It's Barack By A Nose

From Barack-Obama.TV

"For the first time Barack Obama is the frontrunner in a reliable nationwide
poll about the Democratic presidential nominations. Obama leads with 32%,
Hillary Clinton can count on 30% and John Edwards trails at 17%. Rasmussen
has conducted the poll around the 25th of April.

Together with earlier reliable opinion polls this results in the graphical overview..."

Poll: Obama Most Likely to Get U.S. Out of Iraq

From Reuters via Yahoo News:
Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards are the 2008 White House contenders most likely to lead the country out of Iraq according to an online straw poll of members of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org.

Call Don King, Barack and Hillary Stick and Move

Yes the Obama-Clinton jab-a-thon that's been going on for the past few days is fun times. But, the really interesting thing about this ABC News article is the part about John Edwards' appearance on Today.

"This morning, for example, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., said on NBC's "Today" show: "I think it's awfully early for that sort of sniping back and forth."

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!?
Just the night before Edwards was doing pah-lenty of sniping himself at a democratic candidate's forum in Nevada.
In fact it was New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, not Edwards, who took the high road at that event.

"I think if we're going to win we have to be positive," Richardson said. "I think these name-callings are not good."

John, make up your mind. You can't be attack dog AND diplomat at the same time.

Senator Obama Jumps On Gravy Train

Barack Obama follows the lead of his main rivals and says goodbye to the chump change of public campaign financing and helloooooo to the big bucks of private donations...or does he?

From NewsMax.com

"Following the lead of his chief rivals, Sen. Barack Obama will not accept public campaign financing for either the Democratic presidential primaries or the general election if he's the nominee.

The Illinois senator has decided to forego the public funds, said an official close to the Obama campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The move allows him to raise and spend unlimited private money.

From AP via CNN:

"Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is asking whether he can take money from donors who want him to be president, then give it back later.

The Federal Election Commission said Wednesday that it will look into the novel question.

Obama is indicating that he wants to at least keep the option of using the public financing system for his presidential campaign if he becomes the Democratic nominee. To do so, the Illinois senator could not spend any money from contributors for political purposes, but instead use federal funding that is expected to total about $85 million for next year's general election.

"Senator Obama has long been a proponent of public financing of campaigns, and we are asking the FEC to take a step that could preserve the public financing option for the party's nominees," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said."

Obama Stands Out With Most Somber Tone at DNC

From the National Journal's Hotline.

** Every candidate sans one peppered the crowd with buttons and bumper stickers. But Sen. Barack Obama, befitting his sober speech, had none of that. His display table outside the main ballroom was spare, expcept for a few sign up sheets and photocopied black and white signs. All the candidates sans one entered to music. But Obama had none. Every candidate packed the hall with supporters. Obama didn't do anything in advance.

** Slogans: HRC: "I'm in it to win." Vilsack: Courage to create change." Kucinich: "Strong leadership for America's future." Edwards: "Tomorrow begins today." Clark: "Securing America's future." Dodd: :"Proven Leadership. A record of results." Gravel: "Let the people decide." Biden: no slogans.

The Nation: Obama's Strong Iraq Stance...

positions him as major anti-war candidate instead of John Edwards.

From (The Nation) :

"Obama's move could be devastating to John Edwards. Edwards has enjoyed greater netroots and (arguably) overall grassroots left support than Obama due to his economic populism and call for 40,000 to 50,000 troops to come home. But now Obama has become the first top-tier candidate to set a definite timeline for the withdrawal of the troops. And let's not forget this not-so-small fact-- he's also the only major candidate who opposed the war from the get-go.

Kos is impressed:

This isn't a wussy "stop the escalation" measure, nor some half-measure like "withdraw some troops but not all" (which appears to be the Edwards position).

Even Sirota is pleased, and that's saying something:

The fact that he's doing this is a big deal, and he should be congratulated.

Some pundits will call Obama's move a "gamble," but it seems like common sense to me. After all, American voters made it clear in 2006 that they wanted a real change in Iraq, not Stay-the-Course Lite and certainly not Stay-the-Course On Steroids."

Who's Winning the Web War?

"Obama's clicking - but not on the web"(MSNBC)

"Obama had better get a move on. When Hillary announced the other week, her campaign went live with a website they’d been working on for quite some time. It had been kept under wraps, with key players having secure access to tweak it into a state-of-the-art enterprise - which it is. Edwards’ site, with its video-based approach, is also first rate"

What Took You So Long?

ABC says Team Obama is now aggressively smacking down the fake Madrassa story. Too bad it took them a good five days to launch a serious counter-attack.
Wake up guys. This is the big time. Take a page from the Clinton play book.

When John Edwards was giving a speech on Jan. 15th at Riverside Church in New York
he said:
"Silence is betrayal. And I believe it is a betrayal not to speak out against the escalation of the war in Iraq. If you are in Congress and you know that this war is going in the wrong direction...it is no longer O.K. to study your options and keep your own private counsel."

He didn't even mention Hillary by name and still her camp was allllllll over it. Before Johnny could say 'Happy King Day' - Hill had Howard Wolfson accusing Edwards of being a hypocrite by talking about running "positive" campaigns and then launching "political attacks on Democrats who are fighting the Bush administration's Iraq policy."

It's called "rapid" response guys. Not we'll wait until this gets unnecessarily big response.

Obama's Primary Concern

• Illinois House Speaker wants to aid Obama by changing primary date (AP)
• Edwards backer: Don't give Obama Advantage (Bloomington Pantagraph)
• Obama may get boost with earlier primary (Lincoln Courrier)
• To get in dance Illinois needs better date (Chicago Sun-Times)
  

Obama, Edwards take Iowa

While Hillary Clinton was busy Christmas shopping, Barack and John E. horn in on voters in Des Moines (About: News and Issues)

John Edwards 22%
Barack Obama 22%
Tom Vilsack 12%
Hillary Clinton 10%
Al Gore 7%
John Kerry 5%
Wesley Clark 4%
Dennis Kucinich 4%
Joe Biden 1%
Evan Bayh 1%
Bill Richardson 1%
Undecided 11%