If this was preconcieved, I must admit that it was executed brilliantly. Here's how the plot went.

It was understood that McCain will benefit from internation crisis this Fall.
It was also understood that he will not get much mileage out of Iraq/Pakistan/ Afganistan conflict. At very least, Obama will tie him there.
A new international crisis needed for November. Not any crisis, but serious one, one that will capture Americans' fears once again.
How about Cold War II vs. Russia, asked McBush?

From First Read:

OBAMA ECHOES CLINTON 'FIGHTER' MESSAGE

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- As Obama has focused on the economy almost exclusively on the campaign trail in recent days, he has begun to sound more and more like his former rival Hillary Clinton, co-opting her rhetoric on being a "fighter" for ordinary Americans....

"That’s why I promise you this: that if you will vote for me, if you give me that opportunity, if you give me that chance, that I will fight for you every single day. I will wake up in that White House thinking about the people of Martinsville and the people of Henry County and how I can make your life better," he said, echoing a line Clinton often used at the end of her speeches.

If you believe the media CW, Obama is a sure loser if he doesn’t pick the bastard love child of Curtis LeMay and Dean Acheson who was trained from birth in ninja tactics and CIA dirty tricks.  But let’s remember something: those people are clowns...

Obama:

I want somebody who has integrity, who’s in politics for the right reasons, I want somebody who is independent. Somebody who is able to say to me, ‘You know what, Mr. President, I think you’re wrong on this and here’s why,’ and who will help me think through major issues and consult with me, would be a key advisor. I want somebody who is capable of being president and who I would trust to be president. That’s the first criteria for VP.  And the final thing is, I want a president (SIC) who shares with me a passion to make the lives of the American people better than they are right now.  I want someone who is not in it just because they want to have their name up in lights or end up being president. I want somebody who is mad right now that people are losing their jobs. And is mad right now that people have seen their incomes decline, and wants to rebuild the middle class in this country. That’s the kind of person that I want; somebody who in their gut knows where they came from and believes that we have to grow this country from the bottom up.

OMG guys, did you know that Obama is going to pick his VP choice soon?  You know what would be HILARIOUS??  A FAKEOUT!!!!  Wouldn't that be SO FUCKING FUNNY??

I know, now that you've gotten nauseous, hear me out. And yes this is another suggestion from a nobody but it dovetails with what Josh Marshall has argued about how Obama needs consistent arguments.

Flame me if you want. Call me a concern troll. But I see what McCain is doing and Obama is not doing and something really needs to be done about it.

And here's the Rove recipe. Attack in 3s. Sounds simple. It is.

I witnessed Bush beat Ann Richards for governor and he did it by picking three issues which were weak about Richard's past 4 year term. He repeated these three over and over and over. Soon the campaign became about those three arguments. I believe one was a rise in teenage crime. There was so little to criticize her on but he found three. Soon the campaign becamse about those three issues and Richards was forced to play defense. And despite great popularity, she lost to Shrub.

It was Karl Rove who did this and he laughed about it later. Americans have such a short attention span, they won't spend time disecting issues. Pick three points and run with them. That's all you need. Three weaknesses of your opponent.

Why threes? It works. When writing persuasive papers or making a closing argument, uses threes. It works. Simple. Direct. Repeatedly.

this comment from rfahey22 over at open left got me thinking

Maybe they're buying time
and trying to persuade someone on the fence (such as Warner) to accept the nomination.  Otherwise I would agree that a Friday/Saturday announcement would be strange.

obviously i have no inside knowledge but hey i'll give a shot for shits & giggles. i know trying to guess this is teh stoopid but f**k it, this is not speculation this is a prediction. follow me down the rabbit hole.

I just got a text from Senator Barack Obama....and I am PISSED!

The following press release just hit my mailbox a few minutes ago.

Today the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced a proposal to establish a special commission to recommend changes to the Democratic Party's rules for delegate selection and presidential primary timing for future presidential cycles. The proposal will be presented to the Convention Rules Committee on Saturday in Denver.

The 'Democratic Change Commission' will address three issues 1) changes to the opening of the window and pre-window, 2) reducing the number of superdelegates and 3) changes to the caucus system. The goal of the commission will be to ensure that no primary or caucus is held prior to the first Tuesday in March of 2012, with the exception of the approved pre-window states, whose contests would be held during February 2012.

After ten days overseas, one week on vacation, and tons of negative ads from McCain, Obama is finally tanking in the polls and the electoral vote count.
Gosh what does a guy have to do to become the underdog?
The Electoral Map
Stay with me!  

I was out yesterday doing my door to door canvassing in Jersey, when I was presented with something that Im sure people like me, canvassing for Obama, have met up wth before. The most vocal, though rarely visible, PUMA supporter.  Normally you can still smell them a mile away by the still posted Hillary 08 lawn signs, Obama lawn signs crossed out, or the now fashionable Women for McCain lawn sign.  This house had neither.  Just a plain lawn, no adornments.  Follow me, below the fold for more

With all concern troll portions excised:

What is [   ] with the Obama Campaign?  Don't they know that [   ] means they don't have [   ]?  It's no time to [   ]!  Just because it's August doesn't mean [   ].  

If it were my campaign, I would [    ] immediately.  I would also [   ], fire [   ], and generally [   ].  I mean, there's no choice now but to [   ], even if Obama prefers to [   ].

How can you let McCain [   ]?  Even if [   ] happens, we still have to [   ], because [   ], [   ], [   ] and [   ] are at stake.

Several superfluous pictures, then jump, with what I really think.

From the August 18th speech to the National VFW convention by John McCain: "Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president."

So, can we agree that it is wrong to have the ambition to be president?  McCain certainly states it as a negative in this case.  Let's assume for the moment that this is actually what he meant, and see where it takes us.

So says Human Events.com in a recent e-mail to its supporters.  They plan to put signs up all over Denver with this statement, more detail below.

Andrew Sullivan makes an excellent point.

In all the discussion of John McCain's recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?

According to the Bush administration's definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet. In the one indisputably authentic version of the story of a Vietnamese guard showing compassion, McCain talks of the agony of long-time standing. A quarter century later, Don Rumsfeld was putting his signature to memos lengthening the agony of "long-time standing" that victims of Bush's torture regime would have to endure. These torture techniques are, according to the president of the United States, merely "enhanced interrogation."

No war crimes were committed against McCain. And the techniques used are, according to the president, tools to extract accurate information. And so the false confessions that McCain was forced to make were, according to the logic of the Bush administration, as accurate as the "intelligence" we have procured from "interrogating" terror suspects. Feel safer?

Crazy, huh?

NCJan raised an interesting point of discussion today about Barack Obama's appearance in Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum.

I'll keep this simple.

Obama is blowing it.

Faced with sinking polls and highly effective attacks from Mclame, he pretends all's well and no sweat.

In San Fransisco he promised donors he'd win.

Our guy is living in a bubble and doesn't even know it.

All his latest ads are ineffective.  He's always playing defense.  It makes him look weak and wimpy.

Because I live in South Florida, I have been volunteering my time. Several times I have tried to contact the campaign but to no avail. Finally, out of sense of frustration, I contacted my field organizer regarding the direction of the campaign and how can I communicate those concerns to the campaign.  Earlier this morning I had a comment regarding the conversation:

Obama needs to fight back. I just spoke with my field organizer who said that she has been hearing this refrain on the ground. She said that people are getting a bit demoralized because they do not see him fighting back especially against the celebrity meme. People want to see a fighter so they are willing to bat for him. She said that she’s been submitting reports expressing those concerns. From my impression the top people in the campaign are in a bubble. It also my impression that there’s a lot of crap going on within the democratic party that we don’t know about.

That's the date that I and many here will probably have a more clear picture of the electorate landscape and how the Obama campaign is doing.  I've tried to be patient and will continue to be patient.  I think polls after the Democratic and Republican conventions plus two or three weeks will provide us with a more clear landscape on where the electorate is going.  However, there are a few things that are bothering me now and I would just like to share.