[LandOfLincolnGOP]

Suddenly, Blair's divorce papers were outed stating that he had hit his wife. Obama denied any involvement in the outing of this information, but outed it was. Blair plummeted in the polls, and Obama, who had been running second was suddenly catapulted into first place, and went on to win the democratic primary.

The problem with this theory is that the timing is wrong. Obama, who had been catching up to Hull for weeks, made massive gains after the Dem debate on February 23, besting Hull by about 19 points. Hull's divorce records were unsealed in early March.

Obama, it should be noted, was also not the machine candidate. That was Hynes. And who won in Hynes own ward? Obama, 2 to 1.

It's not dirty tricks that's propelling this guy, it's politics.

And one more thing about Jack Ryan. The problem wasn't that his files were released. It's that everyone knew what was in them, everyone knew they were going to be released, and yet he kept on insisting to the public and the party that there was nothing embarrassing in them. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I have very little sympathy for the guy.