Wow, I’m going to have to watch this again. Just so much to digest, but what a beautiful and bold speech. Most politicans wouldn’t dare give a speech like this in the midst of a heated political campaign, but that is exactly what makes Obama different and special. He’s a leader who’s not afraid to stand up and speak the truth.

The mostly glowing reviews are in…

And you can find the transcript here…

What!? Tina Fey? How you like dem apples?

(hat tip: Politik Ditto)

Keith Olbermann was Edward R. Murrow tonight. He’s just amazing; First he’s the best sports anchor on TV, now the second coming of Murrow. What more can I say…just watch…

Yep, Horton Hears A Who hits theaters this weekend, and it’s not just me using the occasion to parody Hillary Clinton. The New Haven Advocate is also channeling Theodor Geisel, injecting a little Seuss into the situation. Here’s a snippet:

The time has come, We don’t care how.
But Hillary Rodham Clinton
Will you please GO NOW!

Your campaign is becoming
An endless charade,
So get off the trail,
Burn out now, don’t just fade.

You can swim down a river
Of crocodile tears.
You can surf on a wave
Of terrorist fears.

Enough with the red phone!
Enough with the NAFTA!
If you like,
You can go now by White Water Rafta…

Here’s a portion of an e-mail that Obama campaign manger David Plouffe sent me and countless others. Just thought that everybody needed to read this:

Dear Adam,

When we won Iowa, the Clinton campaign said it’s not the number of states you win, it’s “a contest for delegates.”

When we won a significant lead in delegates, they said it’s really about which states you win.

When we won South Carolina, they discounted the votes of African-Americans.

When we won predominantly white, rural states like Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska, they said those didn’t count because they won’t be competitive in the general election.

When we won in Washington State, Wisconsin, and Missouri — general election battlegrounds where polls show Barack is a stronger candidate against John McCain — the Clinton campaign attacked those voters as “latte-sipping” elitists.

And now that we’ve won more than twice as many states, the Clinton spin is that only certain states really count.

But the facts are clear.

For all their attempts to discount, distract, and distort, we have won more delegates, more states, and more votes.

Meanwhile, more than half of the votes that Senator Clinton has won so far have come from just five states. And in four of these five states, polls show that Barack would be a stronger general election candidate against McCain than Clinton.

We’re ready to take on John McCain. But we also need to build operations in places like Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, and Oregon that will hold their primaries in April and May.

The end of the portion I’ve included is especially interesting. The Clintons are talking up Pennsylvania like it’s the end all, but Indiana and North Carolina follow up a week or so later on the same day. Combined, the states have more delegates than Pennsylvania. Oregon is also an important contest, and one which Obama should win handily. I guess what I’m saying is this: Let’s not continue to allow the Clintons and the media to keep running their spin game on us, moving the goalposts and skewing the realities of this race in the process.

(hat tip: crisdecuba.com)

Paul Abraham’s Huff Post piece on how Obama helped Bill Foster win narrowly edges out Daily Kos commenter Jsn’s “saying that Hillary has Executive Branch experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle” nugget of a comment.

Barack Obama — not Hillary Clinton — actively, with TV ads, supported Bill Foster’s attempt to win Dennis Hastert’s (former Speaker) seat in the House after Hastert’s resignation. Supporting Foster so openly was a risk, as it could have (and we know, would have) been used by the Clintons to raise doubt about Obama’s ability to rally support. After all, one thing Bill Clinton did not have was coattails — he lost the House for the first time in 40 years, and it remained in Republican hands for 12 years.

We keep hearing about delegates, super delegates and even the popular vote when it comes to the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but what about states? Barack Obama has already won that war, which is why we probably aren’t hearing about it.

Now, BHO has won 27 contests to Hillary Clinton’s 14. One of his wins was the Virgin Islands, so let’s change the score to BHO 26, HRC 14. The Clinton camp keeps on saying that there are 12 contests left, but only 10 of those are states (Guam and Puerto Rico aren’t states) and Obama looks like he is going to carry Wisconsin. Make the score BHO 27, HRC 14 once again, with only nine states remaining. Hillary could win all nine and still wouldn’t catch Barack Obama.

This needs to be talked about. Why? Because while I have no doubt that Obama can win big blue states like New York and California, I just don’t see Hillary competing in red and purple states as well as Obama can, with Ohio probably being the exception because of its unique and unfavorable demographics. She’s also basically said that many states don’t matter, something that could come back to haunt the Democratic party in the general election should she capture the nomination.

My point is, the ability to win as many states as possible definitely matters. Shouldn’t it matter now just as much as elected delegates and votes (I still expect Obama to win both, by the way)?