OMG guys, did you know that Obama is going to pick his VP choice soon?  You know what would be HILARIOUS??  A FAKEOUT!!!!  Wouldn't that be SO FUCKING FUNNY??

I'll keep this simple.

Obama is blowing it.

Faced with sinking polls and highly effective attacks from Mclame, he pretends all's well and no sweat.

In San Fransisco he promised donors he'd win.

Our guy is living in a bubble and doesn't even know it.

All his latest ads are ineffective.  He's always playing defense.  It makes him look weak and wimpy.

A quick twitter like diary to commemorate the fact that after ... 3 months ? .. of being a kog I got enough mojo to see the hidden comments tab.

Oh joy! I dedicate this achievement to my mamacita who sudffered through hours of labor to give birth to little old me, and to all the kogs who rated my comments up!

With my newly minted TU status I will proceed to hide the repugs and crazies who dare to comment in this site. And engage on pie wars with the best..

All kidding aside, I'm happy to see I don't need a single digit user id to be TU. Democracy happens here. Thanks guys and girls!

I'm concerned. No, not about the election. About you. You're running around on this site annoying the shit out of people. Either that, or you're being annoyed by the people who are annoying.

Take a breath, and think for a second. What was the last thing you enjoyed to such a degree that it could be said that you savored it?

In Douglas, Wyoming, there is a museum created to honor the "jackalope", a mythical creature that is a hybrid between the jackrabbit and antelope. While nearly all sane people believe that the jackalope is a fictional creature, there are those who still believe, and some who have actively devoted themselves to hunting these fierce creatures:

Here at DKos, I feel like I am on a similar search- the hybrid between the Chicken Little and the Ostrich.

--if you're writing the same diary that 100 other kossacks are writing each day. That is, complaining about the state of the race.

If only they would listen to you, a Ph.D in armchair quarterbacking!

If only they did things this way instead of that.

I'm a communication researcher (read: lowly graduate student) and have been doing some occasional work that looks at Daily Kos.  I generated these graphs the other day and - at the risk of making MetaJesus cry - thought they'd be nice to share with the community.  They show changes in the popularity of various tags here since May 2007.  It's nothing you don't know already, assuming you've been around for awhile, but they're neat graphs in that you can see visually what's happened with some prominent topics of conversation on the site.  It's also a nice before-and-after snapshot of the primaries.

Graphs and captions after the jump!

To all the naysayers, chicken littles, psychological Obama staffers and the what if crowd, here is MHO of what I have become accustomed to when reading the Kos.

Obama's not black enough.

Obama's too black.

Obama's got a pastor problem.

Obama threw his pastor under the bus.

Been checking my cell phone every few hours and no message.

Sometimes I get that sensation of a buzz or 'ghost ring' as it is called.  Slide the cover and alas no message.  This is like crack for a political junkie having to know what will happen next.  Am I the only one in a tizzy over the speculation?  

When will the suspense end?  

AP reports Saturday will the moment Obama and his VP pick will make a formal announcement.

I think I speak for most of us when I explain how I feel regarding this election. Physically feeling...as in the surges of blood that rush to my head or the bowels that churn when I read or see something that suggests even remotely that Obama might not win the election for some reason or another. A poll, a 'gaffe', whatever.

This week has been full of that yucky feeling, with crappy polls and completely freaky John McCain exposure, not to mention cringe-worthy dialogue from the talking heads and traditional media (although, I suppose this is par for the course). I still feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about McCain's applause lines last Saturday. God help us all should he become president.

This brings me to the Chicken Little/Ostrich Wars that have popped up lately around here.

[ The following is a thought stream that I wanted to get off my mind.  If you're looking for an informative read that's well researched on more productive subjects, I recommend this diary, or this one.  ]

I appreciate Andrea Mitchell having the courage to try to be a somewhat truthful reporter even under the circumstances she finds herself in*.  In what seemed to be her effort to try to maintain (at least to some degree) the respect of the American people and her viewers, she mentioned a reasonable question that some Obama supporters were expressing about the events of the faith forum, or whatever that thing was that Reverend Warren conducted.  It is a shame she is getting in trouble for it.  But really, are we surprised?

Keith Olbermann says he has no time for pie.  Dirty bastage.  Does he not know the Way of the Pie?

Well, since pie is back on the table (har har), I thought I might clear a few things up for the few people (and the unsuspecting newcomers) who still don't understand what the big deal is.  I posted a short series (two!) of diaries on this a couple of years ago, and I'm going to lump them together and serve them up fresh and hot for you now.

Why now?  Because it will knock at least one hair-pulling, hand-wringing VP choice diary off the list, and that's good enough for me.

See, it's like this...

I am a Democrat.

Most people in the country have no idea who I am, let alone what I stand for.  My name may bring some vague bubbles of memory to mind, but I have not been well known on the national stage.  The polling about my spot on the ticket has been a mixed bag.  Some pundits think I will do well for the ticket; others are sure I will not help at all.

My home state is considered a swing state by some, but others believe it is safe and my place on the ticket won't make any difference.  The position I will be leaving to serve as vice president--as I am sure that Barack Obama and I will be able to win in November over McCain--is a significant one, but my absence, and the person who will replace me, is not so vital that it precludes my running.

The unconditional monetary love here at this site scares me.

Let it be known that your "friends of the left" include me and many others who are critical of his decisions as of late.

Would you like to continue?

Welcome to the first official Kos diary to announce the news that everyone will receive by e-mail.  This diary will updated when the announcement is actually made.  But the important thing is that this diary is here first.  Here we go:

BREAKING NEWS:  (Insert Name) is Obama's VP Pick.

Link to mainstream source will go here:  www.xxx.com

"A blockquote from the mainstream source, which basically just repeats the VP nominee's name, will go here."

More pre-formatted text below the jump.

Since Barack Obama has said that text messages will be the "first" method by which he informs the public of his VP choice, there are thousands of us Kossacks who could (if the campaign is true to their word and don't leak it to the press first) get that "scoop" all at once. And of course, that means we will be racing to be the first to post "BREAKING: Obama's VP is XXXXX"

Given that the time between clicking "New Diary Entry", typing in a title, at least 300 characters and a couple tags, clicking "Preview Diary" and then finally "Submit" is enough for several dozen other people to have easily begun and/or completed the same set of actions, I foresee an overwhelming rush of diaries all posted in that brief span of time, before everyone refreshes the front page to see that the news has already been posted.

Hell, maybe several of you already have a second browser window open in the background, sitting at the ready with a title, some generic copy about the Obama campaign, and the tags already filled in, so all you need to do is insert the VP's name in your title and click two buttons to have the rightful claim to have been "FIRST!" to post this historic news. So, since we're all clear this is likely to happen, I just thought I'd create a little poll to see how far everyone else thinks the hysteria will go.

As usual, Kossacks are doing terrific online sleuthing, tracking down the whole cross-in-the-dirt story.  By tomorrow morning, anyone who wants to know the full story about this will be able to find out anything they could possibly want to know about it right here.

What a waste.

Those research skills could be put to much better purpose!