Now the real work begins

Tuesday night was the culmination of a lot of hard work by Senator John McCain and his supporters, both online and in the field. A lot of people worked very hard to get the senator where he is today, certainly not the least of which is John McCain himself and his fifty years of service to this country.

Wednesday was largely a day of relaxation and celebration for those of us on the web, if not for McCain himself, who was already fund raising in Florida by mid afternoon.

As the guys at Politico Mafioso note, McCain got the formal laying of the hands from George Bush today.

He also started the process of taking over the RNC.

McCain Monitor reminds us that John McCain's primary job right now is to pick the right vice president to balance the ticket. That's not something we're going to have much of a say in (and frankly, thank whatever deity that you pray to that some 21 year old blogger in NY doesn't have a say in the Vice President of the United States.)

However, there are things we can do. The fine folks over at MV08 have worked hard to establish the John McCain 50 State Google Groups, and Blogs For McCain has the pertinent details on how to sign up and join these.

You can also start up your own blog and ramble to no one in particular, like I do. Brad at MV08 lists the five sites that can help to get your blog off the ground. Even if you suspect that no one is really reading your blog (as I do with mine), signing your blog up for the Wonkosphere will automatically help to raise John McCain's internet buzz and interest.

However, the best, and perhaps easiest way to help John McCain as we enter a tough general election is to donate money to John McCain's campaign.

Whatever you do, even if you choose to just vote in November and nothing more, know that you are helping to elect the best possible President of the United States.

UPDATE: And if Michael Schuyler happens to be reading this, I did in fact name this post before reading the Omnibus.

Barack Obama is stuck in 2002.

Tuesday night in in Ohio, Barack Obama said this

"If al-Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, we'll have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad."

IF? I know the standard joke on Obama is that he ignores reality for his hope and dreams spiel, but this is a bit much, even for him. Luckily, John McCain thought so too.

"I have some news. Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. It's called `al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Barack Obama, predictably, used the same tired talking points he used on Hillary Clinton in the debate to respond to McCain.

"But I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."

Yes, Barry. We know. You didn't agree with the war. You didn't like it in 2002. You said you didn't like it in 2002. You went on the record in 2002. You gave speeches in 2002.

The problem is it is now 2008. What's done is done. The decision to go to war was bad five and a half years ago. Whether or not you liked the war in 2002 is completely irrelevant to the situation in 2008. For someone who repeatedly insists that he is the candidate of "the future" and John McCain is the candidate of "the past" Barack seems to really harp on what he would have done almost six years ago while offering only half baked solutions for how to march on in to the future.

I guess we can withdraw from Iraq and wait until you decide that al-Qaeda is there to come back. Since you seem wishy washy on whether or not they're there now, I'd hate to see what its going to take for you to be totally convinced that we should fight them in Iraq.

Rather than sit around and wait for President Obama to arbitrarily decide if al-Qaeda is in Iraq or not, I'm going to vote for John McCain this November to be my President and Commander in Chief. The alternative is going to be a disastrous combination of six year old policies and a staggeringly naive view of the dictators and despots of the world.

Even if I didn't admire John McCain as much as I did, that alternative is too scary not to vote McCain.