At their core, elections are very simple.  You develop an argument for your candidacy and against that of your opponent's.  You then spend your campaign pounding away at that argument.

Barack Obama's central argument is that this moment in our history requires fundamental change, and that John McCain's policies represent an extension of George Bush's.  There are all sorts of ancillary debates, but this is the central argument of his general election candidacy.

Here, my friends, is the 54-second clip that reinforces his argument more than $150,000,000 in advertising dollars could possibly do.

From 6/05 on Meet the Press:

This is a gift from the gods.  Please send it to everyone you know. :)

This just came out of the AP, and is now posted on MSNBC's website:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

We've finally reached the general election after 17+ months.  Wow.

Al Giordano of The Field has proven to be an excellent, plugged-in blogger during this election cycle.  And, as it turns out, he might just have the scoop of the cycle:

The endorsement by US Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-California) of Obama today sends an extremely firm message to the Clinton campaign, and not only because he was, until today, a Clinton superdelegate.

The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it's time to unite around Obama, and that they will be coming out, one or two at a time, and announcing their switch between now and the convention if Senator Clinton doesn't do the same.

Cardoza is one of the leaders of this effort (which includes not only superdelegates, but here's something that should set off some paranoia in Camp Clinton: there are pledged Clinton delegates in "The Cardoza 40," too). One Field Hand reports that during a recent Cardoza fundraising event in California the effort was discussed openly in front of other Democrats. Cardoza's announcement, today, sent the message that the effort is serious and for real.

This is not "excellent news for Hillary Clinton."

An exodus of 40 delegates from Clinton to Obama, mathematically, increases his lead by 80 delegates, because she loses one for every one he gains.

You can read the rest here:

http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=1258

We shall see...

Since projecting Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. based on today's numbers is all the rage, it might be helpful to reflect on the fact that presidential polls predict nothing in late July, much less in May.

Dukakis Lead Widens, According to New Poll

Published: July 26, 1988

LEAD: In the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention, the party's nominee, Michael S. Dukakis, has expanded his lead among registered voters over Vice President Bush, the probable Republican nominee, according to a Gallup Poll.

In the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention, the party's nominee, Michael S. Dukakis, has expanded his lead among registered voters over Vice President Bush, the probable Republican nominee, according to a Gallup Poll.

This was among the findings of a national public opinion poll of 948 registered voters conducted late last week for Newsweek magazine by the Gallup Organization. The telephone interviews took place on July 21, which was the last night of the convention, and on the night after that.

Fifty-five percent of the 948 registered voters interviewed in the poll said they preferred to see Mr. Dukakis win the 1988 Presidential election, while 38 percent said they preferred to see Mr. Bush win. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Read the rest here:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht ml?res=940DEFD7113EF935A15754C0A96E94826 0

The basic point is that anyone referencing presidential polling in May as an argument towards "electability" is either being dishonest or hasn't the slightest idea what they're talking about.  The only value of these polls is to help candidates choose where to spend their time in their general election campaign.  That's it.

This is just great stuff.  This is a preview of the extraordinary leadership she will exhibit during the general election.  She not only strongly defended Barack Obama against George Bush's nonsense attack, but she's now working with him to just destroy John McSame.  In the last 48 hours I've become convinced that HRC might just end up to be Obama's strongest surrogate in the fall.  She has the ability, as we've seen time and time again, to deliver a devastating attack on her opponent:

FRANKFORT, KY - With the Democratic nomination all but wrapped up, Barack Obama has moved past his primary battle with Hillary Clinton, beginning to implement his general election strategy. But even as she slides towards irrelevance, the New York Senator has, in her own way, joined Obama in general election mode -- increasingly aiming her rhetorical cannons not at her primary opponent, but at John McCain.

Clinton delivered her sharpest attack yet on McCain's economic policies - saying the Arizona Senator is "laying out an agenda on the campaign trial that is nothing less than four more years of George Bush economics." And that, as all Democrats know, is pretty bad. "I don't know that we've had a worse president in American history," Clinton said of Bush.

She ripped McCain's Bush-like tax policies, saying "you really have to work hard to have a tax plan that is more tilted toward the wealthy than President Bush's tax plan. But somehow Senator McCain has figured out a way to do it."

She blasted his Bush-like plans to privatize Social Security - saying "that would be a disaster" - and his Bush-like disinterest in the housing crisis, saying "like President Bush, Senator McCain refused to acknowledge the home mortgage crisis until it spiraled out of control. He has spent his time blaming homeowners."

And she lit into his Bush-like corporate agenda, saying "Senator McCain decides Americas most pressing economic priority is tax cuts for our largest corporations. I don't know that you can be more out of touch than that."

"Senator McCain's economic policy boils down to this - don't just continue driving our nation in the wrong direction, put your foot on the accelerator and gun it," she told a cheering crowd.

"It's hard to imagine, but Senator McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change."

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/05/ 17/clinton-moving-to-general-election-st rategy/

Hillary has Barack's back, and she's made such a tough pivot over the last few days.  She's not only done it gracefully, she's done it in such a way that she will be a dominant surrogate for Barack Obama in helping destroy John McSame.

Thank you for this, Hillary.  Thank you.

McSame, you are done.  Done.

Now this is some Democratic unity.  We've had Emaneul, Dean, Pelosi, and Kerry already come to Obama's defense this morning, but Joe Biden has trumped them with raw emotion and simple truth:

"This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement."

"He is the guy who has weakened us," he said. "He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It's his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me."

"If he thinks this is appeasement, is he going to come back and fire his own cabinet?" Biden asked. "Is he going to fire Condi Rice?"

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0 508/Biden_Bushs_comments_were_bullshit.h tml

If this is any indication of what the general election is going to be like, then we are wimpy Democrats no more.  Here's to you, Joe.

We've had a long slog of a primary, a primary that concludes - as most do - with supporters from various constituencies within a party vowing to vote for the opposing candidate or sit out in November. These wounds always heal. Always.

This is the reason that these wounds heal:

John McCain, this morning:

I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly.

Link

Above all else, always remember: We are not them.

We are not them.