Kos Pumping Fundraising for Joe Garcia

The lead story on DailyKos right now is by Kos on a Zogby poll showing Obama with a big lead in South Florida. But it also includes this little gem regarding raising money for Joe Garcia:

"We are almost halfway to our goal of 1,000 contributors to our new ActBlue page. But I'd like a secondary goal as we close out the fundraising quarter -- Garcia is at 160 contributors as of this writing. I'd like to get that to 250 contributors. I know lots of people want to send a message to Bush that raising money for his most loyal lieutenants will cost him. I also know there are more than 90 south Florida readers of this site, and here's your chance to give a boost to one of your locals fighting the good fight for the good of our country.

So let's get Garcia to 250 contributors and help paint South Florida a delicious shade of Blue."

Can't we help Kos and Joe Garcia out?

Full story here:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/134034/392/841/541230

Good News for Barack Obama in WaPo ABC News Poll

There is some really great news for the Obama campaign in today's Washington Post / ABC News Poll. Yes, even despite the not so very thrilling headline in the WaPo - "Poll Finds Independent Voters Split Between McCain, Obama", the numbers inside the poll itself tell a much different story.

OK, I admit, I'm a bit of a geek. And a Pol. So what does a geek and a Pol do when we can get our hands on a poll? We dig deep to see what the thing really has to say. The horse race among all those polled has Obama up 6 at 48 to 42. Among registered voters, its closer at 49 to 45. Those numbers are certainly better for Obama than McCain, but they aren't really anything to write home about. Particularly as the WaPo notes:

At this point four years ago, Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry held identical leads over President Bush among all adults and among registered voters.

We all remember how that turned out. Polls really are just snapshots in time. And the election is still a relatively long way away.

So what's the really good news for the Obama campaign in this poll? The WaPo / ABC News poll also asked this question:

Would you definitely vote for (CANDIDATE), or is there a chance you could change your mind and vote for someone else?

For Barack Obama, fully 72% of his voters said they were definitely voting for Obama. But 69% of McCain's voters said the same about him. But here it is: Out of the 31% of McCains' voters who could possibly change their minds, 17%, nearly 1 in 5, say there is a GOOD chance of changing their mind. The comparable number for Obama is only 7%, or less than one in 10.

The reason this is such good news is that political operatives are always looking for those voters who are persuadable. That's the real point at which all that advertising money being spent is aimed. Is to find and convince those people who are persuadable to make up their mind in favor of our candidate.

That 10 point spread in persuadables in favor of Obama is a very happy place for a campaign to be.

I've Been

Busy; otherwise occupied; distracted; suffering writers block; disaffected;

All of the above are true. I have been busy. Working on some local issues (it's one of the things I do.) I've also been working on some other things that have statewide impact. I may be doing that again soon.

All of that has kept me somewhat otherwise occupied. I've been distracted by some personal things going on in my life. Some of them are somewhat , but not fully, resolved now. That's all part of life, and we are all distracted by things from time to time.

I've been somewhat disaffected, which may have contributed something to the idea of writers block. The long protracted primary season did not do a lot to inspire me. This is particularly true because, even though I agree it was right to let it play out, the ultimate outcome had been a foregone conclusion for quite a while. I had written about a year ago admonishing folks "Don't Get Too Attached to Your Candidates". And I could see attitudes hardening on both sides. I still believe, in the end, we will mostly be united behind our nominee. But I did not really want to play in that game in the meanwhile.

Also, the entire flap about seating of the Florida delegation was something I believed would get worked out in the end. And it appears that it has.

With those things settled and the general election campaign now finally upon us, I am ready to get back in the game. There are some issues I am passionate about. You'll see me writing on them from time to time. The idea of electing a Democrat President, and electing more Democrats in Congress and in our state legislature is of utmost importance to me. I'll be writing about that too.

So, I've been, not writing here all that much. But I feel that's about to change.