My question is this,  We hear that Obama is the most liberal senator.  So was John Kerry in 2004.  Doesn’t that seem coincidental?  Is Barack really the “most liberal” just like Kerry?  What is the source of this “fact”?

To answer the second question first, I learned this.  It came from a rating done by the National Journal, some sort of magazine, I take it. I believe their result was chosen simply because it rated Obama as the MOST LIBERAL Senator. So, the National Journal rates Obama as the MOST LIBERAL SENATOR OF 2007, more liberal than Ted Kennedy, more liberal than John Kerry.  And, you the television viewer, must accept this as FACT.  Is it?

I was raised in a small town in Illinois where Dagos and Pollacks were considered minorities.  There certainly weren’t any other ethnic groups to pick on.  This was a town where an African-American family tried to move in but no one would rent to them.  The man (with a Master's degree in music ed) had gotten the job of high-school music teacher mid-year because the local guy who was the current teacher had been found passed out drunk in the band room.  The smartest girls in the high school married the dumbest guys (I consider that to be the ultimate in undermining your own cause).  My father was the worst racist around (buried in some old diary of mine).  And, believe it or not, my great grandfather's parakeet hated Kennedy’s.  I am totally not joking.  When I was a little girl around 1960, I spent a lot of time on my grandparents farm (maybe this will be my Scranton someday).  My great grandfather would curse every time JFK came on the TV or radio ...  “God damn that Kennedy.  Etc. Etc. Etc”.  Great Grandpa was anti-union, anti-everything.  He hated John Kennedy so much that when my great grandfather died in 1968, the bird continued to chirp wildly every time he heard that accent.  I kid you not.  It truly was funny.

I have had it with the emotional roller coaster of this election.  I have been through enough.  From Florida in 2000, to the nauseating feeling when I realized at 10:00 PM that Kerry wasn't going to make it in 2004, to the Obama/Clinton blood-letting ... Well, let's say that I need to move on and think about something fun.  Maybe others among you are feeling the same way.  Might I suggest ...

Obama's VP choice?  This is fun and interesting and it brings a positive attitude about what has become a very unsettling situation with the current battle.

I am posting here a real-live diary, and by this I mean a personal statement that might have meaning only to me.  This is a “get it all out” moment.  If anyone gains from it, I will feel that my experience has had meaning.

I always pride myself on standing for what I believe, no matter how unpopular my opinion is.  Perhaps that is why I am haunted by something that happened to me in graduate school long, long ago.  By “long, long ago” I mean the early 1980’s.

I was in a card store in Berkeley, California, waiting for a clerk to find the exact kind of nib I needed for my special pen.  While I waited, I listened to a conversation between a blind customer and one of the clerks.  The blind person, a man, had asked for the woman to read the Mother’s Day cards to him so he could pick one for his mother.  During the exchange, he chatted about how he had had a glass of wine with lunch and was enjoying the beautiful day.  He had walked past the store, getting a bit lost until someone helped him find the store.  He used a white cane to get around.

denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Anger ...  I think Obama ran a piss-poor campaign in Pennsylvania.  I am really angry that he didn’t take my advice.  I am convinced that he could have done much better here and that his campaign organization wasn’t.  Living here, I kept thinking that his campaign just didn’t get off the ground.  Where is that amazing Obama ground game?  Why isn’t he here?  This is what he has won so many states with?

I have been saying for over two months that Pittsburgh is the key to Pennsylvania.  I got there by being a politics junkie, by reading, watching, and observing.  I go the whole gamut from conservative to liberal.  I want to see what both sides are thinking.  I dismiss the views that don’t fit the puzzle I work to assemble.  Don’t we all do this?  “Clinton will dominate in the conservative “Alabama” region of Pennsylvania”.  That fits with what I have seen.  That is her demographic, or at least the one she is pandering to.  “Obama will dominate Philadelphia”.  That fits.  Obama’s main demographic is the large black population.

Or life in Pennsyltucky.  Is everyone thinking about us?  I just don't know what is going to happen.  I
was at the Obama office in my town just now and met Bob Casey and Harris Wofford.  They are going around pumping the volunteers up for a last minute push in canvasing.  Bob Casey has to have an impact.  He is the only major candidate who is working hard for Obama.  He is everywhere with him, which
is significant. Casey is very popular with the blue-collar guy; he won in 2006 by 60/40 over Santorum.  As for me, I think he is the picture of calm dedication.

I had been wondering about how Obama is rated the most liberal senator.  So, I went to the American Conservative Union, which rated him liberal but not the most liberal.  Where does he come out #1?  How do they determine these ratings?

However, I did travel from the ACU to other conservative rating sites and found this gem ... Project Vote Smart.  This site allows one to choose a conservative issue and then find out how a particular candidate rates.  

Hillary Clinton on gun issues:

This week and weekend has brought a cacophony of news, with the usual effect of obscuring the pure and simple.  Wright ... Race .... Speech .... Stock Market ....  Richardson .... Passport.  I think it’s important that we step back and think about Governor Richardson’s endorsement and its intentions.

Bill Richardson said that he had been thinking seriously about endorsing Obama for about a week, but decided that this was the time.  He wanted his endorsement to matter.  He wanted it to overshadow the Reverend Wright hysteria and to enhance the positive effects of the speech.  This is serious business.  Richardson has been a long-time friend and supporter of the Clintons.  He is the Western version of Governor Rendell.  Bill Richardson’s was a well-reasoned endorsement that was orchestrated to have a particular effect.  It is an endorsement that is being seen as symbolic of a change in the 2008 Democratic primary.  It may be the final nail in the Clinton candidacy.  With this endorsement, Richardson is saying ....  It is time to concede and endorse Obama.