wisconsin hemp."

Facebook's still more campus oriented, good for keeeping in contact with supporters, but less viable as a spamming tool.