Is it just me, or is everyone totally freaking out right now?

Everywhere I turn there is a new diary, editorial or blogpost lambasting Senator Obama for not hitting back hard enough, losing Saddleback, getting outspent during the Olympics, and (here’s my favorite:) being too calm. Since all of a sudden being hotheaded and temperamental is presidential...

And then today, out comes the Zogby Poll, showing McCain up by 5 points, and the Chicken Littles are out in force.  Hence, I feel compelled to write my first diary to say the following  to my hyperventilating brethren:

Chillax. Brother Obama has got this sh*t.

Take the dog for a walk, play with your kids, go to the park and do pastoral dances, change the channel and watch some Olympics, read Taking On the System...

Why am I so confident?

It took a lot of phone calls and emails, but the Obama for America Campaign has officially distanced itself from the controversial "Africa for Obama" group led by one Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyuike.

In a strongly-worded letter that leaves no wiggle room for misinterpretation, the Campaign forcefully dissociates itself from efforts by the controversial head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise funds with the expressed intention of remitting such funds to the Obama Campaign.

More below the fold.

For all those that dismiss any news that all is not going perfectly, they should study the latest Reuters/Zogby poll that has McCain up by 5 points among likely voters. McCain is even now seen by respondents to this poll to be superior on the economy by nine points. My concern here has been that Obama let McCain define him in the last month just as Obama was having a really spectacular European/Middle East trip. Obama and his team were lulled by the success they were seeing and didn't hit back like many other democratic presidential campaigns.  Yes I know all the reasons why all polls that might show Obama losing ground as baseless: outlier, 50 state strategy, electoral college advantage and he is not Kerry - Gore - Dukakis. I also know our history in the fall.

You've stopped by this diary, eh?

Well I can promise you it ain't gonna be pretty.

I'll probably say some things to piss you off. Maybe it will light a fire under your ass.  Maybe it will challenge you to a new perspective.

My intent is not to deride, but to "drill sergeant" you out of of "useless concern" mode and move you squarely into the "white hot activism" mode.

Over what? Well, I Know we have been having some *ahem" lively debates of late over what Obama and his campaign are doing, should have done, and should be doing.

Fair enough. Frustration and fear are rampant.

And that's a good thing.

This diary is designed to HARNESS those emotions and CHANNEL them into something that makes an actual difference.

And at the end of this diary, I will offer you a deal.

So yes it is only a primary and yes both Gregoire and Rossi move on but if Rossi wins tonight knock on wood it would give him momentum for the General Election and perhaps McCain would put more money in WA as well. Here are the current results. Results come from the WA Secretary of State website.

Link

Having once been the happy owner of a 13.75% mortgage -- obtained through a state program for first time home buyers at a time when the bank was advertising 18% -- the inflation rate of the early 1980s is not something for which I'm nostalgic. But for those longing to bring back the days of Ronald Reagan, this should warm those cockles.

U.S. wholesale prices took another unexpectedly steep jump in July and shot up at the fastest year-on-year rate in 27 years, according to a government report on Tuesday that was certain to fan fears about a potential surge in inflation. ... The Labor Department's Producer Price Index, which measures prices at the factory door, climbed 1.2 percent after a 1.8 percent gain in June.

"Core" inflation, for those people who don't use energy or eat food, was also up sharply, while home building took another plunge. The decline in gas prices next month will probably cool things down a bit, which is good, because if we continued at an average of the last two months we'd be looking at an 18% annual rate.

But be of good cheer! So far wages aren't coming close to keeping up with this new round of inflation, so that traditional "price-wage-price" spiral is only "price-price-price." That's better, right?

Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama.

Senator Russ Feingold's Political Action Committe, the Progressive Patriot's Fund is planning a $5000 donation to one of nine house candidates and you have the opportunity to help choose the recipient. Click here to go to the website and cast your vote.

I sent an e-mail out to day, out of anger or is it frustration, still not clear but I am holding everyone i meet accountable.. HERE IT GOES

After the last 8 years of the Bush administration, you would think the American people will be ready to look in the mirror and demand some more definitive change in leadership. You would think folks would be tired of being lied to, manipulated and dumbed down by their representatives as well as traditional media.

Frankly, I am tired and frustrated with the citizenry, there is no excuse for not going for another option after the 8 yrs of deceit. Its not ok to accept that we will continue to slide backwards. It is not ok to be pessimistic at all, this land is as much ours and it is the establishment. The patriots did not fight for us to be whimps and just freely give away our voice and power. The suffrage movement did not happen for us to just take the right to vote as the end of our involvement in the process. The Civil rights did not happen for us to remain quiet in the face of oppression or inequality.

So what happened to us, the citizenry?

Oh my goodness, I wasn't sure I'd really seen this, but there it was in all its bizarre glory...

There will be no more sleepovers with voting equipment in Ohio.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive today forbidding the practice in Fairfield County and at least 22 other counties of having voting machines and other equipment taken home the night before an election by poll workers or others and brought to polling locations on Election Day.

Huh, who'd have thought this would actually be an issue?  Really?

More rampant speculation over at Politico about how McCain appears to be increasingly 'vetting' Lieberman as a breakout runningmate for the 2008 election.

That would be awesome - Elmer Fudd and Droopy Dog on one ticket, together at last!  

I am a Democrat.

Most people in the country have no idea who I am, let alone what I stand for.  My name may bring some vague bubbles of memory to mind, but I have not been well known on the national stage.  The polling about my spot on the ticket has been a mixed bag.  Some pundits think I will do well for the ticket; others are sure I will not help at all.

My home state is considered a swing state by some, but others believe it is safe and my place on the ticket won't make any difference.  The position I will be leaving to serve as vice president--as I am sure that Barack Obama and I will be able to win in November over McCain--is a significant one, but my absence, and the person who will replace me, is not so vital that it precludes my running.

I did a nslookup and whois search of all of the following domains.  I looked for (1) similar IP or registrant to barackobama.com; (2) other similar features.

Only Sebelius and Biden are all parked at the same place, but only Hagel appears to be set up with server load balancing, i.e. set up to handle a ton of traffic by using different servers.

More on the flip.

I was reading a 23/6 article on The Huffington post and this caught my eye.

John McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time last year.

That's no small feet.

But when McCain says that he refuses to let soldiers return from Iraq until he "wins with honor and victory," it's not Bush I'm thinking of, but McCain's old hero, Richard Nixon.

Comparing two surveys conducted by the Barna Group, first in May of 2008 (published June 9th) and the most recent survey published August 11th, shows some movement in the past two months.

The bottom line is that the shift signals a softening of Obama's support while not an increasing support of McCain.

Ongoing analysis of voters in recent diaries by plf515: Trends in tossup states, Obama v. McCain and by FleetAdmiralJ:  Status of the Electoral College: August 19 tends to confirm the Barna Group findings.

An examination of Barna data gives Kossacks interesting insights into the election from a perspective less familiar to us and into a voter population that has been historically a solid Republican bloc.  Things may be changing.

We having been hosting a fundraiser at The Progressive Electorate every Tuesday called Two for TuesdaysTwo for Tuesdays.

For the last few weeks we have brought in some key fundraisers as our special guests. Those have been Karl Rove , Saxby Chambliss, John McCain and Karl Rove. Well this week we are ending the jokes and asking you to make this Rick Noriega Day.

For more substance, click Dansac's diary here.

Excerpts from his speech to the VFW:

Yesterday, Senator McCain came before you. He is a man who has served this nation honorably, and he correctly stated that one of the chief criteria for the American people in this election is going to be who can exercise the best judgment as Commander in Chief. But instead of just offering policy answers, he turned to a typical laundry list of political attacks. He said that I have changed my position on Iraq when I have not. He said that I am for a path of "retreat and failure." And he declared, "Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president" – suggesting, as he has so many times, that I put personal ambition before my country.
That is John McCain’s prerogative. He can run that kind of campaign, and – frankly – that’s how political campaigns have been run in recent years. But I believe the American people are better than that. I believe that this defining moment demands something more of us.

"BAM!"

  (you place the CD into the player)

  (sounds of ocean waves rumbling)

  (soft, piano music begins playing)

OBAMA: Welcome to the Self-Help Hypnosis Series.  I'm Barack Obama, and I want to help you overcome your problem of voting for idiots.