MCCAIN!!  I wrote the following in a troll diary that was quickly deleted, and figured it was worth enough of a laugh to warrant a diary all of its own.  Call it my warm up for the GE battle ahead!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! In the blue corner, at 6'3" tall and weighing in around 210 pounds ... he's lean, he's keen, he's a mean fighting machine: BARACK OBAMA!!!!

In the red corner, 5'7" short and weighin in at 163 pounds ... he's old, got mold, come November he'll be out in the cold: JOHN McCAIN!!!!

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!

As we had into the GE, the latest Gallup panel survey shows Democrats have it over Republicans in confidence about their party and candidate's chances of taking the White House.

I did not have the most auspicious start in diary-writing.  My very first was a feeble effort made as a super-noob - inspired by an enormous gush of enthusiasm and emotion.  I'm now more than a little embarrassed by that 'stream of consciousness' piece.  Then, in a fit of rage post-Wright 1, I wrote a very angry diary railing at some of the racism that was then only beginning to rise in the media and elsewhere.  Luckily I had a change of heart and deleted about 20 minutes later, it was not helpful and certainly not reflective of my thoughts in more 'rational' moments.

I love the quality of diaries here at DailyKos, both campaign related and otherwise; many are sharply analytical, well articulated and brilliantly argued.  I hope at some stage to write something similarly smart that tackles any one of the huge issues we face at present around the globe, but I have a thesis to write, so all of my 'intelligent' efforts go in to that (its no small task!!).  So while this diary is not of those laudable kind, a 'fluff' piece if you will, it may I hope serve to invite reflection on the amazing moments of the Obama campaign to date - a celebration of all that we who support him have endured.  And how very, very far we've come!

Remember that fantastic sentiment? Its true!!  We must stop being distracted by the 'meat' the republicans aka Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh ... seemingly now Clinton, throw out at us.  We must be the change Obama implores us to be.