http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/ 2008/latestpolls/index.html

In a flurry of polls released today, Barack Obama has had a great day.

First off there was Quinnipiac which surveyed the three most important battleground states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in each Obama lead. In Florida it was Obama ahead 47-43. In Ohio it was 48-42, while in Pa., Obama had a 12 point edge 52-40. Winning at least one of these three is crucial for Obama, while taking two of them is pivotal, but capturing all three pertends visions of a landslide in November.

If that's all there was today it would be good enough, but a new national Reuters/Zogby poll showed Obama up 5 points 47-42, confirming almost all the recent national polls showing McCain mired in the low 40's.

I still see too many Clinton supporters who have not yet joined forces with the Obama campaign to elect a democrat in November. We are now just a few short months from the convention, and less than five months from the election. In other words the general election campaign is on. We need the help of all our allies. We need your energy and your vote.

Please look at the alternative, and if you can't yet do it for Obama, then could you do it for our troops stuck in an endless hell in Iraq? We have sent them into a war that should have never been started to begin with. Still, however, they have done everything we have asked of them. Over 4000 have lost their lives there, and 10's of thousands more have lost limbs and suffered brain injuries, and likely will never be the same. How many more have to suffer these fates? Isn't it time we let them come home?

I've been a Hillary Clinton supporter right from the start of this campaign. I have lived and breathed this campaign since it's inception. I have followed every word and every poll. I have cheered and cried and whinned and everything else that happens in a race like this one. I have made all the arguments about electability, and experience, and the meaning of hope and change, and Florida and Michigan. By now I could probably recite it all in my sleep. I have waited anxiously for each Tuesday, and watched each result with anticipation. It has been quite a ride.

I believe now that it is all over, we are better off as a party because of it. We are better off as a nation because of it. After all, even with it's flaws, we have had a chance to be part of a democratic process in action. Yes, this is certainly what democracy looks like, and I am very grateful to have played a part in it.

Now we have come to the midway point in this marathon, and it is said that when you reach the 13.1 mile point in the marathon, you really have just begun. And it is the same in this political marathon, we have just begun.

I found this at a new Democratic Unity 08 site http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php? forumid=154972&threadid=1842442. It is apparently a copy of an email from Thom Hartmann of Air America Radio.

Obama - Ask Hillary First!

Air American:

The issue at hand for the Democratic Party for winning in `08 is not losing to McCain but losing to a divided Democratic party. The first thing Obama should do if nominated is put Hillary on the ticket. Will the Republicans have a field day with her on the ticket? Yes! Is their some bad blood in the water due to some negative campaign strategies on the part of the Clintons? Probably. Can Hillary be a tough fighter able to play tough allowing Obama to stay higher above the fray? Yes!

Howard Dean said a few months ago that the loser will be the most important person in the Democratic presidential run this year. Hillary's legacy in this 08 election could place her as the healer and bring together a united Democratic party. As a winning ticket they also move this country closer to healing the racial and misogynist undertones that still have roots.

There has been a lot of discussion, here, about trolls recently. There are those that believe they are unfairly singled out for troll ratings, and there are those that believe that their ability to troll rate was unfairly taken away. I would like to make a few suggestions regading this issue of trollism.

At this point, I believe that any posts that are made for the sole purpose of keeping us divided deserve, in the least, to be troll rated.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c ontent/politics/election_20082/2008_sena te_elections/alaska/election_2008_alaska _senate

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Republican Senator Ted Stevens is trailing by two percentage points in his bid for re-election. Stevens attracts 45% of the vote while Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) earns 47%. A month ago, it was Stevens with 46% support and Begich at 45%.

The republican Stevens now joins the ranks of vulnerable republicans which now include: Cornyn of Texas, Smith of Oregon, Coleman of Minnesota, McConnell of Kentucky, Dole of North Carolina, and Sununu of New Hampshire, with races in Maine and Kansas threatening to enter this category. And when we add this to the open republican seats now in play in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado, the harvest this November could truly be bountiful.

Bear in mind, a lot of the divisivness on this blog, and many other blogs, yes Daily Kos included, is the work of trolls. Yes, we are all familiar with the most blatant ones, but many are much more subtle.

The one big hope the republicans have for this November is to keep us divided. They have no other real hope. They can't win on the issues. They can't scare enough people anymore. They can't get this election into the theft zone, because they can't get it close enough.. Their only hope is to keep us fighting each other. They get shaky at the thought that we will unite our two powerful forces, each of which would beat them handily, but together we shatter them.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/ 2008/latestpolls/index.html

Rasmussen has some interesting new polls out today.

First, in Kansas both Obama and Clinton are losing to McCain, but interestingly enough Clinton fares significantly better than Obama, as she is down 53-39, while Obama loses it 55-34. What makes this interesting is that Kansas was supposed to be one of those red states where Obama would be able to out perform the usual democratic vote. However it appears that, at least, with this poll that Hillary is the one who is out performing it in Kansas.