As an Illinois senator he was the only one to vote against a bill to prevent early release for criminal sexual offenders.

This has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton and everything to do with Obama himself.

Certainly his online supporters are more vile than his offline supporters, on average. Certainly Obama is something more than just his supporters in general.

But no political candidate that I know of has tied himself more to his supporters than has Obama. They are his adoring audience; he is their idolized leader. They take their cues from him, and he takes many of his cues from them.

Can anyone say, for example, that one of the most vicious and gratuitous attacks on a political competitor -- the smear of Hillary over the RFK remarks -- did not come from the campaign itself, was not fed by the bile in his supporters, and did not feed it in turn?

Really, talking as though a political leader is not in many critical ways defined by his core constituencies strikes me as completely wrong to the facts. Probably nothing is more important about most political leaders, nothing more defining of who they are and what they will do, than is the nature of the people who become their most fervent supporters. The relationship is symbiotic and existential. And this is particularly so when the candidate explicitly creates a movement around himself, based far more on personal attributes than on external issues.

Following a presidential primary season highlighting broad public concern about current trade policies, the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act introduced on June 4, 2008 by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) reveals a way forward to a new trade and globalization agenda that could benefit more Americans. The bill is supported by a broad array of labor, consumer, environmental, family farm and faith groups and more than 50 House and Senate original cosponsors.

for more info or to download a PDF of the full bill go here

Glen Ford at Black Agenda Report says it well:

It does not really matter if Senators Obama and Clinton ever develop a fondness for one another, now that the pay-for-play primary charade is over. Their policies are interchangeable, as are their advisers, most of whom will wind up drawing big fat checks from some section or another of the larger Democratic campaign effort.   All serve the same masters: the financial corporations that this season definitively redirected their infinitely corrupting campaign contributions to the Democrats. Hedge funds are reported to be backing Democrats, nine to one. They are betting that, whatever "change" occurs, it will not alter basic power relationships in ways that threaten the rule of the rich one iota.

Now we're being told we're grieving emotional sore losers. Believe me - we've lost plenty of elections in my 54 years. I worry for my country but I can move on.

I will never vote for a McCain. But Obama has yet to earn my trust or my vote. I will probably vote for him but I usually am at the polling places with leaflets, or making phone calls to GOTV.

"Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, signaled Thursday that he really means business when it comes to health care reform."

Recently, he wore the good old flag pin.

In moments of jingoistic stupidity he has echoed Bush and McCain vis a vis Pakistan and Iran.

He fled from a progressive posture of willingness to meet with adversaries without preconditions.

We all know that he supported Lieberman against Lamont when his support for Lamont would have been meaningful.

If I am to be persuaded to consider voting for this man, he'll have to begin to enunciate progressive positions and hold to them.

Thing is, that fundies are OK with and support Bush is one way, a legitimate way, to express concern about his priorities and how he will govern.  To look at Bush and see a fundie's approval.