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'

Barack Obama responds to the 'Bitter' Criticism

Barack Obama again today proved why he is going to be giving a brilliant Inauguration speech as President about 9 months from now.

He is smart, level headed, and he is honest with people. He responds to the 'elitist', 'out of touch' criticisms from the multi-millionaires with this down-to-earth speech in Steelton, PA.



For all those that worry Barack Obama is going to be stripped apart by the Republican attack machine this fall, that video should show you that he's more than ready to bob and weave and jab around it all the way to the White House.

Watch Hillary's head nearly split in two

We Should Not Boycott the Beijing Olympics

It will only hurt the athletes, no one else. It will not affect the situation in Tibet, or convince the Chinese leadership to stop what they are doing. It will only make the gap between us larger, as the Chinese will not want to lose face on the international scene. Trade and other human rights issues would end up harder to solve in the future, and for what?

It is a selfish ploy that uses athletes that train harder than all others, that have a stage once every 4 years, some only once in their life, maybe twice if they are extremely lucky.

We should not be taking away the dreams and goals of these men and women for political points.

I'm fine with the protesters right now causing havoc on the Olympic flame's route to China, because that is free and open protest, no matter how much brutality the police seem to be showing the protesters who do step up.

What did this kind of approach do in Moscow 1980? Not too much. Some would say it started the dominoes that ended the Cold War, but it wasn't, it was just a lost cycle of athletes used by their government to make a point.

If you want someone to blame, then blame the IOC for awarding the Games to China in the first place, as their human rights abuses have been well known for a long time now. We were fine with it when these Games were awarded, when China's brutality was behind closed doors, but now that it is out in the open, we want to make sure no one thinks we condone this sort of thing, at least not if its captured on film.......

The Olympics are one of the few, if not the only place where nations can actually come together in genuine good spirit and compete, without politics playing a factor.

I'm all for opening a dialogue on China's abuses, because they are very numerous and terrible, but not through the athletes, it's simply not fair.

UPDATE : Stephen Harper has declared we will not boycott the Olympic Games, for the very reason I stated here, that it would do nothing but harm the athletes. Kudos Stephen, which is something I may never say again.

Bilateral Civil Assistance Plan

There was an agreement signed on February 14, 2008, between U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, that essentially ended Canada’s stint as a free and independent country.

It is called, as this article is entitled, the 'Bilateral Civil Assistance Plan'. What this agreement does is allow American troops to operate on Canadian soil in times of civil emergency, and vice versa. I can't think of a circumstance where the US would ask us to step in, but with the depleted numbers of their own National Guard due to the war in Iraq, maybe it is a possibility.

Either way, this kind of agreement, signed with smiles, as you can see if you like by clicking on the title, which will take you to the US Northern Command site, is dangerous in so many ways I'm thinking if I should check and see if there's a word limit on Blogger before I get really into this.

We're losing sovereignty, straight up. I don't know about the rest of you, but watching the US operate on the world stage for the last 8 years doesn't instill too much trust in them not abusing this agreement and taking it in ways it was never originally intended (see, Original UN Iraq Resolution)

Who defines this 'emergency'?

Say for example, the Canadian Prime Minister is assassinated, everything is in chaos, we have no clear number 2 because of a ridiculously outdated political system, the US steps in to 'lend assistance' during the crisis. Bingo Bango, we've got a 'friend' who won't get the hell out of our country.

The US has plenty of fingers in plenty of friendly pies, and it will be over my dead body before those fingers are in ours. I know we have been bought out piece by piece by US companies, our culture is dominated by that from the South of us, and our current government panders to the Bush administration like an underachieving child to an overbearing father, but US troops, in our streets, 'keeping the peace' is more than I could handle.

That is just one of many different scenarios that would be made out to be justifiable in such a circumstance, as any logical and realistic person knows the US would love to have our resources and space for their own uses. We have always resisted them at every turn from complete and utter domination, but this agreement sets all that back dramatically.

We have laws in place to preserve 'Canadianism', culturally, requiring so much Canadian content on our radio and airwaves, but is that really enough?

The most troubling aspect of this entire agreement, leaving out everything mentioned, is that it was never even brought up in the House of Commons, let alone debated and passed by a plurality of elected members. The same goes for the US Congress. Not a whiff of this passed through there either. And it was not released to the press, and was actually suppressed by the Canadian government from coming to light.

This is a major treaty, changing the way we define our borders and how we allow other nations to operate within them. This fundamentally alters Canadian sovereignty forever. And no one knows it even happened.

I will be lobbying my Member of Parliament, Bill Siksay of the NDP, to at least raise this issue in the House, and have the Prime Minister and the Conservative government answer for their actions and their secrecy. I recommend you do the same if you at all care about maintaining Canada as a free and independent nation. Links to each party, where you can find your MP, and for US readers, your Member of Congress, are located on the right side. We need to raise this issue now, because it seems like our governments are completely unwilling to.

Find Your Member of Parliament

Find your Member of Congress

Compare and Contrast

I was just reading another article about Barack Obama's 'problems' regarding controversial (To say the least) sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. What I've been thinking and waiting for ever since this story broke, was when the story of John McCain's controversial pastor John Hagee was going to be blasted all over the airwaves.

And then........nothing...

Nothing about how Hagee called the Catholic Church 'The Great Whore', who called Hurricane Katrina 'The judgment of God against New Orleans', who said the Catholic Church collaborated with Hitler during WWII to exterminate the Jews, or who said the Qua'ran stipulates the murder of Jews and Christians.

Are these on par with "Goddamn America!" and 9/11 as "Chickens coming home to roost", I'd say so. In fact, I'd say it far surpasses the statements of Rev. Jeremiah Right.

Unless you've got your blindness-inducing patriotic glasses on, I think most can agree with all the death and destruction the US has wrought upon the world, 9/11, however it actually played out (INSIDE JOB!) it was certainly chickens coming home to roost. It was deserved, and frankly, the US deserved 10x more.

I'll never wish death on another human, not even Bush, Cheney and company, and I do not condone the thousands of deaths on that day, but the simple and plain fact of the matter is that the US populace had it coming.

Place Hagee and Wright side-by-side. At the very least, they must be placed in the same category. At the most, Hagee should be decried as a acidic hate monger for his statements about Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and almost every other definable group that he feels doesn't meet up to his moral standards.

Wright, on the other hand, is also horribly offensive, widening racial divides instead of healing them. But his words were born from a generation of fire hoses, civil rights marches and battles for equality. Wright was shaped by this, and it shines through in his passionate sermons now.

Hagee has nothing like this to define or somewhat justify his views, actions and words. He is simply a bitter, hateful man.

And yet, who gets plastered over the news hourly, gets debated, slandered and insulted, called un-American and racist? Wright, and by extension, to an extent, Barack Obama.

Who gets the attention or blame for Hagee? Certainly not Hagee, as he pulled in over a million dollars last year, making him one of the highest paid evangelists out there. And it sure as hell isn't John McCain, who is getting the freest and easiest ride I think I can remember from any political candidate, while Obama gets killed at every turn for the slightest miscue.

Things like John McCain confusing (or not even understanding) the different Sunni and Shia branches of Islam and trying to connect Sunni al Qaeda with Shia Iran goes completely under the radar, unnoticed. But Obama not using the proper word to denounce the un-sought endorsement of Louis Farrakhan dominates a debate for a good 20 minutes.

To go even further, McCain not only didn't denounce Hagee, as Obama was nearly pressured to do to Wright before he gave the speech of a generation on race relations, he sought after and graciously accepted the endorsement, even going so far as to say, "I’m very proud to have Pastor Hagee’s support."

Can you imagine the firestorm if Obama had said that about Farrakhan, or even about Wright, whom he said he disagrees with, but loves like a family member? If he had of done so, I think we all know without a doubt that Barack Obama would not be competing for the Democratic Presidential nomination, he would be sitting at home in Illinois.

The media has never been, never will be, and honestly is not expected to be fair and impartial. That is a perfect worldview in an imperfect world. What they are expected to do, is at least give some semblance of neutrality and integrity, and report issues, statements and controversies somewhat equally. Hell, I'd even take a 90-10 split right now.

I do think it is going to get much harder on McCain, as he is still in his honeymoon period as the nominee, and Hillary and Barack are still cutting each other apart bit-by-bit. Once Hillary can finally put her ego to bed, we can move on with Obama-McCain, and hopefully something, anything will be brought up about Hagee, his not understanding Sunni v Shia Islam, breaking campaign finance laws that he helped to craft, following in lockstep with the disastrous policies of George Bush. and so so many other things...and lest we forget the Keating 5.

Compare and Contrast Hagee v Wright, and the media coverage and slant of McCain v Obama, and tell me who you think is getting the fair treatment so far in this cycle...

Straddling the Fence on Smoking

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I am a smoker. I also work in the city, in an office, with tight little old-style streets outside.

The reason I'm sharing this is not so that all several of you that have clicked through my thoughts on here can come and shower me with praise. I mean, that would be great, but I'm not expecting anything. The reason is because on March 31, 2008, Vancouver essentially became a city where smoking in public is no longer allowed.

They haven't made smoking illegal, or anything like that, far too much tax revenue is derived from cigarettes to make them completely unavailable. This is a point I'll come back to, because it's central to the whole idea of what we're talking about here.

The new law put in place stipulates that the following are now illegal, and I'm quoting right from the Government of BC's website here :

- Smoking in all indoor public spaces and work places, with exemptions made for the ceremonial use of tobacco by Aboriginal people;
- Smoking within three meters (15 Feet) of public and workplace doorways, open windows or air intakes;
- Tobacco sales in public buildings including: hospitals and health facilities, universities and colleges, athletic and recreational facilities, and provincial government buildings; and
- Display and promotion of tobacco products in all places where tobacco is sold that are accessible to youth under 19.
- Unless prohibited by municipal regulations, smoking will still be allowed on the outdoor patios of restaurants and bars, as long as that patio area is not substantially enclosed.

In Canada, between 63 and 79 per cent of the price of cigarettes is tax (CBC). The government, both provincial and federal, collect huge tax revenues from smokers, and yet make it nearly impossible for them to use the product they are collecting for.

Such blatant and opportunistic hypocrisy would almost be laughable, if it didn't negatively impact so many people's lives in such a way. I’m all for not displaying cigarettes, not selling them in government buildings, and not having smoking rooms inside bars and clubs, but a 15 foot restriction is simply unworkable and ridiculous.

I have always prided myself on being a polite smoker, someone who has this habit, but doesn't annoy others with it. Someone who blows smoke away from whomever I happen to be with, whether they are a smoker or not. Not smoking around kids, especially babies, and not smoking inside. This is the kind of behavior we need to be focusing on.

I in no way want to make smoking out to be safe or friendly. It is horribly addictive, harmful, and secondhand smoke is most certainly very damaging. I do want to point out though that it is a choice that we smokers in the world make, and it is perfectly legal, and available every ten feet, in every little shop.

It's like offering out something in one hand, then trying to swat the person away with the other hand when they try and take it.

The Government of BC and the Government of Canada need to get real on this issue, and stop playing both sides of the fence by looking tough on tobacco and smokers, while the entire time collecting millions from us. It's all political, just like everything else, but this goes a little bit far in my opinion.

We haven't even started to look into other substances also taxed to the gills that are very harmful, such as alcohol. The costs of medical care for those affected by their cigarette addiction is certainly higher than that of alcohol abusers, but nonetheless, it is the same idea. The government sells, promotes and taxes a very harmful substance, and then tells people they shouldn't really be buying it or using it in the first place.

If say, smoking was outlawed tomorrow, a huge black market would spring up, and there wouldn't probably be too much of a noticeable shift in supply. It would just be much harder to acquire, and harder to use, and would drive smoking rates down dramatically. Obviously this isn't going to happen, but it's about the only way that Gordon Campbell, Stephen Harper and their respective parties pass the hypocrisy test.

We've seen the effects of prohibition before, with alcohol, and obviously it's not a viable, real solution, but all I'm asking is for the ruling parties to stop acting so righteous about the whole issue as 80% of the price I just paid for my daily pack is bulging out of their coffers.

Now, excuse me, I have to go and stand in the middle of the street to have a smoke, as in this part of town, it’s about the only place that's 15 feet from a door, window or vent.

I certainly feel like I'm safer and society is better off by having millions do the same, don’t you?

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.

Media Bias and Double Standards

I've noticed some things happening in the last few weeks that are a little bit off. There have been gaffes and very evident truths that the media seems unwilling to report on fully, or even at all.

In regards to gaffes, I'm speaking of course about John McCain, who said not once, not twice, not even three times, but FOUR TIMES that al-Qaeda is being brought into Iran to train up and then being shipped back to Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis.

There are a few minor problems with this statement, especially because McCain is positioning himself as the be-all and end-all candidate on foreign policy and national security credentials. This shows a fundamental lack of understanding about not only the Iraq problem, but in a larger sense, the entire cultural divide between Western and Islamic societies and countries.

The two different branches of Islam, Sunni (al-Qaeda) and Shia (Iran) see each other as heretics, almost on a level with the US, and hate each other just as much, or maybe even a little more, than the invader.

So to say that Sunni Muslim extremists are going into a Shia-dominant country to train is beyond ridiculous. How can McCain make such an error, especially after multiple corrections by his good buddy Joe Lieberman and his own staff? McCain made the mistake once in an interview before leaving for Iraq and was corrected. He then said it again while making a speech in Iraq, and was then corrected (embarrassingly) right in the middle of everything by Lieberman. He apologized right away and said he had misspoke. But then over the next two days he said the same words again, that al-Qaeda was going into Iran to train and it was a threat to US security.

I am a 24 year old Canadian with a bit of college under by belt, no military or government experience, and I know this full well. I was shocked listening to his speech to hear it, and to think that I had a better understanding than one of the Presidential candidates on international relations. Wow....certainly doesn't inspire too much confidence in the man's game, now does it?

When McCain doesn't understand (or even take the time to listen to) the simplest of cultural divides and the delicacy in which they must be handled, he's showing full-out that he's not the most experienced candidate, or the most well positioned to help America rebuild its image around the world. Never mind everything he has said about 'not understanding' the economy, or the fact that his entire campaign is being infused with money and run by corporations and lobbyists.

John McCain simply doesn't get it.

I feel like we've already been introduced to a war-mongering, poll-ignoring moron....Oh, right...

Third Bush term? Sure sounds like it....

Can anyone imagine if Obama or even Clinton were to drop such a line even once? Jeez, probably couldn't turn the dial without hearing a nut job like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity blitzing them for a lack of understanding about foreign policy and general incompetence.

Where are these calls for McCain...?

I think I hear crickets........

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.

John McCain Wins GOP Presidential Nomination

John McCain has secured the Republican nomination for President, officially.

He reached the magic number of 1191 today, mainly via the Republican delegates in Texas. They propelled him over the top and into the seat, knocking Mike Huckabee, possibly the most lovable Republican ever, out of the race.

I'll take this opportunity to congratulate McCain as well, as he has overcome tremendous odds to get to where he is today. Even six months ago, he was broke, running fourth and fifth in the polls, and on his last legs. Until he opted into the matching funds campaign that he is now violating, blatantly, and was able to secure a loan with it as collateral and get himself back into it. He's turned his back on his principles and his stances to get to where he is as well, as most of the positions he took during his time in the Senate have been reversed in the last 2 years or so.

Most notably, Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy. Voted against it twice, said he couldn't in good conscience vote for something that harmed the middle class so much. Now supports these cuts as a permanent part of the Tax Code.

He has ties to lobbyists, not just monetarily either, who basically run his campaign nowadays, he has violated the campaign finance law that he was a CO-SPONSOR for, the controversial acceptance of the endorsement of John Hagee, certified nutjob and hater of the Catholic Church. He has had numerous scandals just in the last few months, leaving aside things like the Keating 5 (Look it up, insider trading, five Senators involved, everyone went down but McCain).

McCain is going to be a tough candidate in a national election, as he is a street fighter, but I really think with everything he supports, plus the big elephant in the room I didn't even mention, the Iraq War, he is going to go down in flames this November, and whomever wins the Democratic nomination after what looks like a protracted fight, will be able to coast to the White House.

He is traveling to Washington tomorrow to get the blessing of George W. Bush at the White House, have some pictures taken and a nice press conference. Apparently it slips past the logic of McCain and his organizers that Bush has an approval rating hovering around 20% right now, so he might not be the man you want shaking your hand, agreeing with your policies and giving you his blessing to continue on with his legacy. But hey, a sitting President is a sitting President right, no matter that 80% of the country thinks he’s doing a terrible job.
I'm going to do another post on the Democratic races tonight, which are as tight as can be, but for now, John McCain gets his moment in the sun, before he is eclipsed by the tidal wave of crap gathering behind him.

Desperate Times...

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and Hillary Clinton is in those times, and taking those sorts of measures.

She held a press conference this morning roasting a campaign mailing from Barack Obama , saying it contained 'lies' about her positions on NAFTA and a portion of her Healthcare plan. She compared Obama to Karl Rove, of all people, and said he, not her, was playing the dirty politics of the past, and betraying his message of positive hope and change.

Isn't this the same woman that accused Mr. Obama of plagiarism last week, trying to drag him through the muck before the all-important March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas?

Baseless plagiarism charges aside, the first basic problem Hillary has seems to be that the flyer states she supported NAFTA when it was signed in the early 90s, but doesn't now. This is completely true, as Hillary was a whole-hearted supporter when she was First Lady. She says now that NAFTA needs to be reformed, and as a Canadian, I couldn't agree more. The middle class, blue-collar workers especially, have been getting ripped by this treaty for around two decades, and I think it needs a serious revisiting. But back in the 90s, Hillary wasn't running for President, with blue-collars as her core base. She sure is now though, and now that she needs that support, NAFTA is evil. Sure wish she had felt that way in the first place.

Second is that Clinton says her Healthcare plan is being misrepresented. It has to deal with the fact that her plan forces people to pay for insurance even if they can't afford it, and will garnishee wages should the insurance not be bought out of free will. This, also, is true, and something Hillary Clinton nodded along with just this past Thursday, during the Democratic debate. I don't think penalizing people for not having the financial security is the right way to go, and falls along the same lines as the 'No Child Left Behind' program, where schools are fined and punished for not having test scores high enough. You don't penalize to make the situation better, you step in and make the situation better so you don't have to penalize in the first place, which is what

Barack is doing by attacking the prices of insurance so it is more affordable for regular people. He states that the problem is not that people don't want to have insurance; it’s that they can't afford it, and if it is more affordable, people will cover themselves adequately.

I am completely for universal healthcare, and as a Canadian, I do see it as an inalienable right, but it has to be a slow progression, and they can't just implement a Canadian-style system one day out of the blue. I think Obama's plan gets to the core issue, and Hillary's is pointed towards saying that everyone has coverage, even if it makes life harder on the average American to do so.

My own opinions aside, I have enclosed a link here to a video of the speech Hillary made this morning, so everyone can see what desperate measures in desperate times really look like.

You may have to watch a short ad first, and the video is about a minute and a half.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/23/clinton.mailings/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

The Final Democratic Debate before Texas and Ohio

The last Democratic debate before the huge, monumental primaries in Texas and Ohio, that will likely decide who will be the nominee to go against John McCain this fall.

I've watched the entire debate so far, just past the hour mark now, and I have to say, Barack Obama is hammering Hillary Clinton to the ground. He is coming off inspiring and rational, and she is coming off as petty and divisive. This is purely my view, of course, but there is this sense, watching the debate, that we are all watching a man that is going to take on John McCain and win in November, and a woman who is desperately trying to revive something that's clearly already dead.

Hillary Clinton has tried to put a smile on the entire time, even when she was booed by the Texas crowd, but she is desperately grasping at straws, and it's showing more than ever.

As a quick example, the issue of Obama's alleged plagarism of a Deval Patrick speech was brought up. Barack, in his few minutes, explained logically that it was two lines, which were given to him by Patrick, and that the issue itself was pointless in the face of so many other issues, and to harp on it was part of the divisive politics of the past. Hillary got her response and did nothing but hammer at him for plagarism. Petty, pointless, and divisive.

Again, as they are debating healthcare, Barack is laying out his plan in a rational, coherent way, and Hillary is nitpicking and seeming to become very angry up on stage. Both candidates have completely overridden a question about experience and have returned to a debate about healthcare. They are both very passionate and into this debate, which I love, but all in all, so far, Barack Obama has a distinct advantage, and Hillary Clinton is grasping desperately to something that simply isn't there any longer.

I'll be back later on to recap the debate in full...

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.

Romney...seemed so perfect didn't he?

Oh Mitt Romney. Such a quick and smooth tongue. So witty and seemingly-personable. Such perfect hair, and teeth. Former Governor of Massachusetts, and rich. Make this man President, right?

I mean, he sounds like a Presidential candidate, like every single one we've seen, maybe even a little better. He's got George Bush-style policies with the ability to form a coherent sentence, and get everyone in the room laughing as he does.

Mitt was the epitome of what the US seems to like in their Presidential candidates, and that was pretty much what killed him in this campaign. Much the same as the John Edwards campaign, Mitt was perfect for a Presidential run, for all the reasons I've mentioned above. Mitt's problem wasn't running into two ground-breaking, once-in-a-generation candidates, as Edwards did, but that people were craving something different, and the a-typical politician just was not their cup o'tea this election.

Romney was also burned by a bit of the loose tongue. And when I say loose tongue, I mean, lying. Mitt is the kind of politician that plays to whatever crowd he is in front of, and when he was running in Massachusetts as a Republican, he obviously had to soften some of the right's more extreme views to be able to have a hope in hell of winning. And he did, coming out pro-abortion, pro-gun law, and not as a tax cutter.

But now, these kinds of views are problems, and so are biting attack ads that include bits of info that aren't quite, what's the word...truthful. Mitt had trouble with both of these things, and it, to an extent, doomed him as well.

So did his religion, as he is a practicing Mormon, and while it helped him take Utah, with a whopping 85% of the vote, there is a real divide with this religion and the mainstream, which I think also caused him problems. not as many as a lot of people predicted, but it didn't help. For example, Mike Huckabee, former priest, won the fundamentalist states. If Mitt's not a Mormon, those states could easily go to him.

A lot of factors contributed to Romney's fall from grace. I've been watching his campaign rise from its beginnings, and I honestly thought, with the man's pedigree, money, look, everything, that he would be the nominee. Even when he was running back in the polls, I was telling everyone to watch out for this man, who was a slicker, more composed and intelligent George W. Bush, and would follow the same type of policies, the failed neo-con policies of the current administration. He would probably have been alright economically, as he is a very successful businessman that turned around the Salt Lake City Olympics and has amassed a huge private fortune, but there's too many other drag-downs that killed his campaign.

Lastly, he had a real cocky sense around him. He was that kid in high school that drove the slickest car, had all the clothes and the girls, and someone most of us weren't, and most of us couldn't relate to. I wish Mitt Romney the best of luck, as he is an intelligent, composed, and well-put together man, but it seems his Presidential aspirations may have to be set aside. For a man that really looks the part, in the end, it seems he can't really fill the role.

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.

Huckabee takes Alabama

Mike Huckabee has taken the Alabama caucuses, giving him 48 additional delegates.

Big win for Huckabee, as it shows he can still pull votes and be an influence at the convention when the eventual winner gets the crown placed upon his head.

Breaking: Barack Obama has won the Minnesota Democratic caucuses, with 88 delegates on the line. They will be divided proportionally amongst the two, but Barack will get about 2/3.

Mitt Romney is speaking right now, declaring he will go on and lead his campaign right into the Republican National Convention, to win the nomination.

With the kinds of numbers we've seen here today, it doesn't seem likely that's the case.

Barack wins Kansas and Conneticut

Barack Obama has taken the states of Kansas and Conneticut, giving him over 100 more delegates in the count.

These two go along with the other states he has carried: Alabama, Illinois, Delaware, Georgia, North Dakota.

Obama is staying in this race, and along with the numbers he is expected to get in California, should be able to make a strong challenge for this nomination with Hillary Clinton.

More to come...

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.

McCain takes big win in New York

John McCain has won the delegate rich New York primary, netting him an additional 101 delegates over and above the number listed below.

McCain is looking like a sure-fire bet to be the Republican nominee, and is running long and away from Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Time to start looking into VP nominees, and Huckabee is looking to be a strong candidate to fill that role.

I will be putting another column up in the coming days about VP candidates for these nominees, in the case of McCain, or potential nominees in the case of Obama and Clinton. Something to look forward to.