Before you read or comment, please read  this diary. Then join me below the fold.

Your Problem Is With Black People in South Carolina. Obama's won big in South Carolina this weekend. Geekesque explained back in October the advantages of having a gay-baiter Donnie McClurkin on stage for Obama:

If this is the test, that Barack Obama--or any other Democrat who really cares about gay rights--needs to publicly denounce and personally repudiate anyone with Donnie McClurkin's views about homosexuality, then you are essentially calling for a purge of African-American voters in the South from the party.

Don't believe me?  

Believe the math

If there are 10,000 people in the audience at a gospel concert, 6,200 hold the same basic beliefs as Donnie McClurkin...

Action talks, and bullshit walks.  Either you're for the 50-state strategy, or you're for the 10 state strategy where a comfortable majority aren't homophobic....

I have to teach in exactly ten minutes so I'll be (mercifully) brief. Those expecting another attack on my least favorite candidate can relax. It's done and sitting in the publish drawer.

There's some good news that I wanted to pass along, first. As some of you may or may not know, my background included communication and advertising. I spoke just a few ago with one of Canada's top media specialists who, like me, can't stand Obama.

Fight Like A Girl?  Josh Marshall's score-card:..'.if you're going to talk like that -- nuance, as we used to say -- be able to defend it when people play with your words. And I don't see it.'

One observation stands out to me from this debate. Hillary can be relentless and like a sledgehammer delivering tendentious but probably effective attacks. But whatever you think of those attacks, Obama isn't very good at defending himself. And that's hard for me to ignore when thinking of him as a general election candidate.

This diary should be read.

We call on Senator Barack Obama to reject cordially, but in the clearest language the recent endorsement that his campaign has received from Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Texas.  Mr. Caldwell is a proponent of "Metanoia Ministries" – a dangerous program that claims to convert gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people to heterosexuality within a so-called Christian framework.

As we move towards the next primaries comes news that Obama's vaunted Republican fans may not deliver. Trying to be all things to all people may cost Obama the nomination. Let's hope so.

Senator Obama, a 'true' centrist in 2005.

According to Congressional Quarterly, Obama voted with his party 97 percent of the time in 2005—the same as John Kerry and three others—with only eight senators voting consistently more

Ranked Senators by Americans for Democratic Action in 2006:

Senate Heroes (100% LQ) 10

Biden (D-DE) * Durbin (D-IL) * Harkin (D-IA)
Mikulski (D-MD) * Kennedy (D-MA) * Levin, C. (D-MI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ) * Schumer (D-NY) * Reed, J. (D-RI)
Feingold (D-WI)

Tremors indicate change in the political landscape; securing long-term sources of energy will be far more important to most voters November 2008 than any discussion of leaving Iraq.

The S&P 500 lost 7.75, or 0.6 percent, to 1,373.2 and is down 6.5 percent in 2008, marking its worst-ever 11-day start to a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34.95, or 0.3 percent, to 12,466.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 23, or 1 percent, to 2,394.59. Asia's benchmark dropped to its lowest level since August and Europe's fell for the fifth time in six days, deepening a global sell-off that's wiped out $2.58 trillion in value this year.

A rainbow coalition of individuals is doing their very best to re-cast Bill and Hillary as bigots. You'd think a direct appeal from Obama to stop the crap would have some impact on these folks. But you'd be wrong.

"Bill and Hillary Clinton are bigots, sickening, selfish souls willing to tell any lie. White liberals here sound like right-wing radio hosts."

A confession from my one-stop shop for Hillary hate. The real reason HRC must be stopped:

No. I'm not objective on the Clintons. But it's an opinion gained from many years of observing their cynicism, shallowness, self-serving machinations and self-righteousness. And, no, I do not believe that Bill Clinton is doing what he's doing out of marital duty either. Please. We all know what Bill Clinton believes he owes his wife as a wife. But what he owes her as a political device to regain power for the two of them is another matter.

Grab your bucket...

'We'll be greeted by flowers'... Dick Cheney.

Check this out: Ignore the Hillary hit, the key graph is far more important.

...No matter how hard she works, does anyone think she'll convince Mitch McConnell to create a new welfare state program? Doesn't she remember Bill Kristol's memo calling for all out opposition?

Scorched-earth warfare guaranteed from the right.

That's what's waiting for the Dem nominee.

Feel the love....

'...let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore... is this wrong

Glenn Beck, May 17, 2005.

'Is it wrong for me to want to smack the shit out the Clinton advisor...'

Andrew Sullivan reader email, Jan 11, 2008

...let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?

Glenn Beck, May 17, 2005.

The well-springs of poison are about to open up...

GregNYC goes a tad too far. But he probably captures the feelings of many who felt that their votes would not even be counted after the Iowa debacle. Clearly the HRC-haters crossed too many lines. And many of us are not likely to forget.

My own pre-New Hampshire attitude may be fairly representative of those who remember life before Obama. (HRC is not, I should add, my own first choice)

I set aside the venomous pen tonight, indulge a moment, and describe a dream that just might come true. I wrote before that the current Dem front-runner reminds me of nobody quite so much as the posturing phony who will without doubt do everything possible to dig the US into an even deeper quagmire in his remaining time in office. I called Obama 'the forgiver-in-chief'. But maybe that's what America needs.

A free-pass for racists, bigots, corporate scum-bags, corrupt lobbiests, war-mongers, liars, thieves and cheats? G2geek spotted it early. We're talking forgiveness on a massive scale: a Tutu-style amnesty, a leader with Mandela-like majesty who can inspire a nation-wide coming together to end centuries of racial hatred and fear, who can demonstrate to the world, but more importantly to Americans themselves, that America truly is a land where everyone can find a place. God knows, it's been a long time coming.

Why Obama is Winning. Every web site you visit folks are talking about Obama. Obama won big; and he won big by bringing out an immense number of voters, shattering all records. Team Obama blew HRC almost out of the race. Edwards is struggling to keep his place.

What Happened? Hillary was strong among Dem women, but lost to Obama among women over-all. Mark Penn is feeling the heat; he never saw the tsunami coming. In large part, because much of the hard work done to create that tsunami went on under the radar.

What if you discovered your candidate liked all the same books; visited the same kinds of websites; shopped at the same stores; and, most important, shared the same values and beliefs?

'I won't tell you what you want to hear, I'll tell you what you need to know.'

Gee, sounds like the worst of both worlds to me.

Not true. Tonight, when the aspiring leader of the free world declaimed: 'I'll tell you what you need to know', my blood ran cold. Executive authority? Vive le roi!

Matt Yglesias purrs. Others squeal with delight. I, on the other hand, don't like Obama; and I don't like what he says.

And until he wins the nomination, I get to tell folks here why.

If he wins the nomination.

Anytime the aspirations of Andrew Sullivan, George Will and Markos* all congeal around the same Ivy-league lawyer the rest of us have cause to pay attention.  

Is a new day truly about to dawn in America?

2008 is going to be truly memorable. The long nightmare is almost sure to end.I went to bed last night like a kid waiting for Christmas anticipating the fight to finally drive these pricks for office.

I don't have a dog in the primary fight. Really. I'm thrilled that one of my favorite Dems is virtually certain to win second place in Iowa. The problem I've got, however, was put into sharp relief by this post reminding me that there's not much point electing someone with particular skills if she or he isn't willing to use them.