When thinking about this election cycle several years ago, I fantasized that it would feature Hillary Clinton vs. Colin Powell. Not only would that be two options that would make me pretty happy, but it would also guarantee a major milestone of a woman or African American as president.

With the announcement today of McCain's VP pick, an approximation of that fantasy is coming true. Ignoring for the moment McCain's recent pandering to the right, I can have some hope that even if McCain is elected he will be a decent centrist president. Plus, we're guaranteed that a ticket with either a woman or African American will win in November!

A few weeks back I would have been completely opposed to the idea of Hillary Clinton as Obama's VP.  I'm not a big fan of the Clintons and would see choosing her as a perpetuation of the old guard in the party rather than embracing a new, less-partisan direction.  Also, a significant fraction of the country hates the Clintons.

However, this week I've had a change of heart of sorts.  First of all, in the campaign at least, Obama doesn't really seem like a new kind of candidate (and he probably can't be if he wants to get elected).  Also, it's clear that the people who despise the Clintons will despise Obama too.  I should have known that from the beginning. 

One of the favorite themes of the talking heads lately has been how McCain has been following Hillary's blueprint for attacking Obama (link):

"The McCain campaign believes that some of Hillary Clinton's tactics, especially questioning whether Obama is ready to lead, can be a real winner," Schneider said.

Clinton nearly overtook Obama during the primary campaign after she started airing ads asking whom voters would rather have answering a 3 a.m. call to the White House.

"The McCain team has been very open that they went to school on the Hillary Clinton campaign, that they learned from that," Gergen said.

Ironically, McCain's success in following Clinton's game plan could breath more life into her VP prospects.  Obama must be feeling a little vulnerable, as McCain has pulled into a dead-heat in the polls (link).  Instead of feeling like he doesn't really need Clinton, these days he might be feeling more like he'll lose without the white, working-class voters she might help bring.

I also underestimated how stubborn Hillary's supporters would be about rejecting party unity and not supporting Obama.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll also points to a big challenge for Sen. Obama as his party gathers in Denver next week for its convention: rallying Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters to his cause. Only half of those who voted for Sen. Clinton in the primaries say they are now supporting Sen. Obama. One in five is supporting Sen. McCain. The Republican has reached out to Clinton supporters by offering steady praise for the former first lady and hinting that he'd be open to a running mate who supports abortion rights.

Apparently there is still a significant effort by Hillary supporters to derail Obama's nomination (link):

A massive e-mail and Internet campaign is under way aimed at derailing the nomination of Barack Obama and making Hillary Clinton the party’s standard bearer next week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

“It’s downright nasty,” said Memphis, Tenn., superdelegate and city council member Myron Lowery, who has shared dozens of the messages he’s received with The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal newspaper.

Most of the messages Lowery has received from across the country come from Hillary supporters making the case that she won more voters’ votes in the primaries, she won bigger states, that Obama won states that won’t vote Democratic in November, and that she is the only “electable” Democrat.

I still think the chances of Obama picking Hillary are slim, but it wouldn't bother now like it once would have.

We had our fantasy football draft tonight.  The laptop Elliot was using wasn't functioning properly, so he had to make a quick switch to another laptop at the beginning of the draft (and in the mean time the automated system picked Willie Parker for him instead of the Tom Brady that he actually wanted for his first pick among the players still available).  Uncle Kevin then benefited by being given the chance to get Brady for himself.  Some might wonder if he had a hand in sabotaging Elliot's computer.  Elliot took it in stride, though, and was less stressed by the online draft than I was.  Here are a few pictures:

Another development from last weekend was that Uncle Kevin finished up the job of refurbishing one of Coby's old bikes to give to Finn to use.  Finn's been needing to move up a step in bike size, so we stopped at the Bridges' house to pick up the bike on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa B's house on Sunday...and had 4 bikes on our new bike rack for the first time.  Only one of the four bikes really fits on as intended, so it look's kind of funny.  Here's a photo:

Lisa's mom planned a family party last Sunday, so we spent the weekend down there.  Grandpa B set up a badminton net in the backyard, and it was really put to use.  Here are some photos:

A few weeks back Elliot and some friends were making pamphlets.  Below is the one he made.  Apparently our neighbor's yard sign has made an impression.

Several weeks back Elliot attended a drawing camp at the center for the arts.  Here is some of his handiwork:

here is the city of Bikini Bottom from Spongebob Squarepants

I think this is snoopy and mickey mouse

here is Spongebob

We recently listened to the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) as a family after picking up the book on tape set at Goodwill.  I think Elliot and I were the only ones to make it through the whole thing.  Finn fell asleep as we were listening to last chapter while lying in bed, and Lisa missed a few different parts due to being distracted by other activities.  Elliot really enjoyed it.