As many of you know, I have been a committed supporter of Barack Obama's campaign for the Presidency for quite awhile. However, before I decided to back him, I looked very carefully at the records, backgrounds and proposals of each candidate in the Democratic field. John Edwards was, to me, an extraordinarily compelling candidate (and of course, Elizabeth is an amazing and accomplished woman in her own right). Up until Senator Edwards suspended his campaign, I felt very strongly that if he were to win the nomination, it would be very easy for me to work hard to elect him in the General Election.

One of the most compelling things for me has been Edwards' commitment to eradicate poverty; to ending the problem of the "Two Americas" he spoke so eloquently about in his 2004 bid. And I do want my candidate to make addressing poverty in this country a priority. So it was with great interest that I came across this very thoughtful article from Ben Brandzel today in the Huffinigton Post. For those of you who also admire and respect Senator Edwards and feel that his commitment to ending poverty should be of central importance to whichever candidate we nominate this year, please follow me below.

It was just announced that Barack Obama has won the Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word category for his audio version of The Audacity of Hope, beating out two former Presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

The pundits, as well as many activists, have been busy this week trying to convince us that Hillary Clinton has the Democratic nomination sewn up; nothing to see here, folks. But outside of the pre-debate spin on Wednesday, in which Very Important People informed us that unless Obama came out swinging against Clinton, his campaign would fail; and yesterday's announcement that Edwards would opt in to public financing in the primaries, something else is happening.

While we won't have hard Q3 fundraising numbers for a couple of weeks, it is probably safe to presume that Obama will remain competitive with Clinton. Many here assume that his campaign's financial strength will mean that he will be competitive based on huge media buys.

But I have seen little written about what else campaign contributions can buy: Staff and the resources to train thousands of organizers at the precinct level across the country, over a sustained period of time.

In 1977, a US Representative hailing from Iowa, Tom Harkin, held a small steak fry as a fundraiser for his re-election campaign that attracted about 20 supporters. Since that time, Harkin's Annual Steak Fry has grown to become a must-attend event for Democratic candidates, party officials, activists and caucus goers; this year approximately 12,000 are expected to attend.

The Iowa Independent's John Deeth has some great information on the history of the Steak Fry at his blog that is a fun read.

This year, six Presidential candidates--Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Obama and Richardson--will be attending and speaking at the event, along with Iowa's three Congressional Representatives. It's a beautiful, sunny day in Indianola, and the crowd promises to be lively and enthusiastic.

I offer this dairy as a live thread for those who are following today's festivities, which is being broadcast live on C-Span. The event will also be live streamed courtesy C-Span.org.

Federico Pena, who worked as an advisor to Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential bid and later served in the Clinton Cabinet as Secretary of Transportation, has decided to join Barack Obama's campaign as a Co-Chair. Prior to joining the Clinton team, Pena served as the Democratic Minority Leader in the Colorado state Legislature and went on to become the first Hispanic to be elected as Mayor of Denver in 1983.

Some days, the Universe just seems to smile on you; serendipity surrounds you and you receive an abundance of blessings for no apparent reason at all. Hopefully, you have experienced those kinds of days, the kind when everything just seems to go your way. If you have not, I sincerely hope you are fortunate enough to enjoy one soon.

I was blessed with such a day during YearlyKos on Saturday, August 4th.  Oh, Thursday and Friday had been pretty magical, no doubt about it--meeting up with friends old and new, immersed in political talk, wicked good snark, and banding together with The Caucus out on the patio. So maybe I was just open to it, who knows.

Whatever the reason or randomness of it, I'll always be grateful for that day.

I was hoping that clammyc's excellent diary today would get more notice, but it is quickly slipping down the Recent Diaries list into nowhereland, hence this post.

In Will any candidate touch election reform?, clammyc addresses one of the most important issues we face--the integrity of our elections in the US--and challenges our Presidential candidates to lead on the subject of voter suppression and campaign finance reform.

Obama has been leading the way on voter suppression issues since November of 2005, having re-introduced the The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007 (S 453) in January. The bill currently has 15 co-sponsors (Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Benjamin Cardin, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold, Dianne Feinstein, Tim Johnson, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Mary Landrieu, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Claire McCaskill, Chuck Schumer, and Sheldon Whitehouse), and would put strong penalties in place for groups that suppress voter turnout through deception and intimidation.

This evening, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois voted in favor of SB 2206, known infamously around these parts as the "Capitulation Bill".

Senator Barack Obama voted his conscience:  He says "No" to unfettered, no-timetables spending on the Iraq occupation without any accountability required of the Bush administration! Just now in: Senator Clinton has also voted "No".

I called and faxed both Senators' offices over the past couple of days, urging a "No" vote. I greatly admire both of my Senators and wish that Senator Durbin had not voted in favor of the bill.

But I am extremely heartened that Senator Obama did not follow his political mentor's lead in this vote.

On today's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Senator Barack Obama sat down with Stephanopoulos in an interview that illuminated his political philosophy and thought processes in a very interesting way.

What is most compelling to me about Senator Obama, and the chief reason that I support his candidacy over the many other quality candidates we have in our field this cycle, is his understanding of both an overall vision of what America fundamentally is, as well as the nuts and bolts of how to get things done.

Barack Obama is not an either/or thinker; he is wholistic in his approach, a quality that could serve us well in a President.

We all know the facts: John Edwards co-sponsored and voted for the 2002 AUMF in Iraq. Barack Obama repeatedly spoke out against it at that time at some risk to his future career ambitions, although he was in the Illinois State Senate and therefore, not in a position to vote on the resolution himself.

In 2005, Edwards wrote his famous OpEd piece, "I Was Wrong", apologizing for his vote after having left the halls of the U.S. Senate. Obama, meanwhile, voted in favor of supplemental funding bills for the Iraq war/occupation/conflict/crisis/quagmire let's not go down the semantic rabbit hole, stay on topic please, people! once he ascended to the U.S. Senate.

Some Democrats support Edwards in the Democratic Primary because he has apologized for his vote, and for other valid reasons. Some Democrats support Obama because of his early stance against the war, and for other valid reasons.

Please follow me below the fold for a cautionary tale.

Here they go again.

Melanie Morgan, radio talk show host, is up on Hairball right now calling Bill Keller a traitor for publishing the story about the secret government program allowing the administration to track our banking records in order to git the terraists.

Same with the NSA wiretapping program revelations. Reporters informing the public about secret and illegal government programs should be "tried for treason and sent to jail for 20 years," she screams.

What about revealing the identity of an undercover CIA agent working on WMD programs? Al Sharpton replies in a reasonable (!) tone. Doesn't that have more bearing on the safety and security of the American people?

"But Karl Rove broke no laws" in revealing the name and identity of a covert CIA operative. "It was a covert CIA operative and there is no evidence that Valerie Plame was ever a covert CIA operative." I believe that is her exact quote. WTF?

Asked in the joint presscon with Tony Blair if he had made any mistakes, W stated that his statement "Bring It On" "uhhh, kinda sent the wrong signal..." I think he said something closer to it being "too confident" or some other BS. "I should have been more sophisticated in the language I chose..."

He also mentioned Abu Ghraib as a mistake. And "dead or alive" re OBL again, "I kinda think it uhhhh sent the wrong signal in certain parts of the world".

Geez, ya THINK? WTF?

Naturally, Tweety is calling this "An Amazing Moment of Reflection for the President."

A Republican challenger to John Conyers, Jr. filed his petitions to run in Michigan's 14th district yesterday. While Chad Miles has only raised slightly less than $400 and is reported to have just $17 COH, something smells distinctly like a turd about to blossom here.

The challenger is being packaged in a way that is eerily similar to the many Fighting Dems who are running on our side. Does anyone doubt that Karl Rove and his minions are terrified that the Chairmanship of the Judiciary just might change come November?

This just in: Former Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan has been found guilty on all charges relating to his corruption, including racketeering, mail and tax fraud, and making false statements to the FBI. From the Houston Chronicle:

Ryan faces up to 20 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy charge alone, the most serious against him in the 22-count indictment. The jury found him guilty of all counts, including fraud, obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and lying to the FBI.

Co-defendant Larry Warner, a Chicago businessman and Ryan friend, was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, attempted extortion, illegally structuring bank withdrawals and money laundering. . .

Prosecutors accused Ryan of steering big-money state contracts and leases, including a $25 million IBM computer deal, to his friends and political insiders while he was secretary of state in the 1990s and then as governor starting in 1999.

I have written on legislation coming up for mark up in the House Administration committee addressing the verifiability of the vote previously, and have an update.  The Kos community can make some major noise about this and I hope that we do!

To summarize:

Earlier this week, hundreds of you dedicated Kosmopolitans took the time to contact your Congressional Representatives asking them to support and pass HR 550, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) has now introduced an alternative bill, HR 3910, that will further muck up our ability to have a verified vote, all the while conveniently allowing for Republican cover for vote tally manipulation, voter disenfranchisement and fraud. HR 3910 is more, cynically flawed, legislation that will lead to further voter disenfranchisement, and do nothing to increase the accountability of our elections.   It has a "RealID" requirement tucked away in it as well.

LET'S NOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.

Contact your Rep now and let them know that HR 3910 is unacceptable, and repeat your request of their support of a very fine bill, HR 550. Details below.

If you do not ACT NOW to ensure that protections are in place to protect the integrity of the vote count. I have posted on this topic previously, but am compelled to do so again in the hope that more of us will become aware of this critical issue.

Please recommend this diary! We can argue and strategize and congratulate and complain all we want, but the fact is, we have a very small window of opportunity, about a week to 10 days, to pressure our Representatives to support legislation being scheduled for markup in mid-October that may mean the difference between whether or not your vote is counted for the candidate you cast it for.

You can push for this in under 10 minutes.  Please read on, please recommend, and thanks.

I posted some of the following comments in a response to an earlier diary, but have just received an email from Warren Stewart of VoteTrust USA with an important update and want all to be aware of an opportunity we have to move toward a VOTER VERIFIED and SECURE VOTE.  Warren's email and what you can do are below.

Last June, I joined several voter's rights groups in lobbying our Representatives in DC to encourage them to co-sponsor HR 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550).  My Rep., Judy Biggert, has unfortunately not signed on as a co-sponsor but I lobbied her again in person at our 4th of July parade and just now sent her and the legislative aide I met with in DC urging passage of this amendment as written.  This is key since the Carter-Baker report. Time is running short; the Kos community can help here in a big way, I think! Please recommend if you think this information is useful.  Personally, I think it is essential to the continuance of our democracy.

More below the fold.