very nicely.... just hope it isn't too little and too late. Is this running around the clock in Indiana, a notably blue-collar state?

this ad had come out a bit sooner!  It is a symptom of what is wrong with politics that a true hero to working people could have been portrayed as the lesser candidate on this subject.  The man spends his early life working on precisely the issue that is most relevant to those without jobs or low wages today.  But the other side has turned night into day.  And the all-too-willing media has helped them get away with it.

Mathematically, Hillary won't get the nomination, IMO.  But it shouldn't have even been close.  

WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRIGHT ...

There are issues, and there are ISSUES!

To me, that is Obama at his best - speaking eloquently about what is going on today, and laying out an intelligent agenda that can put us on the road to fixing things -- out of Iraq being step one.

When he tries to do the typical politician BS, like going bowling or eating a cheesesteak or what have you, to prove he is not elitist, he looks silly to me, in large part because much of his argument and his appeal is that he is not the typical politician.

but very welcome in coming.

Just today I heard an excerpt from a Hillary speech in which she talked pointedly about the need of people to elect someone who understands THEIR problems.  How did an upper middle class girl who went to Wellesley become the working class hero over the biracial son of a struggling teenage mother who had to earn scholarships and take on enormous debt for every step of his education?  

Obama did an excellent job this morning on MTP.  I think we may see a bump, but am unsure whether it will be enough to carry Indiana.  Plus, hate to say it, but Indiana's history is a little iffy on race relations, even in fairly recent decades.  If Obama wins Indiana it will have enormous significance on a historical level.

Going for dumbed down, thirty second sound bites, tag lines and buzz words.

Bush was a regular guy, somone you could have a beer with.  Hillary understands their problems and does shots.  McCain is a war hero.  Obama is an anti-American, Muslim, Manchurian candidate.

It's the tyranny of the masses.

'Elitism' -- education, worldliness, curiosity -- is bad.  That Kerry spoke fluent French was held against him.  

Is it any wonder that we're in the mess we're in?

Rush Limbaugh has said "let the Democrats take the hit".

Given the difficulties in dragging our inert fellow citizens toward a more positive future for all of us, my nihilistic side is inclined to say "let the Republicans take the hit" in 2008-2012.  And maybe then, maybe, enough folks will be in enough pain that they'll be willing to step through the door into the 21st century.

is the apotheosis of how downright damaging the establishment media is to our discourse and our democracy. I mean, what a gigantic, steaming, heaping load of bullshit. It's a fairy tale invented by GWB and Karl Rove. [I know you know this, I'm just pointing it out.]

That an ignorant narcissistic sociopath like Bush could ever be pushed on us as some kind of working class 'Joe' is offensive to me. How he was given a gilded path to the Presidency explains how damaged our republic was in the first decade of this century. Hopefully we will be able to begin to undo this damage.

The timing of this ad may be just right.  

Very good - Framing the crowd at his events - These people came - end of discussion

The gassy, faux-pulpit-inflected rhetoric doesn't work for me.  I hate to say it (as a lifelong Democrat), but too many Democrats want to feel good about themselves rather than work on practical solutions to our country's problems.

I like the sound of that.  But the oil company price-gouging bit is as pandering as a gas-tax holiday.  I am certain that at least Lowell knows that the FTC has done investigations into the claims of pricing gouging by big oil and turned up nothing.

No one is perfect though; so, I don't hold it against Obama.  =)