Our national dark night will soon be a glorious brand new day.

I am supporting a number of candidates in my state this year. Not surprisingly, all of their campaigns have websites and links to donate online. (Because, as we all know, the internet a magic money-making machine, where pennie grow on pixels.) I signed up for each campaign's email distribution list. Not surprisingly, all I have received from most of the campaigns are pleas for money.

I would guess that few of these campaigns have a clue about online anything. I thought about sending an email and helpfully trying to explain it all to them, but...been there, done that, not much in the way of results. So I thought about it a bit, and here is what I've decided to do in the future:

Here in the Central Coast of California, we are in the target for Republicans and their wet dreams of offshore oil drilling. We have some seriously important races that are getting drown out with the Presidential fervor....one of them is for State Senator for the 15th District. The State Democrats didn't raise a finger to put up a Democratic contender against Abel Maldonado (who tried to get on both the Republican AND Democratic Primary ballots)...but, a determined former UPS worker mortgaged his house and got enough signatures to be on the November ballot. JIM FITZGERALD, you GO boy....

Cross-Posted At Democrashield

Right now, Fox News is asking me "Which candidate is better handling the Georgia conflict?"

The growing consensus in the media seems to be that it's John McCain.  But, if you look at what's going on, it becomes immediately clear that Georgia is a losing issue for McCain.

Let's take a look at why...

There has been a lot of criticism and praise for various ads by McCain, Obama, and others here on daily Kos.  Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and each of us is free to express it here.  That's what makes this place great.

But I submit that most of what we say about these ads is irrelevant.  We are not the audience.

Have any of you seen this movie?  I saw it for the first time tonight.  Yes, it's pretty old (Gov Clinton's campaign for the WH).  But it is quite interesting and reminiscent -- and oddly parallels the latest news about John Edwards and his infidelity.

After the fold:

As some of you might recall, I decided to take my activism to the next level by filing to run in a very "local" race, i.e. a special taxing district that maintains roads, drainage and parks in my community.  I decided that I would only accept campaign contributions from local residents, and would accept none from any person or entity that might be seeking special favors, a contract, or business dealings with the district (which eliminated a huge source of funding for the average candidate in the special district).

When I spur of the moment decided to get in the campaign, I really had no idea of the cost of running a campaign, even for the basics.  I had a vague concept of the huge costs of running a statewide campaign, or even a national campaign, simply by the dollars reported in contributions and expenditures, especially in the Presidential nomination process.

So, if you ever really wondered about where all those campaign dollars go, let me offer you just some of where my extremely low budget funds have gone so far...

Fellow Kossacks –

I have a problem here that needs immediate attention.  I am an itinerate college history professor and have picked up a course for the fall at the last minute.  The class is the standard US history survey and I have a question about a particular kind of book I am looking for.  

So, join me below the flip for my problem.

Both Obama and McCain will spent approximately $500 million on this election campaign.  For a number of reasons, expenditures in election campaigns tend to distort the process of voters trying to understand the policies, character, and leadership qualities of the candidates.

When I heard about the 60 year old librarian in Denver who was arrested and given a citation for trespassing at a John McCain Town Hall meeting for holding up a sign "McCain = Bush", I had longed wish that I had the money to start up a defense fund and put "plants" at various campaign stops.

My thought process was to have two volunteers with signs.  One that said McCain = Bush and the other that said I Love McCain.  Have them both standing side by side and see which one was told to leave the premises.  Of course there would be someone there with a video camera to tape it all.

The pragmatist in me tells me nice fantasy but rather unrealistic.  Not only would funding the project be an issue, but realistically, how many people are willing to go to risk going to jail for an experiment?

I heard of a poll today on NBC that seemed to be saying the election was drawing into pretty much a dead heat here in the middle of summer. A poll is just numbers, saying what they might mean is opinion and that's where I come in. It's no surprise that the electorate, at least those who were "polled", are generally evenly divided. This has been the case for several elections now. But specifically this year, it may be the result of a let down after the protracted Democratic primary and voters reassessing the candidates. This poll seems to suggest that many voters who had been supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton are not just automatically backing the presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

There was a lovely troll diary  recently about Barack Obama suggesting that children be taught Spanish. The diarist took this as an affront to America.

My response:

I am sorry you feel that way and that you believe American children should not be equipped to compete in the world that the Bush Administration has presented our children. You are asking our children to become the British children of the 1920s - ill-equipped to talk to the emerging global competitors in their language, left on the sidelines of global business.

Was door knocking again this weekend - I joking refer to the campaign as my aerobics program - when I had a door knock that just made my hair stand on end.

This guy was an Independent and he was fairly conservative but looks at both parties (face it, that is the swing vote in Colorado).

We discussed Anna's campaign, the local politics and then the presidential race. The money quote came after he said, "I'm not making a decision on Obama until after he announces his VP".

I asked why?

I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to political horseraces; this is the first election cycle I've been following with a magnifying glass. I'm endlessly fascinated with the very different ways Obama and McCain are going about their campaigns.

Obama tends to veer towards populism, hiring extremely smart people who might not be best of friends but definitely know their stuff. We all know this, we're betting the next four years on this extraordinary guy.

But he's extraordinary for another reason; he's forgone public campaign financing. This, coupled with his reliance on small donors, makes him different in that for the first time, "We, The People" seem to have been given the purse strings for his entire campaign.

Voter suppression is real. It takes more money to turnout Democratic voters than it does for the Republicans to turn out theirs. (Ours are more likely to not vote because of voter suppression. Ours are more likely to need rides to the polls. Etc.)

Compared to the reach of insidious chain emails and the MSM, the reach of the progressive blogosphere, while growing, is small. To expand the reach of the progressive community, you need to communicate with friends, family and your community, particularly in swing states. Remember that not everyone has the internet, and amongst those who do, many do not use the internet like you do. Many use it only for email and news.  I attended an event recently where Peter Daou spoke, and he talked about some of Clinton’s donors who used a credit card online for the first time when they donated to her. Neither of my parents have ever read a political blog. They use it for some news, email and keeping tabs on their stocks.  

Quite frankly, Obama and progressives everywhere need to expand the reach of our message and donor base beyond the folks who use the internet the way you use it.

This is partially an excerpt from a Anna Lord SquareState diary with an added "bonus" story.

The Anna Lord for House District 21 campaign began our 2008 walking campaign this weekend.

In 2006 Anna's walk plan was to knock on the doors of Dems, unaffiliated voters and  households with a Republican woman under 50.  She wore a pedometer when she walked in 2006 and logged 115 miles before she lost it in October.

The great thing about walking is the characters you meet. Here are two of the stories below the fold:

Cross-posted at Democrashield

Now, there are a lot of Hillary supporters out there calling the exclusion of Florida and Michigan from the Democratic primary "disenfranchisement."  These Hillary supporters are saying they won’t vote for Barack Obama because he’s disenfranchising millions of voters.  They say their opposition has nothing to do with what’s best for Hillary Clinton, that they're taking a principled stand against voter disenfranchisement.  

Alright, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.  Let’s say you are taking a principled stand against voter disenfranchisement.  Let’s say this has nothing to do with your support for Hillary.  Then I have some questions for you, like...

When this race began, it was Hillary Clinton's to lose.

Hillary lost the race fair and square.  

From the comments here, it would appear that not a lot of people here have been around politics long enough to have a perspective on the scale of what has just happened.

Her loss has a Shakespearean tragic quality.  As the campaign began to take shape, she made decisions based on assumptions that, while valid at one time, are actually not any more.  She and Bill, as astute as they are, failed to see the ground shifting under their feet.

Before you hit the reply button, we all should reflect how this could be the same story for each of us.  Please follow to the end of this diary!