"Could I mention the presence of my friend, Congressman Steve Pearce, who I believe will be joining me in the United States Senate?"  -  John McCain in New Mexico this week.

It just gets worse and worse for John McSame and the gop.
Full lineup and other goodies below...

Whatever happened to voting being our patriotic duty? Oh....Hmmmm....well not if you vote the wrong way or too lazy to go library and register!

I am now approaching the end of my first NN and have had the privilege to see a number of the brighter lights in the Democratic firmament.  While we didn't have a current presidential candidate - unless you count Bob Barr - We had Al Gore, Wes Clark, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom and no doubt others I'm forgetting.  These are all very big names.  Some we love, others we have a more complicated relationship with.  But each of them has undeniably played a very important role.  And yet one sweet-faced and unassuming woman who has yet to hold elective office was loved and cheered like no one else

Sam used up his diary for the day furiously live-blogging the panel earlier (which I highly recommend taking a look at; it's an in-depth look at how and why the campaign and its volunteers organize the way we do), so I thought I'd hop on and share the video that just played at the convention ...

Back to Gina's remarks ...

You may know that Bob Barr has arrived at Netroots Nation.  He bought a one-day pass and decided to mingle with the assembled conventioneers.  And he drew a crowd.  I first spied him when Kate Sheppard of Grist was interviewing him about his environmental policies (a lot of "we don't know if man is causing global warming, we need further study, etc).  All of us wanted to talk to him, but we didn't quite know what to ask.  But after a couple of minutes it hit me, and my good buddy clammyc lent me his voice recorder and I sidled up to Barr to ask my first question.

Me: Rep. Barr, do you believe the impeachment of President Clinton was a good deterrent to the expansion of executive power and the establishment of the rule of law for the executive branch?

answer on the flip...

Bad news for John McSame's campaign in the Buckeye State...an Ohio Court has ruled that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr must be included on the November ballot:

Ohio must include the Libertarian Party's nominees on its ballot in November, a federal court has ruled, complicating Sen. John McCain's effort to win conservative votes in a hotly contested state.

More after the jump...

[From the diaries - BarbinMD]

Stupid is as stupid does.

The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution list a Reuters story headlined "Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine."

The story relayed how Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Spiegel that "he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months ... ‘U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,'" the prime minister said.

The White House employee had intended to send the article to an internal distribution list, ABC News' Martha Raddatz reports, but hit the wrong button.

My take: The WH was obviously freaking out after the announcement that al-Maliki supports Obama's plan, and of course was planning to email this around internally get some some advice from advisers and get their talking points together. This also ensures additional coverage of this issue. The Obama camp of course has already pounced on this:

The national security adviser to the Obama campaign, Susan Rice, said the senator welcomed Maliki's support.

"This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan," Rice said in a statement Saturday.

This is just starting to hit the media; unlike McCain leaking Obama's travel schedule, this is just too big to ignore. The implications are huge, when you consider what would have happened had the opposite occurred:

To really understand the importance of Maliki's comments, you need to consider their opposite. Imagine if Maliki had walked in front of the cameras and said, "at this stage, a timetable for withdrawal is unrealistic, and we hope our American friends will not bow to domestic political pressures and be hasty in leaving Iraq just as the country improves." It would be a transformative moment in this election. John McCain would talk of nothing else. The cable shows would talk of nothing else. Magazines would run thousands of covers about "Obama's Iraq Problem." Obama would probably lose the race.

Indeed.

Update: I just had to relay this post on what the al-Maliki statement means for McCain (per Ambinder):

Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're fucked." No response yet from the McCain campaign, although here's what McCain said the last time Maliki mentioned withdrawal: "Since we are succeeding, then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable. And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about, since he has told me that for many meetings we’'ve had."

DIGG IT UP!!

Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley flew out to Austin Texas to meet with bloggers from all across the country. He was very excited about the event as was I. Follow me below the fold to find out about Jeff Merkley's visit to Netroots Nation....

Full disclosure; I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

Marc Ambinder is exactly right with this statement:

This could be one of those unexpected events that forever changes the way the world perceives an issue. Iraq's Prime Minister agrees with Obama, and there's no wiggle room or fudge factor. This puts John McCain in an extremely precarious spot: what's left to argue? to argue against Maliki would be to predicate that Iraqi sovereignty at this point means nothing. Obviously, our national interests aren't equivalent to Iraq's, but... Malik isn't listening to the generals on the ground...but the "hasn't been to Iraq" line doesn't work here.

Realizing, of course, that Obama can't make political hay of this fact now that he's overseas, I really hope his team is preparing a full court press upon his return.  Imagine Obama saying something as simple as this:

As in:

Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're fucked."

That's in response, in particular, to the news that Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki endorsed Obama's timeline for getting US troops out of Iraq.

This doesn't help their cause either:

(Cross-posted at The Field.)

Steve Hildebrand (in the photo above), deputy campaign manager for the Obama campaign, just announced at the Netroots Nation convention a "three-day massive voter registration drive for Labor Day weekend, after the Democratic National Convention."

"Thousands upon thousands of volunteers will go register millions of people that weekend alone," said Hildebrand, a key architect of the 2007 "Walk for Change" strategy that spurred the Obama organization in states throughout the country before the campaign had even a single staff member in most of them.

Hildebrand, speaking at the Organizing for Change: An Inside Look at Obama for America's Grassroots Strategy panel this morning at the Austin Convention Center, called 2008 "an historic opportunity to build a truly dominant Democratic Party and forget, once and for all, about this concept of red states and blue states."

More...

We're here in Austin at Netroots Nation and our panel -- Organizing for Change: An Inside Look at Obama For America's Grassroots Strategy -- is about to begin. Deputy Campaign Manager Steve Hildebrand, New Media Director Joe Rospars, Ohio General Election Director Jeremy Bird, and Georgia Deputy Field Director Joy Cushman, are all here to share stories and insights from the campaign and take questions.

Here's the official description and I'll be providing live updates after the jump...

In this panel, you'll learn about how the Obama campaign built an unprecedented grassroots movement -- from the way the campaign uses community organizing principles in its local field operations, to the campaign's use of online tools that empower supporters to self-organize, to the training a new generation of grassroots leaders through our Organizing Fellows program. And you'll learn about why the Obama campaign is the first in a generation to pursue a 50-state strategy, engaging new people and empowering supporters from all across the country to not only win an election, but build a long-term movement for progressive change.

In case anyone ever forgot, back in 2000 there was this ad about our pal Al Gore.  The Republican National Committee put out an ad that featured a quick-shot of the word "RATS" in it.  Today, we know they really were referring to themselves.  Also today, some have begun to ask about Senator McCain's ads.  Not the Republican National Committees, but his own.  The ads which feature his name and his vote of approval.  However, two of Senator McCain's ads have raised eyebrows from different organizations because of some rather subtle-components.

Before you say, "what the fuck???", hear me out.

It is clear that the corporate media is willing to ask John McCain the tough questions like "don’t you think that Obama is a flip flopper", and that his repeated gaffes, double speak, lies, pandering and outright crazy talk is not only being ignored but is being dismissed as something that he "didn’t mean" or that he "has enough credibility anyway" or is "no big deal" - when what he says and does is far, FAR worse than anything that Obama may or may not have said.

And yet, Obama still holds leads in every poll (even when the results or samples are skewed) and is doing a pretty good job of defending himself from the outrageous attacks and smears.  Hell, he beat back the Edwards and Clinton campaigns pretty soundly - which is a very impressive thing.  However and more importantly, by continuing to defend himself (or for us to spend so much time defending him), we are missing an opportunity to set the narrative on McCain and force him to go on defense.  And when McCain is forced to go on the defensive, we see the angry, unstable, hothead McCain that is being hidden from millions of voters..

So, the news breaks that Phil Gramm is "resigning" as John McCain’s economic advisor. And like all members of his Corruptionist Party he whines as he leaves the spotlight for the shadows.

In truth, he isn’t going anywhere. It is a play for the rubes in the cheep seats and the well-trained media sycophants who make up McCain’s "base". McCain can no more quit Gramm than he can quit Bush or quit his very long record of enabling and protecting corruption in politics. Despite a well crafted myth to the contrary, Curveball McCain is running to continue the policies of Gramm, Bush, Gingrich, DeLay, Norquist, Abramoff, Black and the long, long list of Republican grifters who have built their identity, careers and livelihood on the destruction of our Constitution and our Government.

Together, they are The Wrecking Crew and they must be stopped.

To the jump...

Well, we knew it wouldn't take too long for Mitch McConnell to begin his smearing, and outright lying. Yes, fresh after charging for his time in a supposedly non-profit, Christian bookstore, Mitch McConnell is unleashing his war-chest of dirty money to try and smear the Democratic Senatate candidate in Kentucky, Bruce Lunsford.

Forgive me if someone else has posted this but: Speaking at an early afternoon panel at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas, today, Paul Krugman predicted, with seeming confidence, an Obama victory in November --but added that "within three months of taking office, no, less than three months" the media would be out to get him, remniscent of the high point of anti-Bill Clinton bashing.

Krugman was responding to a questioner who had stated that the media was "in the pocket" of  the "government."  Krugman pointed out that this was hardly the case when Clinton was in the White House and would be proven again when Obama took over.   "Get  ready for it," he warned.

Today was a an eye-opening day for me. I live in Houston, a cultural melting pot where hints of southern racism still linger. I knew it existed, but I never encountered it personally in my 20 years on this earth until a few hours ago. Of course I've seen it on TV, in movies, and on the news, but today I came face to face with the misguided element of ignorance that is racism. I'll explain more below the fold.