Delaware Dem's diary of this morning ("A Man Took it Away from a Woman") misses an important point. If American women had continued to support Hillary Clinton the way they did at the beginning of this race, she wouldn't have lost the nomination. From one point of view, women themselves gave the nomination to Obama.

The diary at the top of the rec list suggests that Stephanopolous is some kind of shill for the Clintons. That is so not true. For those who haven't read his book All Too Human, here's the must-read, money part of Diane Sawyer's interview of Stephanopoulous (link to the YouTube, transcript that follows is from Part Two):

Kossack klorishad a good poll on Monday regarding the oft-repeated statement, "It's her turn." It's a view held by a surprisingly large number of women, especially older women, regarding Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

I am 47 and have a lot of women friends my own age and older. Having been a vocal and staunch Obama supporter since 2004, I had to hear it quite a lot at first, as many of my older women friends tried to guilt me into supporting Clinton by appealing to the "but she's a woman" theme.

How I happened upon a pithy (and, I hope, useful) response to "It's her turn" on the flip.

I imagine I'm alone or nearly so, in this. But when I got home tonight and finally got to watch the Special Comment, I could only think:
Why does Keith Olbermann assume that the horrible behavior of the Clinton campaign could have come about without the express approval of Senator Clinton?

This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name. Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late. Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth. Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable. Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee, and insist she will continue to speak. Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former Congresswoman is speaking with your approval.

That's right, on today's "World News" page, columnist Gideon Rachman claims, with a straight face, Clinton Scorns Obama as running mate. Yes, that is the literal headline in the Financial Times World News section today.

There was a really good diary that got lost in the flood here today, making the obvious point that so few of us have really grappled with: at what point do you lose faith in a fellow Democrat?

Share Your Story with a Superdelegate is a page on the Obama website where you can make a direct appeal to undecided superdelegates. My own story on the flip. I hope other Kossacks will post their own?  From the website:

Our work so far has taught us one important lesson: that your personal story about why you support Barack Obama is often the most powerful persuasion tool for someone who's undecided.

That's true whether that undecided voter is your neighbor or a superdelegate.

The story of where you're from, what brought you into the political process, the issues that matter to you, and why you became part of this movement has the potential to inspire someone who could cast a deciding vote in this contest.

 

An earlier diary called attention to the fake news broadcast the Clinton campaign is running on Ohio radio, but failed to make the main point.

This is my favorite video of the campaign.

The commitment to individual freedom of expression has been tested for all of us on dKos this week, as the passion of campaigning spilled over into acrimony and angry words.

Among my own women friends, I've noticed that most of the older ones (50+) tend to support Clinton, and the under-50 women are for Obama. Your mileage may vary; it's just a marked tendency I've noticed among women in Los Angeles.

Last night a Hillary-supporting friend and I drove our kids to see the Aquabats in Pomona (a town about 40 miles east of LA, where we live.) On the way there, the conversation grew very animated as I tried, not to tear down her candidate, but to build up my own, and explain why I support Obama so very wholeheartedly. I think I may have persuaded my dear friend. (Indeed we drove straight past Pomona for sixteen miles before we realized we'd missed our offramp! The kids were a bit peeved!) So here's what I told my friend Vicki:

Obama's message of hope is derided by many in the media and elsewhere as naive, and "lacking in substance." Just think what is being said there. I am 47 years old, and for the first time in my entire life, young people in their millions are responding passionately to the oratorical skill of a politician. Permitting themselves to be moved by his ideas, joining together with him to envision a way out of the political cynicism and even despair we've come to accept as a kind of permanent status quo.  

Far from being shallow or "lacking in substance," this is the most important political event of my lifetime, and I am so proud to be part of it.

My fifteen-year-old daughter Carmen and I canvassed for Barack Obama today in Silverlake! It was fantastic. I think we are going to see a big surprise in the California polls come Tuesday! Seriously. We high-fived our (MANY!) fellow Obama supporters, had a door slammed in our faces (by this lady named Winifred! Carmen goes, "I never met a Winifred I could love",) we nodded quietly at the (FEW!) Hillary supporters, but best of all, I think between the two of us we literally managed to convince an undecided Independent voter to vote for Barack Obama! Really a moment to treasure.  I'm just high as a kite right now.

In case y'all want to burst into tears today, please have a look at this beautiful thing:

www.yeswecansong.com

YES WE CAN

CNN's Eason Jordan is evidently really taking Michelle Malkin to Iraq in order to get to the bottom of the Jamil Hussein affair.

I was pretty shocked to find her post describing the upcoming trip has got a pretty good smackdown of the AP honchos who published the Jamil Hussein story. At least Malkin is putting her money where her mouth is, which puts her a great big leap ahead of the rest of the fighting keyboarders.

I got to volunteer today to identify participants in MoveOn's Call for Change program (YAY!) who were willing to be contacted by the media, and an amazing grandma from Connecticut made my whole day by articulating perfectly the whole reason I am involved in politics:

The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is that Republicans want things only for themselves, and Democrats want it for everybody.  I don't want health insurance unless you have it too.  I don't want to be married unless gay people can get married too.  I don't want it for me, I want it for everybody.

I just wanted to share that with every citizen in our whole country.  

Raw Story reports that Barron's Washington Editor Jim McTague claims that Republicans will lose seats, but retain their majority. This analysis is based solely on comparing amounts of money raised by candidates. McTague claims that this method of analyzing elections has proved reliable in the past:

Lawrence O'Donnell wrote in his Huffington Post blog on 10/5:

The LA Times has outed Kirk Fordham today. He will not be the last closeted gay Republican outed by this scandal.

'This scandal' meaning, the Foley scandal. So far we have heard nothing about this, to my knowledge, other than the news that Jim Kolbe's connections to pages is being investigated. But Kolbe, who had already been planning to retire, is the only openly gay Republican member of Congress.

Raw Story just reported this morning:  It's Kolbe: House Page Investigation Widens, linking an AP story regarding the 1996 camping trip taken by Republican Kolbe along with "two former pages and others."

So who is the closeted Republican still to be named?

I found myself at the Marina del Rey Costco today (west part of Los Angeles.)  The endcap of the books section, pretty much thrust in your face as you walked down the aisle, was a huge display of Bankrupt, David Limbaugh's pea-brained diatribe against the Dems (#613 Amazon ranking), and John Ashcroft's book Never Again (#1,745). The Frank Rich book The Greatest Story Ever Sold (#40), and State of Denial (#1) were buried deep in the aisle. There were less than ten copies of State of Denial left even though it was practically hidden away.  I thought hmm that is very weird, well maybe I am making too big a thing of this, until the demonstrator for the karaoke machine nearby (around $500) started on his warbling rendition of "Bless the USA" or whatever the heck it was, I kid you not, this very syrupy anthem-like song.  For delivery and lyrical content, it might as well have been "Let the Eagle Soar", John Ashcroft's thrilling contribution to our musical heritage.  Lawks.  

Just wondering if anybody else's Costco has got a similar marketing/editorial policy.