In 2003 hardly anyone outside of Illinois knew a state senator named Barack Obama.

Five years later he is the nominee for President of the Democratic Party.

What this shows is that there clearly is talent all over the United States (while I'm not saying there is an Obama in every state). The question simply is if they can make it out of the political wilderness into the limelight.

Cross posted from My Silver State.

Remember 2004? When the incumbent Senate Democratic Leader was beaten when he was running for reelection in South Dakota? The first time the Republican  Senate Leader Bill Frist broke one of those so called DC "gentlemen's agreeements" of not actively campaigning against the leader of the other party?

You want that to happen again in 2010?

No? Then follow me below the fold to see what you can do NOW to stop the Republicans from beating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010!

Amnesty International is starting an ad campaign in UK cinemas on May 9 showing a 90 second ad about water. Well, at about the 50 second mark it turns into a film about the horrors of waterboarding.

Watch (and, yes, it's very graphic):

I just returned from caucus precint 5022 in Reno. This precinct assembled at Clayton Middle School. There were four precincts at this school.

The turnout at this school was astonishing. There were long lines and quite a few people got registered on location. I was told that precinct 5022 had about 20 people come out in 2004 and State Assemblyman David Bobzien (who co-chaired Edwards Northern Nevada campaign) told me they expected about 100 people to turn out in this district. In the end 179 people were in the room.

So I found this little gem in the Christmas Eve edition of the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Eric Herzik, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, agreed, saying Dodd would be no more able than Reid to end the war.

Liberal disenchantment could even be a good thing for Reid in Nevada, where polls have shown his popularity and job approval ratings have dipped to around 30 percent, Herzik said.

"Harry Reid's numbers have dropped in part because he is perceived as more liberal and out of touch," Herzik said. "The way to fix that is to be attacked by the left."

Yeah, liberal means out of touch, that's the old Republican mantra, and Herzik is a Republican, which the LVRJ continuously fails to mention.

But that's really besides the point, as apparently, us bitching about Senator Reid will lift his overall approval numbers. 'Tis the season, so I suppose I can try and do old Harry a little favor. Here it goes:

Update: Title changed, original title: "Hillary Has 3849 Word Plan to Fight AIDS - Doesn't Mention Condoms Once". More updates at the bottom of this diary.

The Hillary Clinton campaign sent out a press release today feat. their "plan to fight HIV/AIDS at home and abroad." If I'm not mistaken, they are the first Democratic presidential campaign to be doing this. Kudos for that. HIV/AIDS deserves more attention and a renewed focus.

That said, writing a plan consisting of 3849 words (according to my MS Word counter) and not once mentioning the one thing that best prevents one from being infected, condoms, may be politically safe when one doesn't want to be attacked by Republicans. But in the reality based world fighting AIDS without ever mentioning condoms is just whack.

This sounds even crazier when you consider that she supports federal funding for needle-exchange programs, which I applaud, but which leaves me to ponder: why is it politically feasible to mention your support of needle exchange but not of condoms?

This week's roundup is brought to you by My Silver State. Enjoy.

Iowa  
   In the Presidential nominating process, the Iowa Democrats could have both the first and last say.

California  
   It's important to field a candidate in every race, the implications can be many.

Michigan  
   As Michigan state government teeters on the brink of shutdown, it's important to keep in mind what this really means.  

The House Minority Leader John Boehner said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that the blood shed in Iraq and the billions spent were a "small price." A lot of bloggers pounded Boehner for this and rightfully so, though many missed an important angle: Boehner is the leader of his fellow 200 Republican members of the House of Representatives.

So on Thursday, I called on the Republican members of Nevada's delegation (Jon Porter and Dean Heller) to answer one question: Do they think the death of Nevada's fallen soldiers is a "small price to pay?"

I also asked members of the 50-State blog network to do the same. Thus far five other blogs have done so.