Digby highlighted Bob Somerby's piece about how the race issue is cutting against Obama. I was struck by Somerby's quote of Bob Herbert:

HERBERT (8/2/08): Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation [in saying Obama “played the race card.”]

We’ll stay away from definitive judgments about McCain’s motivation. But we agree, whole-heartedly, that race is dangerous for Candidate Obama . . .

It is obvious of course but Somerby and Digby and frankly, all commenters have decided to forget what happened in January 2008 in the Democratic Party, when "everyday the campaign was about race" was GOOD for Obama. As we know, Bill Clinton has not forgotten. On February 14, 2008, I wrote a post titled Turning Obama Into The Black Candidate:

Digby writes about poblano's piece in the LATimes and questions one of his premises. Poblano wrote:

The GOP will nominate a candidate who is widely perceived as being to the left of the party's conservative base, whereas the Democratic Party will again pick a standard-bearer more authentically liberal than centrist.

Digby responds:

I agree that McCain was chosen because he wasn't perceived as a doctrinaire Republican, but is it true that Obama was chosen because he's more authentically liberal than centrist? I thought he was running as someone who was beyond labels --- a post-partisan whose vision was to transcend partisanship altogether. The problem is that these Independent voters still see McCain as a moderate while they see Obama as a raging liberal. The post-partisanship hasn't sold to them the way it was supposed to, at least not yet.

More . . .

In an earlier post about the rumor that Sen. Barack Obama will pick Evan Bayh as his running mate, I said I didn't have a problem with it. I may or may not be rethinking this. Bayh is not entirely consistent on crime issues, although he seems to have improved a bit in recent years (except for FISA and since I opposed any remake of FISA, even one without telecom immunity, I'm leaving that alone for the moment):

In 1996, Sen. Bayh spoke at the Democratic National Convention when Bill Clinton was nominated for a second term. We all know how bad Clinton was for Defendants' rights. (To his credit, he's come around quite a bit since being President -- maybe Bayh has too.) Anyway, Here's what Bayh said at the convention in 1996:

But a shadow threatens to spread over this new opportunity: Crime and violence. They prey upon our children and on our parents. Violence must be stopped. Violent criminals must be severely punished. And under President Clinton, they are.

Thanks to him, dangerous repeat offenders are going to jail for life - with no chance for parole. He is putting 100,000 more police on our streets. And that adds up. For each crime that's prevented - a victim is spared.

More...

SUSA's Florida poll has McCain up 6, 50-44. Again, the SUSA demos are where the action is. McCain leads among whites (73% of the electorate) 57-38, Obama among Latinos (13%) 48-42 and A-As (11%) 84-16 (obviously too low, SUSA has consistently underpolled Obama's A-A support). Making the adjustment to Obama 95-5 among African Americans, still leaves McCain up 5.

Here is why Obama is losing and likely will lose Florida, McCain leads among women 51-44 and voters 65+ (30% of the electorate) 54-41. Obama has one chance to win in Florida, pick Hillary Clinton as his VP. If he does not, then there is no point to wasting resources in Florida.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Westword is Denver's award-winning, alternative, free weekly paper. It has a section devoted to the Democratic Convention, called Demver. Today's irreverent orientation video is by its "resident fake drunk cowboy" and friends at Wrist Deep Productions.

Given all the anger in the comments here today on serious subjects, hopefully it will make everyone lighten up a bit. This is an open thread.

Denver officials announced today that the protest zone for Invesco Field where Sen. Barack Obama will deliver his nomination acceptance speech will be in the parking lot. The lot will be fenced.

The fenced-in area will be about 53,000 square feet in Lot J. Delegates entering the convention will pass by the area from between 200 and 400 feet away after they are dropped off for the night's speech by Sen. Barack Obama.

Protesters will be allowed to use bullhorns, and the city will provide a stage, amplification equipment, and at least two speakers that will be located outside the zone and pointing toward Invesco Field at Mile High.

Here's the map (pdf) showing Lot J.

In related news, the protesters are offering Denver a "doo doo accord" (pdf copy here) and yes, it's just what it sound like -- it's in reponse to the City Council's upcoming final consideration of a law banning protesters from carrying buckets of the human stuff.

Sen. Evan Bayh is going to introduce Sen. Barack Obama at an event in Bayh's home town of Indiana on Wednesday.

Is that any reason to cancel a baseball game the night before?

Bayh's team was scheduled to play "the One-Hitters", which is the team of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. Team captain and SSDP executive director Kris Krane and SSDP's Government Relations Director Tom Angell think something is up and there could be a big announcement Wednesday by Obama and Bayh.

Since Tom thought it important enough to e-mail me about it, which he only does with big news, I'm thinking there may be something to this.

For the record, I'm fine with Sen. Bayh as the Vice Presidential candidate.

The military commissions trial of Salim Hamdan, driver for Osama bin Laden, went to the jury today.

Hamdan never testified in his defense across two weeks of trial testimony. But unlike suspects on U.S. soil... Hamdan had no right to an attorney or right against self-incrimination during 18 months of military and civilian interrogations from Afghanistan to Guantánamo.

In closing arguments:

[T]he Pentagon cast bin Laden's driver as an al Qaeda insider and the defense called him a Sept. 11 scapegoat. "He's an al Qaeda warrior. He has wounded, and the people he has worked with have wounded the world," prosecutor John Murphy told the jury. "You are the conscience of the community."

Countered Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, on behalf of the $200-a-month driver: "We will capture or kill Osama bin Laden some day. You should not punish the general's driver today with the crimes of the general."

By the numbers: There were only 10 media members in attendance on the last day of testimony. It took a Pentagon airlift to get most of them there at all.

The Green Bay Packers' management team has not been particularly adept in its handling of Brett Favre, who wants to return to his starting quarterback job, be released, or be traded (presumably to a team that has a decent receiver or two). It's likely that Packers management will compound that problem by hiring former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer "for one month to help them handle the public relations nightmare the situation has created."

When he wasn't helping Dick Cheney out CIA agents, Comical Ari's specialty was spinning lies to the media. The Packers really think he's equipped to help them clean up the mess they've made? Does Fleischer plan to accuse Favre of hiding WMD's in his locker? Unlike White House reporters, local sports reporters tend to know the difference between truth and lies. For the Packers, the nightmare has only begun.

In the wake of recent videos showing New York City police using unnecessary or excessive force against the people they're supposed to be protecting and serving, the advocacy group One Hundred Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care is calling for federal intervention.

"These cases have run unstopped since Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has been the police commissioner," said Noel Leader of 100 Blacks. "There has never been a lull in these outrageous examples of police abuse and misconduct."

Other complaints include "too many incidents of officers performing illegal stops and arrests."

Actor Morgan Freeman, 71, is in serious condition following a car accident in Mississippi last night. He was extracted from the vehicle with "the jaws of life" and airlifted to a hospital in Memphis.

Send good thoughts his way. Here's a famous clip from Shawshank Redemption where he meets the parole board and is asked if he's been rehabilitated:

My personal feelings on the disgraceful behavior of Rep. Jim Clyburn are no secret. In the GMA interview aired this morning, it turns out President Clinton made his feelings about Jim Clyburn quite clear as well: