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A few days ago I mentioned the arrival of anti-tax, anti-spend group with the nicely sounding Orwellian name of Americans for Propsperity and their arrival in the state to educate the good voters in New Hampshire in the evil ways of government trying to do anything not in the best interests of the people who fund -- in this case the billionaire Koch family which spreads millions to defend its oil, gas and mineral interests through a variety of special interest and policy groups (see more at Talking Points Memo ). Congrats to AFP for getting 1st Congressional District Republican candidate John Stephen on board because it will open up a wide swath of right-wing support for him from across the country. Needless to say the folks at the liberal Granite State Progress weren't amused by AFP's arrival in town. Zandra Rice Hawkins sent me this note:
"Americans for Prosperity is another conservative front group trying to undermine the growing progressive movement in New Hampshire. This is a group that doesn't believe global warming is a problem and uses high gas prices as a political tool, yet is quietly funded by big oil interests and corporate money from out of state.
Americans for Prosperity is an election year phenomena, clearly indicated through the questionable promotion of Republican primary candidates as part of their rollout.
We're going to see a lot more of this group, and that's not a good thing for the people of New Hampshire."

Obama's virtue tour
This is turning out to be an odd general election fight because Barack Obama refuses to play to type by not allowing himself to be fenced in ideologically or politically. We've never seen a Democratic presidential candidate like take preemptive steps like Obama: on Monday, it was a major speech on patriotism in Missouri; yesterday it was a speech about his version of faith-based activism in Ohio; and today in Colorado it's about service (nothing new here; he's been talking about this all along). The campaign said the service speech will lay out a "comprehensive national service agenda, which will create new opportunities for Americans to serve and direct that service to our most pressing national challenges." These are all so-called Republican "issues" being discussed head on in swing states. This is not the ordinary way for a Democratic candidate to do business.