Al and Tipper Gore to Rally for Obama in Palm Beach Friday

We’re obviously in the home stretch here, and Flordia, while giving Obama a slight slight lead, is still very close and will likely be decided by a few points in either direction.

Senator Obama has been going full bore in Florida, spending much of his time this week in that crucial state. In addition, he’s bringing Bill Clinton to Orlando for their first joint appearance.

Given the tight race there, it’s great to see that he is bringing out all of the big guns:

Former Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential contender in 2000, will be joined by his wife, Tipper Gore, at a rally for Barack Obama on Friday afternoon at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach.

Convention center officials announced the event today. It will be held in the Center’s Grand Ballroom, and is expected to be limited to about 2,000 attendees.

Benefit of the doubt

Sorry, Dan, but I’m completely with Obama on this one. One of the things I hated most about the past two Democratic campaigns was the constant drumbeat of stories quoting “Democratic strategists” telling the campaign what it should be doing. It’s not that they were wrong — both campaigns were horribly run — but that this type of “management by anonymous committee” only served to reinforce just how inept the campaigns were. And when the candidates did finally take the advice, it felt like they had been pushed into it. Remember Gore’s second debate performance, or his public agonizing over whether to allow Clinton to campaign for him? I know crowdsourcing is all the rage these days, but when applied to a campaign it makes everything seem rote and telegraphed.

For the most part, we’ve seen a welcome reversal of roles this year. The papers have been full of anonymous Republican sniping over McCain’s strategy, while the Dems have largely remained silent. I hope it stays that way.