Looks like Obama has won the nomination

[MarsLady]

Personally, I am amazed that Obama has not been damaged more by his association with his outrageous minister.

Yes, he finally disassociated himself from the church this past week saying he found the racist and anti-white comments abhorrent. But, let's remember Obama was part of that congregation for nearly 2 decades, and even wrote a book with the minister. Presumably the sentiments expressed so strongly (and repeatedly and at length) by the minister a few months ago were nothing new. Extremely divisive and hate filled - and that makes me wonder if Obama can be trusted, or if he is simply a good actor, and extremely good orator.

yeah I feel a bit uncomfortable about it

a bit

but not in the usual good way

As two us pundits said
two scenarios
obama wins get assassinated and hc is president
mccain beats obama....

Hillary won't be Obama's running mate. It would be a powerplay for 4 years. I think it would be smart for him to pick Bill Richardson. He'd clean up on the Hispanic vote, and Richardson was my favorite from the get go.

McCain would be smart to go for Mike Huckabee because Huckabee will court all the bible belters.

I agree with KM too

I was quite depressed that in his speech he underlined absolute support for Israel. I was really hoping a Democrat would take a bit more of a wide view of the Middle East situation but it seems not.

Not bitter at all. I think it's fantastic that Hillary is not bending to misogyny and is continuing her fight. A man in her position would not be told to get out of the race. I hear quite a lot of Obama supporters are pretty pissed off though.

You see I don't see it as an issue of misogony - If it were unclear who was going to win then yes of course she should keep fighting on. But for a long time now it has been a near certainty that she wouldn't win and I think its been very damaging for the Democrat parties chance of winning this year.

I'm afraid my answer to you about Rezko will be very weak - I'll be honest - I don't know much about him. I've found it hard to keep up with all of the news.

As for Ayers - it is a very tenuous link and Obama strongly condemned the group. Clinton has one with the Weather underground too. Her husband commuted the sentences of two of its members not long before he left office.

And yes he did get the opponents removed legally. he does fight hard. All politicians at that level do. They wouldn't be there otherwise.

We clearly have very different views on Obama and Clinton. I can't imagine we would ever persuade each other over to the others view point. I'm sorry for the 'feeling bitter' comment. That was childish of me.

McCain has zero charisma, and Obama is loaded with it. McCain is a very experienced politician (with some old-fashioned/traditional ideas). Obama is relatively inexperienced, but is doing an excellent job of selling himself as the man who can deliver change.

Will be interesting to see how far charisma goes.

oops sorry!!!!!!
'Not bitter at all. I think it's fantastic that Hillary is not bending to misogyny and is continuing her fight. A man in her position would not be told to get out of the race. I hear quite a lot of Obama supporters are pretty pissed off though.'
is part of dittanys post not mine!!!!! I'd copied it onto mine so I could reply to specific points and forgot to delete it!

there are skeletons in every candidates closet. I was at a very pro republican award dinner in Baltimore 3 yrs ago and they all fainted in shock when I mentioned Hillary for the democrats... They were so sure it would be john Edwards and thoughts Edwards was a threat to republicans...
so perhaps obama may be best advised to check carefully his running mate. If he can get Hillary it is to his and the democrats advantage imvvvvvvvvvvho
but will she...
any odds on Chelsea in a decade or so?
I'm off to ladbrokes. Hillary will be the one they wished they had.... Not that she has zero faults, she has loads
but shexalso has clout, gravitas and contacts and everyone knows... Its not what you know but who you know....

if I'm going to bet on anything it's going to be if McCain can persuade Condi Rice to run with him.

so says the rumour, but what are the odds?

He would be a fool to ask Rice to be his running mate. He needs to distance himself from Bush politics. Asking her would be political suicide.

McCain is in a situation where democrats like him and respect him. He needs to court the republican conservative base who question how much of a Republican he is, while at the same time winning over Clinton voters.

probably, M, and i'd never vote for him, but it would make an interesting wager.

It really bugs me how everyone keeps calling him a black man. He's mixed race. Half white, half black. Both.
A white woman on the news was saying she couldn't vote for him because he's from 'the other race' . Er he's as much her race as he is 'the other race'.

The BBC just loves to play the black/white angle at every opportunity.

As if the country had no other ethnic minorities - when in fact they do. And they number into the tens of millions.

You never see them interviewing Hispanics, Asians or mixed race people.

Ah but Lyra... have you not heard of the one drop rule in America?

Disagree about Hillary. There are a LOT of people who don't like her, (yes, I'm talking Democrats also, not just Republicans) and are really turned off by a return to office, via association, by Bill. We are SO much better off under Georgie Boy's tenure, aren't we?

Don't count out the mood in this country against Republicans at the moment. I'm not saying it will be easy, but I do believe Obama has a chance. Even though he's not from the deep South, FIL is a typical hardcore GOP can do no wrong conservative voter. He's admitted he thinks the war in Iraq is wrong, and he's voting for Obama.

We had Obama people canvassing here before the primary election, and it was a couple of die-hard ex-Marines who had been Republican their whole lives, and have switched parties and were trying to get people to register to vote also. The little old people next door to us were in our yard when they came by, and they both switched from (lifelong) Republicans to Democrats, and were voting for Obama as long as he won the nomination. (It wasn't decided yet, and they were NOT under any circumstances voting for Hillary.)

expat I reckoned she was headed for the top job ages ago. Something else the repulicans at the party laughed at.
no kids, plenty of oil dealing friends, infact even a tanker named after her.
that woman has the dream you can see it in her eyes. If not now then next time. First woman president and Hispanic?
hmmm dunno
I know Hillary is not popular but its not a feckin popularity contest! Look at who can do the job.....

I have to admit to not knowing too much, but I think that Obama is a good candidate despite everything, but I think if the US electorate do vote for him that there may be a repeat of the Bush / Gore scenario as I just dont think american politics will allow it to happen, or have to agree with some of youabout the JFK feeling which is awful. Agree that he is incredibly charismatic though.