Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

He definitely gives me the sense of someone who knows where he wants to take the country, is prepared to ask for sacrifice and personal responsibility from every citizen, and has the people around him to bring Congress along.

He's not yet served a day of his first term, but all the signs are promising. We've seen what happens when a president has greatness thrust upon him (9/11) and declines the offer. Obama is a second chance. Godspeed, Barack.

Gulp. Blink.

From the great Billmon at Daily Kos:

This evening, though, I watched something happen that I was solid sure would never happen in my lifetime, or probably my children's lifetimes: A major American political party just nominated an African American as its candidate for the presidency of the United States -- the big job, the Leader of the Free World, the whole enchilada.

Watching it on C-SPAN, I saw a closeup shot of an African American delegate after Nancy Pelosi banged the gavel down. She was hugging the delegate next to her (a white woman) And the tears were pouring down her cheeks.

The Democratic Party Coalition

Digby has an interesting conversation going over at Hullabaloo, in which she speculates about the dynamics of a possible (probable?) Democratic controlling majority in Washington in the aftermath of a likely Republican debacle this coming Fall.

Snippet:

The Republicans kept their "moderates" on a very short chain and consciously governed with as few cross over votes as possible in order to keep the other side frustrated and the caucus "pure." They got things done for a while, and protected their president with the loyalty of feral pit bulls, but ended up destroying themselves.

My thoughts: Depends what you mean by "progressive" - if you mean politicians who champion, in a front-burner way, the sorts of things that get the Republican base riled up (Dean's "God, Guns and Gays"), I think you're likely to see problems and rancor - a squandered opportunity.

But if you mean the sorts of things that the New Deal Generation were in consensus about (and that there is still more of less a consensus about - Labor rights, teach-them-to-fish style antipoverty programs...and just the general idea that one of the legitimate and important functions of government is to help balance society by keeping things more equal than they would be under a laissez faire regime) then I think we may see significant progress.

Please Donate to Obama...

Here.

Josh Marshall on the state of the race...

This seems a pretty fair assesment of where things stand.

Off-topic: could someone please tell Josh Marshall to either: A. Grow a beard, or B. Shave?