"If Obama picks a women VP, the Hillary really angry group will come home to him sooner than if he picks a white male,"

Actually I have been told the opposite.

If Obama picks ANOTHER female (Sebelius?) the ardent feminist core at NoQuarter and Alegre'sHellHole will burn the party to the ground.

That's because ALL of Feminism has really ONLY been for one single person....

Screw my daughter, who will have to live with a right wing USSC for most of her life after McCain sticks some middle righty on their, this is about punishment....

I think come home may be the wrong phrase :) Will most of the present folks saying no finally hold their noses and vote for Obama probably.

However there will also always be a small group who finds more to their liking to cut off their noses.

I'm not convinced the race has tightened all that much.  I think the polls from early this summer were a mirage and it was always going to be a horse-race.  

earlier this summer, it stemmed from the actual existence of Obamacans and Obama's performance among independent men, many of which used to be Republicans.

Since then, Obamacans have all vanished; the pubs are "fired up and ready to go."  The enthuisiasm to defeat Obama is reaching its boiling point, I can even feel it here in Seattle among these "moderate" pubs.  Independent men have abandoned Obama as well, which accounts for McCain running up the score against Obama among white men to an even greater degree than Bush against Kerry, even though independent women from the suburbs have stayed in his corner by a decent margin.

HRC's support among conservative democratic, older white women have not expressed all summer and remain undecided.

We need to dramatically increase domestic energy exploration, and the Republicans are killing us on this issue. Even the Chinese Communists--who with Cuba's help will soon be drilling sixty miles off our coast--understand that to lower price, you have to increase supply.

Nancy--I have to save the planet--Pelosi is dragging the party down to defeat with her intransigence on drilling; by not even allowing a House vote to lift the OCS ban on drilling, she is appearing unreasonable and obstructionist. Ironically, this is preventing a discussion of drilling based on the merits or environmental concerns; she has shifted the debate to the issue of why House members are not being allowed to vote on an issue of concern to most Americans. And there's no way she'll win that one, trust me. Her imperial stance seems to say "members don't have to vote; I know best". Did someone say "Newt Gingrich?

There is a way out: Obama could use the Russian crisis to change his stand on offshore drilling, given that two critical pipelines flow through Georgia. As John Maynard Keynes once said, "when facts change, I change my opinions; and what do you do sir?" McCain was late to the party on drill/drill/drill, so that will neutralize any charges of flip-flopping. But Obama has got to act soon, and in the process tell Pelosi to screw off.

The reason the race has tightened up is McCain is running a better stronger campaign than Obama.

1)  He has led and Obama has followed on drilling, visiting Iraq what has Obama led on that McCain followed?

2)  McCain attacks by saying Obama isn't ready and Obama can't defend.  Obama attacks by saying McCain isn't change and McCain responds by offering a new kind of debate, new policies on power generation (nuke and offshore drilling) and basically pulls a draw on the change metric.

Hence McCain can reach into Obama's base more than Obama with their base defined as support polled a few months ago.

Obama has lost control of the fundamentals of this election.

if Obama picks a white male, and McCain picks a competent female, McCain picks up the undecided former Hillary supporters. According to a CBS news poll, one-half of undecided voters (7%), said the Clinton was their first choice to be president.

However, I don't think McCain will pick a woman as VP. He was thinking about nominating Sarah Palin, but the possibility of scandal has thrown her off the VP list.

I want you to tell me any woman besides Clinton that you would not consider to be a mere "token".

Your misogyny shows.

On my part, I hope Obama chooses anyone, male or female, who will want the ticket to win in November. Clinton doesn't qualify because she very obviously wants him to lose.

I think part of it is because Sen. McCain's handlers have stopped his informal chats with the media and are making sure there's not much opportunity for him to stray from his talking points.

He still manages to do it every now and again, like with the "rich-is-an-income-of-$5M" and not knowing for sure how many houses he and Mrs. McCain own.

But in as much as they can control it, they have shut down his off the cuff chatter.