Some stories just speak for themselves:

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

"We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign "election challengers" to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they "have a good reason to believe" that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a "true resident of the city or township."

The Michigan Republicans' planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being "true residents."

During the primaries, one of the ongoing disputes was over which candidate had a plan that would "really" provide health insurance to everyone in America.  That's in the past, and I think the past few nights of the convention have made it clear that the Democratic Party stands united in support of the idea that every single American should be able to receive health care.

But my friends, I have to acknowledge that the GOP has beaten us to the punch and once again shown itself to be the "party of ideas."  Yes, it's true, John McCain has come up with a plan that would make the category of uninsured Americans a thing of the past, and cheaply, too!  So in the spirit of putting country before party, and in furtherance of Barack Obama's message that there's nothing wrong with admitting when a Republican has a good idea, I feel compelled to share this one.

All the hype from the opening night of the Democratic Convention revolved around the speeches by Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama, and deservedly so.  But I want to talk about something less publicized, before it slips through the cracks - the decidedly underhyped appearance by former Republican Congressman Jim Leach.

It's not every day you see a Republican speaking at the Democratic convention, and yet there was very little publicity concerning this event.  As a speaker, Rep. Leach didn't exactly blow the doors off - although I'm not sure what else people would expect from an Iowa Republican.  But that doesn't mean his speech isn't worth a read.

The politically significant lesson of Rep. Leach's speech was that it provided one more signifier of the ongoing exodus of moderate Republicans from today's hard-right GOP.  The realignment is ongoing - witness the Democratic takeover of virtually every Congressional seat in New England, which used to be solid Rockefeller Republican territory.  But we haven't finished the job yet.  In November we'll get a chance to take the full measure of our progress.

I've provided the full text of Leach's speech below the fold.  I think it's very telling to compare his thoughtful, historical analysis with its mirror image, the nasty partisan stemwinder delivered by Zell Miller at the 2004 Republican convention.  (You know, the one where he smeared John Kerry as weak on national defense for supporting military cuts that had been recommended by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.)  If we're trading the Zell Millers for the Jim Leachs, I'm down with that.

With Sen. Obama's apparent choice of Joe Biden for the VP slot (which I support 100%), we're sure to hear plenty about Biden's penchant for gaffes, most notably his poorly-phrased attempt last fall to compliment Obama by calling him "clean," "articulate," and so forth.

Because we're going to hear about that line again and again, I thought it was worth reminding folks of how this issue was addressed during the primary debates, in what I thought was one of the better moments of the election season.

If you don't recall this moment, it's worth watching the video, particularly Sen. Obama's statement at the end.

My bottom line is that there was no available VP pick who would not have presented some sort of "gotcha" opportunity for the GOP to snicker about, but at the end of the day I don't think that's what concerns voters.  What matters is what the nominee can offer in terms of both winning the election and governing, and I see Sen. Biden as a clearly positive choice on both grounds.

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

On Monday, Barack Obama delivered a well-received speech on energy policy in Lansing, Michigan - a speech that was so ambitious and on-point that it could singlehandedly put Michigan in the Obama column in November, in the opinion of this Michigander.  

Yet for the most part, people aren't hearing about this speech.  They're hearing about tire gauges and whether Obama flip-flopped on this or that, but they're not hearing about his 21st-century Manhattan Project to invest in the energy sector and solve the current crisis while strengthening our economy at the same time.

That needs to change.  Let's talk about it.

Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama

If you, like myself, supported John Edwards and then Hillary Clinton during this year's primaries, the question posed by this diary may be a bit of a head-scratcher.  What, indeed, does good press look like?  How would I know?

While Barack Obama has hardly escaped unfair treatment at the hands of the media, at least he's gotten a little love here and there.  The $64,000 question was always going to be, once we got into the general election, would Obama continue to get a decent amount of positive treatment or would the media rush to embrace its one true love, John McCain?

Savvy observers have noted that as McCain has gone sharply, crassly negative against Obama in recent weeks, the media has shown signs of starting to turn on him, perhaps realizing that he's not actually the honorable straight shooter they've been telling us about all these years.  Let's take a look at an example that supports this thesis - yes, a case of the media actually doing its job!

At this link, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, you can see a panning 360-degree crowd shot from last night's Obama rally at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Something that's neat about a panoramic view is that it cuts through all the stage management.  No one can say well, they arranged the cameras to avoid all the empty seats.  No one can say well, they strategically positioned the crowd to make it look more diverse in terms of race, age, or gender.  What you get is simple reality.

So you can draw your own conclusions.  For my part, I thought it was a pretty impressive turnout, the kind of numbers it usually takes a world-renowned megaband like the Decembrists to generate.  Truth be told, I barely noticed the crowd as I was too focused on all those beautiful Stanley Cup banners.

I have never seen such a self-destructive display in politics as what I saw today from the Obama campaign and the members of the RBC.

After all the self-righteous preening about "the rules," after Donna Brazile invoked her mother's lessons about how you have to play by the rules and how people who don't play by the rules are cheaters, she and the other members of the RBC proceeded to ignore every rule in the book.