(Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm crossposting this here from Green Mountain Daily)

I won't belabor the point with a rambling post, but there is a point worth making. Yes, Obama's comments suggesting he is laying the groundwork for re-considering his Iraq withdrawal policy have been overstated and overblown. That's a given.

But the explosion is not simply a media fabrication. Not this time. It's psychological cause and effect in action.

When I think about Barack Obama, the first thing that comes to mind is the staggering number of actions he and his staff will need to begin as soon as they've gotten their coffee and found the West Wing restrooms. The problem is, everything must be done at once, in both senses of that phrase. There's no time to waste if we're to turn the country around.

Imagine it's next January and Barack Obama is in the first week of his presidency.

My kids are going to push me through the streets of our town today in the 4th of July parade.  We will be holding Obama signs and wearing our Obama shirts.  Hopefully, we'll be joined by many other Obama supporters.

I just got a new wheelchair; a 'Quickie Revolution', and it rolls very nicely.  I haven't sat in a wheelchair much in the past 25 years except for airports, but I wouldn't get far w/ my cane and my false ego is a very small thing to sacrifice for a good cause.

It has been a rough few weeks here on DKos reading all the s___-for-brains diaries about how Obama has sold out the Constitution.  All these years, donating money I don't have, working for candidates that mostly lose, to now see a candidate that is as good as any [better than most] be torn down by the people he's trying to help--it's too much to take.

But today I put those feelings aside and roll through town where maybe people will look down on me and say, 'oh that poor guy' under their breaths, and I will be proud instead of ashamed.

achieve victory in November. We don't all have to agree on every policy position. Hopefully we never will - we are individuals from many different backgrounds, each with their own set of values - but united in broad agreement about the best direction for our country.

I originally wrote this as a comment on Steve R's diary, but I thought that I should expand it a bit and post it, because I am very worried about the ease with which we have fallen into bickering among ourselves over Barack Obama's policy positions.

These policy positions are important. I don't question that. I just think that this is a lousy time to be having this debate. And I see it as a huge distraction from the most important task we face. That is getting Senator Obama and every other Democratic candidate elected in November. I don't want us to squable like some dysfunctional family. I want us to win!

Together, United, We Cannot Be Defeated

Much as Karl Rove is desperate to spin Wes Clark's honest assessment into campaign fodder for the hapless Republican candidate John McCain. Much as the traditional media has taken the bait like Pavlovian lap dogs, there are wiser heads, including Paul Krugman of the New York Times and Marc S Ellenbogen, UPI International who are standing up to state flatly that Wes Clark told the unvarnished truth about a Republican candidate who is so weak that neither he nor his party can bear it.

unless, of course,
the Obama campaign knows
that its internet fundraising operation is
so wholly dependent on the felt personal connection
to the candidate and his brand, that even he himself
cannot persuade his own donors to give to the DNC instead.

Right now, the DNC needs the money.   It has much less money than the RNC and slighlty less money that it needs to produce the Democratic National Convention, since the Denver Host Committee fell $11M short of its pledged obligation.

It is generally presumed that Obama renounced public financing because  he and his internet-based fundrasing machine  can raise so very much more (from small donors, mostly) than the  $84M he would have gotten from the government.   BUT WHY did he think that that limit would in ANY way limit that fundraising??
It simply wouldn't have: it would at best have required those contributions to be re-directed.

My anger at this point is at an all-time high. The MSM is sooooo ready to try and tie this thing to have an exciting race that they have all together abandon their role as just news and is reporting all kinds of shit. The PUMA, pro-Clinton, folk was a fucking right out lie. The Obama dissing a kid story, just a fucking straight out lie. The entire Obama moving to the center hit-piece is a straight up lie. FISA is a real deal. Thats it. McSame broke the pledge for campaign finance period. And now, this fucking bull-shit about Iraq time tables is..... Look, I know that a lot of you are mad as shit at Obama for FISA, so be it. But are we really gonna sit back and let the MSM do this shit to us a-fucking-gain? Look at this bullshit hit job on Obama on CNN.

More.........

I was strongly opposed to the decision to invade Iraq in the first place, but since the war began I've been conflicted about what should be done next and need guidance.  On the one hand the cost of the war will only increase the longer it continues so America should pull out, but on the other hand if America pulls out now, all the expense of the war (both in money and lives) would have been for nothing, so perhaps America should stay until it leaves Iraq better off than it was before the invasion.  One can be opposed to making a mess without being opposed to cleaning it up.  Starting the war was a huge mistake, but some would argue America should turn lemons into lemonade, or as Dr. Phil might say "if you can't make the right decision, at least make the decision right."

More below:

Senator Obama, your words;

" Your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.

More after the bump

First and foremost I would like to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July! I have been visiting Daily Kos now since the beginning of this year and never wrote a diary; this is my first. I've contemplated over what to write or not write for some time and settled on the following:

I am a person of faith.  That repels some, it warms the hearts of others.  So your natural response would be, this is going to be a diary praising Obama's expansion of Bush's Faith based office.  This diary will not do that.  I am a Christian, but I also profoundly believe in the separation of church and state.  I believe it's important to respect the rights of Jews, Muslims Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and agnostics.  The right to believe or not believe in a particular religion is an impotrant freedom, and I think Barack Obama by expanding on Bush's Faith Based initiative, further blurs the line between the separation of church and state.

It was Senator Obama falling off his pedestal. I am a strong Obama supporter, and am working as a volunteer in the campaign. He has my vote, and will continue to benefit from my donations of money and time. But I now see Mr. Obama as far closer to Bill Clinton than the Kennedys and Kings in whose image I once thought he was fashioned.

That means that we can expect not only more disturbing changes during the campaign, but a substantial January surprise after inauguration, and to inure myself, I will not be maxing out for our candidate the way I expected. Much more of what money I can afford will be supporting liberal candidates on the assumption that we will need them to pressure the new president into making the honorable decisions that should be made on principle but apparently will need to be made through yielding to pressure.

That wasn't the deal you heard breaking, Senator, it was my romanticized idol of you fashioned out of finer stuff than it appears you're really made and enshrined in a place you don't belong.

[crossposted from Senator Obama - Please vote NO on Telcom Immunity - Get FISA Right on MyBarackObama.com]

I first saw this on TPM, and thought it was such a great idea, I'd spread it on.

In honor of our country's birthday, I'm asking one hundred folks to donate $17.76 for Obama. My goal is to raise  $1,776.00 for the Senator today.

Donate here

In addition, if you have your own fundraising page, reach out to all your friends and family and ask them to do the same for you.

I'm an immigrant. I became a U.S. citizen on 5/10/05 and will vote in my first presidential election this November. Seeing that my native country is Germany it may not come as a surprise that my relationship with the concept of patriotism has mostly been marked by suspicion and cynicism. Nevertheless, this election season with all its heated discussions about what it means to be patriotic has brought me to a place of new comfort with the power of symbols, courtesy of Barack Obama.

Please join me on a personal photo journey to celebrate Independence Day as a first time ever really (really...? REALLY!) proud and country loving patriot...

Last night, I was watching Anderson 360...just in the background this time because I have been taking a break from all of the coverage because all it does is make me angry. This time was much more fun than usual. Out of no where, an Obama surrogate just SERVED CLIFF HIS HEAD ON A PLATTER. It was delicious.

Ed Shultz had a fabulous exchange with Cliff May, just your run of the mill typical Republican, alien-like liar with no conscience. But hey, that's the standard and should be expected. But this time it was different, finally, FINALLY, a surrogate with a big mouth capable of out talking any Republicalien!

I vote Ed Shultz to be the official Obama surrogate, he should be in every single stupid square strip on any pundit blab fest on TV if they are discussing Barack Obama. He's my new hero!

Obama is understood to have a bit of a Lincoln fixation. Perhaps that's why, while reading through Obama's June 30 speech on patriotism, I was struck by a little cold-eyed, split-second qualification to a paragraph's paean to Lincoln. Here it is:

Abraham Lincoln did not simply win a war or hold the Union together. In his unwillingness to demonize those against whom he fought; in his refusal to succumb to either the hatred or self-righteousness that war can unleash; in his ultimate insistence that in the aftermath of war the nation would no longer remain half slave and half free; and his trust in the better angels of our nature - he displayed the wisdom and courage that sets a standard for patriotism (my emphasis).

The mainstream media are attacking Barack Obama's Iraq policy as a huge flip-flop shift.  But Obama's current stance of Iraq is not a flip-flop.  At most, it is just a policy refinement.  People should keep in mind that John McCain still keeps Charlie Black at the top echelon of his campaign.    

Happy Fourth of July... wouldn't it be nice if we had two candidate who were respectful and recognize each other as Patriotic Americans?  Unfortunately, we have one candidate who is honorable and secure enough to recognize his opponent's Patriotism, and conversely we have another candidite who is a petulant asshole... case in point.

John McCain is saying that Barack Obama is not patriotic. A few days ago, when asked if he questioned Obama's patriotism, McCain did not answer the question.

And now, in today's Parade magazine, McCain has an essay on patriotism:

Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions, than sentiments about place and kinship that move us to hold our hands over our hearts during the national anthem. It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything.

Context below the jump.