At their core, elections are very simple.  You develop an argument for your candidacy and against that of your opponent's.  You then spend your campaign pounding away at that argument.

Barack Obama's central argument is that this moment in our history requires fundamental change, and that John McCain's policies represent an extension of George Bush's.  There are all sorts of ancillary debates, but this is the central argument of his general election candidacy.

Here, my friends, is the 54-second clip that reinforces his argument more than $150,000,000 in advertising dollars could possibly do.

This is a gift from the gods.  Please send it to everyone you know. :)

Look, this is really quite simple.

If someone asks you why you're continuing a campaign that virtually the entire planet has said is over, or really even if that were not the case, you do not say the word "assassination" in your response.  Period.

I don't care what the context was.  I don't care what she meant to say.  It was either downright stupid or downright disgusting.  You do NOT invoke an "assassination" as your reason for staying in the race.

That is all.

I was at work today when this whole assassination thing started to boil over. I watched helplessly as the firestorm increased to epic proportions; unable to respond from work, and dealing with a fussy baby upon my arrival home. But I've got just one thing to say, to all of you-

Lock. It. Up.

Many diarist on here today are asking us to give Hillary a break. To give her the benefit of the doubt. To believe that she was simply misquoted or taken out of contest.

Well, I'd like to ask those diarist and the pro-hillary commenters who agree to consider the reverse of this situation.

(This is my first diary here.  I love it here so far.  Cross posted at dailykos.)

We all love someone who can stand up in front of a potentially hostile audience and speak their mind candidly, despite fear of retribution.  Some would argue that's exactly what Barack Obama did at his now notorious fundraiser in Pacific Heights, California.  But I'm hearing arguments being used to defend his speech that are, in my opinion (call it the "truth" if you're willing to afford me the same generosity afforded to Obama's opinion), completely missing the mark.  So I have a few points to raise.  

Terre Haute, IN-- Illinois Senator Barack Obama made the following remarks at a rally on Friday, April 4 with respect to Pennsylvanians' reluctance to jump on-board the Obama bandwagon:

"People don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody is going to help them," Obama told a crowd at a Terre Haute, Ind., high school Friday evening. "So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington."

At a private fundraiser in San Francisco the following Sunday, Obama continued his high-brow condescension:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years. ... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Madame Hillary's reply:

"Well, that's not my experience," Clinton told a Drexel University crowd, describing the state's residents as resilient, optimistic and hardworking.

"Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them," she said. "They need a president who stands up for them."

Cross posted from Stonewall Democrats of NYC's blog.

Peter Rosenstein wrote an OpEd in the Washington Blade calling for Dean's ouster because of his (according to Rosenstein purposeful) misstatements.  Now, to be fair, I'm none to pleased with Dean's latest "missteps" regarding our community, but I'm holding out passing any sort of judgement until I hear what he has to say at the NSD conference.  

Also, it is important to note that Rosenstein is a Beltway insider consultant and no doubt fairly wealthy.  This calls his motivation into question because those beltway folks HATE Dean.  Look, the guy puts his foot in his mouth and is trying to get the Democratic message out there.  However, he's been doing an amazing job as DNC Chair by building up and funding the state parties.  Rosenstein doesn't discuss that, instead he admits:

I long ago stopped contributing to the DNC, way back when I worried some of my money might go the re-election of Sam Nunn, the former senator from Georgia who came up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

So here's a guy who stopped giving to the DNC in 1996.  A good 7 years before Dean was even on the national map.