Pastor Rick Warren* is interviewing Barack Obama and John McCain this evening, asking each candidate roughly the same set of questions for an hour each. Obama first. One of Warren's questions asked about the contrast between the investment America makes in its educational system and the investment it makes in its "we're number one!" prison system. Disappointingly, Obama gave a fine (to me) answer on education while ignoring the "prison nation" aspect of the question entirely. I expect John McCain to do the same (although McCain's take on education may be less reasonable).

Here's a place to weigh in for those of you who have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than to watch the candidates chat with Rick Warren. Follow the rules please, particularly with regard to insults.

Update: McCain, when asked the same question, praised "choice and competition," home schooling, and charter schools. Like Obama, McCain ducked the part of the question that quietly damned the American imprisonment rate. McCain channeled his answers to well rehearsed excerpts from stump speeches, complete with frequent insertions of "my friends" into his answers. He played well to the crowd. Obama held his own, I think, but McCain's performance was the crowd favorite, my friends. [more ...]

Joe Biden left for Georgia today to meet with its President.

Either Obama is not naming his VP candidate Monday or on a more hopeful note, it's not Biden.

I'm wondering if Bill Richardson could be back in the running, even though he has a speaker slot at the convention. Obama will be in New Mexico Monday, and New Mexico is one of those states (with its five electoral votes) Obama is trying hard to win but he faces a lot of resistance among Hispanic voters in the southern half of the state.

The New York Times reports that Sen. Barack Obama has no campaign offices in Arkansas and hasn't visited the state since 2006. Even though,

Arkansas has a Democratic governor, an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, two Democratic United States senators and three Democratic Congressional representatives out of four.

The Democratic presidential primary here drew 80,000 more voters than the Republican one. And though the state voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004, the two previous elections went handily to its native son, Bill Clinton.

What's up with this? Is it a sign that other than the southern states with large African American populations like North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, he's not even going to try to win southern rural voters? [More...]

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note reports that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has told Gen. Wesley Clark his services aren't needed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Clemons adds in an update:

I have reconfirmed with General Wesley Clark's office that he has not been asked to play a role at the Democratic National Convention. His staff have told me that while his schedule remains tight, he would rearrange his schedule to help play any constructive role on any days of the convention if asked.

If true, I guess that means Clark will not be the Veep candidate. Too bad. He would have been a great choice and brought a lot to the ticket in November.

So say the Rocky Mountain News poll:

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are neck-and-neck in Colorado, solidifying the state as a key, swing area that will be pivotal in deciding who becomes the next president of the U.S., according to a Rocky Mountain News/CBS4 News poll released Friday. "It's a heck of a horse race in Colorado," said pollster Lori Weigel. "We're officially a purple state now."

. . . Overall, Coloradans favored McCain 44 percent to 41 percent, but the gap was within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points. McCain also had a slightly higher approval rating, 55 percent to 53 percent, also within the margin of error.

This is the first time I have seen a non Rasmussen poll with McCain leading in Colorado. Yes, it makes me worry. Colorado is pivotal to an Obama electoral map strategy. I thought he would win it easily.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Let's hear it for those who stepped up to help the women and children left behind in Postville, Iowa after a raid resulted in the arrests of about 400 undocumented workers, many of whom were imprisoned after cursory proceedings.

The raid left 43 women, wives of the men who were taken away, and their 150 children without status or a means of support. The women cannot leave the town, and to make sure they do not they have been outfitted with leg monitoring bracelets.

Postville has turned into an open air prison for the women and children who, for "humanitarian" reasons, haven't been detained behind bars. The women have been left to fend for themselves, but are prohibited from working to earn money. [more ...]

The New Republic has a good article about the South Ossetian conflict from a Georgia supporter. It is a pretty honest assessment, unlike much of what we have seen from others arguing for Georgia. Ronald Asmus writes:

I know that this is a war that the Georgian government never wanted. To be sure, the Georgian government and President Saakashvili himself is responsible for launching its military move on August 7--albeit in response to provocations and heavy shelling by South Ossetian separatists. That move gave Moscow the pretext to invade. Today, Western observers understandably ask why Tbilisi allowed itself to be goaded into what was clearly a Russian trap. President Saakashvili will have to answer that question himself. But I suspect I have a pretty good idea of what he will say.

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In May, I published Peniel Cronin's ground-breaking research report on the injustices in the 2008 state caucuses. The original report is here, the June revised report is here. ( Posts on the follow-ups and revisions here.)

Ms. Cronin has just released her final report. The data charts for the report are here. The report contains new information and data as well as a rewritten Conclusion and a call for caucus reform.

Ms. Cronin stresses that the report is not about Obama-bashing. It is clearly about the flaws of the caucus as a voting system, as distinguished from its value as a forum of debate and discussion. Here's an excerpt from her conclusion: [More...]

Yesterday the DNCC announced an Unity-Faith Breakfast in addition to the Interfaith event that will open the Convention.

Today, they announced interfaith caucus events. In addition, the release says:

Senator Obama is a committed Christian, and he believes that people of all faiths have an important place in American life,” said Joshua Dubois, Obama For America Director of Religious Affairs. “He's proud to work with the Democratic National Convention Committee on a Convention that fully engages people of faith in dialogue, celebration and prayer. We are honored that so many religious leaders are reaching across partisan and ideological lines in this Convention to address the values that matter to Americans."

Every night, the release continuess, the convention will begin with an invocation and end with a benediction. It stresses the evangelicals included [More...]

On August 13, the DNCC announced additional speakers for Tuesday night, the night that Hillary Clinton and Convention Keynote Speaker Mark Warner will make their speeches.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Governors Ted Strickland of Ohio and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Senator Bob Casey, Jr. of Pennsylvania and Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Federico Peña, former Mayor of Denver and Secretary of both Energy and Transportation.

In addition to those ten speakers, a press release I received today adds nine more: [More...]

Russia signed the cease fire agreement, but basically said it was staying in its current position, stating "withdrawal would depend on the introduction of what he called additional security measures, without explaining what those were."

I think what Russia means is that Georgia has to give up its claims to South Ossetia and Abkhazia before they will withdraw. George Bush says:

The United States, though, has emphasized that Georgia’s territorial integrity must be preserved. Mr. Bush said Saturday, “There’s no room for debate on this matter.”

(Emphasis supplied.) I agree with Bush. There is no room for debate on this matter. Georgia blew it. It has to give up its claims to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A face saver is needed. Something like a UN-monitored referendum in these two provinces. But make no mistake, Bush and the US are blustering now.

Speaking for me only

During the Cold War, I was a Cold Warrior. I believed that the Soviet Union was an "Evil Empire." In that era, NATO's mission as a defense alliance against Soviet aggression in Europe was clear and correct. But what about today? You see, I believe, like Ronald Reagan did, that a real change occurred in the era of Gorbachev and since then. Today, the Washington Post editorial board predictably attacks Russia's actions in South Ossetia while pretending Georgia is a good actor in this situation. Michael Dobbs, ironically writing for WaPo's Outlook section on Sunday, debunks WaPo's mythmaking:

I was there in [South Ossetia in] March 1991, shortly after the city was occupied by Georgian militia units loyal to Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first freely elected leader of Georgia in seven decades. One of Gamsakhurdia's first acts as Georgian president was to cancel the political autonomy that the Stalinist constitution had granted the republic's 90,000-strong Ossetian minority. After negotiating safe passage with Soviet interior ministry troops who had stationed themselves between the Georgians and the Ossetians, I discovered that the town had been ransacked by Gamsakhurdia's militia. The Georgians had trashed the Ossetian national theater, decapitated the statue of an Ossetian poet and pulled down monuments to Ossetians who had fought with Soviet troops in World War II. The Ossetians were responding in kind, firing on Georgian villages and forcing Georgian residents of Tskhinvali to flee their homes.

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