From  rawstory.com: “Former Attorney General John Ashcroft drew the ire of students at liberal Skidmore College this week when he confused the name of Barack Obama with that of Osama bin Laden.

“All I’m saying about the Patriot Act,” Ashcroft began, “is that the elected representatives of this country, including Osama …”

His words were met with a roar of disbelief and disapproval, as he continued stammering, “uh … you know … not … Obama.”
Ashcroft attempted to say “I’m sorry” but was drowned out by prolonged boos.

“I did not mean to … I’m sorry about that … I apologize publicly,” Ashcroft went on as the boos gradually subsided.”

Accident or strategy? Watch the video.

By now the Clinton strategists have figured out how the Obama campaign has been beating them. If not, they can read about in the March 20th issue of Rolling Stone. In an article titled The Machinery of Hope, Tim Dickinson provides a fascinating look inside the grass-roots field operation of the Obama campaign. A few nuggets:

“If you really want grass-roots participation, then you have to give folks at the grass roots some autonomy to do this in their own way. We had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who wanted to do things. The challenge was: How do you marshal them in an organized fashion?”

“They’ve married the incredibly powerful online community they built with real on-the-ground field operations. We’ve never seen anything like this before in American political history.”

“The Clinton campaign is the last, antiquated vestige of the top-down model. The top cannot organize caucus states; the bottom can.”

“The Obama campaign has succeeded not by attracting starry-eyed followers who place their faith in hope but by motivating committed activists who are answering a call to national service. They’re pouring their lifeblood into this campaign, not because they are in thrall to a cult of personality but because they’re invested in the idea that politics matter, and that their participation can turn the current political system on its ear.”

This article –coming on the heels of Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody” — really clicked for me and contains the answer to my pals who wink and nudge each other in the ribs while asking, “What makes you think this guy will be any different than all the others?”

I admit it. The political campaign has been my O.J. trial. I can’t pull myself away. I think I’ve said before that I suspect this will be the last election I get my knickers in a knot over.

I’ve been thinking about the “Tonya Harding” analogy. If Hillary doesn’t make the finals, Obama damn sure isn’t going to.”

I think Senator Clinton and I are the same age: 60. So I’ve been trying to “get inside her head,” as the Quantico profilers say.

“I’m not gonna win the fucking nomination. After all I’ve been through. Barack will beat McCain like a red headed stepchild. And probably get a second term. Eight … long… years. Jesus H. Christ! In 2016 I’ll be 68 years old. Damn, I’m telling you… I will NOT go back to Iowa.

But if I can jam Obama enough for McCain to beat him, I can take Grampa John in four years. Shit, I’ll only be 64.

Bill! Run out to the car and bring me the tire iron. I’ll tell you what to do with it when you get back.”

The Obama campaign seems to have their online shit all in one neat pile. The email I’ve received suggests they’ve got someone smart doing their digital stuff. So I offer this suggestion, in the event O. goes the distance.

President Obama reads, answers and acts on one email –from an American citizen– every week. Let’s say, on Friday. Here’s how it might work:

Anybody can email the president once a week. Yes, people will try to find ways to scam this but you can deal with that.

On Friday morning, 10 emails are selected at random and forwarded to President Obama’s in-box. He looks through them, picks one and responds –personally– to the sender.

If action is required, the email is forwarded to the appropriate subordinate who has to DO something because the president –and the country– will be watching.

The media gets a copy of the original email, the president’s reply, including what –if anything– will be done.

Think about it. If the president actually made something happen –personally– 50 times a year, that would be pretty cool. Of course, some will ask the president to do things he cannot. And he can simply reply, "I don’t know what the hell to do about that."

The odds of your email being selected are about the same as winning the Lotto but so what. Somebody’s email got through.

“Barack Obama said Friday that he got more political money from indicted Chicago businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko than he has previously acknowledged. Rezko helped raise up to $250,000 for his various political races, Obama’s campaign said. The campaign had previously put the figure at $150,000 but now says that amount was only for his 2004 Senate race.

(Obama’s) long friendship with Rezko has hampered his efforts to campaign as a new-style politician who abhors backroom deals and insider favors.” [AP]

File under Irony: Turns out Obama really didn’t need to take questionable money. Millions of little people (like me) would have given it (ARE giving it!) to him. I feel like I just crawled into the back seat on prom night. I haven’t been violated yet but don’t like it back here. Sigh.

Bright spot: The sit-down with the two newspapers was the right thing to do. Answer every question. I’ll give him points for that.

We’re all familiar with the O-face. Now, there’s the O-Bama Face:

The O-Bama Face (n.): the expression made by an Obama supporter when the inspired oration and possibility of a Commander In Chief Obama becomes just too much to take.

“The election has “triggered an avalanche of cybersquatter activity,” according to NetNames, a domain name management service. Speculators have registered nearly 2,000 domain names related to presidential candidates as of last week. Names related to Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy made up over half of the registrations, followed by Mr. Obama with 635 and Mr. McCain with 269.” — The Caucus (the NYT politics blog):

I didn’t see a lot of creativity in the domain names listed in the Times story. HillarysFatAss.com and UppityAfroAmerican.com were conspicuous by their absence.

"This is not, finally, an election of the new against the old. It is an election about the place of the America in the world of nations, and whether we are to be known primarily as a dreaded superpower. It is an election about catastrophes, both natural and man-made. It is the election of Katrina and Baghdad." — David Bromwich