This one hurt...big time.

While playing at my computer here in the U.K. at 2:30 a.m. our time...and having indulged in a few glasses of wine...I happened to check my email and found this little missive from the Obama field campaign assistant...

Interesting tidbit from the Guardian.

Brown signals Iraq troops withdrawal

This can only bode well, if solid, for Obama's visit to the U.K.

Reviewing Politico and a few other sites I noticed several articles referencing several Flag Officers endorsing John McCain.

Something caught my eye as I perused the list. As the spouse of a former senior Naval Officer I've met a significant number of flag officers and I could have sworn I'd seen one of those names before in connection with McCain.

This list provided included:

This morning, while trying to post a photo on another diary, I was reintroduced to the pathetic little group that is PUMA.

What piqued my interest was a little blurb on their page of outrage that said they were trying to collect money to send buses to Denver for the Convention:

DENVER! We are coordinating our efforts with 18Millionvoices, the group that has been working on Denver for weeks now. We want to reach out and share whatever we can so that efforts are not duplicated and we get the biggest number of Puma PAC members to Denver as is humanly possible. Events will be starting on August 24th, including protest rallies and marches.

Many of you know that I enjoy fundraising for candidates that I support. While it can be intimidating, especially when what many people hear of are the events that require the larger donations, it truly is a necessary evil that can make or break a race.

I worked something a little different for our Lt. Gov. here in New Mexico, Diane Denish (who WILL be our next Governor), that I think can be easily transferred to smaller local races. Follow along if you're interested.

Many Kossacks have wondered from time to time what would happen to some of the more do whacka do blogs after Obama became the Democratic nominee.

Well, we are getting are first hints. Some examples are promising and some are down right hysterical.

Boy, I thought I was a high-maintenance chick. Hillary tops me and then some.

She has lost...period. Hillary isn't getting the nomination, but she is now, as the loser, demanding recognition.

The Clintons have just come with too great a price, even for a candidate and his supporters who are really truly willing to try to bring unity to the party.

It is obvious to many that the Clintons are sending the message "Hillary is your nominee or we will force a loss in November".

Statement after statement, action after action, they have shown that they are committed to doing damage to Barack Obama, the Democratic presumptive nominee.

A large number of her supporters have stated repeatedly that they will not vote for Obama. When you ask many of these individuals what can be done to gain their vote the answer is "Make Hillary your nominee". That's it. Nothing about issues, silence on the war...just "Hillary or nothing". I don't recall seeing this demand from Edwards' supporters, Richardson's, Dodd's, or any other primary candidate.

I've seen diary after diary on DKos, MyDD and TalkLeft espousing a "Unity Ticket" with Hillary Clinton as vice-president as a way to solve our problem regarding reuniting the Democratic Party.

While its tempting to give in to this notion, tempting to think "That's the Ticket!" my personal opinion is that it would only guarantee defeat in November.

Hillary Clinton herself has made it impossible.

Many independents and members of the Democratic Party were distressed to see the negative tone taken by the Clinton campaign. It was hard to watch a Democratic candidate use such rovian tactics against a fellow party member.

However some of Clintons "supporters" managed to do what the Clinton campaign could not, assure us a true candidate for change in the general.

Go to the Politico website and you get quite a surprise...

One of the things I truly enjoy about Daily Kos is the opportunity it affords me to learn of out of area candidates who represented reasoned progressive positions. I have donated generously and often to many candidates based upon a 'heads up' received here on DKos.

The list includes, but is FAR from limited to:

Rick Noriega
Darcy Burner
Donna Edwards
Mark Pera
Andrew Horne
Andrew Rice
Doug Denneny

I'm the first to admit I'm old school regarding politics. Give me a candidate I can get enthused about and I'm working my rolodex and my telephone, organizing fundraisers, yard signs, speaking engagements, but I could no more create an internet presence than I could create naturally blonde hair and larger mammaries for myself. I recognize my limitations.

I'm starting to get the impression that there is a general malaise in the Clinton Camp.

The much-touted anti-media protest that was supposed to take place this morning in New York outside of the Today Show at Rockefeller Plaza is another example.

Did you forget about it?? I almost did, and it cetainly looks like many of Hillary's supporters forgot also.

Perhaps its just me. Perhaps I'm too idealistic, but I truly don't think so.

I play politics by the 'old school' ways, I don't wear rose-colored glasses and can take punches as well as give them..but this is just too much.

The opening paragraph on kos' front page post poses a question, but it's not the question I wanted to see asked.

Tonight, we at Blue Majority are asking our readers on Daily Kos, Open Left, and Swing State Project a simple question: should we endorse in the Democratic presidential nomination campaign tomorrow, or should we wait until the nominee is certain?

We will hear, and have heard, this refrain over and over from the Clinton campaign.

"This contest doesn't matter because Hillary was expected to do poorly." "Wait for the next round."

The Clinton campaign is fond of framing many of these contests as "She went in knowing she was going to lose" days before the contest.

Okay, this isn't a diary in the classical sense, heck its not a diary in the Comedy Central sense, but I would ask each of you to take time out this evening, while we are all advocating our candidates, to read GreyHawks diary, its on the recommended list, and remember what we are working for with our votes.