Apologies for the short diary, but I just saw this on Great Orange Satan, and I thought it would brighten some post-Palin afternoons. A little elitist red meat, if you will:

The case has been made that Sarah Palin energizes the Right.

The idea is that she gets the base fired up, in possibly game-changing ways. I submit that if this is true (and I tend to believe it is), it exposes huge structural flaws in McCain's campaign. Why?

Even strong supporters would agree Obama's strength isn't in intimate gatherings. But - he's working on it, and much like Hillary improved her large format speech drastically, Barack is getting better at reaching out in the small.

This is a cute video, more to lighten the mood than anything else. There's only 30 people here (roughly) but I suspect Obama can now count on 31 more votes.

Yeah, 30. 31. You'll see:

As political junkies, we're all well attuned to the how Media creates and promotes memes. As Democrats, these memes are usually working to our detriment. Well, not this time. Here's a real doozy in the making: McCain is so honorable that he must essentially be a captive of his skanky, corrupt, misinformed campaign.

Barack Obama.

Yep. The Obama campiagn is purchasing a 5 million dollar Olympic package.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=1298 53

First a disclaimer: This is not a new clip, it's several weeks old. I think it's still worth watching for several reasons:

1) It's topical. Ms. Logan has some very trenchant views on the war and it's coverage.

2) It's refreshing to see a mainstream journalist that takes her craft so seriously. Cronkite would be proud.

3) Lara Logan has a fraction of the exposure of her cable news counterparts, while deserving much more. The fact that she got the first Obama interview of his junket indicates I am not alone in this opinion. Finally,

4) The lady is just a flat-out badass. (watch her calmly describe her hotel blowing up). We need more like her.

Apologies if you've seen this before, if you haven't, it's 7 minutes well spent - enjoy.

Apologies for this very short diary, but in the wake of the FISA fiasco, I thought it would be appropriate and informative.

It was 2005, and the issue on the table was the nomination of John Roberts. Many viewed (and still view) this as a Progressive bellwether issue, much as we view FISA today. Obama's remarks on that issue can be seen here:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/050922-rem arks_of_sena/index.php

and those remarks were received with as much controversy as his FISA remarks last week.

-- more after the jump --