are very different things--especially because he's inviting the Republicans and businesses in on all of it, and promises over and over and over not to fight.

none of the things you list will come to pass with a bitter and harsh -- and partisan and divisive -- fight--too many billions and too many powerful players are against them.

talking about when he told the insiders at the fundraiser that Obama would be tested and that he would need those supporters to stick with him in doing unpopular things.

A draft? In order to get the numbers of soldiers he wants to put into Afghanistan?

Doing big progressive social programs? Not doing them?

Anyway, Margaret Kimberly suggests the planning is already underway to continue Bush's War on Terra:

... Bush has authorized the establishment of the Presidential Transition Coordinating Council at an earlier date than in any other election year. High level staffers from the Obama and McCain campaigns have been engaged in security briefings with the Bush administration and are also in the process of obtaining FBI security clearances, the first time that has happened prior to election day. Bush doesn't want to head back to Texas without insuring that his doctrine remains firmly in place after January 21st.

The plans for continued American military aggression are already underway and Biden can't keep quiet about it. Biden made his statements during a Seattle fundraising trip that took in a cool million dollars. Yet he wasn't just making a plea for cash, he made a plea for support of whatever action the Obama administration may take.

"Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going 'oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us." The Obama/Biden doctrine must be truly awful. If Big Mouth Joe is already pleading for patience from the faithful we are looking at Bush/Cheney the Sequel.

Ah, yes, Biden--who advocated invading Iraq before 9/11! Dem hawk, meet...what? Is Obama the antidote to hawkishness?

Not if the Maddow interview is any indication--gotta fight the Good War* in Afghanistan...

A Dem Congress would hold McCain's feet to the fire; it would provide opposition. With Obama as prez? See no feet, see no fire, be no opposition.

*Andrew Bacevich has a piece in Common Dreams which says BushCo has several different wars going on all at once, none with clearly defined objectives. Obama can have his choice of wars! Dennis Ross is already working to get Iran high on the list. Interesting piece, not too long.

I haven't doubled checked this yet, but it seems there's an aunt (one mentioned in his Dreams of My Father) and an uncle.

I was looking for an article about how the campaign is trying to tamp down expectations as to what Obama will actually do once he is in office.

Just interesting.

There was also stories done about poor relatives in England. Quite frankly, I'm not sure why their conditions are of any worth noting.

Hey, if we succeed in adding Medicare for All it would be The Great Society.

[edited to correct for hasty misreading]

The Great Society:

Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and of racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period.

That the list in the quoted paragraph plus Medicare for All appears to be the Great Society is an excellent illustration of how atrophied the "liberal" agenda has become after years of spineless Democrats and right-leaning politicians like Obama.

Read the wikipedia article linked to see what real liberals once stood for. Just on the environment alone:

* Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and Amendments
* Wilderness Act of 1964,
* Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966,
* National Trails System Act of 1968,
* Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968,
* Land and Water Conservation Act of 1965,
* Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965,
* Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965,
* National Historic Preservation Act of 1966,
* Aircraft Noise Abatement Act of 1968, and
* National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

All of that (except the Wilderness Act) was accomplished in a single term, and nearly all was good legislation that people are fighting to protect today. What's Obama proposing specifically that lines up with any one of those pieces of legislation, much less the entire list, much less the rest of the Great Society legislation that accompanied all of that?

Barack Obama's senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week's election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

The sudden financial crisis {Sudden??] and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of "hope" and "change" are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, "so there's not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair."

The aide said that Obama himself was the first to realize that expectations risked being inflated.

In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq.

"The first hundred days is going to be important, but it's probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference," he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how "hard" it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.

"I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy -- especially now," Obama told a rally in Sarasota, Florida, yesterday, citing "the cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq." Obama's transition team is headed by John Podesta, a Washington veteran and a former chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton. He has spent months overseeing a virtual Democratic government-in-exile to plan a smooth transition should Obama emerge victorious next week.

From Tim Reid article in The Times of London.

Might have been good idea to mention some of this in a few of those 30 minutes in the bid ad buy, but, hey, win first--govern later.

The national debt is now 10 trillion dollars. The deficit is now over 500 billion. On top of that states are going broke, infrastructure is failing and unemployment is rising, now over 6%. That doesn't include the 700 billion bailout.

The Iraq/Afghanistan wars are costing 16 billion monthly...and we are not leaving anytime soon.

So...where's the money?