There are two levels of change. On the one hand, Obama is building one of the biggest coalitions where his supporters REALLY believe in him. And this speaks much more to what you’re talking about. Every politician has supporters that truly believe in their candidate, and I fully respect that, but Obama I believe took that to a new level.

And then the stuff above is totally separate from that. This is pure on the ground strategy where, as you mention, everyone’s playing one game, and he’s playing another. From a casual, or even better than casual point of view, you don’t see it, but there it is. Once you start asking questions, why is he winning all these caucuses, and why has he lost all of the big states but still kept Clinton from the delegate lead from beginning to end? And then how is he going to pivot and transform this into a national strategy.

The answers really do start pointing you in this direction where you have to ask yourself, has anyone really done this in electoral politics?

Political machines get passed down from one to the next. McCain’s, for instance, is an amalgamation of the lobbyists he has curried favor with, and Bush’s team (note, Karl Rove is a consultant). Clinton inherited her campaign from her husband.

Obama built his organization almost from scratch, and we’re seeing it’s effectiveness. I mean, you really want the scope of how effective his organization is, he lockedin the nomination back in early March; locked it in so well that it has allowed him to weather wright and rezko, and bitter and just about everything that has come down the pike.

That points to an awesomeness of organization that McCain will not be able to rival in the slightest.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and don’t be a stranger.

The whole paradigm shift has struck me ever since Edwards dropped out and Obama had taken off. In 4 decades of watching this game, I could not believe how much he had changed it.

After the last 7 elections that never saw the change we needed in voter engagement, this is blowing us old farts into something that brings to mind the headiness of adolescent love. It’s hard to not just give in to the desire to wear the goofy grin even while keeping the feet from skipping.

One of the dKos diaries yesterday got into the idea that while everyone else has been playing chess, Obama’s been playing GO.

Who knows, maybe my kids will eventually find the world has become a place they are willing to bring their own kids into and I will have some grandkids to tell stories about Barack and the way he changed politics before he ever got to the White House.

And how everyone kept asking WHAT HAS HE CHANGED THAT ALL YOU DELUSIONAL PEOPLE THINK HE CAN REALLY CHANGE THE COUNTRY?

:)