FLOHPA!!! Bitches!!!

Yesterday the PPP Poll looked at Ohio and put Obama up significantly. Today, McClatchy reports Quinnipiac University has OH! Bama up in Ohio too, but not by as much, but he's also leading in Florida which all the punditry says he'll have trouble winning, and up by 12 points in Pennsylvania, where they're "clinging" to the hope that Yes! They! Can! believe in change.

You can't stop the Obamafication of the nation (or all the dumb things we're going to do to his name over the better part of the next decade). My advice to all you conservative dead-enders out there -- just pretend it's consensual sex and relax, enjoy it.

OH!!! Bama

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

A new Public Policy Polling survey(pdf) finds Sen. Barack Obama begins the general election in Ohio with a double digit lead over John McCain, 50% to 39%.

Fully half -- not a mere plurality -- and double digits!

This is a huge change from more recent polls that showed the narrowest of margins in Obama's favor.

Yesterday much was made over the offhand comments the despicable Ape Pee highlighted (and of course are available elsewhere from more responsible and less rapacious news outlets) that Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe told doners, "the Illinois senator can still become America’s first black president even if he loses the two key battleground states of Florida and Ohio."

While the Lizard Brains take this to mean Obama is conceding the states Bush stole in the last two elections, if reported fairly and read correctly, the campaign is saying that these big swing states "will not be considered must wins by themselves, but only part of a conprehensive plan to compete in more states."

It's called the 50 State Strategy -- you might have heard of it.

Meanwhile, from the watch what they do, not what they say Department: "Obama Beefing up Florida Efforts, Padding Out Staff." They're also doing some serious community organizer training here in Ohio, where unlike Florida where he didn't campaign, he has an organization in place.

Roper, meet dopes.


[Caveat on the PPP Poll. Inside the numbers, the poll skews heavily towards Democratic Party identification, 55%, 30% GOP. Even then however, Obama gets 10% of self-described Republicans. Worrisome is McCain capturing 17% of self-described Democrats. The good news is that Obama wins those who don't consider themselves part of either major party 45% to 32%. Any way you cut it, this is a major improvement from the last time PPP polled Ohio in March which indicated McCain winning Ohio by 8 points.]

Thank Goodness For Bloggers

Otherwise this democracy thingy would be really hard to understand.

Fortunately, we have rather insightful people like Mark Schmitt at Tapped who sorts out the "why" of the ongoing Florida re-vote controversy.

Clinton's only ally is uncertainty. The minute it becomes clear what will happen with Michigan and Florida -- re-vote them, refuse to seat them, or split them 50-50 or with half-votes, as some have proposed -- is the minute that Clinton's last "path to the nomination" closes. The only way to keep spin alive is to keep uncertainty alive -- maybe there will be a revote, maybe they'll seat the illegal Michigan/Florida delegations, maybe, maybe, maybe. In the fog of uncertainty, Penn can claim that there is a path to the nomination, but under any possible actual resolution of the uncertainty, there is not.

Schmitt points out that as soon as you reset Florida and Michigan, the race doesn't look close at all: Obama up by a million in the popular vote count and will undoubtedly do better in Florida than the 32% he originally got, cutting into The Math of her near parity in pledged delegates.

Perception being reality in politics, her perceived competitiveness vanishes, which is what she is counting on to sway superdelegates. Mind you, I'm of the opinion that seating superdelegates from Florida, where MSNBC's Chuck Todd informs us that she holds a decent advantage, is what the game's all about, but it was another blog by MikeVotes that ties Todd's suspicions with the tidbit that

Florida law prohibits election officials from authenticating votes cast in the Democratic Party's proposed do-over primary by mail, state officials said Thursday, a potentially fatal blow to the increasingly embattled plan.

Mike usefully provides the link to the Miami Herald article that explains what you won't see on the TeeVee, that Florida election officials take their responsibilities very (cough) seriously -- especially the Republican ones when they see an opportunity to screw a Democrat with an arbitrary and capricious whim, again.

Thanks Mike. And thanks as well to other bloggers who explain the inexplicable ... like Kagro X who makes sense out of the arcane parliamentary games that are possible when you have even the slightest congressional majority and need to fight and win the FISA battle. And make George Bush sing that old song about saving the "patriotic" telecoms so he can save his own hide.

The blogosphere will tell you everything you wanted to know, and even the stuff you didn't need to know.

It represents the collective wisdom, idiocy, and research facilities of humanity at large, which is why Avedon's admonition that Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur is so very apropos when translating the tattoos on Eliot Spitzer's call girl, "Kristin" a.k.a. Ashley Dupre.

You are so right Avedon. Everything does sound more impressive in Latin. And we'd never know how impressive this bimbo's belly was if it weren't for the IntertubeZ. (Hat Tip: Wonkette)

Oh, the tummy tatoo translation? The best my one semester of Latin combined with the collective wisdom of the blogosphere can tell is that her tatooist didn't speak Latin too well, but who does.

Best guess: "I was safely protected?" or something like that. The Post's "fair value" is fun, and that might be what Ashley thought tutela valui meant, but knowing she insisted that her performances be "safe" or You Don't Get The Sex, Dude, seems all too fitting.

FloriDUMB

As Keith Olbermann reminds us on occasion, election fiascoes centering around the State of Florida are legion. And we're not just talking about Hanging Chads in 2000. These nutty people have been the retards of democracy since 1876.

So it was an absolutely brilliant move by Howard Dean to decide that they were incapable of any meaningful participation in the nominating process for the Democratic Party presidential candidate. It's the right thing to do. Not because they (like Michigan) refused to play by the rules set out by the DNC. But because it's been proven again and again they are just too stupid to vote.

In fact, since the vast majority of Floridians originate from elsewhere and just never could find their way back home where they belong -- I say let them all vote absentee in some other state that is underrepresented, like Idaho.

If they can figure out how to place a stamp on an envelope and address it correctly, they will have proved themselves overly competent, intelligence well above the average Florida voter, and worthy of having their vote counted. If not, to be compensated for their self-disenfranchisement, they will be given a metal detector and a tin cup as a consolation prize to hurry them on to their new life as a professional beach comber.

So it is with enormous trepidation that I relay news of the Cluster-Phuque in waiting that Dean has suggested -- a hastily put together caucus in May for the Sunshine State. I just can't wait for this "purple finger" moment in American democracy. Oy!

Come on, these are people who spend 13 months on a marketing campaign to rename a stretch of the panhandle coast (get this) "The Beach."

Lane Rees, a Walton County resident and owner of Human Resource Solutions also in South Walton and a former Walton County commissioner, said he had questions about the proposal, but his initial reaction was to the color chosen. The logo “The Beach” is white on an orange background.

“Our beaches aren’t orange,” Rees said.

You just can't make this stuff up.

In other news, Chrysler just rolled out their new 2008 vehicle proudly christened: "The Car."