Clinton's pal says it's time to quit

McGovern, who has supported Clinton in the past, said today that she should peace out.

It's over

Of all people, Pat Buchanan summed up the meaning of last night the best. He said that Clinton will get a lot of pressure to drop out now. There is no math that has her winning anymore. So why stay in the race? Polls show she will win West Virginia easily in one week. They also have her handily beating Obama in Kentucky on May 20. Assuming the math is correct and Obama has it locked up, and the polls are correct and Clinton will clobber him in West Virginia and Kentucky, then her only impact on the race now is to beat up on the Democratic nominee for president. There is nothing left for her to accomplish; nothing left for her to prove. The only left for her to do is to hurt the national party.

Read the right polls

I've heard a lot of talk from pundits in the last 12 hours about the exit polls showing that half of Clinton's supporters would vote for McCain over Obama in the general election. The talking heads say this spells big trouble for the Democrats and proves the party is divided. And while those numbers don't look good, my hunch is that they aren't reflective of the truth. My guess is that when Democrats are given the choice of McCain and Obama, they will flock en masse to Obama.

But what is more telling, I think, are the numbers from the Republican elections yesterday. John McCain, who has been the nominee for months now, won 73 percent of the vote in North Carolina and 77 percent in Indiana. Twelve percent of the voters in North Carolina, the ones who already know who the nominee is, decided to go out to the polls and cast their vote for Mike Huckabee. Similarly, 8 percent in the Tar Heel state voted for Ron Paul.

Now, I would guess that if Clinton dropped out today, she would still get substantial support in the upcoming states. But, and again, this is based mostly on hunches, I think it's noteworthy that about a quarter of Republicans are still voting against their nominee months after the contest has been decided. Certainly it's something that should be noted by the talking heads.

It's the economists, stupid

The Clintons were for economists before they were against them. OK, it's not fair to pin Bill Clinton's ad in 1992 on Hillary Clinton in 2008, but ...

Absurd

I have tried to stay out of the whole gas tax issue because it is so clearly a pander by Clinton that I didn't know what more I could say. But this morning I was watching Morning Joe and listening to Clinton-supporter Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ) talk about the plan. He was asked if he could name one economist who thought Clinton's proposal was a good idea. Here's what he said:



It left me speechless. He can't defend the plan. My guess is that off camera, Clinton and her staff are giggling about the trick they are trying to pull on the voters. The only thing more absurd than the gas tax holiday is that it might actually woo voters to her side.

Politics of Preschool

I just got back from the Maryland Film Festival and saw this funny short on opening night.

Nothing accomplished

Five years ago today, Bush said, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." This morning the Department of Defense announced that 50 Americans died in Iraq this month, making it the highest death toll in Iraq in eight months. Since Bush's speech, 3,924 Americans have died in Iraq.

Obama takes on Wright

Obama just had an intense press conference in which he took on Rev. Jeremiah Wright head on. Here is a part of his opening statement, followed by video.

I'm outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday. I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992 and have known Jeremiah Wright for almost 22 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but they also give comfort to those that prey on hate and I believe they do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church. They certainly do not accurately portray my values and beliefs. If Reverend Wright thinks that is political posturing on my part, he does not know me very well.

I have already denounced those comments that have come out of these previous sermons. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church, has built a wonderful conversation. They are a wonderful people and what attracted me has always been the ministries reach beyond church walls. But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions, that the U.S. government is involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Louis Farrakhan represents one of the greatest voices of the 21st century, when he equates the United States' wartime effort with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me, they rightfully offend all Americans, and they should be denounced. That is what I am doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.

I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That's in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That's who I am, that's what I believe, and that's what this campaign has been about.

Psycho O

Clinton announced the endorsement of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley this morning, but Obama will be hanging out with Roy Williams and playing basketball with Tyler Hansbrough. I wonder which will have more of an impact with North Carolina voters.

Problem from within

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, an admitted hillbilly and political adviser to Democrats has a fascinating take on the whole "bitter" controversy. Saunders worked for the John Edwards campaign and is a veteran of Virginia politics. He plays bluegrass music and refuses to cede the rural white vote to Republicans. In other words, he doesn't think like most Democrats. Here's what he said to the Huffington Post:

"I think it is the prevailing wisdom of the Democratic Party. That's just a symptom of the problem. When Barack Obama was saying it, he wasn't saying that to get people all stirred up and stuff. When he was saying it and you would have asked him if there was something wrong with it, he would have bet you a million dollars to the penny that there wasn't anything wrong with it, because he believes it. I think there are an awful lot of smart people who believe in rural stereotypes. But the problem with the Democratic Party is that they don't understand...that a lot of these big city people who have stereotyped us, we have also stereotyped them. Therein lies the problem. See, that's what happened Barack Obama said that, he played into our stereotype about the big city."

Saunders' argument that the backlash about the comments says more about the party than the actual comments do, gets to the heart of why Democrats haven't been successful in politics recently. And it's the only reason McCain has any chance of winning in November.