We have an outstanding nominee. We need to stop second guessing.

[madfloridian]

I did not watch the forum last night. As a recovering Southern Baptist I can not yet handle this emphasis on religion. I did watch a little of the posted video clips. Obama did great. There is no need for all the hand-wringing.

They had probably deliberately packed the house enough to get all the big time clapping done. That never used to happen in churches when I was growing up. It was shameful, but it was probably orchestrated.

I have been watching some of the names who have come out urging Obama to campaign differently. Many of them are very conservative Democrats, many are Democrats who are upset that Hillary lost. Many have other motives than just concern for Obama.

We also have an excellent chairman, who weathered the primary storm with his integrity intact and still smiling in spite of the lawsuits and name-calling.

I watched over 40 minutes of Howard Dean on C-Span today. He was speaking and just enjoying himself at Democracy Fest. He said he was a little weary from the week's bus tour...but he felt it was productive.

He praised Hillary Clinton for working hard for Obama, and working for unity. He was sincere. He praised Obama on his outreach to the moderates in the religious community. He has made that one of his goals at the DNC.

He said he thought our November win would be by a couple of percentage points. That it would be close.

I think this has been one of the hardest primaries I have ever been through, because even when Dean lost in 2004.....I had not had to live through a bunch of lies and propaganda. This time it was far worse because I saw Democrats nationally and statewide just lose their integrity.

He was far more gracious today than I have been lately.

I notice C-Span tonight is carrying Obama's 2004 speech, and something by Dean about Religion in Politics...date given was Friday.

I don't especially like the catering to the religious community, but I can also see we have to reach a percentage of them to win.

The reason they applauded McCain over Iraq is because many of these churches supported the invasion. That is how badly they had been hijacked by religious extremists. Obama is right to speak calmly.

I think he made a far greater overall impression than John McCain did, but the media will not let you know it.

He has good people running the campaign, he has the DNC integrated now far more quickly and easily than most years. It will work, and I think we need to not be too critical.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Why are you trying to quash "constructive criticism", Hitler?

:P

[madfloridian]

2. Heh Heh

I will probably get that. I do a lot of it myself.

[madfloridian]

3. Dean's on now but C-Span labeled it wrong. Good speech.

.

[DCBob]

4. Obama did great and I am glad he went..

If nothing else it helps dispel the rumors of him being a radical Muslim extremist.

[madfloridian]

5. He was aiming for the moderates.

And I have many Republicans in my family who are moderate and respect when someone speaks like that. It is the really extreme who won't back down, and they are hurting their own party.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Democracy makes us strong

The idea that dissent on tactics is tantamount to weakness or subversion is silly.

This guy is NOT a "great" candidate. He barely put away Senator Clinton and the dynamic is very scary: he started falling apart at the end and still didn't have the votes for a lock. She was NOT a particularly good candidate, and still he had trouble making the sale.

McCain is a better candidate than he first seemed, and even with that he's not very good. Yet here we are, almost dead even in the polls.

That's not the kind of world-beating genius of a performance that one should hold up to quash any murmuring within the ranks. They need our help and they're making what I and others consider to be serious mistakes. I'm tired of the Messiah/Pied Piper characterization of this man: he's our candidate, he's a good guy, but he DOESN'T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS.

He's running a Kerryesque campaign and that turns lots of people off: many people are mildly cringing semi-vertebrates who thirst for a forthright, simplistic, dynamic leader, not someone who's all-encompassing, nuanced, and constantly reacting to the tunes called by others. It's not a disaster, but it could well be one. We're eleven weeks out; that's not good with the polls at more or less dead even.

Listen to the continually repeated reactionary chorus: the DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS did all this to you, and the Republicans are the underdogs for the common working man as the DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS spends us silly and wants to give away things to bums and tax all the hard-working, honest Americans to pay for it. Don't like it? I don't either. The point is that many here are firmly convinced that the economy is OUR ISSUE, when it simply isn't, much as it should be.

You didn't watch the forum but somehow "know" that it went just fine from the sources you've deigned to plumb. Yikes. Time would have been better spent watching the damned thing.

Be confident and be positive, but don't crap on the very best weapon in the arsenal of pluralism: debate.

[madfloridian]

7. Yeh, I never speak out, do I?

But this is going overboard here about last night.

Yeh, purity, I never speak out.

I did watch the videos posted.

You are being rude.

[madfloridian]

8. In fact, I have been attacked so much recently for speaking out TOO much.

So your comment is hilarious. Read my journal..red button.