From the Wall Street Journal's Nick Timiraos.

John McCain is quick to tout his credentials as a party "maverick" as an advantage over Barack Obama, who Republicans have criticized for refusing to break with his party on any major achievements.

One of McCain’s biggest across-the-aisle partners, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, defended Obama against those criticisms Sunday, even as he refrained from any criticism of McCain, who co-authored their landmark campaign finance reform bill.

When the Obama campaign describes something as "unbelievable," as spokesman Michael Ortiz has in response to Hans von Spakovsky's new position at the the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, we should not take it lightly.

"Given Hans Von Spakovsky's controversial record on voting rights, it's unbelievable that he would now be offered a staff position with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a federal entity charged with ensuring that voting rights are not violated. This is yet the latest indication that the Bush Administration is not serious about protecting the most fundamental right that protects all others - the right to vote."

Some highlights from an October 18, 2007, op-ed by Senator Obama, titled, "In Opposition to Hans von Spakovsky," provide more insight into why Senator Obama joined with Senator Feingold and two other senators...

This is what I would call educated speculation.  However, such a scenario is possible.

As you may or may not have heard, Joe Biden has chosen to downgrade his worth to less than that of a container of above room temperature urine by moving his relationship with Barack Obama from AIDS test confidante to running mate. I say downgrade because the Chairman of Foreign Relations is a powerful, powerful man. After all, both Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf gave Joe Biden a call during the crisis last year which culminated in her death and his ouster. Only later did they bother to call our roof-raising excuse for a president.

This means that Joe's ending his 36-year Senate career and relinquishing his Chairmanship, increasing to 2 the number of guys named Joe who will no longer be chairing Senate Committees come January of 2009.

I started running pretty much daily open Obama v.p. speculation threads back on May 9. I may have been too repetitive, opinionated, stubborn, or whatever else, but I had a lot of fun and appreciated hearing everybody's viewpoints. Many times it was a very worthwhile conversation, I think.

There were three main elimination series of polls. The first generated Sen. Jim Webb (VA) as the winner, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (KS) as the runner-up, by a slim margin. The second round produced Gen. (Ret.) Wesley Clark (AR), with Sebelius again the runner-up, and the result of the third was identical to the second. Of the three top names generated, I think all could have been solid and winning choices, along with my other three top choices, Fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn (GA), Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) and Gov. Tim Kaine (VA).

I could be said to have been correct in my analysis in generating the field for the third round of eliminations, only in that the eventual choice, Sen. Joe Biden (DE), was included among the 14 most likely choices, though he was not in my top four in my predictions or preference. So this diary is just me fulfilling my promise to eat crow here if I was wrong. And I was.

(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. Sen. Joe Biden (MBNA) and Fmr. Vice President Al Gore (TN) 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)

Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama.

A few days ago, I wrote about Becky Greenwald, who is running for Congress in Iowa and the Progressive Patriots Fund.

One of the things I like about Russ Feingold is his commitment to keeping his constituency informed. I just read of another of his many common-sense proposals and, as usual, wondered why nobody else in Washington can see things as clearly as my man Russ.

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. Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) 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)

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.