Obama was all for letting the primaries play out to the end, he never asked for them to end early. He foresaw the situation we are now in and tried to deflect it…. Unfortunately he is being unfairly blamed (just like your comment about Hillary's supporters' perception that the media did it best to destroy her and those supporters are blaming Obama).

For what it's worth, here are my thoughts:

As a Floridian and former Hillary supporter, I disagree with some of the media discussion about what's driving the resistance. I talk to a lot of people who swear they won't vote for Obama (psst! they will, though). They aren't all motivated by love for Hillary, but by fury at the DNC. Many of them believe — as I do — that he'd have won eventually anyway. But they don't like the way his campaign played the game.

People have tended to dismiss Clinton hardliners with an airy wave of the hand. That was always a mistake. If you look at the popular vote during the primaries, there was a LOT of support for Clinton. And among these people — never mind if they are right or wrong — is a widespread perception that they AND their candidate have been dissed, and continue to be dissed, by BOTH Obama's campaign AND his supporters.

At this stage, It's not about Clinton any more than a person's support for a particular college football team is about the individual members of the team. The camps have hardened around the candidates in a way that I doubt either one would have wished.

And the problem Obama has isn't that he beat Clinton — many bitter-enders concede that he'd have won anyway.

Many are furious at the DNC and the party for trying to end the primaries (VERY) early. It turns out that people really did feel passionate about this process; they wanted all their votes to count, and many feel that the party itself tried to disenfranchise them to pick the candidate it wanted rather than let them pick the candidate. (In other words, they fail to distinguish between the 'right' to participate in picking the candidate and the right to participate in picking the president).

Sadly for Obama, they want to vent their rage at the party or to punish it for treating them — as they see it — without the respect they feel they were entitled to expect. One said that she couldn't see any way to do that except by refusing to vote for the nominee. She doesn't dislike Obama, but she wants to make the Democratic party and its various arms and operatives understand that they can't afford to do this again.

Obama is also being blamed for something I don't believe was his fault — the perception of H's supporters that the media did its best to destroy her.

I would like to see Obama bring those people into the fold. Sadly, too many of his surrogates etc. have publicly expressed the view that the Hillary intransigents are just bitter, petulant, racist, sore losers, etc. rather than responding to a perceived (rightly or wrongly doesn't matter) imbalance or fundamental lack of fairness in the primary processes.

I don't think a lot of them care whether Hillary is hurt in 2012 by what happens now. It's only a little bit about her or Obama per se. This isn't about the candidates, but about aggrieved Hillary supporters' grievance. . And in the end, it doesn't matter whether anyone thinks they should or shouldn't be aggrieved.

Obama needs their votes; and more to the point — in a failing economy, where many of his young constituents are paying $4 per gallon for gas — he needs their money. He's going to have to work to prove to him that he really IS the right person to represent them.

Hopefully the convention will bring back the excitement and drive up support. I think it will. And hopefully his campaign and his supporters will realize that insulting and shaming the hold-outs — as some of his surrogates have done — isn't helpful to him.

The reversal on campaign financing. The DNC saw this as the holy graille. The ability to draw huge sums of cash to bury the GOP and THEY………NOT OBAMA………BUT THE DNC forced him to cave on his own principals. So the very first decision he had to make as the official candidate was to FOLLOW DNC marching orders.

This tells me he is nothing more then a party man who must toe the line. IF he does not. Its a Jimmy Carter Presidency who promised congress that he would go over their heads to the people and he did and he ended up with 18 percent interest rates, 8 percent unemployment, Inflation, stagflation because congress said “We'll show you whose in charge.” And they did and this is my fear for Obama.

Well I suppose qualification and delivery are trivial matters to consider when we have more important things like the color of skin to consider..

Also, Democrats have been running to the center FOREVER. We just have more visibility into the candidates these days. They can't hide as much.

Just in case he survives the new poll “slips” and BigMedia trashing blitz they have planned for his..um…private affairs…and political blunders…and Reverend Wright, at least they know they'll still effectively be running the place if Obama somehow still takes the oath next January.

In short, I don't think the GOP cares whether Obama or McCain are ahead in the polls. Effectively it means the same thing in the final wash.

The GOP knew all along who represented real change and they spared no effort making sure that candidate was knocked out of the running, even with more popular votes…just like they did to Gore…another one who meant real change.

Change is not something the GOP/BigOil welcomes. And hence the reason they (covertly) love Obama so much.

The Big Three certainly don't deserve a federal bailout (nor a state bailout, though that may be possible or even likely provided the Dem leadership here in Michigan is grown-up rather than robotically and parasitically assuming Washington, DC should do it, which is likely). Incidentally, Obama as being “part of the machinery” makes me think of the Big Three, long operating on an obsolete model that is still in existence today (defying reality for more than twenty years), and an Obama team that might re-introduce failed old models of governance in Washington next year.

Also of concern about an Obama presidency is whether he'll be a pushover for entrenched Democratic special interests (not just the powerful in Washington who we can predict will largely have their way) who will benefit at Americans' expense.
I.e., underneath the slick packaging is Obama a throwback to the Sixties, even? (Not the radicalism that ruined liberalism in this country to this day, but the often good-intentioned but destructive and failed liberalism. “Each of these babies has a different daddy. It's my job to have them and it's your job to take care of them, Mr. Mayor!” (New York at its liberal zenith prior to BANKRUPTCY from its liberalism)

I've been supporting Obama for months, and have donated to his campaign twice, but the most recent donation was a bit reluctant — not at all because I don't support Obama still (I do), but because I'd prefer funds go to his campaign rather than hers.

So I think there's something to that analysis.

The Newsweek poll from two weeks ago was bizarre, and I'm not surprised it's adjusted. However, since it does indicate a shift in the independent voters, I understand some of it. To me, as an independent, the fiscal marriage is bothersome. It's a reminder that, however much Obama does not “toe the party line”, he's part of the machinery.

Of course, the same holds true for McCain as a Republican — but he's not appealing to his supporters for money for somebody else's defunct campaign, as far as I know. The reminder is not in (independent) people's faces.

This party is in worse shape then is the GOP and the GOP is nearly dead. If it was not for the war in Iraq the Democrats would have nothing to talk about. This is not Barak Obama's fault but he is wedded to this party and it is this parties inability to deal with one over ridding issue that will in my opinion cause all those independents to vote for McCain.

Solving the energy crisis. His party wants to change light bulbs, save the owl and rely on Green in 2030. Great. Im all for that. But what about TODAY. Uh Change Two light bulbs??????