Barack and the Boss in Cleveland

My mother is eighty-five and lives in rural Missouri. She likes the Boss and Obama. She uses old common sense to talk politics. .............

http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/11/02/old-women-talk-politics/

OMG! Springsteen is your pretend boyfriend. Please don't try to deny this because it only makes you look bad. You should get him boots for your pretend anniversary; he loves boots.

KT,

You tired yet? We need you to start working on post election analysis first thing Wednesday morning. Just joking.

Who is the real Oh Great one?

KT,
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Is it true that both Obama and McCain will be campaigning on election day and if so is this the norm?

Thanks for releasing the prisoners, KT.
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Saw Bruce (and REM and John Fogarty) in Philadelphia on a fundraising tour for Kerry. Audience was non-plussed. Lotsa middle aged white guys from the Jersey suburbs who don't miss his shows, but pretty clearly don't share his politics.
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The Kerry people, otoh, didn't know about all the little rituals that the fans have accumulated to go with each song.

KT
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I didnt think so. Do you think Obama announced it in response to McCain's plans to campaign on tuesday or was it vice versa? And does that affect you guys and gals negatively? Better yet was there an audible groan when it was announced?

I feel like I should connfess that I am such an over-the-top Springsteen fan myself, that in college "friends" vandalized by huge poster by using red construction paper to make lipstick for Bruce to indicate my same-sex love for him. There; I've confessed.

The other reason that Obama's going to Indiana is it's next door to Illinois. Might as well communicate interest in Indiana, make it clear you're not complacent, avoid the "already measuring the dr@pes" stuff, while you're on your way home.
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We loved the moment when Barack asked the crowd to raise their hands if they made less than 250,000, and then reminded the Boss to keep his hand down.

Are you going to continue your campaign food diary?

@KT,

Was the apparent contrast between Obama's keeping his family at arms length during the campaign vs Palin's using them as props thoughout on your mind when you penned the last paragraph or am I simply reading more into it than what was there?

KT –

A quick "thank you" for the way you've set yourself apart from so many of the lazies and/or crazies out there pretending to commit journalism on the campaign trail.

It has felt good to have the nation care so deeply together for so long about something that isn't American Idol.

"home"
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Interesting that for the first time in a long time, if Obama wins, a president would call an urban residence "home." Not "a ranch." Not a "family compound." I guess Clinton was homeless, wasn't he?
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Dirks comparison was not to McCain's kids, but to Palin's, who one would expect would find school getting in the way of campaign activities.

Voter Fraud Alert: The wheelchair girl in the Liberty Mutual commercial has voted like 90 times.

KT,
I was also in cleveland last night. I got downwtown at noon in order to grab some grub and get in line. A great two-fer with barack and bruuuuuuuce! 1 man, 1 acoustic guitar and 80,000 people mesmerized. THAT IS REAL POWER! i hope barack was as amazed as i was by that. (on a side note, a great music weekend in cleveburg as i saw glass harp saturday night with just a couple hundred other people at the wonderful Beachland Ballroom. if you dont know/remember them, ask anyone your age who plays guitar and then sit down and prepare yourself to listen to he/she go on and on about phil keaggy)

And here is the boss, back in 1985, singing OUR song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU

Karen, thanks for these updates. You are so lucky to be able to witness history like this. And what a statement the Obamas are making that their daughters will be in school even now. I might just add that Sasha and Piper are the same age and Piper is not in school.

KT, care to comment on this piece for Matt Yglesias?
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"Starting Wednesday I think we can expect a boom market for op-eds and television commentary darkly warning that if Democrats take advantage of winning the election to implement the agenda they outlined during the campaign, they'll be punished, punished, punished at the polls. And not just from Republicans, but from loathesome creatures like Bob Kerrey and now Doug Schoen:"
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/11/what_to_fear.php
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Here is what Benen thinks:
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"I don't doubt that there's ample data showing Americans approving of the idea of policy makers working together. With that in mind, Schoen believes Americans are "seeking a middle route." Here's an alternative read: Americans are seeking policies that work. The nation tried it the conservative Republican way for a while, and it led to disaster and failure. Now the electorate seems open to the idea of a different direction.
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The goal, however, is not "conciliation," it's effective government. As Yglesias concluded, "What Democrats need to do if they want to prosper in 2010 and 2012 is deliver the goods. In other words, return the economy to prosperity, avoid terrible foreign affairs calamities, etc."
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Sounds like good advice to me."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_11/015492.php

KT: "I'm getting a little sad and nostaligic. What an adventure this has been."
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I can just imagine what it has been like from within. From the outside it has been amazing.
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It is entirely appropriate that such an precedent shattering campaign at a time of national crisis would be so riveting. I just wish McCain had lived up to his reputation and run an issues-based campaign that would have elevated our nation and national discourse, instead of working to divide us and debase us to the very end.

KT, has it been like this?:

KT - Thanks for all of your reporting and your work in Swampland during the campaign.

HELLO CLEVELAND!
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Virginia, I understand. North Carolina seems like a dream to me, but all the polls show that it should be close.
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But Indiana? Indiana is that close? Either this is some psychological thing designed to encourage GOTV efforts, or somebody wants to go undefeated in the Big Ten.