I watched the convention with a mixture of dismay and delight.  Dismay at punditry who kept complaining that noone was slamming McCain and delight at Michelle Obama's speech and the way she delivered it.  I went to my favorite blogs, looking for some intelligence, and what is the first post on TPM?  Complaining that noone is hitting McCain.  Then I happen to catch the NBC group with Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell about 1 a.m.  Todd goes on and on about how noone got a glove on McCain, and then Mitchell talks about "this is a new kind of politics" and makes the point that each person who enters the stadium on Thurs. will be text-messaging and acting as a campaigner for Barack.  I was hoping that the look on Todd's face belied a dawning awareness as Mitchell eloquently explained why this is different from what they were expecting because Obama is doing things differently.  As she said, "I don't know if it will work or not, but it definitely is different."  Hooray for Andrea, revealing herself more and more to be a real class act. 

This is what I meant in an earlier post about Obama's ground game.  What people don't get, I think, is that Obama really IS mobilizing an army.  And because of his website and the outreach, it really is working.  Those of us worker bees who are part of the corps know that we are important, and we can make a difference.  It really is a different kind of politics than the "hit them when you can" and backroom deal politics. I believe it is very powerful, much more powerful than these pundits realize.  I also am amazed that none of them seemed to see that making Barack and Michelle (and I agree that the Obama tv appearance at the end was a bit too hokey) as one of us would definitely undermine most of the ways that McCain is trying to make him strange, elitist and foreign.  The pundits just can't recognize the power of what happened because are a part of the "politics as usual" function that has to be changed.  They can't see change when it is right in front of their eyes. This is why the blog universe is overtaking them. 

And just to add another tangential thought - the coming together of the assassination threat to Obama from the men caught in Aurora and the newest Ayers attack against Obama is absolutely frightening.