I removed this diary in honor of Stephanie Tubbs Jones.  

Not sure why, maybe it's silly, but I felt like we got the news out enough and I wanted to honor her in some way, so this is just a small gesture.  

The content of the diary can still be read over at Strategy '08 should you be interested.

(h/t to Bob Sackamento for notifying us of this subject)

Barack Obama is speaking in front of the VFW right now in Orlando, and is hitting McCain very hard on his Achilles heel - the fundamental decision to go to war, and for the first time, brings up the fact that McCain pushed for war with Iraq right after 9/11:

Six years ago, I stood up at a time when it was politically difficult to oppose going to war in Iraq, and argued that our first priority had to be finishing the fight against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Senator McCain was already turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, and he became a leading supporter of an invasion and occupation of a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, and that – as despicable as Saddam Hussein was – posed no imminent threat to the American people.

And he then pivots to the original decision to launch the war in Iraq:

...and so should you.  I just signed up to be part of his Grassroots Finance Committee, pledging to raise at least $1,000 for Obama's campaign this fall.  I signed up after receiving this note in the mail from his campaign:

Join the Grassroots Finance Committee (GFC), a core group of dedicated supporters who are setting a personal goal to raise $1,000 each in small-dollar donations.

Barack is relying on ordinary people giving only what they can afford to support this movement. Join the GFC and reach out to your network of friends, family, and neighbors and encourage them to make a donation and own a piece of this campaign.

I immediately knew it was something I had to do.  But I decided to make the job a tiniest bit tougher myself, and set another condition on how I raise this money, and I hope you join me in this pledge:

A quick diary here guys.  It's a Sunday so I figured I'd drop this in today when there is very little news to report.  I have posted Veepstakes posts earlier on Strategy '08, but have tried to avoid them on DKos (there are enough without me) but now that we're down to the last two or three choices (allegedly), I'll give in.  Not that anyone cares what my opinion is, but here goes anyway.

I'll just say this and say it quickly: of Obama's reputed short-list (and that follows the assumption that the short list that is being reported is actually his short list), I hope he chooses Biden.  I'm not going to attack any other possibility, and would add that Tim Kaine did a phenomenal job on Meet The Press today, better than I've ever seen him.  I will support, donate, and campaign enthusiastically for Barack Obama no matter whom he chooses to be his VP.  

But if it comes to the choices we're told it does, I hope it's Biden.  

On Monday I wrote a diary about Obama's targeted radio spot hitting McCain over the economy in Wisconsin.  It emerged as part of an overall strategy in which Obama airs positive ads nationally, but targets McCain with attack ads locally.  

Well, Obama just upped the ante, asking: "How can John McCain fix the economy.  When he doesn't think it's broken?"  As of now, the ad is just running in Indiana (a test, perhaps?).  Take a look here or below (as soon as YouTube is available, I'll swap this out):

Transcript follows:

Some very important news in the world of election law: Ohio has adopted early voting, allowing a window from September 30th to October 6th for voters to register and submit their votes in a one-stop:

Ohio has created a window in the election calendar that would allow residents instant gratification — register one minute, vote the next. It's also given the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain a chance to bank thousands of first-time voters during that Sept. 30 to Oct. 6 window.

The move will benefit Obama, who enjoys a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last month. If Obama's campaign were able to tap into college campuses with one-stop voting, it would add thousands of votes to his tally in a state where, in 2004, John Kerry lost to President Bush by only about 118,000 votes, putting Bush over the top in the electoral count. (emphasis mine)

Short news diary with not so great news for those of us hoping Hagel would be the first truly prominent Obamacan to balance out Lieberman: Senator Chuck Hagel has officially decided against endorsing either candidate.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who is one of John McCain's closest friends -- but who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Democrat Barack Obama -- is sitting out the presidential contest, according to his spokesman, Jordan Stark.

"Senator Hagel has no intention of getting involved in any of the campaigns and is not planning to endorse either candidate," Stark said in a statement to USA TODAY.

I know it's unusual of me to post a quick diary, but I thought that this was newsworthy.  Any chance this is a head-fake leading to a surprise at the convention? I doubt it.  Oh well.  It's significant that he's NOT endorsing McCain at least.  Colin Powell, we await your word.

Barack Obama's new policy of hitting McCain on local issues in battleground states is starting to come to full life.  First there was the DHL Job Losses in Ohio.  Next was his ad on Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Now we come to Wisconsin and the issue of...Harleys?!  That's right, Obama is taking on McCain with a new radio ad that uses one of McCain's quotes from the Sturgis Festival and turns it against him by painting him as anti-trade and anti-American industry (Harley-Davidson, of course, based in Wisconsin):

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN (transcript below)

I just don't.  I don't care about their personal lives.  But I'm still mad at him, and I think I'm justified.

I care about the millions of people, at home and abroad, who are going to be affected by the policies of these people.  And what I know, is that after all of the catastrophe that of the last 8 years (so well chronicled by clammyc, in a diary whose point I ultimately dispute), not just us bloggers, but literally hundreds of millions if not billions of people around the world for whom the future of our planet is at stake, NEED a Democratic president THIS YEAR.  The alternative is unacceptable.  

So, those of us who are pissed at John Edwards aren't necessarily moralistic, hypocritical, or puritanical.  I could give two farts in a gale-force wind about John Edwards' private life.   However, I'm smart enough to know, and anyone who's been alive in the last couple decades is smart enough to know that OTHERS will care.  The traditional media will care.  And even though it shouldn't be a candidacy-killer, and affair would most certainly BE a candidacy-killer.  So...

Hi guys, quick scoop here - the new ad from the Obama campaign that will be running during the Olympics.  The good news?  It's all economy, all-the-time, a positive message that stresses new jobs.  Whether it succeeds or not or is strong enough or not, I don't know, but debate it out:

Transcript after the jump, YouTube coming as soon as it is available (keep me informed if you see it).  Additionally, I posted John McCain's tough new spot:

Some GREAT breaking stuff from Obama's town-hall meeting occuring now in Indiana.  He opened up with remarks that took McCain to task even harder than he has in the past:

"Senator McCain’s energy plan reads like an early Christmas list for oil and gas lobbyists. And it’s no wonder – because many of his top advisors are former oil and gas lobbyists."

Love that he included the fact that his advisors were oil and gas lobbyists.  It's as if Barack Obama suddenly woke up and realized all the material he had to work with in going after McCain.  But there's much more great stuff:

Coming off the heels of yesterday's energy attack ad, here's one which I think in some ways is even stronger, but still not strong enough:

This one doesn't use the ominous music that so many attack ads do, but takes you in with a softer sound.  Then it launches into an attack on McCain for being in Washington for 26 years, voting against alternative energy and higher gas standards.  It's a reminder of who is the long-time Washington insider, and who is the fresh face of change.  Script below:

I've never written a meta-diary before, and this one is only half-meta, but here goes: Last week I wrote a diary about John McCain's ad strategy, essentially saying there was method to the madness and it was achieving its intended goal.  Others have written diaries in similar vein, essentially calling for Obama to start going on offense and frustration at the defensive nature of the campaign.  

Then came the backlash to our "concern," led by Bob Johnson in not one, but two diaries, the first entitled "Bedwetters and handwringers unite," and the second by "his dog Rex," mocking those who criticized the Obama strategy.

Fair enough, I'm a big boy.  I'm not writing this because I'm sensitive.  And indeed, there are many real chicken littles running rampant, some who freak out at the slighted thing and scream "We're dooooomed!," diaries worthy of the "OMG! ONOZ!" responses they get.   But, there is another side to this story...

Some quick news about the 2008 Democratic Party platform from the Drafting Committee (note, the full Platform Committee still has to vote on this).  The biggest news will be the way it frames the war in Iraq...no mincing words:

The Democratic Party will formally call the decision to go to war with Iraq a “strategic blunder” in its 2008 platform, according to a draft debated Saturday. The party also included language on Iraq withdrawal echoed by its presumptive nomine, Barack Obama, as it expressed a desire to “be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.”

Very glad to see that they are labeling the decision itself to go into Iraq a blunder.  We know McCain doesn't feel this way and will try to focus the debate on the surge.   Good for the Dems on officially re-focusing the issue on the decision in the first place.

This quote sums it up in a nutshell, the election so far.  The media has bought into the meme that Obama is just an empty celebrity, but the truth is, he's the most substantive candidate in a generation.   So says Michael James, 33, an active military officer assigned at Patrick Air Force Base, who saw Obama in a town-hall today at Titusville, FL:

Michael James, 33, an active military officer assigned at Patrick Air Force Base, said he was "definitely inspired" by Obama's speech.  "The media says you don't get substance, but he answered everyone's questions with substance," James said.

In terms of the economy, one of the last questions an audience member posed to Obama was when will the change happen? When will the economy get back on its feet?  "I think he gave a real respopnse," James said. "It's not going to change overnight but the things we do now, policies put in place now, can bring about change."

NOTE: Great First-Person Report on this Town-Hall from Smash Artist

Great news, Obama is taking control of the messaging today following ridiculous back-and-forth on non-issues, and he's playing the "economy card" by releasing a new Emergency Economic Plan today in Florida (streaming live on CNN.COM now):

Senator Obama today released the following statement on the latest jobs report and unveiled an Emergency Economic Plan that will take the excess profits of oil companies to help working families deal with energy costs with new $1,000 rebate checks and enact a $50 billion package to save more than 1 million jobs.

A stimulus with tax rebate checks was nothing new, but taxing windfall profits is.  This is a timely move designed to jump on the news of the huge oil profits and the terrible job losses.  

More on this below, including the full statement from the campaign and the plan itself:

Yes, I'm completely serious.  McCain's new ad and campaign strategy is brilliant - evil, of course - but brilliant nonetheless.  On the surface they seem juvenile and mock-able, which they are of course, but from a long-term strategy goal for John McCain, this new campaign approach is dangerously effective.  No, I'm not being snarky.  And you know I'm no concern troll.  

My essential thesis is this:

John McCain's entire series of negative, sophmoric, attack ads are part of a coordinated strategy to firm up the Republican base of support by turning them against Barack Obama.  And it's working.

Obama just hit John McCain hard on the economy in a town hall meeting in Springfield, Missouri (note, I'm mixing prepared remarks with paraphrases that I'm watching) and debuts a great new line: "They have nothing new to offer, but they want you to think I'm risky.  This time it's too risky NOT to change."  

My opponent believes we’re on the right course. He’s said our economy has made great progress these past eight years. He’s embraced the Bush economic policies and promises to continue them.

Senator McCain wants to debate taxes, I'm ready.  I just was just reading that Wild Bill Hickock had his first duel right here in Springfield, MO.  Family legend is that Wild Bill is a distant relative of mine (I'm serious).  I don't know if it's true, but it's the legend.  I think it's true because I'm ready to duel John McCain on taxes right here.  

There's more: