Ipsos Poll Puts Barack Obama Ahead of John McCain by 7 Points

"Right now the momentum seems to be in Sen. Obama's direction," said Michael Gross, associate vice-president at Ipsos Public Affairs. "The fact so many people feel the country is headed on the wrong track favours Sen. Obama right now. And the fact he has a strong core of people who are willing to advocate on his behalf, is a plus for his candidacy."

Go Obama!

Sierra Club to endorss Barack Obama for President

The noted environmental group has officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama. Here is what they had to say about the endorsement:

"The contrast, which was already pretty sharp, just got razor sharp this week," the environmental group's executive director, Carl Pope, told The Associated Press. "At the end of the day, John McCain just signed up with the Bush policy of giving the oil industry what it wants."

Stikes me as more "anti-McCain" than "pro-Obama" but since I like Obama, I'll take it.

Barack Obama takes on Mortgages

“While predatory lenders were driving low-income families into financial ruin, 10 of the country’s largest mortgage lenders were spending more than $185m (€136m, £92m) lobbying Washington to let them get away with it,” wrote Barack Obama.

Sounds like Obama is going to make mortgages a campaign issue. I still don't understand what his proposed solution is to the current mortgage crunch, but it is a hot topic for many families.

Smart timing on Barack's part... since the latest surveys show that home prices are falling like a rock and more and more families are struggling with housing. We'll see what Barack can come up with...

Barack Obama and the Gay Vote

All of the Dems were chasing the gay and lesbian community's support this week. There is a growing base of voters who support gay rights and gay marriage in particular.

But there is also a price to pay in winning those votes, as evidenced by the fact that not a single Republican candidate is willing to discuss the issue in debate. According to polls in three swing states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, most voters said that they would vote AGAINST any candidate that got endorsed by a gay-rights group.

Yikes. Tricky issue.

the fact is that most of the democratic base is socially liberal and securing the support of gay and lesbian groups will help, not hurt, in primary elections. But the real goal is to win the whitehouse, not win the primaries, and that will be a more difficult political maze to navigate.

Bring Obama Barack is Back

Sorry for the hiatus, I haven't written about Barack Obama in over a month. Summer time and the livings easy...

But it hasn't been easy for dear old Barack. His honeymoon as the underdog in this race seems to be over. He's now listed as a "front runner" but he's still behind Hillary in most polls.

Barack kicked up some dust over Pakistan this week. He basically said that if he was POTUS and he had concrete evidence of al Queda being protected in Pak, he'd bust in there to get them anyway. Hillary scolded him for being politically insensitive. The rest of the Dems tried to stay out of it.

The real story for Barack this month is Unions. More specifically union support - which he desperately needs. So far most unions seem to be supporting Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, and Barack is finding himself in the middle, which is a terrible place to be for a primary election. He needs to win over some of the big unions to secure grassroots support, and he needs to do that fast.

Obama outpacing Hillary in fundraising

Senator Obama raised $32.8m in the second quarter of 2007. Fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, who is ahead in most of the polls, raised only $27m. Might sound like a small difference, but that's almost $2 million PER MONTH more for Obama.

President Bush hits the lowest approval rating of his presidency

Sucking wind.

Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job President Bush is doing.

Yikes.