I haven't tossed around the word "hope" all too often this election season.  For a while, it was nothing more to me than a redundant, tired cliche.  I was less concerned with what to hope for and more concerned with what reasonably to expect.

Two weeks ago, though, that all changed.  That's when I moved to Virginia, a state I expected to find tinged with either genteel or low-brow conservatism, and hence to remain Red this fall.  The kicker was that I didn't find that here in Northern Virginia...

Has anyone been having deja vu lately?

I'm not just referring to the re-emergence of deadly hurricanes with eyes trained on the Gulf.  And I don't just mean the recycling of the same old Republican playbook being dumped on Senator Obama this election season.

Instead, as yet another potentially razor-tight presidential race looms, I can't help but recall 2000.  I admit it: the prospect of an electoral fiasco this time around has haunted my dreams.  

The tantalizing scenarios, below the fold. (Disclaimer: I seek neither to depress you, nor to divert your attention from the hard work ahead.  Just glimpsing the potential for a 2008 debacle, rather, should incentivize us to avoid one all the more.)

Every minute we spend debating palin's misstatements at the RNC and her missteps in Alaska is one minute we don't spend whacking John McCain on his own plethora of misstatements at the RNC and missteps everywhere.

Here is a simple sentence we all need to drill here, and drill now, deep into our brains:  We are running against John McCain, not sarah palin.

We are running against John McCain, not sarah palin.

This historic speech, bound to be dissected for days and years to come, is the red meat many of us were waiting for. Senator Barack Obama's speech showcased a fighting spirit and a directness that could beat the so-called 'Straight Talk Express' any day.  

What stood out the most to me is indeed the same observation of NBC's Brian Williams and Keith Olbermann: the tone came right out of Aaron Sorkin's scripts.  This is the scene from the 1995 film The American President that one immediately recalls, below:

Let's give the Republicans credit as first-rate campaigners and propagandists.  Clearly shivering at the policy credentials of Obama's VP pick, the McCain campaign is responding with a slick, Rovian strategy. The strategy is actually very simple: whenever and wherever possible, morph 'good' into 'bad'.  Turn strength into weakness. They did it with Obama's 'celebrity', and they are doing it now with the strength of Obama's VP pick.  McCain's spokeswoman was just on CNN--sadly--emphasizing that the choice of Joe Biden only serves to "showcase" Barack Obama's weakness on foreign policy.  

I suggest we take their cue and, when McCain announces HIS Vice Presidential pick on August 29, we turn the tables.

Now that John Edwards has made his (sort of) confession, so will I.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the Edwards fallout, it's that honesty truly is the best policy in life--whether it be on the national political stage, at the family dinner table, or even in our humble abode here on myDD.  No, I did not lie about an affair of my own, or anything nearly as scandalous.  Mine was instead a lie of omission.

Here goes:  I am a 22 year old recent college graduate who, despite my slew of rabidly pro-Hillary diaries during the primary, was a volunteer and intern on the John Edwards for President campaign for much of last year.  And as some of my fellow interns would attest, I was arguably pro-Hillary even when I was with Edwards.  I was no mole; although today, I can only gleam at the notion that IF I had uncovered the affair myself in '07 and IF I had dutifully forwarded the lurid details to Wolfson then Hillary just might have been the nominee.  Clearly, I have only myself to blame for her loss.  

(Disclaimer: I am no dead-ender.  In fact, I eat PUMAs for breakfast.  I have every intention of getting Barack Obama elected to the White House.  But in this particular diary, I intend to set the record straight on Hillary Clinton (and others) on two fronts.  If no facts, common sense, or reasonable arguments could ever vindicate this woman in your mind, please save yourself some grief and stop reading.  Otherwise, please continue; just prepare to reopen some old wounds.)  

I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it.  That is, I couldn't help but bring a bit of the media's horse-race sensationalism to myDD just one time.  With Obama's possible pick just days away, now is the time to offer up our predictions.

The Democratic and Republican presidential tickets of 2008 (in my book):
Obama/Biden versus McCain/Fiorina.

An explanation below the fold--