With friends like Leon Panetta, Barack Obama is not going to need many enemies:

"There is a sense of entitlement that almost seems to be inbred. They are convinced Hillary is the one who should be assuming the mantle and it's tough to crack that."

Everyone knows I think PUMA's are um, wrongheaded, to put it nicely, but then again I am not a high profile Democrat. Here's the thing, Panetta seems to think Obama is entitled to the support of these folks. The sense of entitlement seems to be his. That is the attitude Obama must absolutely avoid now.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Digby writes about the Fallows article on the debates I covered the other day. It is a good post. But some of you may be struck by this passage:

Fallows didn't see the debates in real time (he was in China) so he was only able to get the full flavor of what was so wrong with them after the fact, seeing them all at once. Very few people wrote about this while it was happening, even in the blogosphere, until Gibson and Stephanopoulos went over the top on Barack and his online supporters lurched into gear. I consider that our failure too (me included --- I didn't make it the kind of focus of my blogging that I should have) and I hope we've learned our lesson.

(Emphasis supplied.) Digby pulls her punch here. She KNOWS why it was not covered by most of the Left bogs until the ABC debate - for the same reason the Media's bias, sexism and misogyny was not covered by the blogs - because they loved it when it was against Hillary Clinton. The Left blogs failed in the primaries and it is time they owned up to it and why - when it was smears, sexism and silliness against Clinton, all was well. Look at Keith Olbermann for crissakes. Their complaints about McCain favoritism in the Media, to the extent it exists, now rings hollow. Their credibility had been shot long ago. See Corrente's series on the subject.

Speaking for me only

Robert Chambers, convicted of the infamous New York "Preppy Murder" of Jennifer Levin, was released from prison in 2003 after serving his full 15 year sentence.

In 1986, Robert Chambers, a young and handsome guy who had dropped out of college, met Jennifer Levin, a student at an elite private high school in Manhattan, at a trendy bar on the Upper East Side. They then went to Central Park, had sex, and she ended up strangled to death. Chambers said it was an accident, they had been having consensual rough sex.

In 2005, Chambers made the news again when he was busted for cocaine residue on a straw and an empty tin foil packet found during a traffic stop.

Now, they are sending Chambers to jail for 19 years for a small time drug deal. As Anthony Papas argues, this is not a sentence for drugs, it's a second sentence for the Jennifer Levin murder. [More...]

After the Obama campaign tossed General Wes Clark under the bus for stating the obvious, that getting shot down in an airplane is not command experience, they better get used to this

[McCain spokeperson] Nicolle Wallace: ""The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."

Sure it's stupid, but stupid works when you don't push back.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

In response to my post on PPP's Ohio poll, I was sent an e-mail telling me to relax:

I am an Obama fellow here in Ohio and am close to the campaign director for the state. They are about 4 points ahead in Ohio and expect Ohio to be close. . . . Their ground game here is phenomenal and unlike John Kerry and Al Gore, we are all over the southern part of Ohio which is where Obama has to not get swamped to win in the state. . . . Relax.

Ok. Tell it to Paul Krugman:

Why isn’t the Obama campaign getting more traction on economic issues? . . . [T]he problem isn’t lack of specifics — it’s lack of passion. When it comes to the economy, Mr. Obama’s campaign seems oddly lethargic.

[Obama] seemed to go out of his way to avoid scoring political points. “Back in the 1990s,” he declared, “your incomes grew by $6,000, and over the last several years, they’ve actually fallen by nearly $1,000.” Um, not quite: real median household income didn’t rise $6,000 during “the 1990s,” it did so during the Clinton years, after falling under the first Bush administration. Income hasn’t fallen $1,000 in “recent years,” it’s fallen under George Bush, with all of the decline taking place before 2005.

Krugman then does the unpardonable, he touts Bill Clinton's political approach on economic matters:

Earlier, Big Tent Democrat made another case for Hillary as Vice President. I'll make another case against Sen. Joe Biden. My specific arguments are contained in these posts:

• Report: Kaine, Biden, Bayh at Top of Obama's Veep List
• Joe Biden is No Progressive on Crime Issues.
• Joe Biden Feels a Draft
• Delaware's Shame: Prison AIDS Crisis

Check out these Joe Biden quotes below:

Virginia's DNA Project was intended to serve the worthy goal of uncovering wrongful convictions.

Virginia's large-scale review was started in 2005 after the exonerations of five men who spent a total of 91 years in prison. Virginia's then-Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) ordered the testing, calling it the "only morally acceptable course."

The state crime lab began the project by combing through about 500,000 old files of investigations into violent crimes, such as rapes and homicides, to see whether evidence had been preserved. Any case where biological clues remained and a person was convicted was picked for testing. All results are sent to the police and prosecutor's office that handled the case years ago, said Peter M. Marone, director of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science.

What happens next is unclear. Police and prosecutors are getting the results, but they're resisting invitations to share them with defendants and defense attorneys. [more ...]

Whether it's the Olympics or something else that's on your mind, here's a place to talk about it.

As I was driving around downtown Denver today, it occurred to me how small an area it really is. While 50,000 people aren't unusual for a sports game, the folks all go home afterwards. Next week, they'll be sticking around 24/7 -- especially since so many hotels are miles away. It's going to be very crowded. [More...]

You know how after the fact now everyone wonders how in the hell we plunged into the Iraq Debacle? How in hindsight it was so obviously boneheaded that we wonder where all the "experts" were yelling "are you crazy?" That is how I feel about the fact that Barack Obama is not going to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Honestly, I have never seen a bigger no brainer in my life for this. But you have read it all before from me as to why this is so. But do not take my word for it, ask Obamabot numbers man Poblano:

Clinton -- Boy, would this be dramatic. And perhaps exceptionally smart. I think Obama might get an immediate 10-15 point bounce if he named her. But I don't know how well she'd hold up after coming under attack in September and October -- remember, she hasn't really been the subject of a negative campaign since late February, when the Obama folks decided they had the nomination locked up and started to play it safe. It's a crazy scenario, but the whole Obama veepstakes has been crazy enough that I wouldn't rule it out.

(Emphasis supplied for sheer incredulity. How would Hillary hold up under negative attacks? Are you freaking kidding me? This is an open question for Poblano? Sheesh.)

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Are you worrying yet? Steve Soto is. I'm getting there. And here is another reason why -- PPP (PDF) says its tied in Ohio (PPP had Obama up 8 last month):

John McCain has pulled even with Barack Obama in Ohio, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling. Obama had led in PPP’s June and July polls of the state. It’s 45-45 with 10% undecided. One factor causing Obama problems is that he’s not doing as good a job as McCain of getting folks in his party to vote for him. While McCain leads 89-7 among Republicans, Obama’s lead is a narrower 75-17 among Democrats. Obama has the 45-28 edge with independent voters.

The Democrats neglecting to choose Obama are disproportionately white, female, and middle aged, an indication that it could be former supporters of Hillary Clinton who are holding out.

(Emphasis supplied.) Yep. Not considering Hillary for VP is brilliant. If Obama loses without picking Hillary, he and his team will have some serious splainin' to do.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Kevin Drum say yes. I beg to differ. Kevin writes:

My take, roughly, is that Putin screwed up. . . . Putin got greedy — or just made a mistake — and sent Russian troops into Georgia proper. . . . [I]t succeeded mainly in uniting virtually everyone in outrage against Russian aggression. Putin can pretend all he wants that he doesn't care about Western opinion, but he obviously does — and what's more, Western unity makes a difference in concrete terms too. . . . [I]n the end, the countries on Russia's border are more firmly in our camp now than they were even before the war.

This strikes me as an utter misreading of the situation. I'll explain why on the flip.

Rick Warren has made transcripts of last night's faith forum available here. CNN has video links to some questions and answers. Ryan Corsaro observes that John McCain repeatedly violated Warren's admonition not to answer with his stump speech, a tactic that served McCain well. James Fallows doesn't expect McCain to do as well when under pressure in a debate. Adele Stan compares the candidates' approaches to (and definitions of) evil.

On the topic of abortion, it's interesting to note the wording of Warren's question: [more ...]