i always tell people that the first door -- by which i mean the first person you talk to -- is the hardest.  you don't know what to expect when you're in a new state or new campaign or new year, no matter how many times you've done it before.

here i am in florida, and i didn't even have to look at the list.  i knew i was in republican territory.  north part of orlando, close to winter park, homes built around a couple of small lakes.  i knock on the first door and i look to see the party registration.  republican.  of course.  but no one is home, so i leave the lit and move on.  rinse and repeat for the second door.  the third door is right next door.  another republican.  i didn't even have to look, there was a contribution envelope in response to a direct mail plea from john mccain.  the faint blue check could be seen through it in the bright sun light.  i thought about not knocking on the door (the outgoing mail was clipped to the door), but i figure, wtf.  it's on my list.  and that's why i'm here.

i have on my blue obama shirt and the lady who answers the door says, "i don't want to talk to anyone supporting obama!"  i pretend i haven't seen the envelope.

i've seen this ad a couple of times in both the orlando and the tampa media market over the last couple of days.  this is really the first "surge" of ads that florida voters have seen from barack.  in brevard county, people are starting to talk about them -- and him.

while i can't tell you the size of the obama media buy, i saw this ad this morning and i've also seen it with local afternoon/evening news coverage.  but i heard about it from other floridians before i got my first view.  here in the all-critical i-4 corridor -- traditionally, the decisive swing area for elections in the last 20 years -- people are starting to take their first real look at barack.

In 2004, Democrats conducted five regional hearings (strangely, all in "swing states") in preparation for the Democratic platform.  But this year, the Democratic party and the Barack Obama campaign are busting the platform process wide open.  They want to hear from you.  In fact, they are pretty much challenging you to write your own plank!

This approach pretty much skips a generation with what Republicans have been doing with the voter vault (strangely, Republican use of the voter vault is so embedded in their tactics that NPR recorded a phone call made using their technology).  The Obama campaign is building upon the same methodology as their Neighbor to Neighbor online tool.  As Howard Dean would say, you have the power.

Over the next 10 days, it's your voice that matters.

I've had enough.  Time for a change.

No, I'm not talking about George Bush but the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich.  Today's Animal Farm observes:

Reading it over, I was stunned by this passage:

"I think there's great cause to be concerned. If Speaker Madigan and the House leadership pick up a veto-proof majority... then they'll be in a position to easily override a veto."

That sounds an awful lot like the Democratic governor is urging voters to shun Democrats this fall so his intraparty rival - Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan -- doesn't get any stronger.

third in a series. part two can be found here.

john mccain has a problem.  well, he's got lots of problems, but the one i'm talking about is generally considered to be his strength in this election.  john mccain is strong on the issue of terrorism only if you accept the premise of the bush administration's approach to terrorism.

if you don't, you have to wonder about mccain's use of language and his political and national security priorities.

this is the second in a series on barack obama's superior potential as our next commander in chief.  part one can be found here.

to be blunt, i have absolutely no interest in re-runs of the vietnam war or the cultural conflicts that have emanated from it since.  so i'm thrilled when barack obama talks about rejecting the "politics of the past."  but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't learn something from it.  in fact, there are very good reasons to believe that barack obama will be a better commander in chief, a smarter commander in chief, than the former naval officer.  i've long argued that obama is exactly what we need in our next commander in chief, in our next president who will have to navigate foreign and national security policy in the 21st century.

barack set the stage for this in 2002.  asked to speak before a rally against invading iraq, he opened with these words:

Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.

i blame "the greatest generation."  well, not really.  but, it seems to me, one of the things that emerged after world war 2 is that we as a nation were shaped by the war, with a large number of men who shared a unifying experience in the military.  the military has an interesting survival ethos that demands that you trust your buddies before all else, your unit after that, etc, until you get to: trust your service before/then, trust the military before/then, trust your country.  i'll never forget the words of major i taught who believed "when you go to war, you die for your buddies, you don't die for your country."  unit cohesion is central to military success.

this has always been the case.  but the generation of americans who grew up in the second world war retained that outlook throughout their lives -- certainly through the time of the vietnam war.  maybe i shouldn't be surprised that john mccain learned the wrong lessons from vietnam.  but the fact that he did should make us all the more concerned about the prospect of a mccain presidency.

we don't need to re-fight the vietnam war or all the cultural conflicts that it left in its wake.  time to turn the page.

the hill newspaper reported last week that:

Veteran Republican fundraisers and strategists hope that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) can revive their party's apathetic base even as her 2008 presidential campaign has reached its final hours.

Republican insiders say that if presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) selects Clinton as his running mate, it would energize the Republican base and fundraising. They say presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would not have to work as hard to appease conservative voters if Clinton landed on the ticket.