In case you missed it, Barack Obama's historic grassroots fundraising operation passed a huge milestone last week: two million donors. It's people like us, the ones giving $10 and $20 at a time, who allow him to run a truly publicly financed campaign while enjoying even greater monetary advantages than his opponent, a candidate funded by special interests and lobbyists.

Ed Prouty of New Hampshire was the two millionth person to donate to the campaign. He's a contractor who specializes in HVAC, and since I used to work for a plumbing and HVAC supplier in the area, I feel like it could've been me. It could've been any of us.

His reward? A phone call from Sen. Obama himself, thanking him for the contribution.

Unlike Senator John McCain, NASCAR actually is concerned with the plight of average Americans. The association would like to give back to the millions of people who've made it one of the most profitable and popular enterprises in history... by raising awareness about certain steps YOU can take to improve gas mileage.

Fans of NASCAR, like myself, come in all different shapes and sizes (despite the usual stereotypes), and range from expert to clueless with respect to automobiles. Some of us just like watching stuff go fast.

But even the most boneheaded NASCAR viewer understands certain basic facts about cars. We're glad we know these things and we wish more people knew them... they improve our quality of life, and they could improve yours too.

This week, Sen. John McCain tried to use the Iranian missile tests to launch an attack of his own against Barack Obama. We all remember the dust-up last fall when the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (S. Amdt. 3017) came before the Senate on the day of a Democratic debate.

It passed overwhelmingly... Sen. Clinton voted for the amendment while Obama put out a statement in opposition to the amendment. It classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist organization." OK, remember now?

Now that Iran is leading off the nightly news again, nobody's a bigger fan of Kyl-Lieberman than John McCain.

As everyone knows, Senator John McCain was fortunate to run against a field filled with jackasses. To his credit (I suppose), McCain did what he had to do in order to secure the GOP nomination by the beginning of March, including lying about Mitt Romney's position on the war in Iraq.

John McCain has a series of unfortunate events working against him, not the least of which is a very strong opponent and a very unpopular president to whom McCain can easily be tied. But perhaps McCain's strongest opponent is his inability to read.

Follow me over the fold for more.

Based on almost everything I've read on this site, my fellow Kossacks understand that while things look good, we have a great deal of work to do before we can inaugurate Barack Obama. If this important truth is over lost on you, then simply step outside and talk to someone who doesn't post at Daily Kos.

Zachpunk wrote a very important diary a couple of weeks ago, citing an NBC-WSJ poll from the middle of June of 1988. In that poll, Michael Dukakis had opened up a 15-point lead over George H.W. Bush. Turns out that all the Democrats who were dancing in the streets were doing so prematurely.

I belabor this point not to be a concern troll, but to remind my buddies about the strong - very strong - narrative that John McCain has built about himself. We're up against some powerful stuff.

You guys, I'm not an expert on Iraq and I'm hardly qualified to write this diary, but I think this is really bad news. Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who ordered his Mahdi Army to hold their fire against Americans last summer, has withdrawn the ceasefire.

You might remember the outbreak of fighting in Basra that took place earlier this year; that was a result of al-Sadr giving his forces the order to resist Iraqi troops. As CNN said at the time:

The violence has sparked fears that a seven-month cease-fire by the Mehdi Army -- regarded as a key factor in a dramatic drop in attacks in recent months -- could collapse or that the U.S. military will have to bail out the Iraqis.
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It was considered a political/moral victory for al-Sadr, as he was able to withdraw his forces mostly on his own terms, following a plea from the Iraqi prime minister to do so. It was troubling at the time to see so many Iraqi soldiers unwilling to stand up to the Mahdi Army.

This promises to be a short diary, since it's based on a story that I just read for the first time on Huffington Post. We know all about the lobbyist connections to John McCain's campaign. I use the word "connection" somewhat sarcastically; the campaign is crawling with, and being run by, some of the most influential lobbyists in Washington.

McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, has been the target of our ire for some time. Whether it's his connections to Oleg Deripaska or his status as an "unregistered lobbyist," Davis has been causing headaches for the candidate who asks us to believe that he's all about good government and all that crap.

Throw another log on the fire? Sure, why not....

I wasn't planning on writing a diary today; this is spur-of-the-moment, so bear with me. But Senator McCain made a gaffe today that's as hilarious as it is telling. More of a Freudian slip, if you will. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere because it's so quick that it's really easy to miss.

The presumptive Republican nominee for President Bush's third term was campaigning in Pennsylvania, so naturally he tried to raise Barack Obama's "bitter" comments again. He couldn't even do that right.

According to Mark Halperin, he said the following:

"We’re going to go to the small towns in Pennsylvania and I’m gonna to tell them I don’t agree with Senator Obama that they cling to their religion and the Constitution because they’re bitter."

Wait. What???

It's no secret that President Bush is radioactive this year. In fact, he was radioactive in 2006... I'm not sure there's even a word for the danger he poses to Republicans on ballots in the 2008 election. But now John McCain, who's running for George W. Bush's third term, is trying more desperately than ever to separate himself from his former rival.

A poll by CBS has found that Obama beats McCain by 6 points in a general election; that came out this morning. But Huffington Post is focused on one question from the poll that spells doom for the "maverick" from Arizona. Apparently, McCain is panicking; he's canceled a fundraising dinner with President Bush scheduled for June 18.

Seems like just a week ago that McCain had no problem attending fundraisers with Shrub. Add this to the list of flip flops.

With the primary season finally winding down, it’s about time for the campaign to begin (oy!). When I excitedly told my father that Barack Obama was running for president last February, he distinctly asked, "Obama Bama?" But fifteen months is a long time, and Barack Obama is now a household name in this country. The question is: do average Americans know anything about him? Like what he stands for and junk?

Why is it that Obama’s numbers climb in a given state when he spends more time there? Well duh, he spends millions of dollars on commercials. But when Hillary told him "Enough with the speeches and the big rallies," she didn’t say anything about commercials. Don’t get me wrong, some of his ads have been pretty stellar, but political commercials are political commercials for the most part (with one notable exception... more on that later).

Obama’s accomplished something extraordinary in this campaign; he’s won the nomination over one of the most recognizable people in the last 50 years in American politics. I don’t believe you pull something like that with ads. So there’s something about those "big rallies," something that Obama does better than anyone I’ve ever seen.

If Obama has a personal aide, it only makes sense he'd have a name as cool as Reggie Love, right?

I thought this was a fun story from the New York Times today, profiling Reggie Love, a former Duke football and basketball player who now serves as Barack Obama's 26 year-old body man.

This guy's job is basically to be around at all times, anticipating what Obama might want at any given moment, and having it ready. Every major politician has one of these, and as the story points out, the candidate's relationship with his/her aide depends on the candidate's personality. Obama treats Love as a "kid brother," someone to work out with him in the morning and watch Sportscenter with him at night. Oh, and they do some stuff together in between....

This is hard to believe, but it appears that Hillary Clinton's chief strategist, to whom she still owes millions of dollars, thought the Democratic primaries and caucuses were winner-take-all.

My grandfather died ten years ago, at the age of sixty-one. He was a retired middle school teacher, and someone who followed local politics very closely. He was for good government first, and then the Democratic Party.

Most of what I know about my grandfather I know through anecdotes and the writing that he did in his basement on a piece of crap typewriter (or, closer to his death, a piece of crap computer), and left there. I was only nine when he passed away, so I can only imagine what we would think about today's events. Would he have voted for Clinton or Obama in the RI primary? How would he have celebrated the two recent world championships of his beloved Red Sox? How many letters to the editor would he bang out every week, slamming our xenophobe governor? What advice could he give me as I attempt to follow in his footsteps and become a teacher?

There's one thing I'm pretty sure I already know: he would make great use of the Internet. He enjoyed a good scholarly debate, and was always pursuing information. As I recreate an image of my grandfather, I like to think he would've eventually found his way to Daily Kos.

Politicians are all the same, except the ones that aren't like the rest. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) comes from a long line of politicians; in this small state, he is certainly among the "elite," to use a topical term. But unlike most life-long politicians, this man is unfailingly honest.

Is he perfect? No. He was a Republican for most of his life and cast votes that many of us would disagree with. But he also supports abortion rights, same-sex marriage, funding for stem cell research, voted against the tax cuts, and was the only Republican senator to vote against the resolution to use force in Iraq. Most importantly, in Lincoln Chafee's political life, he's done what he felt was right regardless of political considerations or pressure from within the party.

He's written a wonderful book that I would recommend to all Kossacks: "Against the Tide: How a Complaint Congress Empowered a Reckless President."

Inconsequential as it may prove to be, Rhode Island's primary on Tuesday is looking more and more like a disaster waiting to occur. I consider myself an informed voter, but I just learned today that my polling place has changed.

I've gotten a number of visits and phone calls from Obama volunteers making sure that I know where my polling place is. I said Yes every time, but it turns out I was wrong every time. This morning a canvasser showed up at my door and gave me a different location, and upon checking the Secretary of State's website: it's true, my family is voting in a different North Providence school for the first time that I can remember.

Why this year, and what effect will it have on the primary?

I have supported Barack Obama for president since the day he announced his exploratory committee. What kind of college student would I be if I didn't?

As a full-time student, I spend a lot of time on the Rhode Island College campus. So when Hillary Clinton announced she was coming to RIC on Sunday, I decided to make the 10 minute drive, mostly out of my own curiosity.

Arriving there, my friends and I found a line outside the building. While standing in line, we (and the folks around us) were approached by a Clinton campaign volunteer who was passing out sheets of paper. It asks for your name and contact information, any dates that you're willing to volunteer, the nature of the work you're willing to do, and a "pledge" to vote for Hillary. You know, the usual stuff.