Dammit folks, stop trying to oppose sleazebags like Brown with logic and reason. This guy has absolutely no scruples, so you have to give him his own medicine. I suggest responding to all of his attacks thusly:

"Floyd Brown was raised by Socialists. He bailed on the US Military Academy at West Point. It’s no wonder he has spent the last 20 years trying to ingratiate himself with the American Conservative Movement with credentials like that, but he has done more harm than good. Even Mary Matalin doesn’t trust him."

I can't say it enough. Every time something like this comes around, Obama's campaign should repeat the following mantra:

keating keating keating.

The American voting public generally pays very little attention to this stuff. Those on the far right will crow about how Obama's evil, but they have a whole litany of why Obama's evil in their eyes, and won't vote for him anyway, so who cares. But the center needs to be beaten over the head and reminded every five minutes that McCain was one of the Keating Five and how much the S&L fiasco cost taxpayers.

And with Gramm now on board the Straight-Talk Express, it probably wouldn't hurt to amend the above mantra to: keating keating gramm keating keating gramm.

I'm not going to pretend that Obama is pure as the driven snow; nobody at this level of politics is (or probably can be). But a heckuva lot of voters look at presidential elections as choosing the lesser of two evils, and that means you've got to make the other guy look more evil than you are on whatever topic is hot.

Yes Mariotti always wants Guillen fired, except when he doesn't, which -- like all things Jay -- is about every other week.

See the last few 'graphs of http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/966369,mariotti052308.article

Just over a week ago Mariotti was noting what a great job Guillen was doing. Amnesia is great for an NFL place-kicker or a baseball closer, not so much for a columnist in a major US city. That's Jay's problem, he forgets this week what his sanctimonious opinion was last week.

Ah well. Guillen is emotional. That's no surprise. He can also be insensitive and offensive at times. Again. No surprise. He's a baseball manager, not UN ambassador. As a baseball manager, he's pretty damn good, and deserves a lot more credit than most of the chatterers give him.

Personally I have no interest in an Obama/Clinton ticket. I think there are others out there who would provide more balance in the eyes of the great American center, and I think that adding Clinton to the ticket might be just enough to push some fence-sitters from Obama to McCain, such are the negatives that the Clinton name conjures for a significant portion of American general election voters.

However, the vitriol from Clinton supporters over the last few days suggests that there really are some bitter folks out there who would just assoon see Obama lose the general election, whether to justify their own "I told you so" claims that Clinton would be a better candidate or out of shear vindictiveness. Even active campaigning by a non-candidate Clinton might not be enough to sway these people. However, they'd be hard-pressed to withhold their vote if she were actually on the ticket.

Such is the weirdness of this election so far.

First, in the last week or so, it's become apparent that one of the main reasons HRC is sticking around is to give every voter in every state the opportunity to cast a meaningful vote. To do otherwise would be rank hypocrisy given the arguments she's made relative to MI and FL. So there's little harm in playing out the string through today's MT and SD primaries.

Second, as to the numbers, assuming BHO wins both of today's contests, that would be a pick up of approximately 17 more pledged delegates. Assuming the current numbers are accurate, that means he needs only to announce 20 more super-delegates tonight to put him over the top. I don't think anyone doubts he has significantly more than those 20 in his back pocket and ready to go.

The Clinton camp realizes this, which is why the statements are coming out the way they are. Likely, she'll concede the nomination itself later in the week, after informally acknowledging tonight that Obama's lead cannot be overcome.

"Stay off my lawn you little punk."

Poor Bob. Angry and bitter old men should not have access to email.

GK, I'm sorry to say, has utterly missed the boat with this piece.

"You don't quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys."

Ahem.

Those fat men with ponytails are almost certainly Vietnam vets. Their anti-establishment image and roaring Hogs can be seen as a symbolic middle-finger salute to a country that served them and their departed brothers-in-arms so poorly during and after that war. But don't mistake that "salute" for a lack of patriotism, for patriots they were and remain. They are, many of them, still a bit pissed-off, however, so GK and others should be wary about crossing their parade line.