A column by a British editorial writer sparked the impetus for this post.  The central premise in this post is a variation upon what he had to say in his column.  He was interviewed yesterday on MSNBC and I found myself nodding my head in total agreement with the argument he was advancing.      

i always tell people that the first door -- by which i mean the first person you talk to -- is the hardest.  you don't know what to expect when you're in a new state or new campaign or new year, no matter how many times you've done it before.

here i am in florida, and i didn't even have to look at the list.  i knew i was in republican territory.  north part of orlando, close to winter park, homes built around a couple of small lakes.  i knock on the first door and i look to see the party registration.  republican.  of course.  but no one is home, so i leave the lit and move on.  rinse and repeat for the second door.  the third door is right next door.  another republican.  i didn't even have to look, there was a contribution envelope in response to a direct mail plea from john mccain.  the faint blue check could be seen through it in the bright sun light.  i thought about not knocking on the door (the outgoing mail was clipped to the door), but i figure, wtf.  it's on my list.  and that's why i'm here.

i have on my blue obama shirt and the lady who answers the door says, "i don't want to talk to anyone supporting obama!"  i pretend i haven't seen the envelope.

You laughed at me, they all laughed at me!  But who's laughing now?!?

This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!  The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing—not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

Responding to criticism for their unprofessional and unethical editing of a Katie Couric interview with John McCain, CBS News Senior Vice President Paul Friedman said:

The report was edited under extreme time constraints and one piece of tape was put in the wrong order. Fortunately, this did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying.

Clearly, Mr. Friedman is either stupid or a liar. Roll the tape:

Perhaps Mr. Friedman can explain how replacing McCain's incorrect claim about when the "Anbar Awakening" began and his mocking of Obama for not knowing this "matter of history," with a contemptible attack on Obama's patriotism didn't distort what McCain said.

In order to defend our candidate from those who would smear him, it is essential we understand how the Left views Barack Obama, and adjust our arguments and defenses to advance our Centrist agenda.

Yes, I am not kidding.  A few days ago McCain dropped a whopper: "I know how to win wars"  Well, it's about to get topped.   Remember a few days ago when it was reported that the NY Times rejected McCain's Iraq editorial in essence because it consisted of little more than attacks on Obama and very little about McCain's OWN vision for Iraq?

That really gets to the essence of McCain's problem in a nutshell: his entire campaign is based on slamming Obama, with a few minor policy ideas, and essentially no vision for what a McCain presidency would look like.

Case in point, take last night's interview on ABC News.  Watch his response to a question about the Israeli/Palestinian issue and how he would resolve it:

When John Kennedy spoke in Germany in the midst of the Cold War, more than a million people followed his progress across Berlin. People leaned from windows and sat on the branches of trees to watch him pass. More than 400,000 were present to hear his speech in person. Kennedy's declaration of solidarity with the people of Berlin drew cheers that rattled windows on both sides of the wall.

When Ronald Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate the situation was...  different. Both very different from the situation Kennedy had faced more than two decades earlier, and very different from the way it's presented to us by a GOP and media who have deified Reagan.  

When Reagan visited Berlin in 1987, the Soldiarity union was already seven years old. It had been formed in the strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard, struggled through a period of martial law in which Soviet forces were expected in Poland at any moment, and lived on to begin negotiations with the collapsing communist government. Pope John Paul II had stepped back into his native country four years before Reagan came to stand next to the wall, widening the cracks that were radiating through Eastern Europe.  Gorbachev had been at the front of a crumbling Soviet leadership for two years, and it was increasingly apparent that he could not hold the faltering empire together either militarily or economically. Protests in Czechoslovakia had led to invasion in the 1960s, but this time it was obvious that the tanks weren't coming. How could they?  115,000 Soviet troops were still tied up in Afghanistan that summer, the seventh year of their costly invasion.  The cost of that war -- in men, in reputation, and in rubles -- was the heaviest straw on the back of a Soviet camel already on its knees.

In short -- no one was paying any attention to Reagan. Far from bringing out a thronging horde, Reagan's second visit to Berlin was barely noticed either by the press or the populace. There were no crowds on the street. No one even thought of climbing a tree to see him.

At the Brandenburg Gate, the streets weren't choked by hundreds of thousands eager to listen. Instead, about 20,000 Reagan supporters were brought in for the occasion, positioned to provide a backdrop, and prompted to cheer. When the speech was over, they were bused home.

In 1963, Berlin was looking to Kennedy to show that Berlin would not be allowed to fall to communism. In 1987, communism was near the end of a two decade collapse, and Reagan's speech was a media event made for America, not Berlin.  It was staged as much as pulling down the statue of Saddam. What he said was little noted by the people of Europe, and had no effect on the end of  communist control. Only in retrospect, and in the minds of Reagan's fanatical supporters, did the speech gain mystical connotations.

In 2008, Barack Obama is stopping to pay a visit in Berlin. It's too much to expect that his words will have the kind of electrifying effect that Kennedy had in 1963. The situation then was so dire, and the lines of delineation so stark, that the speech raised up not just the people of Berlin, but the people of the world. One thing is clear enough: the huge crowds already forming by the Victory Column show that there's far more interest in what Obama has to say than there was for Reagan.

The question for today is, in these times when the problems at least seem so much more complex and tangled, will Obama be satisfied with reminding us of the importance of what Berlin stood for in the past, or will he use that location as a symbol for our future?

I was reading this article this morning about a speech Obama is planning to give in Germany after he meets with Merkel.

An old man goes to the park to hear the speech, armed with a bushel of rotten tomatoes.  When the speech begins, the old man lets fly -- over the head of the orator.  His next few missles sail to the right of their mark.  Soon, though, the man's age takes its toll, and his lobs fall progressively short.  Seeing this, a friend leans over and suggests that it's time to stop.  "Stop?" cries the old man.  "I've still got tomatoes, and I only have to hit him once."

Let's check McCain's remaining tomato supply.

As if only holding a slim 3-point lead in his homestate of Arizona wasn't bad enough, McCain is waking up this morning to another bitter pill.

Obama raised more money in Arizona last month than John McCain, and is only $66,000 behind him on total cash raised in Arizona this year.

Barack Obama quietly raised more money in Arizona last month for his presidential campaign than John McCain did, and the Illinois Democrat dominates the overall fundraising map in 43 states and Washington, D.C., records show.

Only seven states managed to raise more money for John McCain last year.  Seven.  This is what an enthusiasm gap will give you.  Arizona has to particularly sting for McSame, though.

[UPDATE: Made the Rec List! Thank You everyone!]

John McCain's campaign is becoming a "target rich environment."

The latest attack levelled by the Three Stooges John McCain's crack campaign staff is that Barack Obama is soft and hypocritical on genocide. [More after the jump]

Since we've all been following this breathlessly, just waiting for our candidate to be exposed for the Manchurian Al-Qaeda communist that he is, I thought I'd provide a quick update.

Last week, over at noted drunken harpy Pamela Geller's web site, they found some guy named techdude who had a mutilated rabbit hung from his front door to do some analysis, and OMG THE KERNING DOESN'T MATCH!!!@!! If you follow the link, there's a bunch of stuff he claims about EXIF data and compression level differences after heat map analyses, which is over the head of 99% of the people who read Atlas Shrugs and can't be independently verified anyway. But it sure got them blog readers all worked up.

I haven't seen anyone diary this brief piece by M.J. Rosenberg at TPMCafe, but I think it crystallizes much of what is right about Obama and illustrates a stark contrast between Obama and McCain that has gone largely unremarked upon (or at the very least, hasn't been articulated widely as one of the contrasts) during this campaign.

I think I have read every word Barack Obama uttered on his visits to Israel and Palestine and I'm struck by his ability to navigate this tricky issue with such dexterity. After all, everybody is just waiting for him to trip up on the Arab-Israeli issue. Joe Lieberman, the Israeli media, the right-wing pro-Israel organizations are just waiting to pounce on some misstep.

More...

Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few diaries pointing out something obvious: we need to take the fight to John McCain. In one, Clammyc urged us to stop defending Obama and to go on the offensive.  

In another, I listed ten free ways that people could get involved in pushing the Democrats' message.

With that in mind, here's a go at it.

Barack Obama has arrived in Berlin and is greated with the most astonishing amount of excitement since the fall of the Berlin wall. My guess is that the demonstration today will be in the range of the 200.000 people who came together on September 14, 2001 to show their solidarity after the attacks of 9/11.

I myself will jump on the train in a few hours to go to Berlin. I am really excited about watching the speech and as a German, I am interested to hear what he has to say and I am going to write an update later.

In any case, German media is going nuts: all news channels are having a constant coverage.

For some impressions of Barack Obama in Berlin, check the FAZ Please note the modern art in the chancellery. I think it is nice

And the frontpages of German Newspapers: here My favorite one is the taz (image nr.3).

So what do you expect?

Originally posted on Citizen Orange.

It's a little late, but as promised, I've put together a video from the footage I caught while I was at the annual National Council of La Raza conference in San Diego.

Across Europe and the Middle East, and even within Israel itself, the view that Israel is truly an apartheid state is widespread and credible.  South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, who should know what he's talking about on that score, has said that the situation of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is in some way worse than that of blacks in South Africa under the old regime.
With the renewal last month of an odious Israeli law restricting marriage and family reunions between residents of Israel proper and the West Bank and Gaza no less a prominent member of the Israeli elite than Amos Schocken, the publisher of Ha'aretz, Israel's daily paper of record ran an editorial declaring that his country was now officially an apartheid regime.  Still, the visit of Barack Obama earlier this week occasioned no question from adoring US mainstream reporters on how the candidate, the son of a mixed marriage himself, can offer his uncritical support to the "Jewish identity" of a nation that bans mixed marriages.