My soccer coach dad had two sayings: "The best victories are those won in the face of adversity"

[Music Man]

And "The best swords are made in the hottest fire."

Maybe I've been watching too much "West Wing" lately and am on an inspirational kick, imagining all the times in that show the staff was beyond stressed and pulled together to do right, but look who we have in our corner: Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Barack Motherfucking Obama. I have visions of Obama making THE speech this week, the one that grabs headlines and shows the GOP and the media what a convention bump actually looks like.

What an assembly of smart, experienced, winning people that list is. And you know what? What an assembly of smart, experienced, winning people we have in this forum, at campaign offices, and knocking on doors.

Will there be times the polls scare us? Will the media make us tear our hair out? Will the Democratic Party make unforced errors? Yes, yes, and hell yes.

Guess what, work harder. Because there are no do overs. Barack Obama was down to John McCain at various points. John McCain, whose running mate was SARAH PALIN! If there's anything I've learned from teaching, it's not to get too down when you have a bad day: Analyze what went wrong in a class, fix it, and come back stronger than ever the next day.

"The best victories are won in the face of adversity."

For what it's worth, dad coached for 30 years and never had a losing season.

Let's get to work.

[tonyt53]

1. Dad was right.

[Doodley]

2. Thank you Music Man and thank you to your father.

You, taking the time to write your post, have made me feel a lot better. I will remember what you wrote and be more optimistic for the future after this morning of poor polls, and the emails and DWS saga.