Howling Latina

And for their troubles, Barack Obama supporters have been richly rewarded.

Tomorrow, there will be extended coverage in the Media of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee hearing on Michigan and Florida. And not one of them will know what they are talking about (NOTE: It is not just the Media, it is also bloggers like Matt Yglesias who continues his competition with Josh Marshall to become the next David Broder.) They will not know that New Hampshire spurred this crisis by not accepting the DNC primary schedule. They will not know that Rule 11 (the DNC primary schedule rule) was violated by Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. They will not know that Florida was entitled to a "waiver" pursuant to Rule 21 of the DNC rules. They will not know that the DNC Rules did not require candidates to take their names off the MI and FL ballots, that in fact that was an Obama ploy to pander to Iowa and limit Michigan's influence. They will not know that the DNC Rules called for a 50% penalty, not a 100% penalty for violating Rule 11. They will not know that Florida and Michigan wanted to have revotes but were stymied by the Obama camp. Tomorrow, there will be extended coverage in the Media of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee hearing on Michigan and Florida. And not one of them will know what they are talking about (NOTE: It is not just the Media, it is also bloggers like Matt Yglesias who continues his competition with Josh Marshall to become the next David Broder.) They will not know that New Hampshire spurred this crisis by not accepting the DNC primary schedule. They will not know that Rule 11 (the DNC primary schedule rule) was violated by Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. They will not know that Florida was entitled to a "waiver" pursuant to Rule 21 of the DNC rules. They will not know that the DNC Rules did not require candidates to take their names off the MI and FL ballots, that in fact that was an Obama ploy to pander to Iowa and limit Michigan's influence. They will not know that the DNC Rules called for a 50% penalty, not a 100% penalty for violating Rule 11. They will not know that Florida and Michigan wanted to have revotes but were stymied by the Obama camp.

About Webb's value up through election day, I realize that there's an argument: Would his credentials on national security and as an undoubtedly tough southern Populist offset, among other problems, the perceived slight to older women among Hillary Clinton's base? It's like a vector problem in physics. My belief is that, purely as a matter of electoral math, Webb would help Obama much more than he would hurt. But I know that's a judgment call, with countless ramifications to argue out.

The problem is what would happen if he did help Obama win. Having first met Webb nearly thirty years ago -- and having co-written an Atlantic cover story with him, and having broken my rule against giving money to political candidates two years ago when he began his Senate run -- I can't imagine a job he would enjoy less than the vice presidency.

Jim Webb has arranged his life so as to maximize his intellectual and personal independence, and minimize the things he "has" to do and the bosses he must answer to. Novelist, essayist, journalist, movie-maker -- through the two decades before his Senate race he's been his own boss as much as possible, and has clearly relished saying exactly what he believes. The federal government office that most nicely matches his previous life is the one he now holds: as a U.S. Senator. Especially a Senator of the model Webb has described as his ideal: Daniel Patrick Moynihan. There are still lots of things Webb "has" to do -- fundraising, constituent service, party efforts -- to maintain this role. But in the big scheme of things, not that many.

Webb -- who has not endorsed either Clinton or Obama - has often said during his recent VP mentioning-boomlet that he thinks he could help a new Democratic president best by staying in the Senate. (And holding that Virginia seat for the Democrats.) Whether or not that answer is coy, I think it's absolutely correct. He's a great person for the Senate; the Senate is a great place for him, and I hope it will be for a long time to come.

Her mastery of complex policy detail is broad and deep, and her experience as a senator and former first lady matches that.

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Clinton's energy policy is forward thinking and wise. She advocates a broad federal research initiative to help solve our looming oil crisis. It's a plan that would join university researchers, private industry and individual inventors behind a common goal.

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Clinton has demonstrated a real commitment to Native American issues and will have visited several South Dakota reservations before the race is over. Clinton is precisely correct when she says that people outside the region have a poor understanding of the troubling trends on our reservations. Federal attention could help. That includes but is not limited to higher-ranking posts in the federal bureaucracy.

Her truly universal health care plan would be welcomed by thousands of South Dakotans. Even on reservations, where health care is nominally universal already, such a plan would be welcome. The federal government would never be allowed to subject everyday Americans to the kind of care Native Americans living on reservations routinely receive.

The political coverage of MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews, left, and Keith Olbermann has been criticized for being blatantly left-leaning and pro-Barack Obama.

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[T}here's no confusion on 'Hardball' or 'Countdown' as to where they stand. They are and have been enamored of Obama from the beginning."

Today, for the first time, Guckert offered an explanation.

"I can say without fear of contradiction, that I knew [ex White House press secretary] Scott [McClellan] better than any other White House correspondent or Washington reporter," Guckert wrote on his blog.

MSNBC's bias has actually hurt the Illinois senator. After all, it was the Obama cheerleading from MSNBC (among others) that helped lead to Clinton's New Hampshire comeback. And even if you think (as I do) that the Clintons have made too big of a deal out of the "sexist" and "unfair" portrayal their candidate has received in the press, if you watch enough MSNBC, you realize that their claim isn't without truth. How could you believe otherwise when Olbermann, with his trademark hauteur, told Hillary that "voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth [of the campaign]," or when Matthews took such self-evident glee in trouncing Clinton in between the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary? Similarly now, by mocking Clinton's decision to stay in the race, Olbermann has only bolstered her argument that "the boys" are trying to push her out. And finally, on a number of primary nights, but most notably in Pennsylvania and Ohio/Texas, MSNBC has become so excited by early exit polls that it has raised expectations that Obama ultimately could not live up to.

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[A] downside quickly surfaced. Shuster's "pimping" remark and Matthews's crude (even if somewhat accurate) comment about the Monica Lewinsky scandal being a boon for Hillary's political career were notable precisely because they had nothing to do with policy or ideology. It wasn't as if Shuster and Matthews and Olbermann were siding with Obama on the issue of individual mandates. Rather, by giving "the personal" precedence over "the political," the network was using Hillary Hatred to fuel its coverage in a similar fashion to how Fox News uses Democrat Hatred to excite its viewers. But there is a distinction here that makes MSNBC's agenda almost more disquieting than Fox's. With Fox, I have to believe that most people know they're watching something that approximates GOP talking points (seeing an analyst like Paul Begala spin for Hillary on CNN doesn't really stick, either; everyone knows he's an apparatchik). With MSNBC, however, the bias is much harder to pin down. Does it stem from a personal vendetta? Sexism? Corporate diktat? Who knows? If an Obama presidency were to bomb in a way similar to George W. Bush's (unlikely, sure, but I'm speaking hypothetically here), it's difficult to imagine that MSNBC would treat Obama as reverentially as Fox still does Bush.

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Dangerously, too, MSNBC's coverage can lead to a perverse sort of cognitive dissonance in viewers like, well, me. Throughout the primary process, I often found myself much more bullish on the Illinois Senator's chances after watching MSNBC than I had any reason to be. After Obama's Iowa victory, for instance, I remember hearing Matthews' description of a giant "wave" of Obamamania sweeping across the nation; surely, the race was over. Likewise, during the month of February, when Obama won eleven straight primaries, I recall watching the network and occasionally convincing myself that Clinton was certain to drop out before Texas and Ohio because her chances had become so diminished. The problem here is that when supposedly "straight" news anchors phrase questions in leading ways, and report one campaign's spin as if it were fact, it distorts what is actually going on in the campaign--even for those of us who make a living obsessing over and writing about politics. And when anchormen themselves shill for Obama, the distinction between his talking points and the truth grows even blurrier still. So, as much as I find MSNBC entertaining, their creation of a parallel, pro-Obama universe is the type of thing I'd expect of Fox. That's when I know it's time to change the channel.

Breaking news, breaking NEWS!

Forget Hillary taking bullets in Bosnia, Obama's uncle liberated Europe.

The new ad geared toward youn' uns.

It is, in a way, almost appropriate that the final days of the struggle for the Democratic nomination have been marked by yet another fake Clinton scandal — the latest in a long line that goes all the way back to Whitewater.

[I]t’s absurd to suggest, as some Obama supporters immediately did, that Mrs. Clinton was making some kind of dark hint about Barack Obama’s future.

But then, it was equally absurd to portray Mrs. Clinton’s assertion that it took L.B.J.’s political skills to turn Martin Luther King’s vision into legislation as an example of politicizing race. Yet the claim that Mrs. Clinton was playing the race card, which was promoted by some Obama supporters as well as in a memo by a member of Mr. Obama’s staff, achieved wide currency.

[M]any grass-roots Clinton supporters feel that she has received unfair, even grotesque treatment. And the lingering bitterness from the primary campaign could cost Mr. Obama the White House.

Plagued by a defection of Clinton supporters and white working class voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the leading Democratic presidential contender, trails Arizona Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican candidate, in Florida and Ohio, according to simultaneous Quinnipiac University Swing State polls released
today. Sen. Obama is six points ahead in Pennsylvania. New York Sen. Clinton wins handily in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College.

The numbers for Florida and Ohio are good news for Sen. John McCain and should be worrisome for Sen. Barack Obama. That is especially true about Ohio, which decided the 2004 election. Ohio's economy is worse than the rest of the country and the Republican brand there is in disrepute. McCain's Buckeye lead may be a sign that nationally this may not be the easy Democratic walk to the White House that many expected," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Here's one of my favoritest Christian songs.

Shout and PRAISE! And boogey down...it's a Holy Ghost party.

Five-time Grammy winner, Christian singer and writer Steven Curtis Chapman, tragically lost his five-year old daughter in an accident.

His daughter, Maria Sue "was hit in the driveway of the family's home Wednesday afternoon by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brothe," the Associated Press reports.

Rest in peace, Maria Sue.

"I don't think she's hoping for some tragic catastrophic event to intervene," Obama senior strategist David Axelrod told MSNBC's "Hardball" this afternoon, when discussing Sen. Hillary Clinton's controversial invocation of Robert Kennedy's assassination during a general discussion about whether her staying in the race puts party unity at risk.

Some in the Clinton campaign are saying that the media is misrepresenting the context of her remarks. She was not discussing why she's staying in the race, they say. She was
saying that she doesn't think the length of the race was hurting the party.

The debate seems to be whether Clinton was merely suggesting that previous Democratic races have gone on a long time, through June, and, "Hey, remember that horrible moment in 1968 with Bobby Kennedy's assassination was in June?" -- or whether she was saying, "Hey, anything could happen. Obama might get assassinated. No reason for me to drop out yet."

The Argus Leader editorial board issued a statement saying, "The context of the question and answer with Sen. Clinton was whether her continued candidacy jeopardized party unity this close to the Democratic convention. Her reference to Mr. Kennedy's assassination appeared to focus on the timeline of his primary candidacy and not the assassination itself."

Any incumbent who polls below 50% is considered potentially vulnerable. That is especially true when a little known challenger is so competitive in an early general election match-up.

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Democrats are likely to expand their majority in the Senate this year by picking up several Senate seats currently held by the GOP. Early polling indicates that many states offer potential Democratic gains including: Virginia, New Hamsphire, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Alaska.

The film plays out over a 36-day period, walking viewers through what took place from Election Day to the date the race was finally decided.

“We worked very hard to make it as historically accurate as possible,” explains director Jay Roach, better known for zany comedies such as “Austin Powers” and “Meet the Parents.” “It’s meant to capture the essence of what actually went on within the state of Florida within that limited time frame.”

As a result of last night’s primaries, Obama now has a majority of the 3,253 total pledged delegates, though that has no direct bearing on winning the nomination.

Clinton ain't going nowhere; she's staying in for the long haul!

Obama fans can just forget about Hillary pulling out of the Democratic presidential race. Mountain Mama just bought herself some ad buys in South Dakota.