The New York Times revealed a more humble Barack Obama emerging in Indiana, searching for a connection with the working class Democratic base.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/us/pol itics/28obama.html?_r=1&hp&oref= slogin

One of the things which gets lost sight of is both candidates have a massive organization surrounding them. In Philadelphia, students -- mostly from the University of Pennsylvania -- were relied upon to advance the campaign along with Progressive Philly; these are both groups which represent quite well the Obama 'elite' stereotype that Hillary has tried to pin on him. During those six weeks, those groups alienated the traditional Democrats and if it wasn't for the African-American churches, I believe the damage would have been deeper.

One thing Obama does well is learn fast and correct himself.

His next big battle is to remove himself from the shaddow of the Chicago machine, which the Republicans will try to taint him with as a tactic. This is the main reason Hillary is so livid about Obama's asscent: she fears the machine stench will loose Democrats the election to McCain. It is a legitimate fear.

I believe if he deals with the accusations squarely and robustly instead of shifting his feet and looking sour, he will be able to overcome the half-truths that the GOP flack machine is cooking up.

Every Democrat, pro-Obama or pro-Hillary should read this interview with Grover Norquist in the UK Sunday Times in which the GOP strategy against Obama is revealed. Article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo rld/us_and_americas/us_elections/article 3382313.ece

I think the call for unity has come through pretty clear from DNC chair Howard Dean so I'm just going to say that I will support whoever the Democratic nominee is. For the first time in my life, we have a Democrat dominated culture (accounting for the infighting, because it is a bigger tent now) and I believe that will have a greater effect than any one candidate.

Since I have a public relations background and have worked for the New York Sun and another newspaper in the Republican media machine, (I had to eat until the manufacturing of propaganda literally made me want to starve rather than sin), I am going to be focusing my efforts in the next two months on building a site that will robustly counter many of the Republican lies that are going to be concocted about the candidates. I don't think we do enough as a party to tell the full story when the tale is ugly and the truth is deeper than the dented surface.

In the next two weeks we will pick a candidate and as Chairman Dean said, we should heal and then unite. The culture of caring that has traditionally been part of the Democrat ethos (along with some really stupid high-horseyness and holier-than-thouness we all need to stop, including myself) is an important force that needs to be harnessed in bringing America back on track and making us a country that, once again, holds the beacon of possibility as high as the Statue of Liberty does on the Jersey side of the Hudson. (oh, snap! did I say Jersey? Did I mean that as an analogy for our country?)