I share with you a lesson about grammar I give the first day, attempting to correct some localisms here such as misusing "learn" and "teach."

I say, "I can't learn you; I can only teach you."

This was no gaffe. This was Obama explaining and demonstrating his understanding of people who struggle hard and our challenged for a long time..some do cling to religion or guns as a form of trying to survive while feeling terribly let down.

I live in timber country. The glory days of logging are long over, people lost hope and lost opportunities for their children. Being skeptical of candidates and finding simple solutions to explain things to themselves about why things are the way they are; results in bitterness. Obama told the Californians drinking their white wine the reality he faces as a candidate.  There was no talking down. He was talking about lifting up hard pressed communities.

I see the whole thing as a perfect set up for them. Obama is the person they would have hand picked from a boatload of Dems to be McCain's opponent!

Thing is, I don't think they counted on how hard Hillary would fight. They probably assumed she'd be long gone by now. But ya know what? She ain't goin' nowhere! And neither are her supporters!

General Clark spoke with one of the bloggers at his blog -- I'll cut and paste what she said he said:

ORDERS FROM THE GENERAL

I'm always conscious of taking too much of the General's time in a public setting where there are so many so eager to visit with him. But each time that I sensed my `good will' time had expired and I'd back off to leave, waving "Bye-Bye, General Clark!"-- Wes would elbow past some patient person in line, come up to me and start in again. Looking at me sternly and reminding me I need to keep fighting for this, for him, for Hillary.

I've never known Wes to reiterate anything so much as that afternoon, when he kept emphatically repeating:

Now look! You've got to keep fighting this! You've got to keep it up- all of you! Keep fighting. Don't give up! Don't stop!

I felt like a private first class getting my marching orders from a, er... highly motivated General! :)

I accepted the `call to duty' but restated just how brutal it had been lately for so many of us - the levels of vitriol being so high-pitched... making it at times insufferable to even blog.

Looking both really sad and mad simultaneously, Wes responded:

"I know! Even my own team - my blog - has been split up over this."

I was struck by his heartfelt and pained expression. We know he reads and loves his blog and his bloggers -- but calling us "my team- my blog" in that plaintive voice, seemed at once so parental and so caring... It felt as though we were all some sort of surrogate kids he'd adopted, whom he wants to flourish but equally wants to protect. Hmmm... So that would make Wes and Gert kind of like the Brad and Angelina of the net, and.... Okay, okay, I may be reading too much into it ;b-- but I can tell you that Wes is deeply saddened by CCN being torn apart and by any semblance of Clarkie Civil (or uncivil?) Wars taking place.

I nodded and commiserated with him, then politely started to head out again, waving goodbye....

Again-- he leaned forward and stressed:

"You've got to keep fighting! On the net, everywhere, you've got to fight this!"

Yes, General, got it... Keep fighting.

By this time, I'm already tired and haven't even begun this `new fight' yet, heh -- But whether it's from here at CCN, or elsewhere - I know that complying with the General's latest orders is now well drummed into my head and atop the agenda. ;) Something in his voice, his face, his body language-- convinced me that this little netroots fight for accuracy and parity on behalf of Hillary Clinton is much more critical in the scheme of things than it appears on the surface. With this unbridled passion emanating from a Four Star General, a "Supreme Allied Commander", who has successfully wrangled a few gnarly enemies of his own in his day... Something tells me we should all be paying attention.

We are all Wes Clark's virtual troops right now and he wants his troops to be battle ready and on the front lines. He's a little cranky, :-) and not in the mood to hear excuses. I hope we can make him proud of us.

he's lazy, has never listened to me (or a sermon) his entire life, and really just wants his tummy rubbed

It was a winning strategy in Ohio.  For Clinton.

This is the same problem with Gore and Kerry--their inability to vote with the core of the democratic party.  You know, the folks who stayed home rather than vote for someone who appeared elitist?

This kind of thing--crazed media over-attention--is bad for the long term health of the Democrats.

Oh, my.

Watching the lightbulb come on over talking heads is fun, as they begin to get that The Perfect Man just may have been caught saying something so impolitic.

When Sen. Obama said that people turn to "guns," he did not mean they would pick up guns and shoot people.

He was talking about the issue of gun rights.  A significant fraction--maybe even a majority--of working class white men in Pennsylvania (and just about every other state in America) interpret the 2nd Amendment to mean: an individual right to keep and bear semi-automatic firearms, and consider this right to be sacrosanct, on par with the 1st Amendment.