Hillary Invokes RFK's Assassination as a Reason Not To Drop Out

She has simply lost all shame. She is stating, for the national media and anyone nutjob watching that she's readily available to step in if, y'know, Barack Obama gets, y'know, ASSASSINATED.

Some may say this wasn't what she was going for, and since she made these comments, she has tried to explain them, halfways retracted them, then got mad at the media for taking them 'out of context'. Hillary says she was just referring to long nominating contests stretching into the fall, but even this is shoddy.

Bill Clinton did have the nomination wrapped up, he was just waiting to be rubber-stamped, much in the same way McCain is the 'presumptive' nominee now, so toss that out. Also, there have been much closer and politically relevant races than RFK's back in '68. There was the other Kennedy, the man who should have been President, Ted Kennedy, and also Gary Hart, who both ran campaigns almost up to the Convention to secure their spots.

I know she brings up Bill constantly, and that's fine, they're married and all, but I wish she would do it with a little truth. With Bobby Kennedy, I just think it's ghoulish, uncalled for, and frankly shows her judgment is not up to snuff to be Commander in Chief, period.

McCain-Clinton - The New Dream Ticket

With all the talk of a Dream Ticket on the Democratic side dying away, as it should, my mind got to wandering about another match made in heaven that seems to be emerging.

No, not Gore-Obama, I'm talking about John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

Blasphemy, you say?

Well, yes, but as they have been coordinating their messages lately, it almost seems like Obama is running against a McCain-Clinton ticket right now.

I know there isn't a realistic shot of a McCain-Clinton ticket here, both parties would throw the two square out on their asses. But, they seem to have no trouble unofficially cooperating to drag Barack Obama's name through the mud.

Now with McCain, the motivation is easy, Republican nominee-Democratic nominee (presumptive on both accounts**).

But why is Hillary tearing down a fellow Democrat and building up a, supposed, Republican foe?

This is one of the mysteries of the day right now, with the only clear theory being she wants to utterly destroy Obama, even if it costs Democrats the White House this fall.

With all these kind words bandied around by Clinton to McCain, it's a little hard to see her coming back in the fall and campaigning for the Democratic Party against him.

Hillary seems to be swinging more and more 'Rove-ian' with her campaign as she sinks deeper and deeper into the hole her lies, and Mark Penn, have dug underneath her.

Watch this short video, where Clinton is giving a lot of praise to McCain, and taking a lot of talking points from not only just McCain, but Bush, and even Cheney, all while criticizing a fellow Democrat. Some of the quotes are taken a bit too ambiguously for my taste, but the meaning is clear for the majority of them.





If she is elected, what changes? The mindset is the same. There might be large differences in domestic policy between a Bush administration and a HRC administration, which I would gladly welcome, but is the price of maintaining the aggressive stance of the Bush administration worth it?

There still will be a hard-line approach, and the threat of an attack on Iran looming. Obviously ditto for McCain.

Comparing the two, their seemingly high respect for each other, and how they seem to really synch up nowadays, uttering the words 'elitist' and 'out of touch' like a toddler that just learned how to say them, John McCain and Hillary Clinton don't just sound like the new Dream Ticket, they sound like Best Friends:




Also posted on Daily Kos under the name 'Red Star'

The Phantom Campaign

The fragile House of Cards that was Hillary Clinton's campaign is really starting to crumble now.

I say was in such bright bold, red letters because in every aspect except the media desiring a dramatic narrative, or a civil war-inducing superdelegate coup, the Democratic race is over.

The reason her campaign is really crumbling now is because of the rash of, er, um...lies that are being uncovered lately about statements she has made, in some cases multiple times, in the past.

The obvious one is the Bosnia deal. I would think everyone would know by now, but with that overwhelming need for a narrative, this story is inexplicably getting swept under the rug. For the uninitiated, Hillary has told a story at least 4 times on record stating that back in 1996 in Bosnia, she was on a diplomatic trip, and had to land under sniper fire and "run to their vehicles for cover". She said the greeting ceremony that was supposed to be held on the runway was canceled, and they were all in mortal danger.

Problem is, that's utter bull. I could see this type of thing flying if there wasn't, say, video evidence to the contrary, which, in the YouTube age, is readily available to anyone who wants to see it. There were cameras everywhere, a CBS news team on the flight with Clinton as this all supposedly unfolded. There was a ceremony, there wasn't any sniper fire, and no one was in mortal danger.

Why she would choose to blatantly and utterly lie over something so insignificant and easily verifiable, I don't know. But the fact remains is that she did, and it is a glaring mark on her credibility.

There are other things that have come to light after the release of her schedules as well, such as, she never really seemed to play a major role in any initiative that had any legs, and actually was in favor of NAFTA, after blustering all over every manufacturing state in the country that she was against it and would try to reform it.

This would have been fine if she said something like, 'times have changed, it needs a re-do', but no, opposed from the start, even though there's really no point in staking such a claim. Pattern?

There is a great story at the link below about an initiative called 'SCHIP', that dealt with healthcare for children, that apparently was opposed by the Clinton White House, which Hillary now takes credit for on the trail. Full credit to Boston.com for the story.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/14/clinton_role_in_health_program_disputed/

All of the problems with her credibility in the past, coupled with this information, as well as Barack Obama's dominant and impossible-to-overcome delegate and popular vote lead, polls showing she will be stomped in states Obama would not, and a shortfall of cash, Hillary Clinton is simply running on fumes.

And the two entities that can stop this phantom campaign are two I mentioned up at the top of this piece.

First, the media needs to stop pretending Hillary Clinton isn't the Mike Huckabee of the left. Period. An interesting story of the battle between Hillary and Obama isn't worth ripping the Democrats in two and handing John McCain a huge advantage in the fall. Or maybe, for their owners, and their interests, it is. Not the time to go into corporate media controls here, but it is a valid argument, and McCain has been getting an easier rub from the media than either of the Democrats.

Second, the superdelegates and elders of the Democratic Party, the Al Gores, John Edwards-type figures really need to step up and call this race now, and make it clear the coup-by-delegate strategy isn't going to fly come Denver. Bill Richardson took the first step of this tier when he came out for Obama last weekend, being called a Judas in the process. It took guts to go against the Clintons, but it showed the rest of the superdelegates and everyone else involved in the process that it can, and should be done, and done quickly, before the damage she has already done becomes irrevocable.

The Very Definition of Hypocrisy

Hillary Clinton has been floating the idea of the Dream Ticket, with her and Barack Obama jointly going against John McCain in the fall, ever since she scored wins in Ohio, Rhode Island and the Texas primary last Tuesday.

And yet, at the same time, she derides him for not being prepared to be President.

The VP slot is for someone who can take the reigns of power at a moment’s notice and make quick decisions and take action if necessary. If a sitting President was, for whatever reason, removed from that seat, it would certainly be some form of a crisis situation, something to an extreme that even an elected sitting President may not have to deal with.

So she thinks Obama would be fit for that type of circumstance, but not fit to be electable to the seat itself.

This is nothing more than Hillary Clinton trying to position herself in the media as the person best suited to be the nominee, even though, as of today, over 600,000 more people, representing 150 more delegates have said they prefer Barack Obama.

It is an arrogant and conceited position to take, basically saying this would be the option she is going to push for come the convention, when she will attempt to get the party elders to nullify everything that has happened up to this point.

I hope the media and the voters can wake up to the fact that Hillary Clinton is very much like Mike Huckabee for the Democrats, as she is all but mathematically eliminated from this race, but blindly soldiers on, despite everything staring her in the face that she has already lost.

Someone in the form of a Bill Richardson, or a Nancy Pelosi, or even maybe Al Gore, needs to step in and call this thing for Obama, and eliminate the idea that Hillary has a viable shot at this nomination without using a backroom pressure deal to get it done.

We'll probably see this thing at least go on to Pennsylvania, where maybe Barack can put this all to bed without having to get messy at the convention, but I have a bad feeling Hillary is going to go so negative between now and then that Obama will have more than a few chinks in the armor once he gets to actually take on John McCain in November. When Clinton is going around saying her and McCain have the experience to do the job and Obama doesn't, that damages him much more than if McCain simply says it, and it gives the old man plenty of fodder to sling at the young reformer come the general election.

I don't know if the rumors being thrown around about Hillary sabotaging Obama so she can take another swing at the Oval Office against McCain in 2012 are true, but I sure hope they're not, because that is a horrible thing to doom hundreds of millions of people to just to be able to serve your own ego and ambition.

A Logical Plea for, well...Logic

Hillary Clinton is on a path that could lead to the Democrats actually losing what should be the easiest election they have ever fought. They are running against 7 years of disaster, and yet, can't seem to get this train rolling to knock everything back into line.

And that's because Hillary Clinton has tied the train to a post at the station, stubbornly refusing to believe the gigantic set of flashing lights in front of her, showing the impossible delegate count she must overcome.

She is looking over to that smokey room, that one at the Democratic convention, where she hopes to drag her and Barack Obama all the way to, bloodied and ready for the Republican pickings, just so she can try to score a backroom deal with party leaders, subvert a drawn out and, what's the word...ahem, democratic (!) process to choose the party leader and likely next President of the United States.

Unless Hillary Clinton can score margins of victory of about 23% over every single caucus and primary left, she has no shot of catching Barack Obama's delegate total. Especially after he won Wyoming today. It was only a two delegate gain, but its one more state out of play to gain on him, and another he has the distinction of saying he's won so far.

Let's be honest here, if Hillary Clinton really gave a damn about the Democratic Party or her country, she would gracefully step back and accept what is staring her straight in the face. Unless she causes a fissure in the Democratic Party by somehow squeezing her way into the nomination chair, she is doing nothing but giving John McCain fodder and hurting Obama’s chances in every state they are campaigning in from now until she does drop out of the race.

It's not just for the sake of the democratic process. This is important, but there are other things at stake, even if we want to throw a year and a half of campaigning out the window for a few hours of Clinton intimidation in the convention rooms in Denver.

Barack Obama is simply more electable than Hillary Clinton, especially in areas Democrats haven't been popular in for decades, sometimes even, well, ever. The states he have won have generally been Republican strongholds, and Hillary has racked the big states, like Ohio, the Texas primary (but not caucus), California and New York, but lets be honest, states like the latter two, are not going to suddenly turn red because Barack Obama is the nominee. They were both very narrow losses, and both would be more than expected to continue their blue ways for some time to come. Same goes for the entire northeast. But there are places that Obama is making breakthroughs in, that Hillary Clinton has no chance in doing.

I was reading an interesting piece over at Daily Kos earlier today, and I want to give them all the credit in the world for the statistics below, as they came directly from the piece, I just wanted to share them here. Please visit the original as well, as Daily Kos is a fantastic website for politics, and you can find the link to it over on the right side.

These stats deal in hypothetical polls of an Obama-McCain match up and a Clinton-McCain match up.

Idaho, it's the difference between overcoming a 13-point Obama deficit and a 36-point Clinton deficit.

In Colorado, it's the difference between overcoming a 6-point Clinton loss, and riding a 9-point Obama victory.

In Alaska, it's the difference between overcoming a 5-point Obama loss, and a 22-point Clinton loss.

In Nebraska, it's the difference between a 3-point Obama loss, and a 27-point Clinton loss.

In New Hampshire, it's the difference between an 8-point Clinton loss and 2-point Obama victory.

In Oregon it's the difference between a 5-point Clinton loss, and an 8-point Obama victory.

In Texas it's the difference between a seven-point Clinton loss, and a 1-point Obama loss.

In Wyoming, it's the difference between a 33-point Clinton loss and a 19-point Obama loss, and same thing in Montana, it's the difference between a 20-point Clinton loss and an 8-point Obama loss.

These are extremely important statistics, as it shows Obama does have national, 50 state appeal, and Hillary Clinton is as polarizing and unpopular with Independents and Republicans as was predicted before this campaign started. It also shows that Obama is on a quick path to whooping John McCain come November, with his millions of new voters, excitement and hope on his side, and McCain with nothing more than a bill for an endless Iraq war, and no idea in hell of how to stop us from slipping into a 30s era depression.

Hillary Clinton has labeled Obama's victories in the states he has won as basically completely unimportant, as he did not carry any large states outside of Illinois, his home state. As I said above, Obama would carry the large states without a doubt, and may lose so-called swing states like Ohio, and possibly Texas, but where he makes in-roads will more than off-set those losses, and I think after this election, there won't be, as Barack has said on many an occasion, red states or blue states, but just united states.

But just look at those numbers...Obama is down by 1% in Texas...TEXAS! A black Democrat is well within the statistical margin of error, with a real chance of carrying Texas.........TEXAS...unbelievable.

All conventional wisdom goes out the window this cycle. There are no more strongholds for Republicans if Obama is the nominee, but they become even stronger if Clinton is.

Obama has a chance of running an actual 50 state campaign and giving the Democratic Party the infrastructure, ground game, and credibility to compete in these states for years to come. Should we really give up such a chance of a generation, even a lifetime, simply to fulfill Hillary Clinton's ego driven march towards a nomination that is already realistically filled by another?

People must force Hillary Clinton to halt her damaging and spiteful campaign against Barack Obama, because clearly she doesn't have the shame, or sensibility, to do so herself.

False Hopes, False Promises, and Distorted Numbers

There is much false hope and bravado being thrown around right now in the Democratic race. After last night, where Hillary Clinton scored big comeback victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and the Texas primary (although they are still counting the caucus votes, which account for 1/3 of the delegate total for the state, so counting Hillary as the 'Winner of Texas' might be a bit premature...CNN!). Barack Obama carried the smaller Vermont, leaving him not completely outpaced on the night.

Now the false hope I spoke of is coming directly from Clinton and her crack team of advisers, calling this the victory to end all victories and saying basically that we might as well call the election now, because Hillary managed to score 2 1/2 primaries after Obama rolled up 12 in a row.

The reality of the situation is that Clinton, last night, didn't resurrect her campaign, she merely got a stay of execution. Obama is still ahead by roughly the same amount of delegates as before the day began, and after the Texas caucuses are actually finished counting their ballots...28 hours and going now, argh...he may even come out with a net gain in delegates.

At best, Hillary only picked up ground by no more than a dozen. And when the one leading the way is up by about 150...that's just not math that's going to work in your favor. Especially when these two states, Ohio and Texas, held the biggest chunk of delegates for the rest of the string.

Clinton will need to pick up somewhere in the neighborhood of 65% - 70% of every single contest left, and then she make squeak out a narrow delegate victory, but unless we find out Obama has a coke and hooker fetish, that in no way is going to happen, even in the rosiest of circumstances.

What the political heads are talking about now is Hillary going for a momentum type victory at the convention and getting the superdelegates to overturn the will of the primary and caucus voters and make her the nominee because, I guess, they know better than a plurality of the general public...? I can't even begin to imagine the cries of subversion of democracy if that were to happen.

So basically, it comes down to this. Hillary in no way can become the Democratic nominee unless the will of the people is suppressed for a candidate that has more connections within the Democratic Party than the other one on the ballot. this can't happen, and the heavyweights of the Democratic Party hopefully recognize this as well, because it will lead to nothing more than a divided party, and a disenfranchised electorate, who will feel, rightly, that the last year and half we have spent on this marathon, rollercoaster of a campaign will be for absolutely nothing.

Powerful members of the Democratic Party, such as Bill Richardson, have said whoever is ahead in the delegate count come the convention should be the nominee, because it was the will of the voters of their party. Obama is also rumored to have more than 50 superdelegates he is waiting to unveil at the right time, although the results yesterday may temper that a bit, if not for more than a week or two.

I think this campaign is really set to get dirty now, as Obama has come out swinging today, questioning why Clinton has not disclosed her tax returns, as he has, questioning what she has to hide. I think he is set to go on the offensive like he has not done this campaign, and I think it is time to do so. I don't like that this campaign is going into the gutter, but honestly, Hillary Clinton took this thing there in the first place, and he needs to sling some mud back at her.

Obama took a beating going into Ohio and Texas, and it cost him big time. It cost him the chance to wrap this thing up once and for all. It won't happen again. Obama has shown the ability to grow, change, toughen and adapt during this campaign, at an amazing rate, and I expect him to do so now as well. This race is only still on because Hillary Clinton thinks she can pull off a miracle and grab more than 2/3 of the vote the rest of the way. Well, all I have to say about that, is that Mike Huckabee thought the same thing...

There is one more thing, a growing controversy about the Clinton campaign darkening Obama's skin and widening his nose in a recent television ad. There is blatant proof, that I will post up here shortly, and its work that could not have been done accidentally, or relatively quickly. It would have been a concerted effort, by the Clinton campaign, as it was an official ad, to make Obama appear 'blacker' to the American public. That, my friends, is not change, that's Karl Rove style bullshit.

Wisconsin, Hawaii, and McCain

Barack Obama swept both Wisconsin and Hawaii, his home state, last night by rather large margins. In Wisconsin, he beat Hillary Clinton by about 20 points, and in Hawaii, he blew her out of the water by about 40. Now as I said above, Hawaii, being Obama's home state, was expected to give him a crushing victory, but Wisconsin is a bit of a different story. It was sort of a harbinger of things to come for Hillary, as a lot of Latino and blue collar voters swung Obama's way. If this trend continues through Ohio and Texas on March 4, Obama will have the delegates to finally secure this nomination, even though as little as 6 months ago, he wasn't seen as having a viable shot at anything.

This is fairly amazing, but without Ohio and Texas, it doesn't mean too much. Obama has won ten straight primaries/caucuses by convincing margins, but if he doesn't pull off at least one of the two March 4 states, all will be for naught.

John McCain, on the other hand, took one more step forward on the path to the Republican nomination, as he also won Wisconsin, and Washington State last night, leaving him within spitting distance of the magic number he needs to finally push Mike Huckabee out of the spotlight and let it shine unto him and him alone. McCain is going to have problems against whoever he faces, and it will be a serious uphill battle to convince voters they aren't getting 4-8 more years of Bush's failed policies, even though those policies are essentially what John McCain has put forward so far. It'll be interesting to see whether he softens these as we move towards November, but he needs the base of the Republican Party to congregate behind him so badly that he may even go more right-wing to do so before it is all said and done.

A few things of note:

- Huckabee, I think, by staying in the race for so long after he clearly has lost, has completely played his way out of a VP slot on McCain's ticket. It likely wasn't going to be him anyways, but after this growing embarassment and distraction he is becoming for the Republican Party, I don't think he's going to be too popular of a man when McCain comes a'callin.

- McCain is really starting to jab at Obama as well, calling himself the experience candidate, as he has done all along, but calling Obama, not by name, out on his lack of experience. He hasn't done the same thing with Hillary though, leading me to believe her fortunes are a lot worse off than we are all led to believe. McCain is attacking the person he feels he will have to go against in November, and that person is not Hillary Clinton.

Hillary and the Giuliani Strategy

Barack Obama is surging, and Hillary Clinton is losing ground fast. So she has decided to employ the same strategy, or let me correct myself, disastrous strategy, of Rudy Giuliani. She is going to sit back, bide her time and let Barack Obama sweep through everything that isn't Texas and Ohio.

This is dangerous, and as we found with Rudy, prone to failure. If you let the other candidate grab all of the momentum the way Hillary is right now, and as Rudy did in the months leading up to Florida, you run the risk of getting run right out of the national landscape. When you run out of the delegate counts for long enough, and your opponent gets to make flowery victory speeches with thousands of cheering supporters while you justify the losses by saying tomorrow will count more, it can really kill the positive news stories, which every candidate needs as much as anything else. Rudy became a non-factor in the Republican race, as he let Romney, Huckabee and McCain steal his thunder, leaving him with nothing when the chips were actually counted.

Obama is about to win two more primaries this coming week, in Wisconsin and Hawaii, as he has pulled ahead in the polls, just as he's pulled ahead in the polls in the last month. He is rising, and the more time Hillary lets him build and build, the brighter his star is going to shine. When Texas and Ohio do roll around, on March 4, where she is currently leading, and where there are more blue collar and Latino voters (with whom Hillary has done very well) she could very well pull ahead in the delegate count, even if Obama seems like a surefire candidate by that time.

Barack did do very well winning over Latinos and blue collar workers in the primaries he won in Virginia, Maryland and D.C., so maybe this is a beginning towards winning over those voters, as well as everyone else that is already sliding to him. Hillary has managed to maintain her lead in the Latino, blue collar and women voters so far, but this could be the beginning of the end of that as well.

An endorsement by John Edwards for either of these two, likely Obama, if anyone, would mean a huge swell of support among blue collar voters, as Edwards would have been their man had he still been in the race. Obviously it's not a dead-set correlation that what Edwards says, people will do, but if they respect him enough to have wanted to vote for him, they will respect his opinion, and a good chunk of them could slide over to Obama, giving him the rise in Texas and Ohio that he needs to break this election wide open.

February is going to be interesting, and I think this strategy of Hillary's...frankly, its going to fail, and when political science classes look over this election in the future, as they will, its groundbreaking in so many different ways, they will see this strategy near the end of the Democratic nominations as one of the greatest political miscalculations in history.

Count on it.

Super Tuesday, and the Aftermath...

Sorry for the delay in reporting the final numbers. I had an aggravating connectivity issue that took a while to solve.

Anyways, it looks like on one side, we came out with a clear nominee after the super primary, and on the other, the waters became as muddied as possible.

John McCain will be fightinig on until November, it seems, as he dominated Super Tuesday, winning the large chunk of states and delegates, and jumped about 400 delegates ahead of his nearest rival, Mitt Romney. Romney got hammered, losing the states he needed to have any shot, the ones with conservative bases, to Mike Huckabee. Huckabee played a magical spoiler for Romney, and really handed the campaign to John McCain.

Romney has since dropped out of the campaign, and rightly so. It would have been a waste of money from this point out, with almost no chance of him coming back from the blow Super Tuesday was to his campaign. I'm going to do a whole post in a bit on what happened to Mitt, the man who walks, talks, and looks just like a President, and yet, seemingly won't be.

Onto the Democratic dogfight, which is basically where this campaign is headed from this point out. On the day, Hillary pulled only a handful more delegates than Barack Obama, and squeaked out a narrow victory in California, the richest state, delegate-wise, of them all. Barack won a lot of not tradionally Democratic states, which bodes well for his range of support, as it shows he can walk the walk and pull in independent or even Republican-leaning people to vote for him come November.

What can be thanked for Barack's share of the delegates is the proportionate way the Democrats assign them to their nominees, as even though Hillary won the big population states, like California and New York, Obama still pulled a big portion over to himself. The Republicans, who operate on a winner-take-all type of system, ended up with their clear winner in John McCain, whose margin of victory in the states he won was around the same as Hillary or Barack in the states they won. But he got 100% of the delegates from each state, which gives him the crushing majority he holds now.

Hillary and Barack will be doing this dance for at least another month, maybe even more, maybe all the way to the convention a few months from now. This can only be viewed as bad for her and very good news for him.

Hillary has been slowly trending downwards and Barack has been slowly trending upwards over the last year or so. The curve has really accelerated the past month, with Obama catching up to her in almost every national and state poll, after being down by 20+ just months ago.

Hillary will really fight until the end, as she thought she was going to coast to this nomination, coast into the White House on a Democratic victory and a big 'Hell No' from the US on continuation of Bush-style leadership, but now this young upstart has come out of nowhere and stolen her nomination and her Presidency out from under her.

There is a better chance for Democrats (and sanity) in the US with Barack as the nominee. Its been said a million times, and I'm going to go there again. Hillary has too many negatives to win a national campaign. She can't grow the party to new voters, and some Democrats dislike her so much they will simply not vote, or will turn to a liberal type of Republican, as John McCain is. if 47% of potential voters say they will never consider voting for you, you're going to have a problem winning a plurality.

Obama also has higher numbers against McCain than Clinton does, beating him in almost every demographic and overall by 5-10 points. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is up and down, and within the statistical tie area against McCain nationally, winning ir losing to him by 2-3 points in every major poll taken.

Obama has also raised almost $40 million since the turn of the year, and $8 million alone in the 48 hours since the polls closed on Tuesday. He has at least $20 million still on hand by estimates, and will have all of that going forward to dominate the airwaves in the remaining states with his message.

Hillary, on the other hand, just lent her campaign $5 million of her own personal money to keep it afloat, and there are reports her top advisors and staffers will go without pay for the next month to give them some extra money to throw around. Hillary still has $20 million in her back pocket for a national campaign, but she might want to think about unleashing some of that now, or else there won't be a national campaign to run.

John McCain's job got much easier after Tuesday, as he can pretty much kick back, consolidate, work on unifying the Republican Party behind him (no easy task, I know, but easier when you don't have to fend off Romney) and begin to chip away at both of them. It's a virtual month or two headstart on the national campaign. He'll need it too, as Republicans are going to be a tough sell, but would be much easier against Clinton, and a lot harder against Obama.

I'll leave you with one thought from one of the most brilliant and hated political strategists the US political world has ever seen, Karl Rove. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not promoting Rove and his brand of divisive political strategy, but it wins elections. He gave two elections to George Bush that the man had no business even being in, let alone winning. With Bush, Rove has proven his mastery, he can even put this man into the White House, twice. But the thought that I wanted to highlight was that Rove wants Hillary to win this nomination, wants it even more than a tradional conservative nominee on the right. He wants this because he knows Hillary is a much easier campaign opponent than Obama. She has skeletons, and a large list of negatives. Barack has less skeletons, and less negatives, and has a groundswell of support.

Rove would love it if Hillary Clinton won, which should tell all of us left of Hitler than Obama is the best chance to save the US in the coming election.

I will, of course, be here throughout the rest and far beyond, and I hope you will be too, because this is shaping up to be the election of a generation, and one that will affect the US, and the world, for a few more generations after that.

Updated Delegate Numbers

The Democratic Magic Number to win the nomination is: 2025

Through Super Tuesday as of 7pm PST:

Hillary Clinton - 299

Barack Obama - 219

The Republican Magic number to win the nomination is: 1191

Through Super Tuesday as of 7pm PST:

John McCain - 309

Mitt Romney - 135

Mike Huckabee - 54

Ron Paul - 6

As you can see, the Democratic side is still a dogfight, although Hillary has scored serious points in the Northeast. California will still play a big role, but this race is looking to go past today, barring some massive unforseen event.

On the Republican side, McCain still looks to be pulling away, although Mitt Romney did just as expected and won the Utah primary a few minutes ago. Huckabee is still running strong, but he's still not a viable candidate for the Presidency. At this point, he's fighting for a spot on a ticket, and it's not the lead one.

Breaking: McCain wins Oklahoma, with 41 delegates added to his count.

Breaking: Barack Obama wins North Dakota, with 21 delegates coming his way.

Hillary gets New Jersey and Massachusetts

Hillary Clinton has pulled out New Jersey and Massachusetts, where she overcame the high-profile endorsements of the Kennedys, Kerry and Governor Deval. Hillary had gotten the endorsement of the mayor of Boston, which looks to have put her over the top. This is a blow to Obama, he was expected to win here.

Hillary also looks like she is going to pull a lot of Pennsylvania as well, leaving Barack a little shorter in the Northeast than he had probably expected.

Clinton has pulled hundreds of delegates from the two victories in the Northeast, leaving her leapgrogging ahead in momentum and delegates. There is still the mega-primary of California later on tonight to report, but Hillary has moved ahead as of now.

Obama wins Alabama, Huckabee showing strong

Barack Obama has won Alabama, with over 2/3 of the vote, reports CNN. He is also leading in Idaho, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

Obama is matching Clinton step-for-step and state-for-state. This is increasingly looking like it will continue past today's vote.

Huckabee is still winning Georgia, although Romney is doing well in the urban areas, and McCain is doing well in the military areas. Votes are still being counted, and not much is changing right now. It will be down to the wire here.

Huckabee is also winning in Missouri and Minnesota, and it looks like Mitt Romney's chances fade every time another breaking result pours in.

Delegate Count

The Democratic Magic Number to win the nomination is: 2025

Through Super Tuesday as of 6pm PST:

Hillary Clinton - 279
Barack Obama - 210

The Republican Magic number to win the nomination is: 1191

Through Super Tuesday as of 6pm PST:

John McCain - 208
Mitt Romney - 99
Mike Huckabee - 54
Ron Paul - 6

As you can see, the Democratic side is still a dogfight, and likely will be past today.

On the Republican side, McCain looks to be pulling away, and Mitt Romney needs to pull out some delegates quick, or else he will be out of this race by tomorrow morning. Same goes for Huckabee.

Hillary wins new York

Hillary Clinton has won her adopted state of New York, whom she represents in the US Senate. There are no numbers yet on the vote, but it looks like Hillary has taken 3/4-2/3 of the vote, leaving her with a large chunk of the 200+ delegates up for grabs in the second-most populous state.

All of the other states reporting at 6pm have no clear winner, even in John McCain's home state of Arizona. Surprising that McCain didn't pull his own state so overwhelmingly that it wasn't immediately available to call, as Hillary did.

Tennessee is still up in the air, but it looks like John McCain may have put another state into his pocket.

Clinton is also ahead in early numbers in Massachusetts, which is a tad surprising with all the high-profile endorsements Obama has gotten from the state's politicians like the Kennedys, John Kerry and the state's governor. This could be big for Hillary, from a PR standpoint, as Massachusetts doesn't have a powerhouse amount of delegates, but if Hillary wins, she will have done so in spite of the Democratic establishment in the area turning against her.

Breaking: Barack Obama pulls Delaware, with all 23 delegates going to him.

McCain carries New Jersey

John McCain has won the populous primary of New Jersey over Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee, by a large margin.

McCain is over 60 delegates ahead now over Huckabee and Romney so far in the Super Tuesday polling.

Also, in a breaking result, Hillary Clinton is taking New Jersey by a 2-1 margin over Barack Obama, although these results, as with the above, are very early.

Multiple State Results - Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oklahoma

It looks like Barack Obama has won his home state of Illinois, as predicted, and in the same state John McCain has won on the Republican side. McCain has also carried Conneticut, and Mitt Romney has taken his home state of Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton has taken Oklahoma.

More reports on numbers in a bit, but I thought I'd report these early numbers on wins in the Republican and Democratic primaries.

Obama Wins Georgia, GOP still too close

It looks as though Sen. Barack Obama has won the Georgia Democratic primary. Early exit polls from the state, which just closed its ballots as of half an our ago, show Obama taking 2/3 of the vote among Democrats in the state who turned out the primary. Early results show Obama with 66% of the ballots cast, with Hillary taking the rest. Of course this is early, but Georgia is very rich with delegates for the one who takes the lion's share of the vote, and it looks like Obama right now.

The Republicans are still fighting it out in the state, with each of the three main candidates pulling around 30% right now, with Ron Paul pulling the rest. This is a surprising turnout for McCain, as Georgia is quite a conservative state, but he seems to be pulling a large contingent of the military vote, which is strong. Huckabee is picking up the Evangelical vote, and pushing Romney's numbers down amongst conservatives. The one who comes out the winner will pick up a big chunk of delegates, as of course, the Republicans run a winner-take-all campaign. Apparently McCain has spent a large percent of his time over the last two days in the northeast, in places like Massachusetts and New York, which surely cannot help him in the conservative southern states where he needed as much face-time as possible to convince these people that he was their candidate, strong conservative credentials or not.

By staying up north, where any Republicans would likely choose him anyways, McCain has neglected a large contingent of folks that make up the Republican electorate, and if he does go on to become the party's nominee, he may regret not giving the South more attention at this stage in the game. People don't have short memories when it comes to this sort of thing.

I'll stick with this and anything else, as the next polls close in just about 45 minutes...

John Edwards, An Obituary

Oh John Edwards, so much promise, so much heart, and so many sound and defined policies. And yet, gone so soon...

Edwards is a man who is perfect for the Presidency. He grew up with almost nothing, so he remembers how a majority of people in the US now live. He's self-made, and he has the right priorities, such as Universal Healthcare programs, fighting a war on poverty and taking on corporate interests in Washington. Great, right? All good things, and issues people can get behind and feel good about getting behind.

The only problem is, that John Edwards never had a hope in hell of winning this nomination.

When he started his campaign, the widely held belief was that Hillary Clinton was the de-facto nominee, even before the process started. Edwards was going to position himself as a new-age candidate, and Hillary as someone of the old guard, a Washington insider. And that is exactly what he did.

Only problem is that there was someone else who blazed in and took up that mantle. Pretty plainly, it was Barack Obama that knocked Edwards out, and nothing more.

Edwards had great goals, great policies, he was from the South, which is always a good thing for a Democratic nominee, and he was well-liked and respected by his colleagues and the voters. But Barack just had so much more right now that the country is craving.

Edwards' other problem was that he was beginning to become an also-ran, running and losing the nomination in '04 to Kerry, then losing the general election as the VP nominee, and now running in a deep third place this cycle. He started to take on the air of someone that had a great vision, but just couldn't close the deal.

I think John Edwards would make a fantastic President, and he still may one day, but unfortunately, he was running in the wrong year. Against two powerful, groundbreaking candidates, he barely got a sniff, and he deserved so much more.

From launching his campaign in the 9th Ward in New Orleans, to ending it in the very same place, then walking off to the background to build a house for Habitat for Humanity, John Edwards was a good man, and a good candidate, but just came along at the wrong time, and miscalculated his chances this time around.

Give it a decade, maybe a little more. Edwards can do more work for the poor, the disaffected, make a difference outside the political process, as Al Gore has done. Love Al or hate him, he has brought attention onto Climate Change, and that is a plus. Edwards can do the same, he can make the change he so desperately wanted to by entering the race in the first place, then come back around when the Clintons, the Obamas, even the Gores of the landscape have passed, and win himself the position he so richly deserves.