and the duty to her supporters to stay in the race at least through PA. That said, she has really screwed herself in the long run by endorsing McCain over Obama. Yes, that's what it was, an endorsement. If the trend continues and Obama wins the nomination, he would be insane to suggest Hillary as a running mate or a cabinet position. Why would he ever hire someone who has made those claims about him?

Keep splittin' those hairs! Anyway you slice it Hillary said that America needs a president who "is ready on 'Day One'". She went on to say that is either Her or McCain. To support Obama, she would have to explain away her statement that electing Obama is not in America's best interest.

is largely influenced by domestic political considerations. I think the Bush Administration would like to hand any incoming Democratic administration a broken military. That way they can spend the next 4 years comfortably criticizing the Dems. You can bet they'd like nothing better than putting the Dems in a position where it is necessary to reinstitute the draft.

Should the Republicans win the next election, they can use the noise-n-spin machine to confuse the issue and distract our attention to new and scary menaces.

You are a true culture warrior.

I have a profoundly different recollection of the 1980 presidential election, my first opportunity to vote. Then President Jimmy Carter had inhereted an economy beset by stagflation mainly from the oil embargo and the Viet Nam war. His position was worsened by the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the botched rescue attempt. Carter's approval ratings were low and 3rd party candidate John Anderson took alot of votes away. Reagan was talking tough to the Iranians and the Russki's. The Democratic party was anything but confident, let alone overconfident.

term "liberal" as a weapon against each other. The party has finally embraced the culture war and is on the brink of using it for an internal purge. Ann Coulter must be laughing so hard she's pissing her pants.

No, the reason to use labels is to de-humanize your opponent. It's also nice to know that douchebags are concerned with my feelings. Thanks for the condescending history lesson. Did you know that the story of "Honest Abe the Rail Splitter" was a media contrivance like "Hillary the Bullet Dodger"?

Your spilling whiskey on your Klan robe.

just how many "minions" Rush Limbaugh actually has and if they are actually smart enough to follow his instructions without fucking them up.

Yeah, I would not be surprised to see Wesley Clark as a good match for Obama. 4 Star General, Rhodes Scholar, anti-terrorism creds.

As far as the Rev. Wright controversy, Obama's picking up lost ground in the polls as reported by WSJ. The long-term net impact of Wright is that it gives folks who wanted to hate Obama, a reason to hate Obama that they can point to. These are the same folks who were clinging to the "secret muslim" bullshit and are relieved to have something new to grasp on to.

The way I see it, I can't condem Obama anymore than I can condem Catholics for some of the outrageous and backwards statements that come out of the Vatican.

as more qualified than Obama. She has no one to blame but herself if she does not get the nomination, then finds herself excluded from the ticket. Who in their right mind would take on a subordinate who spent the last year telling them "you suck, I'm more qualified for your job than you are"? By taking Hillary on the ticket Obama could expect nothing but 4 years of a VP who, with Bill's help, would probably be trying to create her own shadow government.

You are so sadly misinformed. Rezko's trial began back on March 6 and to date Obama's name hasen't even been mentioned. And your list of nefarious Obama associates does not contain one name of anyone who has been actually convicted of anything (yet). Maybe you should actually let the system do it's work because you yourself are protected by the same assumption of innocence.

"If he's the nominee, Obama will face enough trouble in the general election campaign because of his race."

It was bound to happen, one way or the other, with or without the Clinton campaign's help. We live in a nasty racist society that is covered by the thin verneer of Political Correctness.

First: Yes, it's only March 27

Second: Polls were conducted before the latest spike in Iraq violence.

Third: McCain is inextricably tied to the war on Iraq.

Hard cheese old boy.

Here's the link to Lynn Sweet's blog on the Chicago Sun Times. You'll love her. She hates Obama with a passion and uses any information at all to make negative inferences about him. She keeps up-to-the-minute on the Rezko trial, which is already in its 3rd week (snickering). Her latest crusade is "was Tony Rezko with you when you toured the house?" Read it closely and report back on all the dirt.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/

As a natural pessimist I am not very self-congratualtory. But as a 46 yo white, intellectual lefty I'm smart enough to know that 9/10 times the person who commits a crime against me is of my own race.