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WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama's victory in North Carolina and near-miss in Indiana last week remove much of the doubt about whether he will win the Democratic nomination for president. With Obama the likely Democratic nominee and Sen. John McCain long his party's presumptive nominee, the search for their vice presidential picks can now begin. Below, you'll find the five most logical veeps, assuming McCain and Obama are the candidates, ranked in the order of the likelihood of being chosen. No. 1 on each side is currently the likeliest to be named. REPUBLICANS 5. Mitt Romney: A few months ago,...

Go, Hillary, I’m with you! —Syed Mansoor Hussain Being relatively ‘exotic’, an African-American commands greater ‘respect’ than just another woman. And, supporting an African-American therefore might seem more righteous than supporting a woman When I woke up this Wednesday morning, May 7, the first thing I did was read the results of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. It immediately became clear that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was not going to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. For me this was a bitter day. I have supported Hillary and hoped that she would be the Democratic nominee. Over the...

We are part of the many Democrats that will definitely vote for John McCain if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination to run for president. We would love to have our economy and national image restored to at least what it was during the Clinton years of presidency, but Barack Obama is not the answer. Obama speaks politics and not what he believes. He only says what he must to win. Actions speak louder than words. He does not respect America -- won't wear a flag on his lapel, won't put his hand over his heart during the pledge of...

The head of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign refused to concede Sunday that she has no chance to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Terry McCauliffe said it is still possible for Clinton to win the nomination, even though most pundits have concluded that she cannot overtake her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, to become the Democratic Party nominee. "Look, tomorrow -- something new could happen," said McCauliffe. "Nothing's impossible. You are talking to Terry McAuliffe. I don't believe anything in life is impossible." McAuliffe argued that Clinton would be a stronger candidate than...

LINCOLN, Neb. — Former Colorado senator and two-time presidential candidate Gary Hart told Nebraska Democrats that Barack Obama will heal the national party, while John McCain's nomination may cause a rift among Republicans. "There's a real struggle for the soul of the Republican Party under way," Hart said Saturday before the state Democratic Party's annual Morrison-Exon Day Dinner. About 450 people attended the party's largest fundraising event. Hart, 71, sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, and was a U.S. senator from 1975 to 1987. Hart said the Republican Party is going to find its ties to religious...

John Batchelor showing coming up in a few minutes. Typically, he will have on characters like Sid Blumenthal and the out to lunch Vandenheuval from The Nation Mag. Also, he usually brings on John Fund and Monica Crowley. LISTEN ONLINE ON KFI

John Edwards said it's over and sent a signal to the Clinton campaign: John Edwards, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, cautioned Sunday that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton “has to be really careful that she’s not damaging our prospects” by staying in the contest That's really wise advice. But, Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, is still in a fighting mood, apparently. Puffing his chest out on FOX today, Wolfson delivered some classic fifth grade school yard taunts: But Howard Wolfson, a senior Clinton adviser, struck a feisty note on Fox, saying that if Mr. Obama wanted Mrs. Clinton out...

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign rejected suggestions Sunday that Sen. Hillary Clinton is staying in the race in hopes of brokering some kind of agreement with the likely Democratic nominee. "I don't believe that Sen. Clinton is looking for a deal," Obama's chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, told "Fox News Sunday," when asked about suggestions she may want the Obama campaign's help retiring her campaign debt. "I don't think that's what this is about," he said. Last week, Obama sparked rumors that his campaign would pay off Clinton's campaign debts once he secured the nomination. "I'd want to have a...

Democrats bristle at talking about this in plainer terms. They say Sen. Hillary Clinton has found her base -- the "working class." That's why she won in the Rust Belt primaries. That's her great hope in Kentucky and West Virginia. But calling Clinton's strategy one of kowtowing to the "working class" doesn't quite say it, does it? Isn't this just old-fashioned racism within the Democratic Party? When Hillary strategists say they are winning the "working class," they don't mean they are winning working people with a household income of, say, less than $50,000. All the exit polls show quite clearly...

Peggy Noonan May 11,2008-- THIS is an amazing story. The Democratic Party has a winner. It has a nominee. You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him. He's got this thing. And the Democratic Party, after this long and brutal slog, should be dancing in the streets. Party elders should be coming out on the balcony in full array, in full regalia, and telling the crowd, "Habemus nominatum": "We have a nominee." And the crowd below should be cheering, "Viva Obamus! Viva nominatum!"...

Sen. Hillary Clinton is a smart, strong, tenacious woman. Those qualities are ones that many of us have admired in her for years. They also are traits that cause a lot of other people -- including many women -- to despise her. Some folk just can't stand a forceful female, an intelligent woman who is willing to stand her ground with any man and one who has the audacity to believe that she can be president of the United States. Despite my longtime admiration for her, I must admit that in recent months I've lost some of the respect for...

A hilarious must-see You Tube video: Hillary's Downfall quesney posted the video yesterday, but it's worth repeating for those who haven't seen it yet. Lots of cursing (be warned), but one of the funniest things I've seen. Play with the sound up and full screen. Enjoy!

She once described herself as "the most famous person you know very little about." But as she careens across the country in a desperate attempt to rescue her campaign, America is coming to know Hillary Clinton all too well. The tenacity that even critics praised suddenly looks tawdry. The persistence against impossible odds appears anything but noble. Long after the party is over, Clinton's refusal to go home is taking on the trappings of a sad spectacle. Her inability to accept defeat is not, it seems clear, about public service or even politics. It is merely personal. With Barack Obama...

Clinton: 'It's Not Over Until the Lady in the Pantsuit Says It Is' May 11, 2008 4:11 PM ABC News' Eloise Harper reports: Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke in Grafton, W.Va., on Mother’s Day with her daughter by her side. Clinton read a few messages from supporters who urged her to continue her bid for the presidency. "'Keep strong,' she said. 'It's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is,'" Clinton said, reading what she said was her favorite message. Another one she read said: "Keep fighting. No matter what the outcome may be, the fact that you...

The last couple of months have been springtime in paradise for Republicans: the loveliest of all possible seasons. They have been watching two Democratic presidential candidates in an endless battle to destroy each other -- a process that does not appear to enhance the chance that the eventual nominee will win in November. A recent Gallup poll shows John McCain leading both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup. All this before Republicans even begin publicizing the worst that can be said about either of two candidates whose alleged defects provide a supremely target-rich environment. But it's easy...

Hillary Rodham Clinton began her presidential quest armed with talent, tenacity, fame, money, connections and a team that knew how to win. Many people believed her victory in the Democratic nomination battle was a sure thing. Her ultimate failing may have been in believing it, too. Clinton had one big problem out of the gate: 40 percent or more of Americans said they'd never vote for her. She was too polarizing. It's love her or hate her. Clinton powered through that hurdle in state after state, showing grit that earned her the valuable political currency of being merely admired. White...

From the very beginning, the premise and the promise of Barack Obama’s campaign was that it would transcend race. And last autumn the Obama team also knew this was the only way it could win. The Clinton brand among black voters was so strong, so unbreakable, so resilient a force that even the first credible black candidate for the presidency remained stuck 20-30% behind Hillary Clinton among African-American voters. She was, after all, the wife of the “first black president”, as the author Toni Morrison called Bill. She had almost all the black political establishment behind her. Her husband, from...

Text size – + Chelsea Clinton sends a Mother's Day tribute With Mother's Day on Sunday and with a campaign on the ropes, Hillary Clinton today released a video featuring her daughter Chelsea that makes public for the first time some family snapshots of Chelsea growing up. It also features some very personal feelings from a former first daughter whose privacy the Clintons have tried to protect ever since their days in the White House, but who has taken on a more public role in recent weeks stumping for her mother. "I’d like to tell you about my mom," an...

It took 20 years for John Glenn, the former astronaut and Democratic senator, to repay the debts that he ran up in his failed bid for the presidential nomination in 1984. Nobody is predicting that Hillary Clinton, whose campaign debts are estimated at between $20m and $30m – and rising – would take that long to meet her obligations. But the financial strain is getting more difficult with each day. Having raised little more than $1m (€650,000, £510,000) since her defeat in North Carolina and narrow victory in Indiana last Tuesday, compared to $10m in the days following her Pennsylvania...

Hillary Clinton, down to her last straw, is making the case that she is the better candidate to run against the Republicans because, unlike Barack Obama, she can win white Democrats. She is right. But because she is daring to touch the hot button of racial politics, she is being told to shut up or risk being charged with exploiting racial tensions for political advantage. The facts are stubborn, however. Since his phenomenal win with 33% of the white vote in nearly all-white Iowa, Obama has been unable to get a firm grip on white Democrats. He has won a...

NOT so long ago, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination was dominated by talk of Hillary Clinton's mental toughness and fighting qualities. One critic even referred to the former first lady's "testicular fortitude". But at a Mother's Day function in New York yesterday, Senator Clinton's hardball approach was suddenly missing, raising speculation she is ready to abandon her campaign and cede Barack Obama the victory that everyone else knows he's won. The shift in Senator Clinton's demeanour came on a day when Senator Obama finally took the lead in the super delegate count, leaving his rival without a single...

MIDI - CABARET

Bill Clinton Promises No Matter the Outcome, His Family Will Stand Behind the Nominee May 11, 2008 10:54 AM ABC News' Sarah Amos reports: Speaking on behalf of his wife at the annual Truman Dinner in Billings, Mont., Saturday, former President Bill Clinton assured the crowd that no matter the outcome of the Democratic nomination, his family and Hillary's supporters would firmly stand behind the party's nominee. "I also wanna say, on instructions, I've been a Democrat all my life," he said. "And I've been working in these campaigns since I was a young man. I remember what it was...

UNTIL a few months ago Bill Clinton was the golden boy of American politics. As the most successful Democratic president of recent times, he opened doors across the world. His Clinton Foundation and its Clinton Initiative offshoot led the way in global philanthropy, bringing industrialists, rock stars and world leaders together to promise action on poverty, Aids and global warming. He had every expectation of followingADVERTISEMENThis former vice president, Al Gore, by collecting a Nobel Peace prize. Hillary's expected coronation as the next president seemed assured, anchoring the couple's place as Washington's supreme power couple and also as a multi-billion-dollar...

We have a double feature today. Hillary Clinton Racist?Jackie and Dunlap on Hillary's racism, Obama's payoff, and McCain's lost bearings. Plus nun jokes! Click the pic to watch the video! "Dunlap the Man comin' at ya, friends. And boy this presidential race is gettin' uglier than a Paul Begala/Donna Brazile wrestling match. Ugly!" Our second feature:Summer Movie Preview Jackie and Dunlap preview all the deafening, incomprehensible hogwash that liberal Hollywood will vomit up for you this summer. Click the pic to watch the video! "Hello and welcome to the annual RedState Update Summer Movie Preview starring Jackie Broyles and Dunlap!...

Sen. Hillary Clinton's spokesman Howard Wolfson yesterday blasted Sen. Barack Obama for not spending much time in the Mountain State. I had a story in today's paper outlining the challenge West Virginia presents for Obama, who after picking up a bunch of superdelegates today, is now 156 away from securing the nomination under party rules. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aides yesterday accused Sen. Barack Obama of ignoring West Virginia, saying Democrats must win the state in the fall and using her 43-point poll lead there as evidence that her longshot bid deserves to run its course. "What is the...

Bill Clinton stands on a small stage in this tiny town, torrential rain beating on the rooftop, his all-white crowd of coalminers, schoolteachers and union members cheering him on. “Don’t let them tell you she can’t win this thing,” he hollers, his voice hoarse after another day of campaigning. “I’m telling you, she can win this thing, because of people like you, and places like this.” There is huge affection for Mr Clinton in West Virginia, where his wife faces her next primary contest with Barack Obama on Tuesday. The former First Lady holds an overwhelming 25-point lead among one...

Do leaders of the Democrat National Committee (DNC) actually expect the American people to believe that their party has the wherewithal to manage the most powerful nation of earth, when that same party is apparently unable to manage a simple system of pre-election primaries? After nearly two years of plotting and scheming to recapture the White House, just months before election day the Democrat Party remains bitterly divided and may have to spend an additional $30 million dollars just to rerun primary elections in Florida and Michigan. Is that any way to run a party, Howard Dean? And yet despite...

Refusing to go gently into that good night, Clinton supporter Jerome Armstrong stubbornly sticks to the message that Hillary Clinton can win the Democratic Presidential nomination. He points to West Virginia as a state that serves as a good indicator of what Armstrong believes to be Barack Obama's general election problems. Sensitive to charges that fretting about Obama's general election appeal in West Virginia could be tantamount to giving credence to the views of racists, Armstrong spends a goodly amount of time denouncing anyone who would dismiss as racists anti-Obama voters in West Virginia. This isn't particularly interesting save for...

Friends and close associates of both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are now convinced that, assuming she loses the race for the presidential nomination, she is probably going to fight to be the vice presidential nominee on an Obama-for-president ticket. Clinton "is trying to figure out how to land the plane without looking like surrender," a prominent figure in the Obama camp said Friday. This means, in all likelihood, bringing her campaign to a close in the next few weeks and trying to leverage her way onto an Obama ticket from a position of maximum strength, said several knowledgeable...

Barack Obama's aides charged Wednesday that their candidate would have done even better Tuesday were it not for meddling by an unlikely booster of Hillary Rodham Clinton: longtime Clinton family nemesis Rush Limbaugh. The impact of the popular conservative radio commentator's "Operation Chaos" emerged as an intriguing point of debate, particularly in Indiana, where registered voters could participate in either party's primary, and where Clinton won by a mere 14,000 votes. As he had before several recent primaries, Limbaugh encouraged listeners to vote for Clinton to "bloody up Obama politically" and prolong the Democratic fight. Limbaugh crowed about the success...

by Patrick J. Buchanan Posted 5/09/2008 "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on" than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton has told USA TODAY. She cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me." "There's a pattern emerging here," said Hillary. "These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that." The Democratic Party can't win with just "eggheads...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aides yesterday accused Sen. Barack Obama of ignoring West Virginia, saying Democrats must win the state in the fall and using her 43-point poll lead there as evidence that her longshot bid deserves to run its course. "What is the basis for the so-called 'presumptive nominee' not competing in a state that would be a key swing state?" Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson asked reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, adding that a Tuesday victory could be a turning point for his boss. A 15-point win for Mrs. Clinton, "in an atmosphere in which...

Comedian uses excerpt from Oscar-winning Untergang (Hitler's Downfall, 2004). This is inspired work: http://youtube.com/watch?v=B6Lstkiexhc caution: foul language

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments. Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even. He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee. So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia? He's...

WASHINGTON -- Although Democrats are tangled in a fractious primary contest, both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama probably would win the White House against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain if the election were held now -snip- In a hypothetical matchup, the poll gave Illinois Sen. Obama 46% to McCain's 40%, with 9% undecided. Clinton led McCain 47% to 38%, with 11% undecided. The nationwide poll, conducted May 1 through Thursday and released Friday, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. -snip- The poll was based on telephone interviews with 2,208 adults nationwide --...

IN HER long, sad self-diminution to being merely a white candidate for subsegments of white people, Hillary Clinton claimed to USA Today this week, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." Clinton exploited an Associated Press poll to say how "Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me . . . There's a pattern emerging here." more stories like thisThis was on top of Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter Paul Begala saying this week on CNN, "We...

When I was growing up in the 1960s, I wanted to play basketball. In those days, the rules said girls could dribble only three steps and then had to pass the ball. To make sure we didn't overexert ourselves, we weren't allowed to cross the half-court line. It's a wonder our fans (our mothers) could stay awake when a typical game's final score was 14-10. It's remarkable that my generation of women entered the workforce and began to compete in business, politics and the hurly-burly of life outside the home. How did we ever learn to locate, much less channel,...

The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully. Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class. So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” and that her opponent, Barack Obama, the black candidate, just can’t cut it with that crowd. “There’s a pattern emerging here,” said Mrs. Clinton. There is, indeed. There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to...

Check out this hilarious VIDEO parody about Hillary based on the movie, Sunset Boulevard. This parody only makes real sense if you have seen that movie made in 1950. BTW, I am a HUGE fan of all movies and documentaries made circa the years 1950 to 1953. There is something about that era that I find fascinating. I'm not sure if it was the cars or the clothes or the hairstyles or maybe something else but that is sort of a forgotten era. It was the fifties but not yet Eisenhower fifties. Okay, end of lecture. Enjoy the parody!

I have been working with clients in DC the last few days and as always, rumors, gossip and backstabbing are three of the main products produced within the District. This is the latest rumor/suspicion/supposed plan here in the Capitol. Word of it comes from some well-placed sources. They are in a position to know this information and they have been reliable sources in the past. Story is as follows… Hillary is many things, but she is no fool. She realizes 2012 was never an option for her, as she will be 65 and “used.” Any afterglow of Clinton 42 will...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Close-in supporters of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign are convinced he never will offer the vice presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Clinton for one overriding reason: Michelle Obama. The Democratic front-runner's wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party's nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility. A footnote: Support is growing in Democratic ranks for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland as vice president. He would bring to the ticket maturity (66 years old), experience (six terms...

There is a lot of talk that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now fated to lose the Democratic nomination and should pull out of the race. We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Senator Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so. That is the essence of the democratic process. But we believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing...

Senator Barack Obama surged ahead of his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates on Friday, the first time since the outset of the race that Mrs. Clinton has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards. Mr. Obama racked up seven endorsements in the last 24 hours from superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August. One, a New Jersey congressman, switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, allowing the Illinois senator to pull ahead of his opponent, according to the latest...

It must be devastating for Hillary Rhodam Clinton to see her chances of becoming the Democratic nominee fade into oblivion. It has to be beyond infuriating to have the media that once so blindly worshipped and adored her mischievous better half turn on her and declare with such confidence to a country that, as far as she is concerned has not yet had the final word, that the die is cast, and hers is now an unstoppable plunge into defeat. This is supposed to be the time at which the planets should have been perfectly aligned to signal her messianic...

OUR THREE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SHARE THIS PECULIAR infirmity: None of them has any backbone. If they did, then instead of blaming Big Oil for soaring energy prices, they would stand up to some real culprits responsible for the run-up. These are politically powerful coastal states like Florida, New Jersey and California, which time after time have placed their parochial interests ahead of the nation's critical need for energy independence by prohibiting the offshore production of natural gas and oil. Of course, oil companies have no electoral votes. And wealthy Californians, some of whom own property overlooking the oil-rich Santa Barbara...

This is an amazing story. The Democratic Party has a winner. It has a nominee. You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him. Even after the worst two weeks of his campaign, he blew past her by 14 in North Carolina and came within two in Indiana. Martin Kozlowski He's got this thing. And the Democratic Party, after this long and brutal slog, should be dancing in the streets. Party elders should be coming out on the balcony in full array, in full...

Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead over Barack Obama has become razor thin. Ted Kennedy doesn't see a spot for Clinton on Obama's ticket. Ted Kennedy, the aging liberal lion of the Democratic Party, took a nasty bite out of Hillary Clinton Friday, saying she shouldn't be vice president because the job requires "real leadership." "I don't think it's possible," Kennedy, a Barack Obama supporter, told Bloomberg Television when asked about an Obama-Clinton ticket. Kennedy added that he hoped Obama would choose a running mate who is "in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people. "And I...

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- The cash-strapped campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton has forced curtailments of political events and advertising as the primary season winds down, aides say. Advisers said Clinton would infuse her Democratic presidential campaign with more of her own money on top of the more than $11 million she already loaned the it, The New York Times said. Hassan Nemazee, a Clinton national finance chairman, said the campaign raised more than $1 million after her primary loss in North Carolina and her razor-thin win in Indiana.