As a friend of mine observed, no one on the Clinton team bothered to set up a strategy for the caucuses. The result is that she's been losing most of them, in many cases losing big. Here's supporting, if circumstantial, evidence: her campaign blaming Obama's wins this weekend on his outspending her on TV ads. Who goes to a caucus because of a TV ad? People go to primaries to vote because of TV ads, perhaps, but caucuses require a little more than that. They require enthusiastic people AND an organization on the ground to marshal them at the precinct level.

HRC didn't have that in all the caucus states. Obama did. Every state where you see a blowout, that's why. And those little blowouts add up to momentum, when combined with primary wins at the right time.

The end result? The very real possibility of Obama hitting HRC's "firewall" of TX and OH with ten wins in a row under his belt since Super Tuesday. Suddenly, as with Rudy and FL, the sure thing starts looking like a do-or-die affair.

Thus the exit of the campaign manager that didn't see it coming.

--there's nothing like spamming multiple letter columns with the same cut and paste message to really impress folks and win people over to your side.

If you're 12.

Here's two bucks. I hope you and the other astroturfers on both sides leave after Super Tuesday.

...are a drag.

Then again, the need to criticize someone attempting something you can't do at all is central to human condition.

If I had an ignore list, Beeb wouldn't be on it. But a lot of the rest of you pedestrians would be.

My impression, which may be wrong, is that he's not interested in a vice-presidential berth ... I serious wonder if the Clintons would offer.

The VP end of the ticket is lose-lose for Obama. If Clinton actually wins, he actually decreases his chance of ever being Prez--only three VPs have ever been elected to the presidency outright since the 12th amendment was passed: van Buren, Nixon, and Bush I. Clinton loses, he's in Edward's unenviable position of being connected forever with a losing general election campaign. Americans can forgive those who lost in the primaries, but no one since Nixon has lost a general election and come back successfully. If you want to call it success...

Not to mention the fact that any credit he might have for being outside the DC machine would disappear in a flash.

Nope, the smart bet for Obama if Clinton gets the nod is to sit back and let what happens, happen. Perhaps go back to IL after a Senate term and do a stint as Governor there so he doesn't get too sucked into the morass of business as usual in DC, which is going to be the result no matter who else gets in.

How many letters columns are you going to cut and paste that diatribe in, anyway?

And I'll say it to Clintonites tonight:

Watch what you say to people whose votes any Democratic candidate will depend on to win in November. The childish, Rove-like vilification of the "other candidate" I've been seeing from some partisans here and elsewhere towards FELLOW DEMOCRATS is the ONE thing that could lead to a loss to the GOP this year. We cannot afford to embitter our own base, and that's just what I'm afraid is going to happen if you people don't stop sniping at each other.

Insulting and belittling those who are supporting another Democrat than your person is a really great way to ensure that if your person DOES win, they'll get right out there and work for a victory this fall.

Aycharaych--

If abortion had been legal in 1961, I probably wouldn't be here.

That doesn't make me anti-choice. It means I have some perspective that keeps me from being reflexively pro-choice.

Doing stupid shit when you're a kid doesn't mean you have to support stupid shit the rest of your life. It only means you have an understanding of it that the squeaky-clean among us don't.

None of this means the drug war as currently conceived and "enforced" isn't a bad idea. It is. But it's only a symptom of larger societal and political issues, ones I think Obama might just have a chance of doing something about.

Rowyna--

I believe the opposite was true. The numbers were so large, and the process open enough on the Democratic side that it slowed down the whole process, whereas the streamlined process the GOP uses means the faithful could get in, have their precinct captains or the equivalent tell them who they were voting for, and leave.

There were nearly twice as many participants on the Dem side as the GOP side last night. Which is a good thing in and of itself. :)

...the current generations of readers aren't painfully bright, are quite legible, and have a "page turn" time roughly that of a middle-aged cartoonist. The business model still sucks though. Then again, so does publishing, so what exactly are we being nostalgic about again?

When they get the money end of the e-book right I'm looking forward to ditching many, many shelves of paperbacks, which don't exactly add gravitas to a room, and just keeping some artistically bound hardbacks for show. And I will have control of my space again.

Mr. Sondhiem personally approved the casting for the leads. Evidently his idea of what voices are sufficient for the parts, and perhaps of the balance to be struck between musical and acting ability in his work, differs from that of some of his fans. ;)