I sensed the charismatic Barack Obama would be a star in the Democratic Party after his speech during the 2004 Democratic convention.  I never dreamed it would be this fast, or he would be able to compete with the likes Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and the rest. He surpassed everyone’s expectation, and now it’s a matter of sharpening up the rough edges.

In the last two debates, I have seen him deflect Hillary’s best shots.  Not an easy task.

I think Hillary has only been stumped on one question.  That ill-fated driver’s license for illegal immigrants question.  Last night, I think he put that Louis Farrakhan question to rest by finally rejecting the support of this controversial figure. Give Hillary some credit, because she shamed  him into that position. Barack went from denouncing the anti-Semitic rhetoric of  Farrakhan to rejecting it.  Barack was mocked and ridiculed for saying that he would go after bin Laden, or any Al Qaeda leaders, even if the leaders of Pakistan disapproved.  Guess what?  Last week, this administration, sent an aerial drone into Pakistan to kill an Al Qaeda leader without telling the leaders of Pakistan.  I think, he was vindicated.

Experience is a knock on Barack Obama right now, but he has managed a campaign of over a million grassroots supporters, averaging $109 surpassing all the experienced politicians.  A lot the major newspapers are endorsing this inexperienced candidate, likewise, the deans of the Democratic Party. They see someone that can think on his feet, and is not afraid to hear opposing views. He will not be lacking excellent  and willing advisers.

John McCain will have the same old 527s, Karl Rove, and hate radio trying to pick up dirt on what they perceive as an upstart politician. If Barack Obama quickly rebuts the charges, instead of waiting two weeks, like John Kerry, he will be do just fine. Oh,the deabtes..Come on John McCain will follow the policies of George W. Bush. Need I say more?

Who said you cannot vote for a candidate because of his/hers race, gender or party?

Probably the one that wants you to vote for their candidate based on their bias. They probably voted for George W. Bush in the last two elections, so their credibility is not that great.

2000 presidential election, Karl Rove enlisted 4 million evangelicals to vote for the Republican Party. Nothing was said about that. Democrat Harold Ford Jr. was a better senate candidate than Bob Cocker, and Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, certainly had more credentials than Benjamin Cardin. Did race play a part in the 2006 Senate race election?

I imagine, the first thing, a person does is identify with their candidate, then are receptive the message. That identification could be based on race,party or gender. A person likes to know that their candidate understands their issues. Look no further than the Republican Party to see what I mean, the base of their party are not happy with John McCain.; even though he has an 83% conservative voting record. John McCain has the nomination sewed up yet the GOP are giving him very little support in primaries. Is that wrong? Rush Limbaugh,Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity think they are the standard bearers, for conservatism, if so why is John McCain, the Republican candidate?

The Democratic and Republican Party have platforms the candidates have to adhere to, or they would not get the party vote. I vote for Democratic candidates and national elections, because I identifying with the party platform.. Local ,now anyone can fix the potholes or run the school board without identify with a party.

I imagine election will be about the economy's, health care, Iraq and foreign policy.

On those four issues the candidates are 180° of one another. They will agree on climate change, federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and comprehensive immigration reform.

This year, Barack Obama is bringing in a lot of new voters, I hope it transcends into votes in the general election. New fresh ideas, because 70% of Americans think this country is going in the wrong direction.

Don't get me wrong, and don't take me literally, I do believe every American voter: should study the issues and vote their conscience. You can get a more detailed view of the issues by reading weekly magazines, watching C-SPAN, viewing the debates, and books. I highly recommend it.

I find it strange that people will wonder why someone would vote for Hillary, just because she is a woman. It wasn't until 1920 when a woman was allowed to vote. Perhaps they just want to show men, that women can play that game too. Those on the right likes to say that ,Democrats take the black vote for granted. Barack Obama will disprove that.

Just vote and make a habit forming.

We currently have four extreme right wing conservative judges seated on the Supreme Court. John P. Stevens will likely retire within four years. A John McCain would nominate another conservative judge, like John Roberts or Samuel Alito, causing the court to tilt right for several years . Why is this a concern? Most of the appellate  and lower courts are made up of conservative judges, making this country, stacked in favor of right wing policies such a want to overturn Roe V. Wade, a constitutional ban on gay marriage ,rulings in favor of big business and a belief in the unitary executive theory.

This current Court with a 5-4 ruling has ruled with this administration on issues like a decision, "barring ordinary taxpayers from challenging a White House initiative helping religious charities get a share of federal money. Recently The Supreme Court sided with the White House , rejecting a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the warrantless domestic spying program created by President George W. Bush . To be honest, the Supreme Court has also ruled against obvious infractions by the Bush administration but ,who will stop them, if six of nine Supreme Court judges are right wing conservatives.

The main topic of all the Sunday talk shows, was the demise of the Hillary Clinton campaign and the use of superdelegates. We know  neither candidate will get to the convention in August with enough delegates to win.  However ,we are not sure about is how the powers of the party will come to a decision satisfying both camps.  Hillary wins Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania than she can say she won all the big important states despite Obama eight straight victories in a row.  Now if Obama wins Ohio, it could be a determining factor.  The debate in Austin, Texas Wednesday night will be huge.

Exchanges between Obama and Clinton have been mild by all standards, but outside right wing blogs have been trying to derail Obama with planted falsehoods.  First was the Pledge of Allegiance story, then it was trying to tie him to the Muslims.  Recently the blog reported a story about a Che Guerra poster in his Houston campaign office.  Of course, Obama condemned it and went on.  The right wing is looking for a “macaca” incident.

The Wolf Blitzer interview with Charles Barkley was hilarious.  Charles said he would never vote Republican, because conservatives were just fake Christians to him, because they are not about forgiving.  I’ve noticed that some posters will use any opportunity to show their displeasure for poor people, while ignoring the corruption of the affluent  in a crisis.

John McCain’s lack of economic knowledge showed yesterday on ABC Sunday.  George Stephanopoulos asked John about the housing crisis.  McCain went into his debate canned answer, which had nothing to do with the housing crisis.  He said he would reduce pork, cut taxes, and that he had Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm as his economic advisers.  That’s great John ,but what have you learned from them?  His healthcare plan was to reduce cost ,tort reform and more choices for individuals.  Huh?  Then he said something amazing to prove his electability.  “Barack Obama was voted the most liberal senator”.  So what, is that all you have John McCain?  That old, GHW Bush line won’t work.  The 20% independent voters will not care about ideology,they want knowledge of all the issues.  A one trick pony will not go far.

Posters on the right are hung up on ideology. I was commenting on the Ramos-Compean story yesterday, when Kenneth Schustereit answered my post by saying “we’d had our differences as liberals and conservatives.” Where did that come from?  I’ve always said I really don’t care about ideology (that’s a right wing thing)and this story was neither liberal nor conservative.  Instead of discussing issues we end up talking about labels.

Director of national intelligence Michael McConnell was a guest on Fox news Sunday.

Mr. McConnell, pretty much said, the hold up of the “  Protect America Bill” was approving retroactive immunity to the telecoms.  The administration wants Nancy Pelosi to get her troops to pass the bill, without seeing why the telecoms  want retroactive immunity.  Carte blanche.  Mr. McConnell continued with the fear mongering leaving out  important information, like admitting that we will still be able to monitor our enemies phone calls.  The telecoms brought the program to a halt last year, when they cut off service, because of non-payment by our federal government.  Why do our citizens want to sue the telecoms?  Why should government prevent our citizens from suing?

Change? This is coming from someone who's had the recliner in the same place for 35 years, but 70% of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction. Do I think one man can bring this trend to an abrupt halt? Of course not, but he could start the healing by appointing some Republicans to cabinet positions in his administration. Barack Obama said he would do this.

I made my contribution to the Barack Obama campaign fund (not that he needs it-$1 million a day is coming in) and I feel good about it. This is not to say that I would not support Hillary if she is the nominee.

The first change will come in the general election debates. Barack Obama said we must change the mindset that said it was right to invade a sovereign nation of Iraq, but the occupation was mishandled. Mr. Obama continues to say "we must  be as responsible getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in."(sic) John McCain cannot say, you voted for the same resolution to give the president authorization to invade Iraq.

Barack Obama can remind the American people ,that what  John McCain did was not exactly honest, when he staged a setting for his "things are improving in Iraq speech." He left out the part where helicopters were hovering above; along with the 100 troops surrounding him to ensure his safety. The particular village which he was talking from was car bombed the next day. John McCain might say that since casualties are down, our stay in Iraq would be similar to our presence in South Korea and Germany. I was stationed in South Korea for one year, and that was good duty. I could go to Seoul Korea in civilian clothes, unarmed. The Middle East and American troop occupation should never be compared to our presence in Germany or in South Korea. Finally, Mr. Obama can ask John McCain, how he plans to pay for a long occupation.

The Defense Department will finally have its 9/11 Military Tribunals about the time of the general election (coincidence of course) and John McCain will try to exploit this, by mocking the Democrats, for wanting habeas corpus to be restored to the detainees. Barack Obama should welcome this challenge, and ask John McCain why he does not have confidence in our criminal defense system. I say, execute the detainees immediately, instead of making a mockery of our judicial system.

The big change , forbidding lobbyists, access to policy committees. They can have a seat at the table, just not all the seats, and they cannot write the policy as they did with the senior Medicare bill and the Cheney energy bill. Barack Obama must continue to push for public financing.

Restoring our civil liberties, global warming, illegal immigration and embryonic stem cell research will be topics that the three candidates can agree on. Therefore change in these areas will come no matter who gets elected.

Barack Obama said he would bring transparency to our government. He emphasized this in one of the debates, saying he would invite all players to a conference on C-SPAN, instead of hammering out a health care program behind closed doors.

Instead of that dreaded "I will." Barack Obama is saying "we are the ones we been waiting for."

You would think the Democratic Party would be overjoyed over Tuesday night's 21 state results. The final vote tallies showed that the Democrats had 73% more voters than their Republican counterparts. So many new voters.

Barck Obama and Hillary Clinton are pretty much tied in delegates and popular vote.

Will this lead to a brokered convention? The Democrats have more than 700 super delegates, who might just decide who the candidate is. Each delegate represents 10,000 voters, that's way too much power for one person.

The Democratic Party's decided that Michigan's and Florida's delegates would not count since those states violated party rules by moving up their primary dates. Barack Obama Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to campaign in the violating states until after the unauthorized primary. Since Hillary Clinton's won Michigan and Florida, she wants those delegates to count. Will the Democratic Party now allow Michigan and Florida to have another primary? The Obama people will not favor that. I think the fair thing to do ,is to split the delegates evenly between the two candidates.

The stump speeches will not cause a split in the party, but if one side feels slighted after the convention, that damage will last a long time. I hope for the good of the party, it comes down to most delegates, excluding super-delegates.

What an election year, it's been said senators could not win the nomination of their party, because the numerous votes they cast, makes them all flip-floppers. This year, the Republican nominee is a senator,and so are the two front running Democrats. History will be made when the Democrats nominate an African-American or a woman's as their nominee.

A lot of funny moments in this election. One is Hannity's jaw drop as Ann Coulter said if John McCain was the nominee she would campaign for Hillary ,because she was stronger on defense than John

McCain. For once poor Alan Colmes was besides himself, laughing at his partner Hannity.The other Rush,Laura Ingram,Sean Hannity all telling their listeners that McCain was not a conservative

and would bring the party down,yet John McCain got the nomination. Is talk-radio losing it's influence?

Pundits used to say that if Iraq was a topic of discussion when the general election debates came around, the advantage would be with the Democrat. Not so anymore, but we will finally

have the deabte.Do we make a responsible withdrawal or see the mission through without a timetable? The pundits also said the Democrats wanted Iraq to be the main issue of the debates.

Not so anymore, it's the economy.

I am always amazed at the different interpretations of the general welfare clause in the Constitution. The general welfare clause was put to the test with FDR's New Deal. FDR famously said. "We refuse to leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by chance, and the hurricanes of disaster." Roosevelt used the fireside chats to enlist the help of the American people, when the Supreme Court sought to rule FDR's proposals unconstitutional. In the end the Supreme Court did rule Social Security compensation and the unemployment Act constitutional.

I always say, my friends on the right want government, to be no more than the broom closet in the West Wing. The president should just come out in time of war.

Of course self-reliance is best, but what is plan B? Does a prosperous nation ignore the less-fortunate? I've always believed that the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.The argument of which way is best will always be with us.

I thought, we needed to have the government pass civil rights legislation. The state's corporations and schools were not going to integrate on their own. We also needed affirmative action to level the playing field. We need an end date for affirmative action. I think, extending affirmative action only leads to resentment, because of reverse discrimination.

I hope the Republican Party gets their act together, because I firmly believe in checks and balances. We need good fiscal conservatives to watch over my Democrats. Divided government works.

I believe the government should invest in its people and provide tax cuts for education.The return on that investment would be tremendous

The Democrats want Universal Health Care, but those on the right say it is socialism. Many of those will be collecting Social Security and Medicare. So that won't hold water nor can we just dismantle the IRS.

I don't expect to change minds,but I wanted to let other posters know where I stand.

I have often wondered what people mean when they say "I guess we have to pick between the lesser of two evils." I seem to hear this every four years.

1. Do they mean their candidate does not have a chance of winning?

2. Are they uninterested in politics, and just repeat what they hear?

3. Is it because their favorite issue is not being discussed by either party?

4. Are they waiting for the perfect candidate without flaws?

5. There is still the possibility that  they do not like the candidates.

I do admit, it took me until Thursday night before, I latched onto a candidate. I will support Barack Obama, but if that candidate loses the nomination, I will support the winner in the  Democratic Party.

Now that the front runner for the GOP is John McCain, I know most of the general election debates will center on Iraq. Should we stay there indefinitely, or start making a responsible withdrawal? Barack Obama, convinced me that a candidate, who was against this war from the beginning would stand a better chance against a pro-Iraq war candidate. I genuinely think, Hillary or Obama could easily defeat Mitt Romney. If the debate is about economics, Barack Obama has said "Bring on the subject of economics, because the last six years of Republican fiscal policies will not be easy to defend."(sic).

Barack Obama could make a case that John McCain was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them. He jokingly said "the wheels came off, The Straight Talk Express.

I believe the nation will finally have that debate whether we should have gone into Iraq and the best path forward. I respect and honor John McCain's military record and his sacrifice for this country. Whoever the candidate, I hope, they stick to the issues and not allow the 527s to attack John McCain mendaciously . Two of Barack Obam's Thursday night's statement stuck with me. First, he said "we must get off the mindset that the Iraq war was justified, but mishandled." Second, he pointed out that the level of violence is back to 2005 levels, but as of yet, political reconciliation is nowhere in sight. He will point out, the present and future costs of this war of choice. If Hillary Clinton is the  nominee, she can only make the case for withdrawal, since she voted for the resolution to go to war.

Democratic enthusiasm is showing, according to record turnouts in the primaries. 60% of the new voters said they voted for Barack Obama. Many Republicans and Independents have voted for Barack Obama, not so for Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama will get more independent votes than Hillary or John McCain. Many absentee voters have already cast their votes for Hillary, making her the front runner before Super Tuesday. Barack Obama is gaining, but needs to get at least 40% of the delegates Tuesday night to stay competitive.

As noted on last nights Bill Maher's show, the people that hate Hillary Clinton will not vote for Barack Obama, Hillary has never done anything to be hated for. Am I wrong?

Sure, I have issues with George W. Bush, but I think I have good reasons. Incompetence on a wide range of issues, starting with the Iraq war, Katrina, Harriet Miers, his unwillingness to take blame for anything and circumventing the constitution.