Day Twenty-five, April 19

Today's feature comes from a source that, I will admit, must be taken with at least a few grains of salt: bloomberg.com. Since New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is one of the primary suspects in candidates Obama might pick for his VP, a lot of the pro-Barack articles that come up on Google are from that site. But that having been said, this feature by Julianna Goldman is too good to resist. Predicting an oncoming sweep of superdelegates and other Democratic party big cheeses, Goldman reports on some big names that have recently given their support to the Illinois Senator. Like former Senators Sam Nunn and David Boren, two conservative leaning congressmen on the left. Or Bill Clinton's labor secretary, Robert Reich, who said he'd heard enough of the name-calling coming from Clinton's side of the fence. It's enough to make a former officer for the Clinton family think twice about reenlisting, evidently.

For anyone who's supporting Obama, but recognizes that sheer hope and goodwill won't put the man in office, this sort of sway is what his campaign has been counting on to help seal his candidacy. Unaligned Democratic strategist Steve McMahon described the outpouring for Obama as "the canary in the coal mine for the Clinton campaign. What they're saying reflects what a lot of people are thinking but not yet saying.'' Considering that many superdelegates and other influential Democrats are making a point about Obama's resistance to mudslinging and other 'dirty' political tactics, this in itself is a sign of hope. Although it's died down in light of recent superficial attacks on him, a previously common accusation was how hard it was going to be for Obama to convince the majority of Washington to clean up their act and act in a bipartisan fashion. However, with how many of his supporters are now citing his style of clean politicking as an influence in their decision, that argument is fading fast. By constantly rerouting the 'hope train' to higher ground, the Obama campaign is successfully picking up speed and boarding some very welcome passengers along the way.