Saturday, January 26, 2008


At the end of the day

Obama wins SC primary in a landslide -- CNN: Obama 55%, Clinton 27%, Edwards 18%. Gender and age breakouts at the link.

Congratulations were personally extended to Obama from Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Edwards on campaigning spouses -- "I believe that spouses have the right to speak their minds. In his case, [Bill] happens to be an ex-president. But my wife Elizabeth speaks her mind. And I think they're entitled to do that. It's a democracy. That's the way it works. People can agree or disagree with what they say, but they're not required to go home and sit around and be quiet. That's just the way I view it." The Trail

Track Democratic delegates by candidate here.

Gadfly calls attention to an argument that "the current Bush-Cheney regime has been a co-presidency." Thus, "respected historian Wills argues against a Clinton co-presidency. A definite liberal, Wills isn’t arguing against Hillary Clinton’s policies, just the co-presidency idea. Given the fact that Democratic big brass such as Sen. Ted Kennedy are trying at this very moment to get Bill to pipe down, with limited results, it’s a legitimate concern." Personally, I would be worried if Bill Clinton were batshit crazy like Dick Cheney. And American voters will have the last word.

Dick Sargent wrote about an NBC interview with Obama in which Barack "denied he'd personally accused the Clintons of racism." Obama reiterated, "I don't view [the Clintons] as having gone after me on the basis of race." Yesterday, Steve Hildebrand, a senior adviser for Obama, said, "[The Clintons] look at everything through racial lines, gender lines, geographic lines... ...They are playing the same old-style games." Crikey.

Rudy has a new secret weapon -- Bwahahahahahaha!

Meow! Pffft! Pffft! -- "Sen. John McCain of Arizona accused former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney of having once supported a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, sparking an angry demand for an apology from Romney, who called the statement dishonest.' " And it got uglier. Campaigning in Florida, McCain: "If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher." Mitt shot back attacking "McCain's economic policy experience" and released an ad on Friday that "uses clips of political pundits on network news shows to argue that the Republican Party's distrust of McCain runs long and deep." Other video samples of McCain vs. Romney ads posted yesterday.

If you're into placing a bet on Election 2008, take heed via Kevin Drum.

Doubts still linger over Florida's voting machines. If it's as bad as the Diebold touch screens in Georgia... Uh oh. And in Ohio, "The ACLU of Ohio has sued the Secretary of State and Cuyahoga County to block the switch to a new voting system in time for the March 4 presidential primary."

For a real Democrat from Orlando, FL -- Alan Grayson! Alan Grayson! Alan Grayson! Additional commentary and an incredible CBS video on whistle-blower Grayson's fight against war-profiteering at Down With Tyranny!

Krugman posted distribution tables from the economic stimulus program of "who gets what from tax plans." He also noted, "it’s only thanks to the Democrats that people likely to spend their rebate are getting anything at all.... this plan will produce some stimulus, while the Bush plan would have done virtually nothing." Data source: Tax Policy Center

Reaching for his FISA-colored crayon -- President Bush threatened to veto “a 30-day extension of an expiring eavesdropping law and instead wants an expanded version to be passed by Friday.” In response, Harry Reid (D-CA) said: "There will be no terrorism intelligence collection gap... But if there is any problem, the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress." The WH gave the House Intel Committee "access to necessary documents on Thursday – eight months after they were requested," according to chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX). Shorter version: SSDD at the Bush regime.

Pakistan says no -- "Mr. Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert C.I.A. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces." Furthermore, Musharraf expressed "that any unilateral action by the United States would be regarded as an invasion." Sunday NYT

[That's all...no more after the jump.]