Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama.

Senator Russ Feingold's Political Action Committe, the Progressive Patriot's Fund is planning a $5000 donation to one of nine house candidates and you have the opportunity to help choose the recipient. Click here to go to the website and cast your vote.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with a new top 14 list of names I considered most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Sens. Evan Bayh (IN) and Jack Reed (RI) were eliminated in the previous round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with a new top 14 list of names I considered most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Gov. Tim Kaine (VA) was eliminated in the previous round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with a new top 14 list of names I considered most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Fmr. Sen. Bob Graham (FL) was eliminated in the previous round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with a new top 14 list of names I consider most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO) was eliminated in the previous round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with a new top 14 list of names I consider most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH) and Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA) were eliminated in the previous round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the new final series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began last time with a new top 14 list of names I consider most likely to be named Obama's v.p. running mate, and we'll eliminate the bottom vote-getter each day until there is a winner, or a real-life winner is named by Obama. Starting today, candidates will be listed in order of votes from the previous poll, from most to least, so we'll have some idea of preference in this thread's voting should Obama decide before there is a series winner. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (NM) was eliminated in the first round.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today concludes the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p., and starts a new one ("final final"?).

The previous series began with the bottom 14 names of 28, eliminated the lowest vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been cut next--who was cut was determined by averages of all this series's votes). Since Obama will pick soon, we'll see if we'll have time to complete another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Gen. (Ret.) Wesley Clark (AR) defeated Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (KS) to win the previous series. Starting today we'll run the top 14 names I now consider most likely (I know I may be wrong). I was going to run Bayh against the winner of this series alone, but it was pointed out this would not be exactly fair, so since Bayh and Clark have now both made the cut for this series, I decided to skip that.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p., now down to the final two.

This series began with the bottom 14 names of 28, eliminated the lowest vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been cut next--who was cut was determined by averages of all this series's votes). If Obama doesn't pick soon, we'll have time for another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Sen. Joe Biden (MBNA) was eliminated in the previous round. The remaining candidates, in case Obama beats this series to the punch, are listed in the poll from the most to the least average votes in this series. So candidates near the bottom are likely to be eliminated in this round of voting, which adds a certain element of strategic voting. I am not saying that these are the most likely candidates: this is a poll of DKos preference among the 28 candidates we started with.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Looking at the election landscape as it exists today, I have come to a conclusion that has been gnawing at the back of my mind for awhile.  I probably knew it was true before, but hey, denial is a powerful thing, you know.  My epiphany was this - The Democratic Party is the worst political party - ever.

Now before you go all sea cucumber and spill your guts on me, or compare and contrast the bigotry of the "Know-Nothing" Party, let me make myself clear.  It's not their platform, it's not their goals, it's not the people who vote for them.  Rather, I am talking about it in the purest political sense - forming a group with the intent of getting like minded members elected to public office.  Democrats don't seem to know that that little D after their name means that they are supposed to be part of a team working towards a political goal, not just a unshaped group of people that happed to park in the same section of the parking lot before a ball game.

On Saturday, Russ Feingold praised John McCain's maverick quality in this article . I'm going to question Russ Feingold's intelligence if he honestly thinks that McCain is a "Maverick" and "Independent Thinker". How can McCain be those things if he isn't even running his campaign, and just says and acts how his handlers tell him to?

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p., now down to the final three.

This series began with the bottom 14 names of 28, eliminated the lowest vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been cut next--who was cut was determined by averages of all this series's votes). If Obama doesn't pick soon, we'll have time for another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) was eliminated in the previous round. The remaining candidates, in case Obama beats this series to the punch, are listed in the poll from the most to the least average votes in this series. So candidates near the bottom are likely to be eliminated in this round of voting, which adds a certain element of strategic voting. I am not saying that these are the most likely candidates: this is a poll of DKos preference among the 28 candidates we started with.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

I am so angry I can hardly even type this. Russ Feingold will never get another penny from me. What an idiot.

Washington - If Republican John McCain needs someone to vouch for his independence, he could easily do worse than Senate colleague Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a liberal Democrat from a key battleground state.

"I think the guy calls 'em as he sees 'em, and as president would call 'em as he sees 'em, and would make people mad all over the place because it wouldn't fit anybody's playbook," said Feingold, who teamed up with McCain to rewrite federal campaign laws.

"He would be very original," Feingold said.

...
[He] continues to express (when asked) his affection and admiration for McCain, even in ways that deviate from his party's core strategy against the Arizona Republican, which is to paint him as a clone of President Bush, and a "maverick no more."

Feingold calls McCain "very original" and a "maverick by nature." McCain's own TV ads call him the "original maverick."

...

"But the notion that somehow (McCain) is going to get in there and be some kind of ideological Newt Gingrich right-winger is a joke. There's no way that he would do that," Feingold said.

A rumor surfaced the other day that the REAL #1 guy on Obama's veep list is Not Evan Byah or Gov. Kaine but WI Senator "in" Russ "we Trust" Feingold

In my humble opinion, great idea, but wrong position.  If you have access to a resource like Russ, you don't waste it on the Vice presidency, you put it to work where it can do some REAL good.  And I personally can think of no better place than the Attorney General's office.

When President Obama takes office, one of his most critical tasks will be reigning in an executive branch that has been essentially without adult supervision for the past 8 years.   Our Bill of Rights is in tatters right now and the concept of rule of law ain't looking to healthy either. And afte the FISA vote,  It's time for Obama to make a clear statement about his commitment to restoring our civil rights and reigning in executive power.

 What stronger gesture could he than to commit to appointing as AG,  the nations top Law enforcement offficer,  the ONLY  national politician  who has been right on this issue from day one?  The "1" in the 98-1 vote that created the USA Patriot Act is that man.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with the bottom 14 names of 28, eliminated the lowest vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been cut--who was cut was determined by averages generated from this series's votes only). We're now to the point where candidates are only being eliminated. It looks like Obama won't pick soon, so we may have time for another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Gov. Tim Kaine (VA) was eliminated in the previous round. The remaining candidates, just in case Obama beats this series to the punch, are listed in the poll from the most average votes to the least average votes in this series. So candidates near the bottom are most likely to be eliminated in this round of voting, which adds a certain element of strategic voting.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Today I will be attending a fundraiser for an outstanding Wisconsin State Senate candidate, Tara Johnson. The special guest at this event will be Russ Feingold.

Since I can't take you all with me, I thought asking for questions or comments would be a good substitute. So - act quickly! I'll be leaving in about an hour and a half.

I promise to post pics and any answers later.

But follow me below the fold for the real reason I'm attending this event - to support a fantastic candidate for State Senate.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today continues the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with the bottom 14 names of 28, eliminated the lowest vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been cut--who was cut was determined by averages generated from this series's votes only). We're now to the point where candidates are only being eliminated. It looks like Obama won't pick soon, so we may have time for another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) was eliminated in the previous round. Fmr. Sen. John Edwards (NC) also left the series. The remaining candidates, just in case Obama beats this series to the punch, are listed in the poll from the most average votes to the least average votes in this series. So candidates near the bottom are most likely to be eliminated in this round of voting, which adds a certain element of strategic voting.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll continue the final elimination series of possibilities for Obama's v.p.

This series began with the bottom 14 names, eliminated the bottom vote-getter(s) and replaced them with new name(s) from just up the list, reaveraging as we went (so each thread's bottom vote-getter[s] may not have been the ones cut--who was cut was determined by averages generated from this series's votes only). We're now to the point where candidates are not being rotated in, but only being eliminated. It looks like Obama won't pick very soon, so we may have time for another round before we see if the DKos wisdom of crowds is. Rep. Robert Wexler (FL) was eliminated in the previous round. The remaining candidates, just in case Obama beats this series to the punch, are now listed in the poll from the most average votes to the least average votes in this series. So candidates near the bottom are most likely to be eliminated in this round of voting, which adds a certain element of strategic voting.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The most correct format would be to state their name, unless you have further comments. I'm happy to hear all ideas in this open thread, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)