Loved ya, Bill Clinton, as President, but it's time to let go of 2008 - the American people voted, and Barack Obama won.  Look, man, you got 8 years in the White House...you had your many moments of glory, and a few self-destructive moments too.  But you were a good President, a very good President.

Now it is time for you and Hillary to show that you are more than 100% united with the party.  You're 110% united, you are totally gung ho, and you have let go of your wishes and desires to win.

And we have to forgive you, Bill and Hillary, for undermining our candidate back in April and May, when you knew or really should have known it was all over, and you had no chance at the nomination.  You should have given up gracefully, but you dragged us all through a few weeks of hellacious b*llsh*t.

Now that the VP nominee is chosen, there is no realistic alternative for us anymore except to establish complete unity behind our nominees and make the convention as successful as possible, to give our candidates a big bump.

We shouldn't criticize our own between now and November, and should focus all of our energy on trying to elect the Democratic candidates, White House, Senate, and House.

Please recommend this and insert your supportive comments and suggestions for the convention days ahead.

Are you with me?

Bill Clinton was probably the best President in our lifetimes (look at the competition), unless you were old enough to be alive when FDR was President.  JFK was good after the Bay of Pigs, which was organized by Eisenhower/Nixon, and he showed great promise by 1963, but he only had 2.7 years in office.

Clinton brought us 8 years of peace and prosperity, and he got the budget back into balance - a major accomplishment.  His average popularity was around 60%.

It's simple - Clinton is the best President since FDR, and in the top third of all Presidents in our history, maybe in the top 25%.  We had a lot of lousy or run of the mill Presidents since FDR.  He'd rank below Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and a handful of others, but was better than most of the Presidents of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Daschle was a pure, unadulterated disaster as Senate Majority Leader.  Under Daschle, the Dems gradually lost their majority.  Previous majority leaders were men we could all admire.  Daschle was an ineffective wimp, in the eyes of many, Dems as well as Indys and Republicans.  

Whenever I would see Daschle on TV, I would cringe.  He has the wimpiest sounding voice, and has no backbone.  I was ashamed to be represented by someone with his (lack of) stature.  Him and Gephardt were the two most ineffective Democratic leaders in several generations.

So now, when I see Obama's campaign flailing around and losing ground steadily in the polls, and now, when I see no backbone in the campaign, I start to realize that this might be Tom Daschle's wimpiness coming back to destroy our electoral chances once again.

Is it true that McCain was interviewed on 60 Minutes in 1997 about his wartime experience in Vietnam, including the disastrous accident involving his plane on the USS Forrestal, in which more than 100 US personnel were killed by bombs and napalm which exploded on deck?

There are several internet posts on this topic, and they include a statement by John McCain: "I am a war criminal," which suggestts that he dropped napalm on civilian targets in Vietnam.

Does anyone here have more detailed information, transcripts of the 60 minutes interview, or any other way to verify that McCain did, in fact, drop napalm on civilians at times during the war in Vietnam?

There's a mydd diary suggesting that Obama's campaign spent $57 million, while McCain's campaign spent $33 million in July, with RNC and DNC both spending equal amounts.

If true, that's terrible news for us, because it suggests that even if we can massively outspend McCain, we're still falling behind.

For all the money spent in July, there is no evidence that it had much benefit for Obama.

There's not much reason to suppose that Obama will end up with a gigantic $$ advantage - maybe 10 or 20 million, give or take a few million.

So, if the extra millions aren't keeping Obama in the lead, I wonder how the hell are we going to rebuild the lead?  

Sorry to say it, but the polling data are not encouraging.  Recent polls have been trending McCain for the past weeks.  Time is starting to run out - we're less than 3 months away, and Obama's lead in the polls has been diminishing.  Now, we learn CO  has polled McCain for the first time, and the projections have dipped below 270 for Obama.

Obama's on vacation, and the stupid conversation is about Hillary's nomination.  Rachel Maddow nailed it - McCain went negative and made the conversation about Obama, and his team didn't fight back effectively, so the whole conversation is still about Obama, and his numbers have been dropping steadily.

I don't see anything that's going to turn things around.  Obama will get a small bump from the convention, which will be reversed by the Repuke convention.

It's so odd that the anthrax attacks appear to have originated from the higher echelons of the U.S. Army in 2001.  At the time, the anthrax attacks were used by some as part of the justification for an invasion of Iraq.  More strangely, though, some of those who were apparently targeted were Democratic Senators.  It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/U.S._anthr ax_suspect_commits_suicide_report_0801.h tml

Dead Army vaccine scientist eyed in anthrax probe
Associated Press
Published: Friday August 1, 2008