David Gergen: I, adviser to four Presidents, will lay out What Obama Must Do. The fact is, as long as terrorism is the number one threat, the GOP will win. Ignore the polls that say it's not. Here's my recipe for a game changer (and the reason it's needed is that the McCain campaign has been better at impressing voters): lay out your Cabinet. Now. [And do not click this link].

Gail Collins:

Lieberman used to be a perfectly good senator, but somewhere along the line he began thinking of himself as being above the partisan fray, and it had a terrible effect. When he ran for vice president, he was so busy being pompous that he didn’t notice that Dick Cheney had won the debate. (Of all the negative achievements in Lieberman’s career, it’s hard to top making Cheney the most likable man in the room.)

But wait! There's more!

John Nichols:

This column has been pondering and predicting an Obama-Biden ticket for some time now. That's still the best bet, and now that the announcement is finally imminent, everyone is talking about it.

So, what the heck, let's run the Hillary Clinton scenario one more time...

George Will: Teachers, and by extension, Democrats, are bad for children.

David Broder:  I'm in NH, and guess what? You remember when Chris Matthews left DC and discovered people didn't like Bush? Well, outside the Beltway,

The negative judgments about the economy and the Bush presidency were unequivocal. That makes it Obama's race to lose. But there's still a need for reassurance from him.

Breaking.

Harold Meyerson:

The Democratic Party has a compelling story to tell about African Americans and women -- groups, suffering from huge and historic discrimination, that the party has championed and whose interests it has helped advance. For the white working class, the Democrats can point to discrete pieces of economic legislation (some, like retraining programs for jobs that don't exist, hardly worth pointing to), but they offer no such narrative.

Yet if Obama cannot tell this story, of workers deprived of economic opportunity and security through no fault of their own, cannot convey his empathy with these workers and his outrage over Wall Street discarding them like so many gratuitous spare parts, he probably cannot win the election.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

(Applause)

Bit of an energy crunch we're in, ain’t it? I was pondering how we got caught so seemingly flat-footed, so I went back and revisited President Bush's State of the Union speeches to see if there was a way we could've avoided this mess. (He said nothing about energy in either his 2001 or 2005 inaugural addresses.) Turns out he was quite the visionary:

2002:  "Good jobs also depend on reliable and affordable energy. This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure, and it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil."  (Applause.)
-
2003: "Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. (Applause.) I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to promote energy efficiency and conservation, to develop cleaner technology, and to produce more energy at home." (Applause.) ...
-
2004: "Consumers and businesses need reliable supplies of energy to make our economy run---so I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy." (Applause.)
-
2006: "Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion [Less than the cost of waging the Iraq war for one month. --BiPM] to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources---and we are on the threshold of incredible advances. (Applause.)
-
2007: "For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. ... It's in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply---the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. (Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. (Applause.) We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol -- (applause) -- using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
-
2008: "Our security, our prosperity, and our environment all require reducing our dependence on oil. ... Together we should take the next steps: Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions. (Applause.) Let us increase the use of renewable power and emissions-free nuclear power. (Applause.) Let us continue investing in advanced battery technology and renewable fuels to power the cars and trucks of the future. (Applause.)

Now he's down to his last five months---goals unmet and promises broken---and the best he can do as he sleeps through the rest of his term is this:

"And so we discussed a variety of strategies about how to affect the supply of oil, and one way that we can affect the supply of oil is to increase access to offshore exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf. ... Once they solve this problem, they can allow us to drill in northern Alaska."

Great president...or Greatest President Ever?

P.S. Congressional Dems, if you're gonna collapse on drilling, at least try to collapse intelligently. I know, I know...probably too much to ask.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

News of her passing unfortunately complicated by premature reports, several media outlets are now confirming that Ohio Democrat Stephanie Tubbs Jones died this evening.

From the New York Times:

Considered a liberal, Ms. Tubbs Jones was a co-sponsor of legislative efforts to broaden health care coverage for low- and middle-income people and of programs supporting the re-entry of convicts into their communities. She was also the author of legislation requiring certification for mortgage brokers and stiffer penalties for predatory loans.

In June, Ms. Tubbs Jones voted against emergency supplemental financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I feel it important that we have a plan for a timely redeployment of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan before we continue funding what has become a seemingly endless war," she said at the time.

This evening's Rescue Rangers are Louisiana 1976, jlms qkw, HansScholl, dopper0189, BentLiberal and ItsJessMe, with jennyjem spinning around in the editor's chair. Wheeeee!

The diaries up for rescue tonight are:

• While the warmongers beat their chests over Georgia, ignatz uk writes about a brewing humanitarian crisis in a forgotten corner of the world in 160,000 refugees at risk as Tamil Tigers face defeat. (HansScholl)
• ClimateLurker writes on the importance of satellites in saving the environment in Global Warming and the Next Administration: Save Our Satellites! (BentLiberal)
• The Ghost of Bobby Kennedy poignantly reminds us there is a war happening in The War Hits Home For This Liberal Elitist. (jlms qkw)
• What happens when former prisoners of war play soccer against the forces occupying their country? Read all about it in gjohnsit's Games of Life and Death. (BentLiberal)
• strobusguy provides a disturbing anecdote showing how this Olympics represents the ultimate marriage of global corporate power and the Chinese totalitarian-capitalist regime in "Elderly Chinese Women Sentenced to Labor Re-education" An Olympic moment. (ItsJessMe)
• Gary In Los Angeles shares this great community project in Twenty-Two Children Write & Sing for Obama in Venice. (jlms qkw)
• tarheelian51 reminds us of how disaster relief is closely connected to politics in How Republicans Use Hurricanes in Florida. (Louisiana 1976)
• dinazina shares her cool art work for Obama in My Obama art submitted to MoveOn contest. (BentLiberal)
• abrauer provides us with some comic relief and priceless photos in Memo to St. Paul RNC protesters: break out the tiaras! (ItsJessMe)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: August 19, 2008.

Carnacki has Top comments - Taking On the System review.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

Construction is underway on the Big Tent in Denver. Hosted by Daily Kos, ProgressNow, and The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, the Big Tent will be the place to be for new media journalists, bloggers, and non-profit leaders covering the Democratic National Convention. The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado has graciously given their building, parking lot, and untold hours of staff time to make this event a reality for the mass of bloggers descending upon Denver.  The Alliance Center is one of only two double-LEED certified buildings in the world and 27 non-profit organizations currently call it home. They represent a range of educational and advocacy interests -- social justice, environmental protection, consumer awareness, public health, and cultural diversity.

In addition to resources like WiFi, podcast areas, Fat Tire beer, food, and much more for the registered bloggers, the Big Tent has a Digg Stage featuring national leaders and speakers like Van Jones, T. Boone Pickens, Carl Pope, Majora Carter, James Rucker, Donna Edwards, Donna Brazille, John Conyers, and our very own Markos Moulitsas.  The growing schedule of speakers can be found at the Big Tent website. Can't make it to Denver? Don't have a Big Tent pass?  No worries, you don't have to be in the tent to be a part of the tent. The Digg Stage will be streamed live, courtesy of UStream, on the Big Tent website, beginning with the Media Consortium's Live from Main Street Denver event this Sunday at 4pm MDT.

We'll be reporting from the Big Tent throughout the convention, so stay tuned to Daily Kos and The Big Tent website for the latest and greatest from Denver.

Yesterday I ranked Senate races per Rasmussen polls, based on the latest Louisiana Ras poll. Today, let me do a better version of that post, this time using the Pollster.com polling composites (a more accurate way to gauge the state of these races).

I've ranked them in order of likelihood of switching, including all races within 20 points:

So there are 14 Republican-held seats that are more endangered than Louisiana. New Jersey, always such a tease, is actually close than Louisiana, though Republicans seemed to have wised up to the Garden State's shenanigans. Too bad. The more money they sunk into NJ, the less money they'd have to try and hold those other 14. And there are signs that Oklahoma may be more competitive.

Bottom line? NM, VA, AK, and NH look like solid pickups. Colorado is shoring up, likely (D) in my book. I think we pull off Mississippi, which gets us to six.

If the elections were today, I think that's where things would settle. Can we get four more from that list in the next 2 1/2 months to get to a Lieberman-proof 60? I'm increasingly optimistic. It's not just the favorable political climate, but also this:

That's the Senate party committees cash on hand at the end of July. Democrats quite simply have the cash to create mass havoc behind enemy lines. Republicans barely have enough to keep the lights on at party HQ, much less actually play defense. While Republicans spent $2.8 million in July, Democrats have been barraging Republicans with over $8.5 million in ads and other spending.

The DSCC artillery assault has already begun, and Republicans have half the cash the Dems have to respond.

The new NBC/WSJ and CBS/NY Times polls are out and there are no radical changes from yesterday's poll tightening. As previously noted, we pay special attention to media polls because of their ability to drive narrative. (For a complete view of all the polls, see pollster.com and fivethirtyeight.com.)

One narrative that seems clear as a short term gain and long term pain: McCain is perceived as running a negative campaign.

By a nearly six-to-one margin, voters say Republican presidential candidate John McCain is running a negative campaign against his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Nearly three in 10 voters, 29%, pointed to McCain as the candidate running a negative campaign, compared to just 5% who said Obama is running a negative campaign. McCain’s 29% rating is the highest of any one candidate in the previous two presidential elections according to the WSJ/NBC News survey.

In October 2004, 15% of voters identified both President George W. Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry as negative campaigners. In July 2000, 8% identified Bush as a negative campaigner, while 13% said Vice President Al Gore was a negative campaigner.

However, 41% of respondents said neither McCain nor Obama is running a negative campaign, while 19% said both men are guilty of using negative tactics.

NBC/WSJ Presidential choice
          8/08 (6/08) (5/08) (4/08)
Barack Obama  45 (47) (47) (46)
John McCain   42 (41) (41) (43)

CBS/NY Times Presidential choice
          8/15-19/08 (7/31-8/5/08) (7/7-14/08)
Barack Obama  45 (45) (45)
John McCain   42 (39) (39)

For CBS/NY Times, it's 45 (45) Obama, 42 (39) McCain, also a tightening. The enthusiasm gap is 48-24 (guess who), and 28% of McCain's supporters are either 'he's the GOP nominee' or anti-Obama. And like the NBC/WSJ poll, more people perceive McCain as negative on Obama than positive on McCain. From NY Times (my bold):

There were indications that the more negative tone Mr. McCain adopted this summer could prove risky. Attempts by Republicans and the McCain campaign to cast Mr. Obama as elitist, or out of touch, do not seem to have moved popular opinion much yet against the Democrat, but they appear to have led more voters to view Mr. McCain as a negative campaigner.

Obama leads 20 points with 18-34s, McCain leads by 1 with everyone else.

Back to NBC/WSJ: Hillary Clinton's voters are half the 13% undecideds. See Ruth Marcus:

It's not that Obama has a problem with female voters. To the contrary, he does significantly better among women than among men. It sounds paradoxical, but the campaign, lagging badly among white men, may have its biggest growth potential among female voters. Women, especially women without a college education, tend to make up their minds later. Recent polls show twice as many women as men are undecided.

77% still think McCain will follow Bush's policies. Not good for McCain.

In any case, with both polls, there's a 3 point Obama lead, well within the MoE (usually +/- 3). That feels about right. McCain, as noted throughout this week, is consolidating his (smaller) base).

For perspective, I like Marc Ambinder.

McCain has given them something to think about this summer: Obama. And Obama hasn't returned the favor. He hasn't defined McCain in a visceral way, yet. He hasn't demonstrated that he can connect with working class white voters, although voters do find him empathetic enough. He can do both of these at the convention, and there are indications that he's doing the former in states with advertising.

With the convention coming up, there's lots of upside for Obama to do the same, and more talk about Lieberman for McCain. Now, that may be a head fake to distract and get some attention away from Obama's VP, and it would severely hurt with the religious right. But the fact is the next week belongs to Obama. We'll see what he does with it and how well the numbers look afterwards. McCain has built up some significant negatives, he's still tied to Bush, and the economy is still the driving force in this election. Think about what that means in the long run. From NY Times:

Slim majorities said neither candidate had yet made clear what he would do as president, suggesting that both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain need to use their conventions to provide voters with a better sense of their plans for addressing the deteriorating economy, high energy prices, access to health care and national security.

Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is still closely associated with the deeply unpopular President Bush: nearly half of those surveyed said they expected him to continue the Bush administration’s policies if he is elected president. But voters, by a wide margin, view Mr. McCain as better prepared to be president than Mr. Obama, and as more likely to be an effective commander-in-chief.

My read is that McCain is spoiling his own brand with independents in order to consolidate his own base (my prediction from way back was that he can't have both) while the Democrats take their time to make up their mind. We will see what happens, starting with the next eight days, but I don't think this is great news for McCain no matter how the media spin goes. For all his vaunted "great couple of weeks" McCain is still stuck in the low 40's and has an unenthusiastic base behind him (one that's smaller than Obama's.)

Plus, yesterday's LA Times/Bloomberg and Q-poll both show Obama winning with indies, and McCain is perceived as a negative camapigner closely associated with the unpopular George Bush (CBS/NY Times: 47% think he'll continue Bush's policies but only 9% want him to. 48% want him to be less conservative.)

Finally, it would seem this year, the Obama campaign, as has been posted at fivethirtyeight.com, is investing in the ground game rather than blowing their wad on negative ads with limited effect, the way McCain did.

Can McCain win? Maybe. Obama still has plenty of work to do, and there are no guarantees (and, in fact, the real campaign starts Monday) but McCain might just have hit his ceiling with these polls while Obama still may have a lot of upside.

^{Note on CBS poll: Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones.}

Stevens' gamble for an early trial suffered its first setback, when a judge refused a motion to move the trial to Alaska.

Sen. Ted Stevens cannot move his corruption trial from Washington to his home state of Alaska, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a decision that could hamstring the powerful Republican's re-election bid [...]

Stevens, 84, had hoped to stand trial by day and campaign on nights and weekends. In a state where he is known as ''Uncle Ted,'' he could have faced a more sympathetic jury. Stevens was named the Alaskan of the Century in 2000, the Anchorage airport bears his name, and he has brought billions in federal aid to the frontier state.

Wednesday's ruling puts a damper on his campaign plans. Stevens asked for, and received, an unusually speedy trial that he hopes will clear his name before voters go to the polls. But with the trial in Washington, Democrats will have the state largely to themselves while Stevens is tethered to a defense table in the weeks leading up to the November election.

There's still about three weeks for Stevens to withdraw from the race. He'd have to do it after next Tuesday's primary, or one of his no-name primary challengers might end up being the nominee. But if he does it between next Wednesday and September 17-ish (give or take a day), state Republicans can replace him with however they want.

But the defense also rejected an offer by the judge to hold trial only four days a week so Stevens could spend more time in Alaska. The deal would've delayed the verdict, and the overriding Stevens bet seem to be that acquittal will boost his electoral prospects. So given that they've decided for early decision over more time at home, it suggests that Stevens intends to stick it out to the bitter end.

And if he's convicted? Who cares? It wouldn't be any worse than the big, double-digit deficit he currently faces against O2B Democrat Mark Begich.

On the web:

Mark Begich for Senate
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Leaving aside the idea that illegal immigrants are enjoying the best medical care that this country can offer, this is a shocking admission from John McCain...from a town hall meeting earlier today:

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Senator McCain I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase Bin Laden right to the gates of hell and push him in as you stated on your forum. I do have a question though. Disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions [...] My son is an officer in the Air Force, and I am a vet and I was raised in a military family. I think it is a sad state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist top physicians, the best of medical and our vets can't even get to a doctor. These are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don't reenact the draft I don't think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

JOHN MCCAIN: Ma'am let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.

Someone is sending out fake text messages to people's cell phones claiming to announce Obama's veep pick. Some say it's Clinton, others Gore, and they look like this:

"Dear supporter, today our campaign joins in a historic partnership with Al Gore.  Together we will move America forward.  Yes we can."

The messages seem to come from 62262, which is the Obama text number. I don't know how easy or hard it is to spoof text messages, but someone is doing it.

Update: Ahh, Wonkette has instructions on how to do it.

Here's a new ad, Three Times, from the Obama campaign, scheduled to air in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia beginning today.

The GOP has just released the theme of their upcoming convention.

Country First: 2008 Republican National Convention to Highlight Service, Reform, Prosperity and Peace

In other words, they intend to focus like a pack of frickin' laser-beam equipped sharks on everything they don't provide.  

Maybe I'm misreading this.  It could be an example of the kind of literary inversion John Kennedy used in his "Ask not," speech.  Maybe what they meant to say was "For the first time in our country, Republicans will give a damn about service, reform, prosperity, and peace."

Otherwise, there's the problem of a party that's left us with two open-ended wars bragging about "peace." The party that's left us with an unprecedented level of corruption and cronyism talking about "service" and "reform." And the party that's generated the worst economy in thirty years while running up a tab that our great-great grandkids will still be paying talking about "prosperity."

Speakers for Monday night, which will focus on "Service," will include Joe Lieberman demonstrating his ability to serve any forum that will feed his petty ego. Lieberman will be scheduled on the same evening as his war buddy Dick Cheney and official Lil' Abner Mattress Testing Award Winner, George W. Bush.

Tuesdays "Reform" brings Rudy Giuliani to talk about how you can reform law, order, and heroism to mean anything you want.  And 9/11. Lots and lots of 9/11.

Speaking on "Prosperity" will be Cindy McCain, who will explain the traditional Republican means of getting by in hard times: inherit millions from your daddy. Cindy will demonstrate her pity for the middle class workers struggling to get by on three million a year, and for the poor who  must survive with no more than two vacation homes.

And finally, John McCain will be there on Thursday night to focus on (I'm not kidding) "Peace."

You’re going to be seeing a lot of Markos, hearing a lot from Markos and reading a lot about Markos in the next few weeks as Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era hits the stores.

Here’s hoping he gets enough publicity that we all become thoroughly sick of him.

But here’s the real secret about Taking on the System: It’s not about Markos, or even blogging, at all. It’s about you. About us. About people who find each other, who collaborate and share, and who trade war stories and strategies and inspiration in the furtherance of  a goal that's bigger than any one of us.

It’s the story of people who join together as co-creators, people who make things happen, and the methods they use to change their slice of the world. It’s a book about people who refuse to stay in their place, or to shut up, or accept no for an answer.

In short, it's about finding your passion and your niche and acting upon it.

What Markos has done in Taking on the System is celebrate the democratization of media and culture – something that we live every day at Daily Kos – by telling the stories of unlikely real-life heroes who are blazing trails in collaborative self-determination.  From the grassroots activists who recruited Jim Webb (and flipped the Senate in the process), to the African-American activists and bloggers who wouldn’t rest until a nation’s attention was drawn to blatant injustice in Jena, Louisiana, Taking on the System is a collection  of case studies on how everyday Americans can better their world by reinventing protest and redefining conventional narrative. Along the way, Markos draws lessons from personalities as disparate as Graeme Frost and Cindy Sheehan, Carol Shea-Porter and Fiona Apple, all of whom have in different ways used their resources and creativity to challenge conventional wisdom to change, bypass or convert the gatekeepers – or,  in some cases, to make them irrelevant altogether.

Under ordinary circumstances, I’d give a straightforward review of the book, but I’ve had the privilege of reading every revision along the way, and I’ve come to adore this book the more I’ve read it. And it was a treat to watch Markos himself become inspired by the heroes he wrote about – people who, like him, often shot from obscurity to prominence, from feeling ineffective and powerless to daring to claim their own power and use it. As our community continues its journey together to reclaim the promise of democracy, I can think of no better practical guide or inspirational work than this salute to the father of modern organizers, Saul Alinsky.

This book is for you and about you, Kossacks, and for and about all of our allies in the new and unapologetic progressive movement—or, as Markos puts it in the acknowledgements, "everyone who gets off his or her ass to change the world."

(Come join Markos and other Bay Area Kossacks tonight at the official launch party, a benefit for Netroots Nation. Details on the where, when and how can be found in this morning's open thread).

NC-Sen: Another day, another steaming stack of stupid emanating from the smiling empty seat that is the very senior Senator from the great state of North Carolina.

Which is to say, Elizabeth Hanford Dole.

Responding to criticism from her rather perceptive Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, that Sen. Dole spends remarkably little time in the state she purports to represent, Liddy had this to offer.

After her speech, Dole said she’s spent lots of time in North Carolina lately.

"Lately", eh? Senator, it would have been nice if you'd paid a modicum of attention to the state at, you know, some point in the last 35 years, when not running for the Senate.

But one can't have everything, I suppose.

Dole said she also supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, where drilling would have a small footprint that wouldn’t harm much wildlife.

"Even the caribou like to snuggle up to the pipeline," she said.

Indeed. Every caribou I have interviewed in the past six months has expressed his support for banging a big fat honking pipeline through his home, so as to give him warmth and comfort as he sleeps.

Would there was oil in New York City, so that I, too, could snuggle up next to a pipeline as I lay me down to sleep. I think some pipeline would look great in my apartment. Really tie the room together, you know.

The overall goal must be to cut reliance on foreign oil imported from nations run by the likes of Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, she said.

"A lot of that comes from people who don’t necessarily like us," Dole said.

Gee, it might help if our foreign policy had not been an outright fiasco of late, Liddy. And whose fault is that, anyway?

Amid Liddy's laments about gas price, by the way, she has given a boatload in tax breaks to Big Oil. Naturally, MoveOn is all over this:

AK-Sen: A hearing was held this morning in federal court in Washington, DC, to determine whether indicted Senator Ted Stevens would get to move his trial back to his home turf of Alaska.

Meanwhile, the Anchorage Daily News notes the role of new media in affecting public opinion on the Stevens scandal, to the point where new media are a screening point for potential jurors in the Stevens case:

Several joint questions seek to find out if potential jurors are political active or read about politics, especially the insider Capitol Hill publications. Do they listen to talk radio, read political blogs or go to Internet forums? The government, in particular, wants to know if they read the conservative Drudge Report or the liberal Huffington Post online.

Apparently, even Bush's Justice Department thinks reading Daily Kos is OK.

NH-Sen: Jeanne Shaheen is cooking with gas, as she seeks to unseat incumbent Republican John Sununu. Per Rasmussen:

Ras' 3-poll average puts the race at 51-41, while Pollster's average has it at Shaheen 52.6%, Sununu 42%.

Shaheen's double-digit lead has remained remarkably consistent this cycle, and she has proven to be a formidable candidate.

House Races

OH-15: Here's the first ad of this cycle from Democratic candidate Mary Jo Kilroy, as she seeks to take the open seat she nearly won in 2006 against incumbent Deborah Pryce.

MN-03: The Minnesota blogs have named this "Ashwin Madia Blog Day", in honor of a fine progressive candidate (and Netroots Nation attendee) in Minnesota's Third District.

If you'd like to learn more about Madia's candidacy on Madia Day, check out MN Blue or MN Publius.

WY-AL: As we noted last night, Wyoming's Republican State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis has won her primary in the state's at-large district.

The Hotline thought her primary opponent, Mark Gordon, was the more formidable of the two:

The party's been searching for a way to stem the growing Dem tide in the region, and a return to its libertarian roots may be the answer. In addition, his profile as a rancher seems to be a better match against '06 nominee Gary Trauner (D) than ex-Treas. Cynthia Lummis (R), with her years of gov't service, can provide.

The most recent Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos shows Trauner leading Lummis, 44% to 41%.

NH-01: Carol Shea-Porter is up on TV:

WI-08: Meanwhile, Republican John Gard is still feeding the debunked myth (perhaps we should just start calling it an outright lie) that China is drilling off the coast of Cuba).

NY-25, NY-26, NY-29: Today is the pre-primary filing deadline for New York House candidates. We have no more than three terrific New Yorkers on the Orange to Blue list, and here's a golden opportunity to help them finish the pre-primary period with a bang. They are Jon Powers in NY-26, Eric Massa in NY-29, and Dan Maffei in NY-25.

Please head to the Orange to Blue ActBlue Page and give them a little (or a lot!) of love, as they head towards election day.

On the web:
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

• I want to hear more about this:

  "Barack Obama said he would consider embracing a single-payer health-care system, beloved by liberals, as his plan for broader coverage evolves over time.

  "If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system," Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy.

• Toby Keith endorses Obama.

  Barack Obama is getting praise from Nashville, courtesy of one big, patriotic country star.

  Toby Keith, perhaps best known to non-country audiences for his post-Sept. 11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," says he's a Democrat, and was impressed by the senator from Illinois.

  Keith has said in the past that the 2002 song — which included lines aimed at the Taliban like "we lit up your world like the Fourth of July" — was more patriotic than pro-war.

• Wouldn't it be nice if we really had a "liberal media"?
• Giuliani to keynote Republican convention. I can't wait to see what drinking games are devised for that one. And no, "9/11" shouldn't be one of the drink markers. We don't want a rash of alcohol poisoning that night. Then again, maybe he's McCain's veep nominee, which would be totally awesome.
• Aren't you glad we kicked Lieberman out of the Democratic Party? Otherwise, he'd be pulling his Zell Miller act as a Democrat.
• Wait, what? NATO is in crisis because it didn't render aid to Georgia, which is not a NATO nation?
• Funny that in this day and age, people can still pull off bigfoot hoaxes.
• DC readers, Raising Kaine's Lowell Feld and Nate Wilcox will be at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th) tonight promoting their book, Netroots Rising. The signing will be 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

New York has a pre-primary filing deadline for candidates tonight -- and wouldn't you know, the Orange to Blue list has three New York candidates on it: Dan Maffei, Eric Massa, and Jon Powers.

Maffei's fundraising has been dominating his Republican opponent for this open seat. But Massa and Powers face tough opponents. In the primary, Powers faces Jack Davis, a self-funding multi-millionaire who's engaged in a string of dirty campaign tactics and who on the issues is exactly the kind of Democrat we don't want to see elected. Meanwhile, for the general election, Massa faces Shotgun Randy Kuhl -- and if a Republican incumbent who's threatened his wife with a shotgun doesn't make you want to win, I don't know what will.

Powers' need is immediate: He faces a so-called Democratic opponent with bottomless pockets and a willingness to sink to the bottom of the slime pit in campaigning. We do not want Jack Davis in the House at all, let alone with a (D) next to his name.

As for Massa, he doesn't just face a Republican incumbent, he's being advertised against by Freedom's Watch. They've been on the radio in the district for a while, and a couple weeks ago the DCCC made an answering buy -- but Massa's campaign recently heard that Freedom's Watch is inquiring about buying TV time. Massa will need a lot of help to be able to answer Freedom's Watch].

These candidates are true friends of the netroots. They attend Netroots Nation, they post diaries here -- but more importantly, they're with us on the issues. We couldn't do better than to put Maffei, Massa, and Powers in Congress.

If you have a few dollars to spare, today is a great time to give since tonight's filing gives these candidates another chance to show big donors and the DCCC that they're doing what it takes and deserve further support.

Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, has died after suffering a brain aneurysm, said sources familiar with the situation.

She was removed from life support at 12:19 p.m. at Huron Road Hospital, the sources said.

Tubbs Jones, 58, served as a Cuyahoga County judge and prosecutor before succeeding U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes. She has served five terms in Congress and was expected to easily win her sixth in November.

Our hearts go out to her family and friends.

Update: Mixed reports, apparently. Plain Dealer reporting she has died, CNN saying no, her doctors at a press conference are saying she's in critical condition, according to commenters.