Well... tell you guys what.  I still think Obama took a pretty critical hit by not responding swiftly with the facts that clearly back him against that Joe the Plummer campaign.  As I predicted, it's become the centerpiece for the final push of the GOP.

Having said that... I may've been hasty in predicting that it'll cause Obama to lose.

Here's why:

Obama knows how to win elections... let's be clear here - when I say that, I mean that he understands how these things work and what it takes to win them.

See how he disqualified his opponents to win his first seat in Ill.  See how he worked the slow and steady delegate count against Hillary.  She focused on the wrong thing, and lost that contest.  Now look at the polling numbers for he and McCain... ((Let me make THIS clear - I know polls mean nothing, but for the sake of arguement, we'll use them to illustrate this point)) - McCain's poll numbers are slowly climbing - he's gone from a double digit lead to only being ahead of McCain by a few points now...

But look at the poll numbers for Electoral Votes.  He remains, as he's been through most of the race, WAY ahead.

Just as he defeated Hillary, he will defeat McCain.  (And no, wise guys, I'm not suggesting cheating or fraud)   He knows what it takes to win - in this case, the electoral college.  Sure, McCain is closing in on literal polling numbers, but as we've noted in this thread and others, that means something between jack and shit in the reality of American Democracy.

I don't say this in any sort of position of comfort - I think that it's still important that we fight to the end and stay vigilant against Republican Voter Fraud and the attempts to keep legitimate voters from exercizing their right to elect their electoral collage voters, but I do now feel that, in the end, America will be the winner, and Barack Obama will be our next President.

"From the John McCain camp, spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame."

Ok, this one cracked me up. Either he's saying he hopes McCain'll LOSE but that the strip is consistently lame, or he's saying that he hopes it wil NOT be predictive since it is NOT consistently lame.

I think he was trying to be funny and clever and say he hoped it would prove to be as wrong as it's unfunny, but he should have stayed away from those polysyllabic words, they can mess you up.