Quote of the day.

The Big Dog, campaigning for Hillary in South Dakota…

"I want to say also, that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind."

From his lips...

Yes, yes...

West Virginia, blah, blah, blah. Congrats to Senator Clinton, I suppose, but the real election news is in MS-1.

Pot…

…meet kettle.

Jerome Armstrong opens...

I don't even like to imagine an Obama nomination...

And closes…

The hatred of Clinton runs deep among the Obama supporters...

Who's hating on who here? And isn't it time we just knock it off?

I can certainly imagine, given only minor changes in the events of recent months, a Clinton nomination. In fact, I came started imagining it quite awhile ago. She's been running for years, and it wasn't all that long ago (though, notably, before any votes were counted) that she was seen as the inevitable nominee. How did I feel about that? She wasn't my favorite, but she'd be fine.

She's lost the nomination now, though, in the reality based universe Democrats like to say we live in. Lost it to someone who, frankly, wasn't my favorite, or even my second choice. But he's fine.

Since 1968, when I picked a candidate for the first time (I 'supported' Kennedy because Mom said so, and, well, everybody supported LBJ way back when) and got clean for Gene, until today, my first choice has won the Democratic nomination race three times - 1972, 1976 and 2004 - in eleven cycles, and I've been a Democrat, on the streets and in the ballot box, in all eleven. In the end, after the convention, they've all been fine.

There's always a way home, and all of us should do what we can now to make that path straighter and smoother. As the young folks say, it's time to chill. As the poet said, ain't no time to hate.

It's time to wake up, join up and get busy.

Ad copy for PA…

…via The Hotline.

Barack Obama: I moved to Chicago to help workers whose lives were torn apart when steel plants like this one left town.

For decades, politicians have talked about protecting jobs. But the power of Washington lobbyists stops anything from changing.

I’m Barack Obama. I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take their money – and they won’t run my White House.

We’ll fix our trade laws.

End tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas. And give them to those who create jobs here – in America.

That’s why I approve this message.

And that's why I approve this candidate.

Metrics.

Cameron Fredman...

Total number of Commonwealths

CLINTON: 1 (Massachusetts)
OBAMA: 1 (Virginia)
Here the race is neck and neck, but Clinton is expected to take Pennsylvania. As there are only four commonwealths total, it is virtually impossible for Obama to beat Clinton on the Commonwealth count. If Clinton beats Obama in Kentucky, his claim that he has won more states will be canceled out by her claim that she has won more Commonwealths.

Heh™

There's more.

From the "Truth Hurts" file.

Daniel Kirkdorffer...

This game they keep playing is more than getting old, it is dead annoying. The only measure that counts in a primary race is the delegate count. Clinton claims that the Florida and Michigan penalties for running early primaries has disenfranchised voters in those states. So what does her camp do now? They disenfranchise every delegate already determined by suggesting those in the states she didn't win don't matter, only the electoral vote weight of the state matters.

The Democratic primary process is a proportional allotment system. If she wants a winner take all primary she should have run as a Republican.

Then again, it is becoming increasingly hard to tell whether she isn't already doing so.

Ouch.

Since you asked…

Brent Budowsky...

Have You No Shame, Lanny Davis?

Since you asked, apparently not.

Oops…

Between 125,000 and 150,000 voters were expected to cast ballots Tuesday, according to Pamela Weaver of the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office.

While the number would represent a 25 to 50 percent increase in turnout from the 2004 primaries, Weaver still described the voting rate as light to moderate.

With 99% of the precincts reporting, some 551,409 votes had been counted, 408,293 of them on the Democratic side of the ballot.

I wonder how Ms. Weaver would describe that?

Getting ugly early.

The Hotline…

The crowd last night booed Clinton several times when Obama mentioned her name.

Not sure that helps, but only one thing will solve it…

Yep.

Senator Obama…

"You have to make a choice in this election. Are you gonna go along with the past, or are you gonna go towards the future? Are you gonna do the same old thing, or are you gonna try something new?"

Heh™.

Colbert: Let me put this a different way. If I were a waiter and I were to offer you two different slices of pizza, and one was half-Hawaiian and you weren't entirely sure what it was going to taste like. And the other was plain with cheese and had been under a heat lamp for 35 years, I mean, it had seen everything. Which would you go for?

Really?

Jerome Armstrong…

Obama has a huge electability problem in the state. He took a total of 5 counties, and lost in 82 counties...You don't win a general election in Ohio if you can only win in 5 counties.

I mean, I've got to admit, the map's pretty impressive…



…but couldn't it just as well be said that Hillary Clinton has a huge electability problem in a state where she can't win the five counties that contain more than half the state's population?

It's the same thing as those US maps showing those huge patches of red covering the 'empty' states. Hillary's 82 counties have fewer citizens combined than Barack's five.

Of course, it doesn’t say much about how either might fare against John McCain in November, which is, or should be, a far different dynamic. That is, unless the argument is that the March Clinton and the November McCain will be indistinguishable to the Democratic regulars that provided most of Clinton's margin. Or are we supposed to believe the well has been so poisoned that none of Clinton's support is transferable? That most of it isn't? And why, I wonder, might that be?

What's more likely is that she's likely to do better in Columbus and Obama's likely to do better in the hinterlands than this map shows. In other words, the probability is that Clinton will be a lot more popular in Cincinnati and Obama will take a lot more than five counties come November. If anything, Obama's edge with wayward R's and independents is something Clinton's less likely to replicate in the fall, creating an electablity issue of another kind.

From the "Didn't see that coming" file.

When Donna Brazile threatened to quit the Democratic Party if a few hundred of her "colleagues" ended up deciding the nomination, I figured it was an expression of support for the power of the people over the threat of a PLEO oligarchy. Well, once again I was wrong. Seems that turning things over to a few hundred elected Party and public leaders was just a bit too democratic for Ms. Brazile. Nope, she'd prefer a tidier dictatorship, apparently. Via The Carpetbagger Report...

“If these attacks [between Clinton and Obama] are contrasts based on policy differences, there is no need to stop the race or halt the debate,” Donna Brazile, a superdelegate, said. “But, if this is more division, more diversion from the issues and more of the same politics of personal destruction, chairman Dean and other should be on standby.”

Sure. Have Howard tell somebody to get out. That'll bring us together. And if he can't do it, I'm sure "other" can.

Can't someone stop her?

March Madness.

Nick Beaudrot...

At this point, the nomination is like the end of a college basketball game; the Clintonites will play a full court press, foul if Barack Obama makes it past the half court line, and hope he misses his free throws while Hillary Clinton hits a series of consecutive three point shots. It's not likely to lead to victory, but it's the only strategy available, and every once in a blue moon miracles do happen.

Sounds about right.

Breathing room for Clinton?

Not really.

Kos has some more numbers, but Clinton fans will probably want to cling to the less complete MSNBC stats. He's got Hillary with a one delegate pickup so far, against an opening deficit of 159. If it looked like too little, too late before, it seems to have become less and later.

More like a last gasp than a comeback, I suspect.

Yep.

driftglass...

So screw that noise, vote as it pleases you, respect the fact that honest people will honestly disagree, and then whether you win with a generous spirit or lose with good grace, if we keep our eye on the ball and our foot up their ass, I’m sure everything will turn out fine.

Headlines.

China's military budget up 17.6 percent in 2008: spokesman

They've got to spend our money on something, I suppose.

Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination

Or not. Still, one hopes...

Buddhists: ‘Please Don’t Do Politics’

…be politics.

Clinton: I'm 'just getting warmed up'

Um, Senator, they said "You're in the stretch run," not "It's time to stretch for your run."

Wollongong Council sacked

Heheheh. They said "Wollongong."

Heh™.

DhinMI…

Tuesday's Forecast: Rain and Possible Periods of Electoral Confusion. Chance of Spin 100%

Me too.

Citing a USA Today poll showing that Democrats expect Obama to be the nominee, regardless of their preferences, PSOTD responds...

I get the sense that we're now in the final countdown - and that next Tuesday will become the end of the race. I think this survey suggests that a majority of voters actually WANT that to be the case - that they are ready for a break from the harsh heat of this primary season, and are ready for different distractions than primary politics for the near term. I think this would be the case regardless of who was leading at this point, and will work strongly against Hillary Clinton next week.

Me too.

Only a strong performance by Obama can bring this thing to an end on Wednesday. If he wins Texas and finishes within, say, 5% in Ohio, with a few CD wins to boost his delegate count, there'll be a landslide of endorsements from labor, PLEOs, Clinton staffers will close the oppo files and start working on resumes. The Obama-McCain race will be underway.

Should Clinton win Texas and Ohio, or lose Texas and win Ohio commandingly, well, if you like what we're getting out of the campaigns now, you're gonna love Pennsylvania.

Heh™.

Scout Finch...

No matter which candidate you are supporting (and I am clearly against that candidate)...

I know just what ya' mean...