Barack Obama is being tested alright. We are seeing if he can be goaded into getting distracted from a fight he has in the bag to engage in a fight he cannot win. What is at stake here is whether the illusion of strength will be allowed to usurp strength itself.

DEAD ON!

Solomon's choice is exactly the way to describe what faces the super delegates.

Not sure I agree 100%, yet a nice presentation of your case for Obama ... almost makes me hopeful again, maybe like singing a Beatles tune or taking some other positive action ...

Change, get rid of G. W. Bush, fine. Change: Obama as PONTUS, hell no! Even Ms. Rice (Obama aide) “Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready,'’ Ms. Rice said. “They’re both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call.”
Obama is not ready, so TRUE.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/obama-aide-neither-candidate-ready-for-3-am-call/

Change!

But it won't be easy. The news media doesn't want change, because that doesn't sell. They want negative campaigning, conflict, and the most outrageous lies possible,... because that's what draws in their customers.

The Republicans don't want change, certainly. So anyone with Republican leanings will push Hillary's claims and Hillary's tactics. If they can push Obama into making a mistake, so much the better. But one way or another, they'll still hurt the Democrats. Hillary's tactics are the best thing to come along for the Republican Party all year.

And does the Democratic establishment want change? I doubt it. Not much of it, anyway. After all, if you're an incumbent, you don't want to rock the boat. You got where you are under the present system, so why change?

But I want change! Am I that outnumbered?

TaraV,

I so understand your misgivings. But the light is just starting to dawn for me. I think you and I and lots of other people are behaving like whipped dogs. After awhile the dog either starts to snarl and snap at the slightest thing or the dog grovels. That is how we progressives percieve ourselves. Like whipped dogs. Those of us with spines really want to take a bite out of Republicans and Republican tactics in this election.

Obama says he doesn't just want to stop the war, he wants to end the mindset that got us into the war. He is trying to take us in that direction right now, as we write to one another. He has made it clear that he is not pacifist. Sometimes you fight. But he is not in favor of dumb wars. I think he feels Clinton is trying to start a dumb war. And don't you think a circular firing squad in the Democratic Party is the definition of a dumb war? I do. Judging by the uprising she is provoking among democrats, a significant portion of the party agrees with Obama.

You ask, 'what about the average Joe.' So, I will tell you a story about the Texas primacaucus. As you know, the primary voters could vote early and early voting was heavy this year. But the caucus voters had to show up and stand in line to vote. Now we have just heard that Obama really won Texas. But why is that?

Apparently his margin of 54% -46% is likely to hold. And here is what my sister told me as she was standing in line to vote in the Texas caucus on Tuesday night. She was chatting with some other people in the line about who they voted for earlier in the day. They had voted early, for Hillary Clinton. But after hew increasingly negative attacks over the week before the election, they had come back to vote in the caucus for Obama.

Exactly.

There are some people among us who aren't just ready for change. They are adamant about it. And I say, more power to them.

Brilliant! Womanofacertainage, you've said it so well in these postings!

There's an enormous difference, unrecognized by the MSM, between fighting and cheating. This is why Obama does so well in caucuses. Voters who are so unengaged as to be swayed by deceitful ads, darkened photos, and false claims that Clinton is vetted and ready are not the ones who are putting in the hours at caucuses, who are going to put in the time and effort to rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up, and who are going to reshape national politics in November and beyond.

I've seen a sea-change in attitudes toward Clinton by informed voters over the past few weeks, appalled by her play to fear and ignorance.

Well, from reading all these many comments and many posts, it appears that despite all odds the dems are going to manage to lose this one. It should be soooooo easy, ANYONE should be able to beat 4 more years of bush/cheney policies! But the dems of all stripes are busy beating up on each other and it isn't looking good.
I thought initially that it was terrific that the party had such a big field of qualified candidates. I forgot that Americans are such idiots.
There are 2 dem candidates left standing now--and their policies and ideas are nearly identical. Neither of them is a liberal (oh, sorry, a "progressive"). Yet to read these posts, one would think it was like night and day between them! There is all this "I'll never vote for this one!" and "I'll never vote for that one!" It is ridiculous! Maybe if we are really lucky, it won't matter and all the Nader progressives are such a small part of the population that no one really cares about them. I hope that is it, because I do not want 4 more years of republican mischief.

"Stop the insanity" - Susan Powter

Ok. I hear the complains from the Obamamaniacs that Clinton is using negative tactics and attacking Barack Obama rather than just stating the facts. But I have to agree with a few people on this site that attacking Clinton supporters isn't any better than what you accuse Sen. Clinton of doing.

Let's face it, this isn't an easy process. Punches will fly. Teeth will get knocked out. We the people, not the establishment, have made this policy. We drool over CNN to see the latest jabs taken out on our candidate.

Now we carry it over to the internet. A place that was supposed to be the great equalizer is now dividing us because when one person attacks another, several more jump on the bandwagon!

For crying out loud let's just stop this fighting! Let's get back to the real nuts and bolts of this election cycle: to elect a democrat president!