howard dean, mccain--blech!, good news and bad media

Man, Howard Dean is great.
Watched Howard Dean talk to the Netroots Nation annual gathering last night, and read his interview with major lefty bloggers. Here's some links if you want to find out what he's been up to--launching the "Register for Change" campaign, building the Democratic Party...and it's working. Obama's opening 20 campaign offices in Virginia!

Man, John McCain is a tool.

• Asked if Obama is a socialist, McCain shrugs and says "I don't know."
• 10 flip-flops in 2 weeks (as of June 15--list needs updating!)
• Oh, here's an update: flipflop on Afghanistan...did anyone hear?
• In an interview with ABC News, when reminded that he has publicly admitted to not being expert on economic matters, McCain says "I never said that."
• Nice little video: McCain's YouTube Problem

This week's good news.

• $52 million raised in June by Obama; more than $20 million by DNC. Obama's second-best month of fundraising yet...take that, Wall Street Journal (reported earlier that Obama was expected only to raise $30 mill). Unbelievably, because of campaign finance law loopholes, we're still the underdog. Donate $5 or more, and you can win tix to the convention (or give them to me!)
• We are competitive in a whole lotta states--July 15: national and swing state poll roundup. Up 9% points in Oregon. Up by 2% in Nevada. Only down by 3% in North Carolina.
• And McCain's excitement deficit.

More Bad Media.
ABC/Washington Post withholds poll results that favor Obama

NYTimes: "Obama isn't closing the divide on race"--(didn't know that one person could be expected to do so!). Analysis suggests that he has a problem with white voters. But the Times' actual polling results do not bear this out, in fact, on some issues his favorability is higher than McCain's. Obama camp responds, and NYTimes Adam Nagourney tries to defend his sloppy work.

You may not have heard that McCain described the way that Social Security works "a disgrace." That's because the media was whupped up in a frenzy over Jesse Jackson talking about cutting Obama's "nuts" off. Besides the complete disregard for journalistic ethics (essentially "eavesdropping" on Jackson's conversation when he didn't know he was being recorded), the media has shown once again how they just can't focus on the important aspects of this presidential race.