WILL OBAMA SAVE US FROM POISONOUS MEATPACKING PLANTS?

Despite vicious, desperate and baseless attacks against Obama that almost look coordinated by the National Brotherhood of Corrupt Lobbyists working for McCain or the Clintons, today has been an especially good day for the candidate who best captures the spirit of hope and change for most Americans. The day started with two very conservative ex-senators endorsing him, Sam Nunn (D-GA) and David Boren (D-OK), moved to an encouraging headline from Newsweek: Hillary Drops Back-- Obama Pulling Away and ended with a rousing endorsement from yet another high profile and well-respected Clinton ex-cabinet member, Robert Reich, who said his conscience forced him to come out for Obama. First Newsweek:

Despite her campaign's relentless attacks on Barack Obama's qualifications and electability, Hillary Clinton has lost a lot of ground with Democratic voters nationwide going into Tuesday's critical primary in Pennsylvania, a new Newsweek poll shows.

The survey of 1,209 registered voters found that Obama now leads Clinton by nearly 20 points, or 54 percent to 35 percent, among registered Democrats and those who lean Democratic nationwide. The previous Newsweek poll, conducted in March after Clinton's big primary wins in Ohio and Texas, showed the two Democrats locked in a statistical tie (45 percent for Obama to 44 percent for Clinton). The new poll puts Obama ahead among women as well as men, and voters aged 60 and older as well as younger voters. (For the complete poll data, click here).

One of the more devastating results for Clinton was that a majority of all registered voters now see her as dishonest and untrustworthy. According to the poll, just four in 10 (41 percent) registered voters view the New York senator as honest and trustworthy, while 51 percent think the opposite. This compares with solid majorities of voters who see Obama and McCain as honest and trustworthy (both polled 61 percent).

Robert Reich was Clinton's brilliant Secretary of Labor, much loved as the man responsible for the Family Medical Leave Act. Before that they were classmates at Yale and Oxford but their friendship has been strained in recent years and Reich, like many Democrats has been revolted by the Clinton's Rovian attacks against Obama. It still probably came as a blow to them when he came out so strongly for Obama today:

Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so. His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding. His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers. His ideas for improving our public schools and confronting the problems of poverty and inequality are more coherent and compelling. He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming.

He also presents the best chance of creating a new politics in which citizens become active participants rather than cynical spectators. He has energized many who had given up on politics. He has engaged young people to an extent not seen in decades. He has spoken about the most difficult problems our society faces, such as race, without spinning or simplifying. He has rightly identified the armies of lawyers and lobbyists that have commandeered our democracy, and pointed the way toward taking it back.

Finally, he offers the best hope of transcending the boundaries of class, race, and nationality that have divided us. His life history exemplifies this, as do his writings and his record of public service. For these same reasons, he offers the best possibility of restoring America's moral authority in the world.

Hillary's relentless and increasingly shrill attacks on Obama (and now on Democratic activists) have become more than an annoyance and are keeping him from focussing on McCain. It's time for her to withdraw and for her and her husband to get to work trying to undo some of the damage they have caused. The risks to this country of electing an out of touch, reactionary throwback like McCain are just too dangerous. Time to get real.

We're reminded in today's Consumerist just how damaging the right wing ideology espoused by McCain and his supporters really is. Their mania for unfettered, unregulated "free markets" is nothing but a prescription for tragedy and a call for the freedom of the powerful to rip off the rest of us.

First the FAA makes their own inspectors cry in front of Congress and now the Associated Press says that the head of the federal inspectors' union is alleging that the USDA told him to "drop the matter" when he reported food safety violations at slaughterhouses. When he refused, he was placed on "disciplinary investigative status."

Isn't it time to put this kind of thinking behind us-- not to perpetuate it with another term of George W. Bush? Most Democratic insiders agree with the grassroots that Hillary isn't the one best suited to take on McCain; Obama is.