(Cross posted at baracktheyouthvote.com)

Is it just me? An illusion? Or are some of you also sensing an ever so slight shift in the political current; dare I suggest detecting a miniscule tear in the tightly constructed, intricately oiled veneer of the sheer perfection of the Hillary Clinton roll out?

Have you noticed anything? Tidbits here, there, trickling  into media where just a few weeks back there was naught.

Am I the only observor who detected a  hint of distaste over Clinton key-strategist Mark Penn’s association with Blackwater? A slightly rised eyebrow over the influx of cash from Billy’s buddies at his nonprofit Global Initiative? An illusion to impropriety over that nefaroius Hsu’s  $850,000 bundle? What about the near comic reappearance of the rabidly robotic Hill&Co. attack dogs, frothing and  straining at the bit when questions surfaced over Clinton’s judgement in supporting  the Kyle Lieberman amendment.

Then all that flack about ‘the pin!’  At last,they had him! Obama, squirming against the wall. Yet what ensured was  an open discussion of the post-911-world partisan-ization of patriotism, with informed sources noting the frequency with which Mrs. Clinton substitutes haute couture accessories for the red, white and blue emblem on her suit ensembles.  Color coordination, you know.

I mean, like overnight, the doubting Thomases among Obama supporters were barely recovering their footing when MSM pundits began questioning the veracity of the latest WaPo/AP poll giving Clinton a massive lead. (Whoa now. Methinks they went a little too far with that one.) Suddenly, pundits were asking the right questions. “What about what’s happening on the ground?  How DO you account for this groundswell of support for Obama?”

Well, I have a suggestion. I think perhaps we are witnessing the re-emergence of  dormant patterns of communication, a type of low frequency vibration which is slipping under the radar of corporate media watchdogs and their enmeshed special interest groups. Somehow, despite MSMs prediliction to play down information on when and where Senator Obama plans to speak, to distort or ignore his message, news of the Obama phenomena is spreading like a rumor of the next iPod release.

Perhaps the first inklings of a potential sea change emerged back in California last month when, just days before the Petraus hearings. Kos predicted the Senator from Illinois had missed his opportunity to launch a pre-emptive strike on the truthfulness of the General’s upcoming testimony.  He called yet another set for our former first lady. Well, the outcry was near immediate. We knew beter.  No way our team was going to let this opp slide by. (The Obama team was planning something extraordinary on Petraeus,and  a knock out punch came that Tusday in the form of a foriegn policy speech outlining a daring and innovative evolutionary approach to America’s role in theaters of conflict abroad. Chaulk a big one up for our side.)

This was also the weekend which will forever be remembered for the launch of the infectious  “Fired up, Ready to Go”  mantra, a rallying cry already as potent as  “Lets Go Mets” in their miraculous ’69 season.

But then there was Obama in New York City. Ten days of preparation. Phone banks coast to coast. 24,000 in Washington Square Park. Now as I’ve said before, 24,000 people gathering in any spot at one time in NYC is in itself news.  But MSM, in its sheer audacity, strategically downplayed the event. I think that decision backfired.

It appears to me as if little by little since that evening, the stuffing seems to be leaking from the mannequin. Mind you, right now only recalcitrant threads are visible but nonetheless, the pattern is not rock steady.

After NY, it appears as if the surefire policies of message control are becoming less effective. Barely perceptible glitches are appearing in standard playbook protocol. It’s kinda like watching a run of Bill Walsh-Joe Montana 2 minute dream drills just falling short of the finish  because a new, unexpected variable has everybody a tad offcenter. Doing X no longer necessarily means that Y will follow. Now Joe and Bill aren’t even mindful enough to recognize anything’s gone asunder, so they’re continuing with the same drill; maybe they sense they’ve lost flow but damned if it matters anyway. It’s no contest.

What I’m suggesting is that more and more of us are no longer sitting speechless in the stands observing The Champions making mincemeat of the underdogs. We’re starting to question the calls, to doubt the tally on the scoreboard. America is beginning to pause and say “Now wait a minute. Something’s just not kosher here.” In essence, we are no longer counting on the refs or instant replay. We’re starting to throw down our own flags.

In and of itself, this variable, the deviation is so inconseqential that it is not perceivable as a factor. But the factor, nonetheless, is there. And it is multiplying.

To take the football analogy a tad farther, lets revisit the Kyle Lieberman amendment. Hillary emerges from the huddle and makes the call “We’re voting yes on this one.”  But in the stands, people are asking “What’d she do that for?   Why’d  she call for that play again? Makes no sense, unless she’s not aiming for the same goal we are.”

Do they really want to trust this lady with the football?

Now it’s not like the Hillary campaign is actually aware of this but I think a growing number of us are aware of the vast disparity between what our eyes and ears and intuition are telling us and what’s being force fed to us. No, the Hillary Team right now is just too busy snipping stray threads off the manequin to even consider the pattern might just be fatally flawed.

There is a limit to how long you can contain the facts on the ground, but ignoring 12,000 in Oakland, 15,000 in Phoenix and  20,000 in Austin doesn’t quite match up to deeming as a nonevent 24,000 New Yorkers jammed into an historic small Greenwich Village park to see and listen to a candidate for the 20008 Democratic Presidential Nomination.

No, that particular crowd  created an energy so intense it surpassed the need for media coverage. It ‘outed’ them, gave them the opportunity to show their true colors.

In this new inter-connected world of jet travel and blogs and text messaging and youtube videos, something like this happening in New York is viral; it’s all over facebook and flick’r and youtube and myspace and twitter and technorati. Somebody tells somebody else on a bus or a subway or a commuter flight and then they’re telling their friend who is tellng their friend whose friend saw Obama at a rally in New Hampshire. And felt the same way. Then the news is flowing back down the chain. Fired up and Ready to go.

The Obama Campaign and the Rainforest: Communication Theory

Experts in the field of animal communications assert that animals are adept at using their physical environment to ensure the maximum audibility of their signals. The Bornean tree frog, for example, communicates within its species by slithering into a tree hole and adjusting the frequency of its call until it hits the one note that makes the hole and the tree resonate. It plays the tree, like a musical instrument.

It appears that tropical rainforests are like symphonies, where each particular species communicates on its own unique frequency, aware of timing, spacing and tone to insure communication.

The survival of the New Guinean Cassowary, a colorful, large, and flightless bird, is directly related to its remoteness.  Recently, a scientist decided that the only way to find cassowaries was to listen for them. But capturing the cassowary call wasn’t all that easy. Not only do they call infrequently, but they speak within a spectrum that is below the range of human hearing. Frequently, humans feel a cassowary’s call rather than hearing it. In fact, the cassowary’s call has been compared to a mini earthquake.

This strategy for communicating works for the cassowary because the low-frequency of its vibrations enable it to remain incognito to prey accustomed to operating in the worlds of sounds and images. Not only that, but low-frequency communications travel farther, so cassowaries regularly chat long distance.

In another study relating to animal communications, a Stanford scientist discovered that elephants use foot stomping to communicate with each other over distances as far away as 20 miles. In 2002, Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, a Stanford biologist, traveled to Namibia, Africa, to investigate her theory that elephants communicate via an outflow of low-frequency seismic vibrations. They signal to one another when they are in danger, seeking a mate, or passing on information about food and water.

Apparently, the human brain has adapted over time, converting the space once used for sensing vibration to use by the more immediately powerful senses of sight and sound. Yet O’Connell-Rodwell notes that “traditional instruments such as the didgeridoo of Australia, talking drums of West Africa, and the stomping dances of Native Americans all produce signals that have the potential to be carried through the ground over long distances.

“These instruments could have been important communication mechanisms similar to smoke signals, but at much greater distances than smoke signals could be detected,” she says.

Just recently, reporter Bryan Miller journeyed on a triple-deckered tugboat down the Congo from Kinshasa. Some 700 kilometers and seven days later, he arrived at Mbandaka to transfer to a large barge en route to Ndobo. Describing the barge as a floating refuge camp, he recounts how hundreds of villagers had already crowded aboard and set up camps, anticipating the tugboat’s arrival.

“How did they know we were coming,” he asked the captain.

“The neighboring village told them,” the captain replied. “With drums.”

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So how do you explain the momentum of the Obama campaign? True, virtual communication networks are a big part of it, but I can’t tell you how many Obama supporters I’ve met who don’t read blogs, have only logged in once to barackobama.com and have no idea how to navigate the site, let alone join a discussion group or listserv.

And, of course, the message also isn’t getting out by drumbeat or smoke signals or even town criers. But there is no doubt that a sizeable chunk of Americans sense something’s happening. They feel it in their blood, sense it on their skin, understand it in their soul. They are finding nourishment. And they are communicating.

There’s synchrnoicity at work in the appearances of huge numbers of people at Obama events across the country. An energy is being unleashed which seems to know no boundaries and resonates between and beyond people. It is an energy that is allowing us to reconnect with one another, to celebrate, to hope. To commit to do extraordinary things.

You don’t find this type of communication in newspapers and cable news and magazines.

But if you’re an Obama supporter, you recognize it innately, because it’s pure. It’s a core element, non-negotiated. Right now, at this point we are communicating with a man who is going somewhere and asking us to come along.

No doubt about it. The message is out there. It’s being picked up, interpreted and implemented by hundreds of thousands of Americans.

It’s a veritable symphony. Find your niche. Sing your song. It’s not going to be easy. But you gotta put on your marching shoes and get to work. As Simon and Garfunkle once said, “We’re all playing in the same band.”