By GottaLaff

Rachel Maddow made two interesting observations a few minutes ago.

1. She is excited because after watching Barack Obama's AIPAC speech earlier today, she believes he is re-defining the Democratic image of past years to a new one: The party of national security. The Republicans are the default party for this and have been for some time, with the most recent emphasis being on good ol' 9/11. No longer, says Rachel. Not after Obama's impressive speech this morning. Watch out, John Sidney McHundredYears (and by that I mean his war stance, not his age).
2. Obama will be campaigning in Appalachia. She went on to say that Barack is no longer looking at the campaign map of 2000 or 2004, but instead, he is redrawing it for 2008, starting with Virginia instead of Ohio.

Barack Obama promised change. He's already delivering.

Obama/Hillary potpourri

By GottaLaff
I don't claim to have deep thoughts. If I did, I'd get laughed off these pages, although that would be consistent with my being the resident court jester. But I digress. On with Shallow Thoughts:

I watched TV this morning. I do that because I have a lovely, but aging, plasma set that I could not afford today because of Bush's economy. But I digress... again. See how shallow I am?

On TV today, and on the radio, were all kinds of people making all kinds of comments about the same thing: Hillary will do "whatever it takes" to make sure a Democrat is elected in November. And what was included in "whatever it takes"? Her willingness to run for vice president. Yes, if that's what it takes, she'd make that sacrifice. Imagine how grateful Obama must be!

She's "open" to doing "whatever it takes", because without her, an Obama victory might be in jeopardy!

Another way to see that: She's reluctant to run with him and is signaling that she would turn the offer down, as was suggested last night. Or not.

Another Shallow Thought:

I watched parts of Obama's and Hillary's AIPAC speeches this morning, in between blow drying spurts. Obama got louder and stronger responses from the crowd, sometimes endless ones. The standing ovations lasted so long that I had to break away from my Revlon 1875 watt moment to see if something was wrong with the TV, what with all the extended noise (which turned out to be raucous cheers) and all. Hillary did well, too, but not as well as Obama.

Barack Obama made a point of clarifying his foreign policies, emphatically and simply. He's begun his campaign for real now.

Shallow Thought #3: Just now, on MSNBC, Ed Rendell said that Hillary would and should concede within the week. It was also reported that Obama made a call to Hillary and was certain that there would be party unity, and that a meeting between them would take place within the next few weeks. That would be swell.

Those were today's Shallow Thoughts. You never know when I might have more, although I hesitate to overwork what's left of my working brain cells.