When I got home to the final edition of the Miami Herald yesterday, I found our party in full color and it got me thinking.  If MoveOn's Hungry for Change Bake Sales could bring out such a solid grass-roots wave of support for our progressive values on the hot pavement of 700 different American cities, what could we do here with our fellow Kossacks?

Some sort of coordinated event would demand a bit of brainstorming, so let's dive in.

Excuse me while I self-promote a bit.  As you may know, this past Saturday the Hungry for Change Bake Sale event turned over 700 American cities into one big small town.  Our version made it into the Miami Herald!

The online copy of the article has the full text, although the paper copy has a much cooler set of photos, and the killer title.  I must admit it is mad satisfying this morning to realize that 272,000 of my fellow Miami citizens are sipping their morning coffee and reading this:

"When you hold the candidates up next to each other, Obama will be the obvious choice," Fike said.

On The Chris Matthews Show transcript for June 22, you will find some of the most concentrated hope of the entire cycle.  I was especially emboldened by the opinions on the Economy issues.  Jim Cramer (yes, THAT Jim Cramer) of the "Mad Money" show said that Wall Street will embrace Barack Obama.

Jim Cramer: I think it's going to work. I think people recognize that the whole Bush plan turned out to be a facade, a charade, because most Americans don't own stock. It's not an ownership society. We don't care how our stocks do because they don't do well. So I think--I think Obama's making a lot of sense.

It's not class warfare anymore. We don't feel like that if we get rich, we're going to pay. We feel like, you know what, the rich have had such a great ride and what has it done for us. It's time for other people to do well.

That's what Wall Street thinks too.  (With Bush) Everybody got screwed except for a couple people who make more than $2.8 million a year.

What a wonderful day. When the morning broke, we did not know each other at all.  Now we share the bonds of common activism.  We baked, we congregated, and we raised money for MoveOn.  It created a very small-town experience in a very large city.  

Follow me over the break for the photos and the fun.

Hello, my friends.  I would like to start off today by thanking each and every one of you for your thoughts, prayers, and wishes in the comments of my last diary.  I will start crying again if I stop to think about how much it meant to me, so let me soldier on.

Last night we stopped the random clicker at C-Span.  It was the perfect moment.  Barack Obama was speaking in Flint, Michigan at Kettering College. He spoke at some length about education.  He soothed my soul.

It has taken me four days to get my wits together and write this diary.  I can't promise that it will be anything close to coherent.  I just know one thing.  We desperately need to elect Barack Obama as the next President of the United States.  The humanity of our nation's children depends on it.

I have been teaching Art in the urban public schools of Miami for 26 years.  I just lost my job, since any student who cannot score above a certain level on the FCAT exam that Jeb Bush instituted as a requirement for graduation does not receive any elective courses throughout their entire high school career.

It is a tragedy beyond my wildest nightmare.

I can't think of a better way to spend a sunny summer solstice than sharing some sweets with the neighborhood for a good cause.  MoveOn is organizing a Hungry for Change Bake Sale campaign for next weekend.

Here is the link for our local yum-fest in Miami, you can follow the tabs to set up your own.  I will take lots of pics, now it is time for me to make some signs.  This is not much of a diary, there is nothing after the break, but I thought we should spread the word.  

Please leave your best Obamish recipes in the comments.

Yes We Candy!

Caren Bohan wrote a long comparison piece for Reuters, and that link goes to an AOL version with a poll for smurfing.

McCain posed in size zero jeans for the latest issue of Vogue. Obama, who has also appeared in the fashion magazine, was praised by style writers for the violet sheath dress she wore to her husband's Democratic nomination victory rally and has been compared to former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

But the aspiring first ladies have plenty of differences.

(I am re-posting this today, two months after I wrote it.  It is time to focus on the Republicans in earnest now.  Enjoy.)

I am feeling it.  The groundswell of support, the unflinching momentum in the face of the scorched earth tactics, the absolute weakness of John McCain...

This could really work.  The underdog could win the championship.

Which of these equivalents does it seem most like?

From Breitbart.

Presumptive Republican White House nominee John McCain said Thursday he would like to see a manned mission to Mars as part of a "better set of priorities" for NASA that would better engage the public.

At a townhall event in Florida, the Arizona senator was asked about funding for the US space agency's shuttle program, which is due to end in 2010.

He said he "would be willing to spend more taxpayers' dollars" to continue the program but argued that NASA must do a better job of inspiring the American public, as when it sent a man to the moon in 1969.

"I am intrigued by a man on Mars and I think that it would excite the imagination of the American people if we can say, 'Hey, here's what it looks like," he said.

"We know that now, and here's what may be there and let's all join in that project. I think Americans would be very willing to do that."

Sam Stein on Huffington Post points out the most glaring weakness in the McCain campaign.  The Republican candidate can't get the facts right, on a daily basis.  

Check out the typo:

But a more worrisome issue for the McCain campaign may just be that a theme is emerging, both within the media and political circles, that the Arizona Republican has a penchant for playing lose with the facts.

On my way in to work I was listening to Nicole Sandler on the radio, talking about last night.  She crystallized my tears:

This morning the world realizes that the American people are not like George W. Bush.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins has written a great article on Huffington Post.  We need to take it to heart, and realize that the "wounds" will heal.  We may need some magic, but we must become one big happy family again.  Remember the Texas debate?  Remember that great feeling of hope and unity?  

We must recapture that.  We can recapture that.  Yes we can.

Eleven of the nation's governors will have to perform some political sleight of hand...

After months of supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton, they will have to convince voters they're just as happy with her rival.

I love wordplay.  When I am skimming articles and my eyes fall upon a pair of words that combine to create that sense of poetry that enlarges, I bless this distinctly human condition all over again.

This morning I found Joe Klein turning the phrase "Impotent Ferocity" to describe The Campaign That Is Almost Over.

So, I surfed around and made a list of twelve phrases from the recent news that are both tangy and zesty - simultaneously poetic and informative.

And, if you meet me after the break, I made a trading card for my favorite potential Vice President!

James Wolcott's blog is fabulously entertaining.  

Amost as good as the article in Vanity Fair that he wrote all about Daily Kos.

His take on the latest pastor flap had me roaring.

We talked a little bit about Obama's latest temporary albatross, Father Pfleger.  What struck me was less the contents of his sarcasm, but his showboating... up there strutting, preening, and mugging for the audience like Jumpin' Jack Flash, at some moments nearly morphing into the late Sam Kinison with his rasping crescendos.  If the Catholic Church is offering this sort of solid, nightclub-worthy entertainment, I may have to consider setting aside my atheist qualms and rejoining, as long as I can get a good table near the front.

I have always believed that laughter is the quickest way to God.  This election season has blurred the boundries like never before.

Further down the page, James Wolcott agrees with another of my beliefs.  We need to send Al Giordano to Denver.  Follow me...

Indeed, my friends, we are on the cusp of a new frontier.  In fact, we are wallowing in it as we speak.

The internet revolution, in person.  How far will it reach?

Jason Linkins stretches his hand into the future on Huffington Post, and he is unofficially promoting a prototype for an "official White House blog" at OhBoyObama.com.  I think we should do a bit of a background check before we embrace that site, although there is one idea in the article that really floats my boat:

Have Obama glue horns and glitter to ponies and call them unicorns.

Help me figure out what an official White House blog would look like after the break.  Thanks.

"We become the thing we most resist."

-Antero Alli

I see a frightening thing happening on this website.  If it gets much worse, we will not be able to tell the difference between DKos and MyDD.  Check yourself, before you wreck yourself.

And it doesn't stop there.  MSNBC is getting so carried away with the hype of a failed primary campaign that they are ignoring their duties to the public.  Isaac Chotiner, in the New Republic, calls it a Dangerous Liason.  It could very well blow up in our face.

As much as I find MSNBC entertaining, their creation of a parallel, pro-Obama universe is the type of thing I'd expect of Fox. That's when I know it's time to change the channel.

Something is in the air.  Two major articles (well, the second is actually a reaction to the first) about Chris Matthews, and his place in our lives.  Is he really leaving us for greener pastures?  And, most importantly, will he still surf?

He was immersed in political history, political lore, political speculation, political calculation, political humor, and political craziness—and, then as now, he wasn’t drowning in it, he was surfing it.