Barack ain't finished yet

Reading some of the news stories, it would seem that many people are handing the race to Hillary Clinton too early.

Polls are not accurate at this early stage of the game and most likely are only showing Hillary's name recognition built up over nearly two decades.

Barack Obama had a big boost early on in name recognition but then hit that predictable ceiling where he's still at basically right now. I think it won't be until "election time" when people start looking at their candidate's statements and sample ballots that we will see a possible "break" one way or another.

Not that this will necessarily go Obama's way.

Obama has built quite a campaign organization, unlike any I've seen before. They are really systematically preparing for election day. Locally and statewide in California I didn't see anything like this even when Kerry and Edwards were running with all the Democratic resources at their disposal for the general election against George W. Bush.

Barack Obama asks question on LinkedIn

Barack appeared on the professional LinkedIn.com network today with the following question publicly posted:

How can the next president help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?

Maintaining discipline in the Obama camp

I've been hearing a buzz among some Obama supporters who think the candidate should go on the offensive against Hillary Clinton. They seems to be disturbed at the constant barrage of negative media coverage and Obama's performance in some polls.

I suspect such anxieties may have driven the recent memo mishap, which some supporters were quick to defend even though it clearly went against Obama's own declared intentions of practicing a "different kind of politics."

While it may be relatively easy to get the staff in line, the task of keeping volunteers in sync with Obama's message may prove more difficult.

There really is no reason to get upset with the early polls.

In previous presidential elections, Edmund Muskie in 1972, George Wallace in 1976, Ted Kennedy in 1980, Gary Hart in 1988, Mario Cuomo in 1992 and Joe Lieberman in 2004 were early front-runners among Democrats who eventually lost.

Rudy Giuliani has been the front-runner among Republicans who generally are better at predicting eventual winners, but few Republican insiders think he will win. This is because most Republican voters right now don't realize Giuliani is pro-choice. The polls show this and they also indicate that Republicans will not elect a pro-choice nominee.

So, as the election nears and voters begin to learn more about where candidates stand on the issues, Giuliani's support will drop, or so say the pundits.

In the same sense, as the election nears Democrats will be more focused on the Iraq War and Obama is the natural choice for this issue, especially if the campaign pushes hard on this matter with their television ads and volunteer push.