There's been a bit of hand-wringing among progressives the last two days - wondering if this convention is hitting McCain and his party hard enough. Listened to a bit of Ed Schultz on the way to the airport yesterday, and it was the one common question he raised with every guest at the convention: 'when are we going on offense for real?'

My prediction: it comes tonight.

It'll come from Bill Clinton, certainly. And I'd bet Harry Reid turns on the faucet as well - just last week he reminded Lieberman that he "can't stand John McCain."

But I'm optimistic some fire will come from Biden. He'll certainly spend time laying out his working-class background and weave his story together with Obama's. But in an email to reporters this morning, Obama's campaign used language to preview Biden's address that caught my eye:

Joe Biden will show the type of campaigner he's going to be as he lays out the case for Obama.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but to my eyes it's a heads-up about process - we're going to see tonight what Biden can do on the trail.

Jerome and I will both be in the hall tonight - should be fun.

Piggy-backing on McCain's...uh...asset confusion last week, the Obama campaign just released a new ad called "Don't Know Much," a light-hearted spot tying McCain's lack of economic leadership to Bush:

It uses the infectious riff from Sam Cooke's classic "Wonderful World." It's cute, but maybe too cute? McCain's ignorance of economics is dangerous - why give the impression that the problem is benign? And why not use McCain's quote about the economy's supposed "strength?" Still, glad this populist attack on McCain continues.

The campaign says the ad will run on national cable and in battleground states around the country starting today. Let's hope they don't get any ideas for "Mr. Pitiful."

Boston.com is reporting that Senator Ted Kennedy will fly to Denver and appear before the convention Monday:

In a development that is sure to bring the house down, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy is expected to attend the Democratic National Convention, most likely to deliver a speech tomorrow night.
...
Buzz has built among Massachusetts politicos that Kennedy would come, and today a source close to the family confirmed that he had made a decision to come.

``He is definitely planning to be here,'' said the Kennedy family confidant. ``The whole Kennedy family will be in a special section. It should be quite moment.''

Great news.

Jonathan, Todd, and Jerome have weighed-in on Biden, so I won't belabor the selection too much.

Like most others, Biden wasn't exactly my dream pick for VP. He's obviously said some strange stuff and doesn't exactly line-up as the most progressive Senator around.

But as Jonathan pointed out, Biden comes from a working-class background and isn't wealthy - even after decades as a powerful Senator. And Todd reminds us that Biden isn't afraid of a good fight, and will likely embrace the VP attack-dog position.

Taken as a whole, there's a larger point here: Biden hasn't used his positions of power to enrich himself the way we often see in Washington. He could have. When I worked in the Senate, my staff colleagues on both the Democratic and Republican side held an oddly similar assessment of him: sure, he likes to "hold forth" now and then, but he's a guy who's in it for the right reasons. Political power can corrupt people fast. But after serving six terms in the US Senate, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who thought Joe Biden got corrupted by Washington.

And while I agree that there are some minor campaign-related advantages to choosing Biden, in the end I think Obama picked Biden for his ability to govern.

Sure, Biden's looked to advance up the ladder in DC. But when he does so, it's transparent (in a good way) and often humble and self-mocking. I get the sense that Biden's in politics because he likes being a public servant. And it's not easy to find politicians who both know the levers of DC and aren't constantly running for the office of God. But Biden's one of them.

Sure, John McCain can't remember how many houses he owns.

But don't forget that he also owns at least one parking lot worth nearly five times the average American home:

The McCains also claim a family ... parking lot.
...
A pricey parking lot at that. It's valued at more than $1M, according to the senator's 2007 financial disclosure report, and is listed as: "Assets and Income of Cindy McCain and dependent children."

So the McCains own multiple actual homes, and Cindy McCain and her children own a parking lot that costs more than four times the $218K median 2007 U.S. home price.

How many parking lots do you own?

Listen:

As Jonathan pointed out earlier, this all just serves as a reminder that John McCain is grossly out of touch with the current state of our economy.

And we're on offense now - isn't it awesome?

Update [2008-8-21 14:33:29 by Jonathan Singer]: Just to add a thought, I have played the audio a few times in the last hour, listening to it over and over again, and I'll tell you the problem with McCain's statements is not just that he couldn't figure out how many houses his family owns, it's that he was so cavalier is waving off the question -- as if he didn't know that it's absurd for someone not to know the answer to such a question. Really, who needs staff to be able to say how many houses they own?

I'm not sure what McCain's definition of rich is, but in my book you instantly qualify if you can't remember how many #&^#@%* houses you own:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told us in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

I suppose in our "nation of whiners," it's uncouth to give an exact number.

Alternately, perhaps McCain can't remember because they're all owned by Cindy.

Ealier Jerome mentioned Obama's lack-of-blog-outreach problem, and I wanted to add a little color to the discussion of why such outreach is crucial.

As noted, Obama's team has really nailed down the field/finance side of what internet tools and strategy can do. Volunteers are empowered to knock on more doors. Fundraising goals got scaled up. All the quantifiable metrics of a traditional campaign have improved.

But as an example of the other half of what the internet can do, roughly "communications/policy/research" in campaign shorthand, look back at the fight a few years ago to save Social Security.

In order to sell private accounts as an attractive policy solution, George Bush and the Republican machine first needed to convince the American public that Social Security had a huge problem that needed fixing. So they started telling the public that Social Security was in crisis and insolvent. If we didn't do something now, they told us, we'd all be eating cat food by Christmas. And they were looking to raise $100 million to fund the effort (click that link and check out the post's author).

At first, Bush's scheme started to catch on - traditional media outlets like the Washington Post, and even some Democrats, started internalizing and repeating the talking point that something was wrong with Social Security. The situation was dire: if Republicans succeeded in that first crucial step - convincing Americans that Social Security was broken - they would have an open door to introduce a convenient privitization "solution."

But the Democrats drew a line in the sand. In his book "The Good Fight," Harry Reid talks about the various pieces needed to save Social Security: pushes for intra-party discipline, outreach to allies, and a country-wide tour touting the benefits of the program.

Sites like talkingpointsmemo.com and MyDD led the charge to beat back the lies about Social Security. BlogPac's "There Is No Crisis" was born. When traditional media outlets adapted the right-wing talking points about insolvency, blogs went after them to speak objectively and give the facts. Democratic surrogates took to the airwaves and reminded Americans of Social Security's history and its solvent economics. And when certain Democrats wavered on privitization, Air America hosts like Sam Seder and Al Franken encouraged listeners to call their Congressmen and push for a commitment against the scheme. At that moment, we were firing on all cylinders, together, as a movement.

It worked. The Republican plan to convince Americans that Social Security was a problem in need a privitization failed. The biggest Republican legislative priority had lost, but only when Democratic insiders and outsiders worked together. If elected Democrats and their allies, both online and off, share a strategy and a message, we can win.

So how might the lessons of that fight apply to John McCain and this election? How could progressive allies help bat down phony conventional wisdom?

Update [2008-8-21 5:57:58 by Josh Orton]: As pointed out, I was remiss in shorthanding the huge work our allies at Americans United and organized labor (outside groups?) did to mobilize people and help with pushback during the Social Security fight. Blogs and other online allies were not the only players. Certainly adds to the notion of "all cylinders."