Steve Clemons is an excellent reporter and great blogger, whose hunches usually end up being right. So just imagine how nice it was to load up his blog and read:
I won't post sources on this, so any folks are welcome to consider this my fanciful speculation.
But sources close to Obama report to me that after the "surge of concern" on the net about Evan Bayh, he has not been selected as Obama's VP running mate.
Just read a Politico story, carried in the Boston Globe, that makes me want to smash in computer monitors:
THE MOST remarkable fact of the 2008 presidential election is that it remains a close race. Democrats have not known such favorable political terrain since 1932, yet what should be a blowout is looking like a blanket finish.
The fundamental reason is white men. Like Al Gore in the summer of 2000, Barack Obama is roughly splitting white women. But only 34 to 37 percent of white men support Obama, according to the Gallup Poll's latest weekly index of 6,000 voters.
In fairness to Obama, he inherited the problem. Not since 1976, when Democrats last achieved a majority, has a Democrat won more than 38 of every 100 white, male voters. That Obama is nearly at par with Democrats' poor performance is hardly good.
Since we've all been following this breathlessly, just waiting for our candidate to be exposed for the Manchurian Al-Qaeda communist that he is, I thought I'd provide a quick update.
Last week, over at noted drunken harpy Pamela Geller's web site, they found some guy named techdude who had a mutilated rabbit hung from his front door to do some analysis, and OMG THE KERNING DOESN'T MATCH!!!@!! If you follow the link, there's a bunch of stuff he claims about EXIF data and compression level differences after heat map analyses, which is over the head of 99% of the people who read Atlas Shrugs and can't be independently verified anyway. But it sure got them blog readers all worked up.
Here's my problem: I have a friend who I've been going back-and-forth with on the whole "Obama is a flip-flopper" charge. He sends me this video as evidence for his arguments:
To be honest, I'm not sure how to respond. My feeling is that all of these quotes are taken out of context, or taken in the early part of the occupation when the realities on the ground were different. But I don't have the rest of the context to really debunk this.
Has anyone else seen this video? Has it been debunked somewhere? Any help would be appreciated.
So over at Redstate, I found what has got to be one of the most bizarre strategies I've seen in a while:
As you may know, Sen. Barack Obama created an enemies list website called "Fight the Smears." In true Nixonian style, this paranoid website includes a list of political enemies that are allegedly conducting a covert internet campaign against him. The information on the site is not only inaccurate, it does the very thing it is claiming to stop, namely smear campaigns.
Obama may aspire to be the next JFK but he is acting like Dick Nixon. His campaign is completely paranoid. Open and legitimate debate is labeled as smears and a host of issues and criticisms are marked as off limits.
So in the time honored tradition of taking a pejorative and adopting it with pride, Stop-Him-Now is inviting all Americans to join the "Obama’s Enemies list."
After joining, individuals will receive a certificate confirming their membership and Stop-Him-Now.com will submit their names to the Obama campaign. After all, if Obama is going to make a list it ought to at least be accurate and up-to-date.
Sen. Obama may think he is shaming individuals by placing them on this list but we view it as a badge of honor. We invite you to do the same.
OK, so we all know about the cover of the next issue of the New Yorker. But have you seen the cover of next week's National Review? There's no link available yet, but I've seen it and it's absolutely incredible.
North Dakota is as safe a Republican state as any in Presidential elections. George W. Bush carried the state by twenty-seven points in Election 2004 and twenty-eight points four years earlier. The state has voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate just once since 1932 and twice since 1916.
Despite that history, John McCain and Barack Obama are tied in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of North Dakota voters. Both men earn 43% of the vote. When leaners are included, McCain holds a statistically insignificant one-point advantage, 47% to 46%. Last week, a Rasmussen Reports survey showed Obama with a five-point advantage in neighboring Montana. That state, too, has a long history of voting Republican at the Presidential level but both states also have two Democratic U.S. Senators. McCain is returning the favor by running much stronger than recent Republicans in New Jersey.
Being a high-ranking officer, it is my privilege to be aware of all internet traditions ahead of everyone else. So I wanted to give you a first glimpse at the new viral email going around about Obama.
Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few months if he opts out of public financing and begins raising money for the general election.
Specifically, they say Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign.
After basking in the glow of my candidate's victory last night, watching all the speeches and reactions to the speeches in the mainstream media, my mind turned to our friends on the other side of the primary right now. How are they handling last night's events? Now that the long bloody battle is finally over, what are their thoughts on how to go forward? A check of MyDD made me feel really good about the prospect of party unity for the first time.
As of right now, out of the five rec'd diaries on MyDD, four of them are positive signs of this unity. They are:
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is in formal talks with Senator Barack Obama's campaign about becoming his vice presidential running mate, CNN reported, without citing anyone specific.
The two Democratic campaigns are talking about ways for Clinton, from New York, to drop her bid for president that may include joining the Illinois senator's ticket, CNN reported. Talks are in a ``very preliminary'' stage and are described as ``difficult,'' the network said.
Did you know that, at the convention, not only is there a general roll call vote for delegates to elect their presidential nominee, but then there is also a separate roll call vote to elect the vice presidential nominee? A lot of people don't.
But you can bet the Clinton people know this. Even Mark Penn. And if she wants to be vice president, there's not really much that can be done to stop her. More after the jump.
But still, Clinton is fighting on! Full Speed Ahead!, they say! On to West Virginia! So, as long as she insist on running the race, we still have a race.
Of course, everyone here knows about the Obama press conference from today. The back-story is that Obama finally had a chance to see Wright's National Press Conference speech and his other interviews in the past four days, and they made him angry enough to respond, and respond now. I haven't seen the presser yet, but I will later tonight.
