Gonzago, Gonzago...er, Davidson

Wow! What a great game! I love the underdog. Davidson stood up to Kansas the entire game, trading leads, staying in the game, and then in the last minute...I'm not a sports writer so I'll stop there. It was a simple mistake--Curry was brilliant for most of the game. But with seconds left he held it too long instead of passing around, and with double coverage on him he couldn't get a shot off so he dumped it to a lesser shooter. Who missed the three. And time ran out. They lost by 2. Sigh.

This tiny school, this great group of players, coach, and fans, they inspired throughout the tournament. They were poised, diligent, hardworking, talented, tenacious, skilled, and never the favorite. And they made it to the final 8 out of 64, just one shot from the Final Four.

But with Kansas winning another great thing has happened: for the first time in history, the Final Four consists of all top seeds! This is the best of the best, fighting for the top spot. I'll miss the underdogs, but I'm looking forward to the last three games.

College sports are so much more exciting than the alternatives.

Why Hillary Clinton Shouldn't Be President

There are lots of reasons, not the least of which Obama is a better candidate and more likely to win the general. But there's something deeper.

The following transcript is from a New York Times article. What it shows it not opposition to single-payer healthcare, but a clear, crisp explanation that a single-payer system isn't politically advantageous on the face of it.

MRS. CLINTON: You know, I have thought about this, as you might guess,
for 15 years and I never seriously considered a single payer system. Obviously,
I listened to arguments about its advantages and disadvantages, and many people
who I have a great deal of respect for certainly think that it is the only way
to go. But I said, as you quoted me, that we had to do what would appeal to and
actually coincide with what the body politic will and political coalition
building was. So I think if you look at most public opinion surveys, even from
groups of people who you would think would be pretty positive towards single
payer, Americans have a very skeptical attitude. They don’t really know that
Medicare is a single payer system. They don’t really think about that. They
think about these foreign countries that they hear all these stories about,
whether they’re true or not, which they’re often not. And so talking about
single payer really is a conversation ender for most Americans, because then
they become very nervous about socialized medicine and all the rest of this. So
I never really seriously considered it."

Really. People don't understand Medicare, so you drop the idea of Medicare for all.

Hillary Clinton is not a leader. That's the moral of this story: she looked at the issue, decided it wasn't politcally viable, so instead of working to make it viable, she moved on.

Hillary Clinton is not a leader, because she doesn't lead. Show me 2 issues where she's led--truly led, independently led. PA voters need to consider what leadership really means; the Clintons criticize Obama because he lacks some abstract experience (theirs), but Hillary lacks leadership. And from what we've seen of Obama, this is a person who knows how to lead.

Starting Fresh

Heading out to San Diego for the AFP conference. I'm giving a talk on sustainability and social responsibility among nonprofits, something I'm pretty passionate about. I dread the travel, though, with so much to do back here in Lancaster with the new project.

We're announcing a prototype of our Facebook integration sometime soon. It looks pretty cool, and will definitely help nonprofits leverage their supporters and social networks, more than the existing product does. There's a lot of value in there, though some people won't see it initially. You pretty much have to try it, and then the sparks start flying...anyway, it's nice to be first again. First with a great UI, first with Hybrid Web, first with desktop fundraising software integrated with social networks. Dave's platform work paved the way for what I'm working on, made it incredibly easy, in fact.

Gotta finish packing, loading up the iPhone with tunes, cleaning a bit.

Obama in Lancaster

Obama should visit Lancaster and other secondary and tertiary cities. I think he's going to do well in this state if he campaigns hard and talks about solutions around jobs and the economy.

Of course, I'd like to hear him suggest that he'd support a test of the single-payer healthcare payment system in Pennsylvania on the basis of PA HB1660. Why not try it? Neither candidates' healthcare plans is a viable solution, neither caps costs to business, neither gets rid of the biggest non-care cost of the system: the payment system. We don't need the middleman.

And you'll see why in my next post...

Worth watching!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/233

Thanks to greenskeptic!

We Closed Our Series B Venture Round!

About 4 weeks ago we closed our Series B venture round with TBL Capital, a new, socially responsible venture fund based in Sausalito, CA. We're based in Lancaster, PA, the center of all culture and technology, as you know.

TBL comes from the social finance world, and is relatively small at $50 million. I really admire and respect the team there, and met with one of the limited partners for a day; he's an amazing post-corporate philanthropist with some impressive ideas about social impact through business.

If you've read this blog or know me, you know that I have been consistent about social responsibility and sustainability. TBL stands for "triple bottom line"--people, profit, and planet. Our values are aligned with theirs. And we passed on a number of firms whose values were not as closely aligned, opting for the right thing over the expedient thing. It feels good to wake up every day and have the chance to live and work our values.

I think it will pay off. I'm already working hard at a new office running the R&D Division (rather small at the moment, but growing to about 12 this year). We're shipping SalesWorks Standard in a month, and are adding some cool integrated services into GiftWorks and SalesWorks as part of our now 6-year-old vision of the Hybrid Web, the integration of the rich desktop with web services.

Read the post here at the company blog to learn more, and the press release here.

Buying Tech Locally

I don't like buying from national chains if I have a local option. In Lancaster, the options have never been great. Cyberwarehouse is a pretty good option for certain things, though I'm not aware of everything they offer. Today I dropped in to buy a few things for my new office, and they had what I needed--a wifi router and a wireless mouse. I paid cash, forgot the cards.

I've been in there before, and have had decent customer experiences (I've had terrible experiences at Radio Shack, Circuit City, Office Max, and Staples at times, as well as pretty good ones), but the point is I'd much rather spend at a local store than a national one because of the dramatic impact local spending has on the economy: up to 4 times more. That is, only 11 cents out of every dollar spent at a national retailer stays in the local economy, but up to 44 cents out of a dollar spent at a locally owned store stays in the local economy.

If you want strong communities, neighborhoods, and local economy, buy local. And hire local. There are likely a few people working there who we'd hire. And if you can help get the word out that we're looking for support personnel and pay decently, maybe we can attract some of the few gems out there in the local retail world looking for a step up (or over).

Cyberwarehouse scan: decent deals and range of offerings for notebooks and computers, wide variety of cables, which I think I would do if I still had a computer store because it's resourceful to people and helps build loyalty; bunch of LCD and plasma TV (I don't understand why they carry them given there are plenty of things in the computer.gaming world to carry...seems unfocused, but the deals were decent from what I remember); service staff to add RAM, drives, whatever to your computer, and they appear to know their stuff.

I listened in to a few conversations and aside from one inappropriate comment they were knowledgeable and helpful. I'm likely to try them for service work if we ever need it, but at the moment we're pretty much plug and play in the new space.

Any of you locals know of other decent locally owned computer stores?

The iPhone SDK: Not for Everyone

No, Apple has never been about openness or inclusion. The SDK only installs on Macs. So I have to have a Mac to play with the SDK. Not that I have the development skills to really take advantage of it, but hey, I still want the option.

If Jobs really wanted Apple to lead in the computer world, he would open everything up. Allow the OS to ship on other computers. Make the OS affordable. Open up the iPhone. Make the SDK available to Linux, Windows, and Unix. Allow Windows to run on the hardware. Oh, wait--it already does through the wet wool sock called Parallels.

My next notebook is a MacBook Pro, but it isn't without protest. And my Microsoft Natural keyboard damn well better run on it!

Stupid Stock Tricks

I just bought 1500 shares of Kintera (KNTA) at $.54 cents. What could possibly go wrong?

Really, I think they're getting it together. I'll see them in a few weeks at the AFP conference, and will have a better view of what's going on from that, but from what I can tell, they've pulled their costs in and are pushing for profitability. They'll get there.

But if I were a private equity firm or a competitor, I'd buy them. It's cheap, there's some fat to be trimmed, and you could flow the products out to your existing customer base. Hey, I'm a competitor in some way off sense, how about that?

Sorry. They are enterprise software for large nonprofits, and we're a mass market company. Wouldn't work. But Convio or Blackbaud should scoop them up. Makes sense for a lot of reasons.

GiftWorks 2008 Ships!

The team has cranked for about 7 months on GiftWorks 2008, and it's really paid off. The app looks great, advances the product, and responds very well to over 2 years of customer and consultant input. Get it here: http://www.missionresearch.com/GiftWorks.

If you're not familiar with it, GiftWorks is fundraising software for nonprofits that's affordable and easy to use, but incredibly powerful. If you know of nonprofits stuck in the dysfunctional world of Excel lists and Access, or spending thousands on software, send them our way. Over 6000 customers and growing!

Congratulations to the GiftWorks Team!

Geek Update

• Apple announced the iPhone SDK. So I now have an iPhone. I like it, but the keyboard is tough. The packaging was perfect. But the antithetical sign up with ATT was frustrating. It was unclearly non-Apple.
• Last year (or before) I came across a startup that sported a very cool user interface. Take a calendar, for instance; you could move your mouse over a day, and the day expanded, like it came into focus. That's a great concept, because it means you don't have to double-click and wait to see what a day looks like, or change your view to Day View to see both the contents of the day and the context in which the day sits. The iPhone should sport something like that (it has a bit of that but it's obtuse and occasional).
• Few commercials on broadcast TV (we cancelled cable) inspire me to go to a website. And I really don't like cellphone companies. So it was a big deal when I found myself going to Sprint.com after the commercial that claims $99 a month for everything. The entire cellular model has been built around scarcity; abundance makes more sense. More people would buy abundance. More people would sign up for deals with sensible loss leaders; we would rather pay $99 for $70 of usage if we knew that we'd never be charged $120 as opposed to knowing that with the $70 plan we'll occasionally be charged $90 because we were good customers and used the damn service a lot, but were charged a higher rate for our loyalty.
• I have a Treo 700w and a BlackBerry Worldphone, not to mention the limited but effective Credo Wireless phone from Samsung or something in addition to the iPhone. Why? Because I try everything to learn what works and what doesn't. And accumlating cellphones doesn't work--I need to sell the Treo and Blackberry, at least.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow I have a board meeting. Next week we'll make some positive announcements and I'll give more of the story here. no mysteries--it's about venture capital.

Single-Payer Healthcare Testimony in Harrisburg

The well-paid insurance lobbyists are out in full force, blaming people for not taking care of themselves, saying "consumers" need "choice", and that people die in Canada because of the healthcare system.

But we're out in strength. Testifying currently is Sean Flaherty, economist from Franklin and Marshall College. He's giving a great explanation of the efficiency of single-payer and the comprehensive care given, in great contrast to the current system.

I'm hoping today is a positive step. This is a hearing by the Health and Human Services Committee--room is packed.

Obama's Speech

When was the last time you heard anyone talk about race in a responsible, informed, considered way?

This is the first speech I've heard by a presidential candidate in recent times that has moved me from a pragmatic supporter to an emphatic backer:

"And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students."

He's taken a huge important risk. We're not past the race issues, and I keep hearing that we are--from white hate radio, from white politicians, from non-white middle-class friends. But we are not past it. You can't go to Southeast Lancaster and tell me we are past racism and racial and economic segregation. You can't go to North Philly and tell me we are past the legacy of slavery that has spilled into our neighborhoods and schools. You can't go to Pittsburgh, to Homestead and tell me we are past decades of neglect. You can't go to prisons across America and tell me we are a just nation. We are still on the path. And Obama very bravely, wisely, deftly points this out.

And I'm grateful. I'll donate to the limit.

UPDATE: The speech was amazing until it became a campaign speech. I hope someone in the Obama campaign realizes this. It was great when it was geneuine, authentic, challenging, honest. When it became a campaign speech is when I became less interested. But it was a great speech, nonetheless.

Get Farm Fresh Organic Food All Summer!

Starting around late April, early May, you can fresh organic veggies, some picked the same day! The food is amazing. Add dairy products like cheese, butter, and yogurt, or some low-pesticide or pestricide-free fruit. Then throw in some grass-fed beef or pork, or organic-fed pasture-raised chicken. Buy fresh, buy local!

These are all highly nutritious. In fact, the nutritional content of organic food is substantially higher than conventional food, and in a lot of cases, safer. And it's local--not shipped in 10 days after it's picked from California or Mexico.

So buy Farm Fresh! Lancaster Farm Fresh is taking applications--final week!

http://www.lancasterfarmfresh.com/community_supported_agriculture_csa/

Great organic veggies and fruit from over 30 Amish farmers! Delivery to Park Slope thorugh the Park Slop co-op, Lancaster, PA, Ephrata, Elkins Park, Center City Philadelphia, and if you can get 25 other people within 70 miles of Quarryville, PA, they'll deliver!

"The Obama I Know"

By a colleague of his at the University of Chicago law school:

"In about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the president's power as commander in chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more."


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0314obamamar14,0,7185898.story

Kintera Disappoints.

So I was wrong. Nothing interesting happened with the Kintera news conference. Nevermind...

Wrong on Kintera Timing

The date was in fact to be tomorrow. Today the stock dropped even more as investors sold off in anticipation of bad news. Tomorrow I'll buy 2000 shares (~$1600) in a highly speculative bet that counters the conventional wisdom. So I'm either brilliant or stupid.

Fumo Out

State Senator Vince Fumo has dropped out of the race and will retire at the end of his term. Not to mention that he's been indicted on over 40 counts of lots of nasty stuff.

That leaves Anne Dicker and Johnny Doc (electrician's union leader John Dougherty). I would guess a deal was made with Dougherty. Or someone--it's Philly politics, there's got to be a deal nearby somwhere.

I support Anne Dicker. She's a true progressive and actively supports single-payer healthcare. If you aren't making contributions to a local race, Anne is a great choice to support in Philly, and she needs your help.

Healthy thoughts...

I know I'm jazzed about work when...

• I wake up at 3 am and write a quick specification for an important feature
• I mistakenly think it's Wednesday and am disappointed because I need more time, then realize it's Tuesday and feel thankful
• I smile every time I look at the numbers

Kintera Delays Report to Thursday

So it's obvious something's going on. The question is whether to sell of buy Kintera stock. I'm an optimist, so I'm going to buy. Delaying reports is never a good thing. Unless your office manager is sick, which is my excuse.

Here's the scenario that I expect to see:

• NASDAQ has threatened to delist Kintera
• The company is going to go private, led by a privagte equity firm, and I'd guess the name of the firm but frankly I forget.
• or it will announce it's being acquired by Convio or Blackbaud.

So. Tomorrow I will buy Kintera, on the expectation that it's good news, and not the liquidation of the company.

Kintera Reports Today

Kintera makes nonprofit software and is currently listed on NASDAQ. The stock price is hovering around $.99. They've lost money just about every quarter for quite some time, and have little cash left.

Look to see an announcement of a quarterly profit, and that they are going to take the company private. There's a tension between those two things; the current shareholders need the bump, but the private equity firm only has so much tolerance (I'm guessing on all of this).

Also look for a significant number of layoffs, perhaps up to 30%. This is not a company that should be listed, or as large as it is.

Now, the announcement could be an acquisition by Convio, Blackbaud, Sage, or the like. We'll see--give it 4 months and I bet that's where this heads, if not tomorrow.

The Flaws of Leaders

I'm a leader, and I'm flawed. Not Bill-Clinton flawed, not Elliot-Spitzer flawed, but flawed nonetheless. Everyone under the sun is. People are flawed.

But both Spitzer and Clinton are incredibly intelligent. Is their flaw temporary insanity? No. Momentary stupidity? No. I don't think it's momentary. They rationalized, I'm guessing. They live in rare air, and believe they have the power to hide their choices. And to make choices that are wrong for everyone, including themselves and their victims. When I say victim, I'm including the prostitute, despite the choices she made to get herself there.

So tonight I wondered how the candidates would react. I think Bill Clinton should disappear for a few days. And Hillary should strongly rebuke Spitzer and urge him to resign. Bil lwas a hypocrite in his marriage, and that had nothing to do with the public trust. Spitzer, though, prosecuted prostitution operations, and is a professional hypocrite who got elected on the basis of his aggressive prosecutions of all kinds. Spitzer should resign.

Obama needs to call for Spitzer's resignation. He needs to politicize it now, to say he rejects and denounces this kind of violation of the public trust, because if he says nothing, it will come back in the general election--"Democrats say nothing about moral lapse of leading Governor". Sad, but both candidates need to step forward.

Of the three candidates, McCain had the best, most respectful soundbite:

John McCain: “I was just watching, as all of you have, this information about the governor of New York. I don’t know what to make of it.’’ Later, he said that it was something that “nobody ever expected” and added, “our prayers go out to his family.’’

Spitzer & iPhone--What to Blog?

My iPhone showed up today. I was thrilled with the packaging, and unhappy with the requirement of an ATT account prior to using anything on the phone.

And then dear Elliot Spitzer stuns the world. The Governor of New York is a longtime rising star in the Democratic party who has championed the cause of justice. Even prosecuted prostitution rings. One of which he was apparently a part of. Waiting for the press conference...

Update

It's been a while since I've done a real update. We'll see how this goes; been blogging more than I'd like about politics, of which I'm an observer and not a participant, so I'm interested in limiting the energy and time I apply to it.

• The Charleston Mayor spoke in Lancaster on Thursday. What a great story! The 9-term mayor (hey, if it works, why change? Or the opposite, maybe it's not working but after 9 terms how can you tell the difference?) has transformed his city. And he has some great lessons and advice for Lancaster.
• I ran into Mayor Gray on Friday in the rain during First Friday. He stepped out of his house on Prince Street with no coat but an umbrella, which was marginally effective. I was heading home and stopped to chat with Saheeb of the Threshold Foundation (cool org). Commented to Rick what a fantastic speaker the mayor was, and he agreed and was energetic about it.
• I like to see Rick when he gets inspired by something. He's very excited about the trolley plan, and I have to say 1) I love the idea of free transportation throughout the city and 2) trolleys are great but I worry about the potential eyesore and 3) don't worry about slowing down traffic, because we could use more civil, slower traffic here. He explained that the wires these days are a lot thinner, and blend in with the typical wired streetscape. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But he wants to charge a quarter a ride. I think it should be free, because the revenue isn't worth it.
• Amy and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary with dinner at home and 3 episodes of the West Wing. I was in heaven. Oh, with local grass-fed liberal rib-eye. Sweet. Oh, and will Casillero del Diable wine from Chile, which we learned about in Costa Rica on our honeymoon. Really great!
• There's a difference between having an officer of sustainability and a sustainable company. I've said that before but it's worth repeating.
• A friend and his family are moving back to Lancaster from New York. Amy and I were in Philly today at a huge beer-tasting event thrown by the White Dog Foundation, and we both wondered why anyone would choose Lancaster over Philly if it isn't connected to work. And I really love Lancaster, and I moved back, but every time I go to Philly...well, I lived in New York and San Francisco, and they didn't work for me. And Lancaster does, so why question it?
• Startups grow. They mature. And they professionalize. Sometimes the founders professionalize with them, and sometimes they don't. I think my co-founders and I are evolving with the company. I'm intent on it, but this is not my first leadership role; it's my 6th obvious one if you include non-profit work. We have some big announcements coming this month, and I'll leave it at that, except to say that there was a time I was ready to move on and now I'm totally invigorated, focused, and kicking ass. And I like that.
• Naming products is hard. It can be easy if you have a great, marketable company name, but I don't think we do. Mission Research was supposed to be temporary; it was about what we were doing then--researching ways to make nonprofit missions more effective.
• The first name was InnesFarm. Innes is an old, old family name--our Scottish clan. I like the name, but I don't think it's a great, memorable name either.
• It's time for bed. I've started running, and I think I need to get into a different routine overall. Sleep is something that doesn't come easy for me, but perhaps a well-timed run will help. We'll see.

Obama Crushes in Wyoming

There are few states I would guess would be less likely for Obama to win than Wyoming, but then again, I know nothing about the place. Thank you to Wyoming voters for voting for a great candidate! Now, back to Saturday dinner with Amy, Lupine, the guitar, and a nice locally raised grass-fed liberal steak.

Obama & Clinton for Pennsylvania

I'm not surprised by Hillary Clinton's support in Pennsylvania: she's accomplished, intelligent, somewhat conservative for a Democrat, and tied to a lot of corporate support like Comcast and Verizon, not to mention their good friend and Clinton supporter Ed Rendell. The Governor is mobilizing the Democratic machine against Obama, enlisting its top-down approach to politics which did very well for Bob Casey and the Governor in their last elections. He has a cabinet position to gain from her winning, and irrelevance if she loses.


But the difficulty in PA for Obama won't be the party structure. I don't know about other states, but women in Pennsylvania have been so consistently excluded from the political process in this state, that women are very likely to support Hillary Clinton even if they feel Obama would be a better leader.


I have a friend in Pittsburgh who is progressive, politically active, over 55, and a believer in what Obama represents. She'll campaign for Clinton because if Clinton wins the nomination and then the presidency, she'll have paved the way for women in all 50 states in politics, but especially in PA, where the old-boy networks in both parties represents an iron ceiling. It's tough for women to get the nod in the top spots from the boys in the back room.


Sure, they'll point to Catherine Baker Knoll, forgetting they can't stand her and campaigned against her. They'll point to Kathy McGinty, who heads the DEP, or Rosemary Greco, who heads the Office of Healthcare Reform. But when it comes to the top spots, women need not apply. And that's wrong, and women voters in this state see it, know it, and are ready for a chance to express that. Hillary is their chance.

Obama, then, needs to campaign on a few things to counteract that. First, his campaign needs to remind everyone about Hillary's ties to the insurance industry, how she spent the evening before Bill's nomination on a yacht with over 100 insurance executives and the results that came from that: a non-universal, non-single-payer, non-functional, complex pro-insurance industry health plan. And we've all suffered from that.

Obama needs to point out the damage that the Clinton's did to poor and working single and married women when he caved to Newt Gingrich and the "Contract on America", cutting assistance and benefits to women of lesser means and their children for the past 14 years.


The campaign needs to point out the damage Hillary has done to the women and children affected by the war--both the number killed in Iraq (hundreds of thousands), the women serving their country who trusted the judgment of Clinton and others who failed to stand up for them, and the women and children related to the men who have served far beyond what they signed up for, who have died for the Clinton-Bush miscalculation, or who are injured or maimed for life (tens of thousands) for her lack of a backbone and proper stewardship of the office she holds.

Hillary Clinton has let women down repeatedly. That's what this election in PA is about. Sure, economics (NAFTA, trade, jobs, WalMart) is important. Hammer that. Education is key. Hammer that.


But Obama, make this state about serving women and children vs. not. Make it about supporting women of all incomes, and not. Make it about the right choices concerning life and death decisions like Iraq, and not.

The women of Pennsylvania will be better served by an Obama presidency. While Hillary is tough and experienced, she has shown that she consistently lacks the commitment to women and women's issues of all incomes and position to make the right decisions on their behalf. Being a woman who's suffered through the failings of an ethically challenged husband is not enough. We need women in leadership positions. We need a woman as president. But no, not this woman.

ps: The Governor of Kansas is a likely Obama running mate: Kathleen Sebilius

Hometown & Pennsylvania Finally Relevant

I believe Obama is a better candidate and would be a better President than Hillary Clinton, who has shown that when she says she can be "tough" she means "dirty". I'm going to give another donation tonight to support his effort and encourage any of you to do so as well.

Pennsylvania is a tough state to run in, with 60% of the vote in Pittsburgh and Philly, and the rest spread across what the insiders call the T--Central PA, Northwest, and Northeast. James Carville famously characterized Pennsylvania as Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in between.

Well, I'm the Alabama part of the state, and Lancaster has a very strong set of progressive voices here. And we're active, and we don't like the Clintons--we feel they let us down. Obama will win Lancaster, which has the 7th largest population of Democrats in the state (close to 90k ).

But Obama can win by talking about specific economic issues and solutions: healthcare, manufacturing, education, and technology (Lancaster is becoming a minor tech center), etc. Shoot--gotta run. Back later.

Negative Hillary Wins Primaries, World Watches and Learns

I imagine that's a headline somewhere. Instead of making this election about policy, issues, and leadership, Clinton made it about unsubstantiated attacks, half-truths, and distortions. And so the election moves to Pennsylvania. And my initial, visceral response: not in my backyard.

Obama has refused to go negative on Hillary. Her record stands for itself. Her behavior in this campaign has crossed the line between agressive and shameful, and that's a wide line. When Obama made this election about the better angels of our nature, a faltering Hillary appealed to the worst in us, and some of us responded.

Pennsylvania is not the next state, but it's the next and last relevant state in this process. Ed Rendell backs Clinton; he made his deal with her early and now has something to fight for. He runs a top-down, relatively corrupt political organization based on outdated, patronage-based, pay-to-play politics. And that's a true challenge for Obama, who relies on people who truly believe vs. people who follow the status quo.

Lancaster will go to Obama. We can win Pittsburgh too, but Philly will be tough. Northeast will go to Hillary, Northwest is a toss-up, and Central PA is likely an Obama win. But the party machine will dominate, here in this state with such a weak press, responsive machine, and corrupt GOTV operations (or STV if you live in Philly).

But tonight gave us a glimpse of the difference between Hillary and Obama: Hillary wants the job, but Obama is a leader. We desperately need leadership in this country.

The Hail Mary

Hillary Clinton has thrown her Hail Mary pass, attempting to batter and bruise her way to the nomination when smiling, crying, and cajoling didn't do the trick earlier in the campaign. Over the past few days, she dug into the bag of tricks and pulled out the remaining ones, dirty though they may be.

In the meantime, Obama has continued to refuse to bring up the Clinton's scandals. Tonight we'll find out which approach works: brute force, or substance.

Winning

There's something I've rediscovered after years of trying to be a nice, inclusie kind of a guy: I like to win. I've always been highly competitive. I like to win anything, even things in which I have no talent or expertise. "Monopoly, 21, checkers and chess, yeah yeah yeah yeah. (r.e.m)", I like to win. I'm 5'11" on a good day and I love to win at basketball. I love to win so much I'll try to win once out of 5 pickup games, same day. I like to compete so much I'll strategize during the first 5 games, trying to find an angle to help my hopeless cause.

At work, we make fundraising software for nonprofits, and are just starting to ship software for small business. On the nonprofit side, it's hard to fight to win against competitors because you want your customers to see you as nice, and well, we are nice. We're the good guys. We want the sucky bad guys to lose and look for other jobs instead of fleecing our friends in the nonprofit world. But image is everything, and winning at the expense of others doesn't fly so well with some customers. But believe me, I want to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth of our competitors.

Amy and I are on our honeymoon, and I've had a lot of time to relax, read, think, and exercise. And the theme that keeps coming out is my desire to be competitive in all things (not between us; she beats me at just about everything anyway). And it feels good, feels familiar, and feels like something I've suppressed over the past 10 years.

But no more--I'm here to win.