And the Winning Ticket Is — Obama / Biden 08:

Barack Obama made an excellent choice with his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate. On Saturday I spent the day working at the Democratic booth at the Centre County Grange Fair and throughout the day people were asking if the announcement had been made. Everyone I spoke with expressed positive opinions about the choice. If this is any indication of the type of qualified people Barack Obama will surround himself with as President, we can all rest assured that our country will be headed in a better direction come January of 2009.

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The non-profit Corporation for Civic Documentaries is producing a film on former Senator Harris Wofford. We just released a teaser trailer. It has interviews with Senator Kennedy, former Senator Santorum, and General Colin Powell, in addition to Sen. Wofford himself. The full documentary also has interviews with Governor Rendell, Sen. Casey, Paul Begala, Ted Sorensen, and many others.

Watch the trailer at: http://www.civicdocumentaries.org/Portrait_of_a_Ci…

Campaign Receiving Important Endorsements:

As we move into the fall campaign season, the McCracken for Congress campaign is receiving several important endorsements. Earlier this month we were honored to receive the endorsement from the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. This is a key endorsement from an organization that is a leader in supporting the rights of the working people, not only in the 5th district, but in Pennsylvania and across the nation.  read more »

82% of Americans think our health care system needs a “major overhaul.” On top of that, over 90% of Americans [pdf] think the next President and Congress should improve the quality and affordability of health care.  read more »

I sent a strongly worded note off to former Presidential candidate John Edwards today via his website, which, while mostly abandoned, is still up and running. It’s the Internet version of a brownfield site here in Western PA; empty and sad, but with plenty of poison just below the surface.

Moments later, I got an “out of office” reply.

Probably for the best, as my missive to Mr. Edwards had various expletives which probably would have doomed it to his campaign’s spam in-box anyway.  read more »

As the respective party conventions draw closer, we’ve turned our attention to the infamous Veepstakes. Every day we’re hearing more about the “safe” picks and who brings more to each ticket. Governor X shores up McCain’s conservative base, Governor Y helps Obama win in the midwest. Boring!

Let’s throw away reality for a moment, because honestly, it gets boring pretty quickly. It’s much more fun to talk about who’d really shake up the race rather than just be Surrogate-in-Chief. We’re not looking for the next Rockafeller here; I’d rather think about the next Cheney. Who’s got the cajones to follow that guy?  read more »

While Congressional and Senate Republicans stand in the way of Democratic Party initiatives to solve America’s economic woes and Bill Shuster complains about the ineffectiveness of inactivity, 9th District Congressional Candidate Tony Barr works toward real solutions for working people in Pennsylvania 9th Congressional District. In a statement released on Wednesday July 23rd, The Democratic Party Challenger offers a series of proposals intended to aid Central Pennsylvania’s economic woes.  read more »

Cross posted at myDD

Perhaps we are seeing a dim light at the end of a tunnel. The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reported last week that aid to states will be included in a second economic stimulus bill of at least $50 billion:  read more »

The general consensus, among people including former Clinton administration officials Lawrence Summers and Alan S. Blinder, was that checks for individuals and additional government spending would help boost the economy, stem job loss and alleviate the pain of higher prices that people are paying for food and gas.