Earlier this week, Barack Obama invited us all to be a part of writing the Democratic party platform for the convention. From his e-mail:

Help shape the Democratic Party's Platform for ChangeEvery four years, the Democratic Party assembles a platform that outlines the party's position on a number of issues.

Traditionally, the drafting of the platform is not open to ordinary people.

This year, that's going to change.

For two weeks in July, people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities to discuss the issues and share their input. The outcome of these meetings will be reviewed by the Drafting Committee as it creates the final Platform.

No political experience is required. Your thoughts and experiences are all that matter, and they will shape a platform that -- like this campaign -- is owned by the people.

The platform events will be held from July 19-27 and you can sign up to attend or host one HERE.

Now, who knows what the actual practical result will come out of these platform meetings (if people overwhelmingly decide no telecom immunity should be a part of the platform, will that make it so? Doubtful.) But what Barack is doing is sending a couple of messages: one that he's been stressing all throughout the primary, namely that "this election is about you" and another that puts him in direct conflict with John McCain: that Barack Obama is in touch, listening to the American people. Hell, the events themselves are called "Listening To America" events. So on those levels alone, this is an excellent idea and a great way to continue to activate Obama's list in movement and party building rather than merely exploiting it for fundraising.

What's hilarious, though, is that Rush Limbaugh has decided to use these events as the basis for phase 2 of Operation Chaos. His grand plan is to have his minions "infiltrate" the events but just one glance at his call to action reveals just truly how deeply he, and the right overall, just don't get it.

"You will be allowed to sit in the same room as elitist Democrat operatives to craft the Democrat party platform," Limbaugh told his audience - estimated by industry trade magazine "Talkers" to exceed 14 million listeners a week.

"In coming days, we will tell you exactly how you can participate in writing the Democrat party platform, at the request of the Most Merciful Lord Barack Obama."

"Elitist Democrat operatives." I would love some dittoheads to go to one of these meetings and see all the so-called "operatives" gathered in a room. They really can't conceive of the basic notion of bottom-up democracy or people-powered politics; it simply does not compute. And the fact that they consider non-Democrats attending these events as some sort of infiltration demonstrates even further the extent to which they just don't get Obama or our party under his leadership.

From Michael Yaki, National Platform Director, via e-mail:

"We'd like to thank Rush Limbaugh for publicizing the 'Listening to America' events and extend an open invitation to him and his listeners to attend.  The Democratic Party is not afraid to listen to the wide array of views the American people have on the issues they care about - that is what makes our nation strong. People across the country - of all political persuasions - are tired of business as usual in Washington and people like Limbaugh who are more concerned with scoring political points than changing the direction of our country.  Unlike John McCain and the Republican Party, Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee are encouraging Americans across the country to get involved and make their voices heard.

"If Limbaugh's dittoheads want to join other Americans, united in their belief that their voices should be heard in Washington, talking about their hopes, dreams, and concerns in their living rooms, community centers, and churches, and reporting back on these discussions to the Platform Drafting Committee, then they're welcome to join one of the 655 events in 47 states organized in just 24 hours."

Pwned.

Redacted (note to self alread on the symposium)

My first resentment is that I need to state that I'm a politically active African American, who in the past has supported all of the struggles you would expect: criminal justice reform, affirmative action, afrocentricism, etc.

Yet, my main resentment is toward Barrack Obama and the media for his allowing them to "create" him.  If people would take a sober look:

Obama has done 1 thing of note in relation to Presidential politics: he won a U.S. Senate seat.  The history of that race is so unbelievable in the context of both his primary and general election opponents that those few who don't believe in God, really have a hard time with that one.

So we have a black guy, who gave a speech in 2004 that everyone (including me) loved, and now he's a presidential contender?

Look at Carol Mosley Braun in Illinois for example:

November 3, 1992--Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first Black woman to win a U.S. Senate seat on this day. Moseley-Braun, with support from a broad-based political coalition, handily defeated Republican Richard Willliamson. She held the post until 1998. A Chicago native, Moseley-Braun earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1972 and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the mid-1970s. Moseley-Braun won a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1978, serving until 1988 when she was elected Cook County Recorder of Deeds, a post she held until her election to the U.S. Senate. She later served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and currently is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency.

Imagine if she had given a great speech at the time, and the msm annoited her a contender?  

But wait, she did what every other politcian besides Obama has to, which was go to work.

In the process, she met scandal, and poor results, and when she stood before the people to be re-affirmed, SHE LOST.

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Look at George Allen, in Virginia, according to Virginia Republican standards, he did a great job in the Senate. Add to that, he was a former governor of the State.  He was poised to become the frontrunner of the Reagan Wing of the Republican Party.

Yet while in the re-election battle he loses a race, very few people even had on the radar when it began.

Now he is finished in national politics.

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I could give an endless list of people who were "Presidential" until they lost:

Tom Daschle
Harold Ford
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

just to name a few.

The point is the media became so invested in obama that they didn't demand that he actually be qualified to run.  That would risk that he would do something unpopular, or lose an election along the way.

Obama has not done anything to deserve this platform.  Given a speech in 2004 at a convention is not sufficient.

Add to that, that he laughed, "he'd be crazy" to come to Washington and start running President, yet everyone else didn't laugh him off is a sad sign of our politics today.

The answer of course is all in race.  An ivy-league educated A.A. who speaks the language of liberal democrats.  Being that they control the media, add that to an unshakable black community support, and its' unstoppable in the Dem. Primary.

People can search all they want for reasons why HRC is behind, right now.  The answer is all about race and elitism.  It is also about why a frontrunner with a dominant financial advantage, and unanimous support in the media is scheduled to lose bigtime in West Virginia, and it is being totally discounted.

Obama should have either done something to deserve all of this, or rejected it in words and deeds.  But to stoke these fires as a demagogue is bad for America.

along the way, i've given example of "real change" that would justify this hoopla.

BUT NOT 1 SUPPORTER CAN COMMENT BELOW, ANYTHING, that Obama proposes to change that is worthy of this hype.  I've suggested radical education reform, a Dennis Kucinch type refuse to fund the war in Iraq, an effort to fight the cultural decay in Hollywood, war against the violence in the black community, etc.

but from obama, it's the same old, same old, with a deceptive package.

I can get that from HRC.  That's why I still support her.  Her dishonesty is actually honest because I know she's pandering and lieing on many things.  But at the end of the day, I believe she loves this country, is a smart/tough leader, and is the best person to lead this country.

(Update): btw I would have written similar things about HRC in 2004 if she had ran the same kind of race Obama has run. She would have had to offer something so unbelievable for me to skip over the fact that she hadn't done her job and gotten re-elected. So if she ran this 2008 race in 2004, I guess I'd be called a sexist.

For your information the race is still going on and the fight is now with the superdelegates. So if we, the Clinton supporters, do intend to want Hillary to be our nominee, we should advocate the superdelegates to vote for Clinton rather than Obama. Hillary needs our support now more than ever and we should show her that support.

You have to remember that it's the obama's camp which said that the blacks will riot and the Obamabots will vote for McCain or not vote if the superdelegates chose Clinton instead. You have to remember that it was the Obama camp which paint the Clintons as racist while dismantling the legacy of Bill. You also have to remember that the Obama camp spent more on negative campaigning than Hillary does. So don't talk to us about who's the one being bitter. And not to say that the 50 state strategy is now 47 states.

TaylorMarsh and Co is different than DailyKos. DailyKos was our left trademark and it exacts real influence. Not to say that the Obama's surrogates had from time to time appear on the news and bombard Clinton, accusing her for the things which the Obama's camp were doing. I still remember Donna Brazille stating that "Latinos and Working Class people does not matter". Only blacks matter.

This is concerning those robocalls that were made to conservative voters in Indiana, asking them to vote against Sen. Obama in the primary. Tellingly, the National Right to Life endorsed John McCain for president.

So we can expect even more loyal Republicans to be voting for Sen. Clinton and joining Operation Chaos, which Limbaugh once again is advocating for.

UPDATE: It's not that more Republicans are necessarily voting for HRC; it's that Operation Chaos is canceling out Obama's advantages. Obama's cross-over appeal is more genuine and likely to continue (and broaden) through November.