Indiana results

12:06 AM
92% reporting
Clinton 588,823 (ahead 20,667)
Obama 568,156

11:54 PM
Clinton 588,106 (ahead 20,957)
Obama 567,149

NBC just reported that Hillary cancelled her appearances on the morning shows tomorrow. That means she isn't sure what she's doing, staying or going. Ben Smith says "It's a sign of weakness she can ill afford at a moment when questions about whether she can continue are mounting."

11:51 PM
Clinton 587,973 (ahead by 20,985)
Obama 566,988

11:50PM
91% reporting
Clinton 584,113 51% (ahead by 19,790)
Obama 564,323 49% Read the rest of this post...

NBC's Chuck Todd: Even if you give Hillary FL and MI she loses

This is a huge point. Huge. Earlier today, Hillary's people tried to argue that even if Obama reaches the 2,025 delegates he needs to become our nominee, Hillary will continue to contest the election until Florida and Michigan are seated. Yeah, only one little problem. NBC's Chuck Todd, who is brilliant and highly respected on such things, just said that you can give Hillary Florida and Michigan - on her terms - and she still loses the nationwide delegate count and the popular vote. She still loses the nomination.

"If you threw in both Florida and Michigan, you will still look at a popular vote lead of some 150 to 200,000. If you throw in those delegates in her math you will have almost 100 delegate lead there for Obama. This was a big night because it really almost erases the doubt as far as Florida and Michigan is concerned too. You can throw those numbers in there and they really don't change the math that much for Obama." - Chuck Todd, NBC, May 6, 2008, 11:40PM

There is no longer any reason for Hillary to continue in this race other than a desire to destroy Obama and make him lost in the fall so she can run again in 4 years. This farce needs to be ended now. Read the rest of this post...

Okay, Team Clinton, admit it: The game didn't change. It's really over. Stop the negative campaigning. And, break it to Hillary and Bill.

The Democratic nominating process has been decided for a couple months. But, the Clinton campaign, the pundits and the wimpy superdelegates have let it go on too long. But, tonight, it's over. For real.

Hillary Clinton told us North Carolina would be a "game changer":

“This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country – probably even a lot of the world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”

The entire world saw it. Now, the Clinton campaign needs to see it. And, someone needs to tell the candidate. Her speech tonight was delusional -- and embarrassing. She can't and won't be the nominee. (And, for all her feigned concern about counting all the votes, the then-presumptive nominee said the race would be over by February 5th.)

Over the next couple days, the Clinton team over in Arlington need to do some serious thinking. They've all done their best for their candidate. Too many times, however, they've actually aided and abetted the GOP. That has to end. It's time to stop the ugly conference calls and the negative ads. It's time to stop disparaging the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.

Barack Obama gave a speech tonight that defined his candidacy -- and started the general election campaign against John McCain. We're all ready for that battle. It's time for Hillary Clinton and her crew to join us. Help us send Hillary and her staff a message. Help us tell Hillary that we don't appreciate her trying to destroy our party, trying to make John McCain the next president. Join us in donating to Obama for President and sending Hillary a final message: It's time for her to go. Click the box at left to donate to Obama's campaign. You can give Obama up to $2300 for the primary race, and another $2300 for the general election race against McCain (that includes any donations you may have already given to Obama elsewhere). Please donate and send a message that enough is enough. It's over. Read the rest of this post...

NYT: Clinton advisers dispirited, campaign broke

Are there are any real Democrats still working on that campaign? You people are part of the problem. You are hurting our chances of beating McCain in the fall. You're as bad as Joe Lieberman. Have you no conscience?

From the NYT:

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers acknowledged that the results of the primaries were far less than they had hoped, and said they were likely to face new pleas even from some of their own supporters for her to quit the race. They said they expected fund-raising to become even harder now; one adviser said the campaign was essentially broke, and several others refused to say whether Mrs. Clinton had lent the campaign money from her personal account to keep it afloat.

The advisers said they were dispirited over the loss in North Carolina, after her campaign — working off a shoestring budget as spending outpaces fund-raising — decided to allocate millions of dollars, some key operatives and full days of the candidate and her husband there.

A second NYT news analysis says that tonight's results did not help Hillary, and probably made it even harder for her to win. She needs to go.

Please click the box in the upper right and give to Barack Obama for President. It's time we stopped this train wreck since no one else will. It's time for her to go. Read the rest of this post...

It's time for her to go

"Her only way to win is to bring it to the convention.... I think she is signaling... that it is all out scorched earth war"- Rachel Maddow, May 6, 2008

Oh but don't tell Hillary that. She's on TV right now saying that she's staying in race. She's not leaving, she says, until Florida ad Michigan are counted. That's code for contesting the nomination at the convention. She's now claiming that she won Indiana - and that's not at all clear. She's begging for donations so that she can stay in the race and continue to maim Obama. Her plan is obvious. She wants to so hurt Obama that he loses in the fall, that way she can run again in 2012 against President McCain, the man she's about to put into office. She is out of control.

Enough already.

I can't think of a better way to tell Hillary that it's over, that she has lost, that she is now simply doing harm to our nominee and our party, than to make a big fat donation to Barack Obama for President. Click the blue box to the left and make your secure donation to Senator Obama.

Remember how after Pennsylvania Hillary claimed to have raised millions, and she and the media used that to "prove" that somehow Pennsylvania "changed everything"? Well, nothing changed. And tonight, Hillary is reeling after having lost North Carolina in a rout (that's ABC's word), and all the pundits are saying that she is in big trouble after not being able to win Indiana by a landslide.

Neither Hillary nor her husband give a damn about the Democratic party. They've threatened to defund our effort to keep control of the US House. Her ongoing temper tantrum of a race is literally hurting every congressional candidate we have. They can't raise money. They can't get staff. Even the DNC admitted that the never-ending nomination is hurting their fundraising, money they need to take on John McCain. It's time to send Hillary a message. Donate to Barack Obama now.

You can donate up to $2,300 for Obama's primary race, and then another $2,300 for his general election race (and don't laugh, someone donated $2300 to Scott Kleeb today via our site). Every dime you give goes to the candidate - neither ActBlue nor AMERICAblog takes a dime. And your donation, and your credit card, is totally safe - ActBlue has been around for years. I've set a lofty goal of raising $10,000.

This woman is insane. No one is going to stop her unless we do it ourselves with our own pocketbooks and our political pressure (more on that later). Let's see how large a message we can send to Hillary. Tell Hillary you've had it with the Clinton lies, the Clinton scandals, the Clinton egomania, and the Clinton triangulation that always ends up screwing the Democrats in Congress and key Democratic constituencies that suddenly get thrown under the Clinton bus of convenience. Give to Obama now. This has to end, now.

Thanks guys. JOHN

PS Our favorite cowboy, Scott Kleeb, is well over $7,000 now. Please consider helping his campaign out as well. You can read more about that, and donate, here. Read the rest of this post...

More Election Updates

10:19 PM: Joe again. CNN's John King just said it is mathematically possible for Obama to win Indiana. We won't hear from Lake County, which includes Gary, until close to midnight. There are over 11,000 absentee ballots and the county won't report final numbers til all the absentees are counted.

10:07 PM: This is Joe. I'm watching CNN and for some reason, they have the most painful, despicable and obnoxious of all the Clinton surrogates on tonight: Lanny Davis. Seriously, CNN, we deserve better.

9:45 PM: Russert and company are making it clear that Hillary lost the spin war tonight. She needed to win Indiana right away. Instead, Obama won North Carolina right away and Indiana is now too close to call. Holy shit, Russert just said that Hillary has to show the superdelegates TOMORROW that she's not just trying to hurt Obama, but rather she can show a path for how she gets the nomination. The burden has shifted back to Senator Clinton that they should be patient, that she has a realistic path to the nomination.

9:25 PM: From CNN, with 71% reporting, Clinton leads 52% - 48%.

9:13 PM MSNBC: Indiana has changed from "too early to call" to "too close to call."

58% of Republicans who turned out to vote today in the Dem primary in NC think Obama is more likely than Hillary to beat McCain. Only 37% think Hillary is more likely to beat McCain.

NBC's David Gregory: "This is shaping up to be, at this juncture, a big night for Barack Obama."

Rachel Maddow: Obama isn't doing any worse in his various demographics even after all the Rev. Wright stuff (my paraphrase). Read the rest of this post...

More money woes for Clinton campaign?

Clinton was in debt at the end of February and at the end of March. We heard a lot about all the money Clinton was raising in April, although most of that probably just paid Mark Penn's bill, which totaled over $4.5 million.

That makes this nugget from Ben Smith a lot more interesting:

I asked Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe just now whether Clinton had given or loaned her campaign more money in the run-up to North Carolina and Indiana.

"Might be. Might not be," McAuliffe said, adding that the campaign would release more fundraising details tomorrow.

In the past, Clinton aides have denied a second Clinton loan, but McAuliffe said tonight his policy is not to talk about fundraising details.

Anyone who has watched Terry McAuliffe doing his over-the-top, rah-rah spin routine knows that he is never the bearer of bad news. If he had good news, he'd be ramming it down our throats. (McAuliffe is definitely on the list of Clintonistas who we hopefully won't have to see on t.v. too much longer.) So, we're waiting for those fundraising details tomorrow.

The big loss tonight won't help with her fundraising. Read the rest of this post...

Obama Wins North Carolina

Clinton surrogate Lisa Caputo was just on MSNBC. Every other word out of her mouth was Rev. Wright, Rev. Wright, Rev. Wright. You don't see Obama's surrogates on TV talking about Monica, oral sex in the Oval Office, Hillary's cattle futures windfall, TravelGate, the Rose Law firm files, and on and on. It's just interesting to note the difference.

Chuck Todd: If Obama wins 57% in NC he will wipe out Hillary's gains in PA in delegates and in overall vote.

Keith Olbermann: Hillary's "game changer" didn't happen.



CNN just called North Carolina for Obama. Must be a convincing win for it to be called this early. They called it the second the polls closed. John tells me MSNBC called it, too.

Hillary Clinton told us North Carolina would be a "game changer." Wrong. It's still too early to call. ABC is calling her loss in NC a "rout." And the pundits, on MSNBC at least, are saying that Hillary didn't get what she needed tonight (so far) to convince anyone that Obama should be overthrown.

It's over. Read the rest of this post...

Polls closed in Indiana

Russert is going off about Rev. Wright again. No surprises there. He's physically incapable of appearing on TV and not mentioning Wright. Yet he never mentions Monica or any of the Clinton's other scandals. Funny, that.

CNN says it is too early to call.

UPDATED: With 54% reporting, Clinton is ahead 54% to 46%. Click here to know which counties are reporting.

I had to turn the sound down on CNN now that hatemonger racist Lou Dobbs is hosting. Read the rest of this post...

Must... not... post... exit... polls...

I can't help myself. Read the rest of this post...

Indiana's voter ID laws stops elderly nuns from voting

Remember how last week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's onerous voter ID law?

Oh, it's working. Stopped a bunch of 80 and 90 year old nuns from voting.

That should make those good Catholic boys, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, very proud. They all supported the Indiana law, of course.

Best headline from Fired Up! Missouri: "Sisters of St. Mary's Convent Foiled in Plot to Steal Election Through Vote Fraud" Read the rest of this post...

The Republicans simply have no ideas left

Gingrich is freaking out over the fact that the Republicans have now lost two special elections for congressional seats. First, watch him freak, then see what he prescribes.

The freak:

Former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich sounds the alarm after Republicans lost a second-straight special election in a GOP-held seat. "The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November."

"The facts are clear and compelling. Saturday's loss was in a district that President Bush carried by 19 percentage points in 2004 and that the Republicans have held since 1975. This defeat follows on the loss of Speaker Hastert's seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with the single exception of the 1974 Watergate election when the Democrats held it for one term. That same seat had been carried by President Bush 55-44% in 2004."

Now check out what Gingrich thinks congressional Republicans should push policy-wise. Keep in mind we are in the middle of a recession in a war without end:

Gingrich offers some suggestions for the GOP leadership -- like repealing the gas tax and paying for it by cutting discretionary spending; overhauling the Census Bureau (?); establishing a one-year moratorium on earmarks; and making English the official language of the US government...

1. Nothing about the war.
2. Nothing about terrorism or Osama.
3. The Hillary/McCain cute-but-no-impact gas tax repeal.
4. Overhauling the census bureau? Yeah that'll help us buy milk.
5. Earmark reform? Again, this helps the economy and the war how?
6. English as the official language? Regardless of the merits, it won't impact any of our daily lives.

So, Gingrich, the Republican who actually has ideas, offers us three feel-good reforms that do nothing to help real Americans (gas tax repeal, English language, and earmark reform), and one that's simply bizarre (census). The Republicans simply have no ideas left. (How long before Hillary adopts each of Gingrich's ideas?) Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh is succeeding in getting his Republican listeners to vote for Hillary

First off, this means that the message from Indiana's results, even after we have them, may not be clear at all. Second, if Rush Limbaugh wants Hillary as our candidate, God help us. It says something that every nutjob on the far right, even after what Obama has been through the past couple of weeks, is still for Hillary. You want a canary in the coal mine of electability, you just got it.

The Indianapolis Star reported online today that it appeared that droves of "hard-core" Republicans are crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary in GOP strongholds in Marion County and suburbs.

Exit polls suggest that Limbaugh's soldiers could have made a difference March 4 in Texas, where Clinton pulled out a narrow win in the primary, though Obama won the simultaneous caucuses....

But today on his program, Limbaugh told "operatives and commandos" that he has received emails from GOP voters that they have not been challenged at the polls. He read one email from one who voted for Clinton: "It was tough. I showered twice, I threw up in my mouth, but I did it."

Read the rest of this post...

Business thumbs nose at say-on-pay

Anyone who honestly believes big business will give any authority to regular shareholders on pay or for that matter, pay executives on results like everyone else, is simply kidding themselves. Not going to happen on its own. Ever. The only way this will change is complete collapse of the economic system (which is also unlikely) or Congress steps in and changes things. As it stands today, business receives too much encouragement to play games like this. It's all there in the existing tax code which even goes as far as allowing business to pay the taxes of these overpaid executives.

Fair is fair and what we have today is unfair. Let's see how well America's corporate leadership does when they have to live by the rules for everyone else. Considering how poorly they are doing today, why should they receive all of the gifts without any of the risk? We used to be a country that sought a level playing field and it's high time we get back to that traditional value. Obviously there are benefits for the select few but for the greater good of both the businesses and America, the benefits are hard to find. Read the rest of this post...

Here's exactly what will happen today

Sadly brilliant. From The Field:

The day begins with the Clinton campaign “leaking” something to the Drudge Report to set expectations for the day. That then gets repeated on political blogs and cable news, where Clinton surrogate Terry McAuliffe elaborates. Today’s “expectation”: That the Clinton campaign expects a “15 point” defeat in North Carolina. Clinton’s yapping puppies in the news media repeat the manufactured expectation all day long, in which the bar is supposedly now that if Clinton comes within 15 points in that state that she has somehow “won” with a 14 point (or 6 point) defeat.

Around 4 p.m. rumors of exit polls begin circulating on the Internet. Around 5:30 p.m. AP and other news organizations leak minor data from the exit polls that explains almost nothing of value. Sometime after 6 p.m. Drudge posts raw numbers from exit polls that - if past is prologue - show Obama doing an average of seven percentage points better than he actually does.

Obama supporters then get prematurely jubilant and after polls close (tonight at 7 p.m. ET in Indiana and 7:30 p.m. ET in North Carolina) the real results start to come in and reveal Clinton then doing “better than expected” (at least better than the new expectations promoted during the day).

The media talking heads then ask aloud why Obama can’t “close the deal” (in Clinton’s own words) and what is numerically a defeat for Clinton (because the results, even in her recent wins, bring her objectively farther from the nomination in the context of the smaller number of delegates then available) gets spun as a Clinton victory.

Clinton takes to the stage, claims “unexpected” victory, gives out her web site address and pleads for elder women on fixed incomes to send more money to the $109 millionaire. The following day they claim that $10 million rolled in, only to be disproved more than a month later when the actual FEC filing is due. Obama’s FEC filing simultaneously reveals that he raised much, much more, from more small donors, and the Clinton campaign plays the victim card over being outspent.

The Chicken Littles among Obama supporters then proceed to agonize across the Internet for days on end, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their candidate has just moved closer to the nomination, and Clinton was pushed farther away from it.

Read the rest of this post...

If Hillary were a race car

Via MSNBC:

"Asked for a definitive answer about whether she'd stay in the race beyond today, [Hillary Clinton] threw up a caution flag.

" 'I'm looking forward to find out what happens,' she said. 'I'm always interested in finding out what voters actually think, because there's all kind of speculation. It'd be like predicting who's going to win the Indy 500 before it's even started.' "

Actually it's not that hard predicting a winner when your car blew up months ago and your opponent is the only one left in the race. Read the rest of this post...

Banks not giving loans, despite free money from taxpayers

What idiot or group of idiots decided to give away taxpayer money without any strings? Who does business this way? I get the whole "banks need liquidity to move the economy" thing but c'mon, banks are taking that free money and sitting on it or investing it elsewhere. Obviously the banks were giving loans away too easily before but to suddenly cut off everything is just as bad. If banks don't want to loan, fine, but don't ask everyone else to fund their mistakes as Wall Street continues to live the life of Riley and using Uncle Sam's cash at below inflation rates. If the tables were turned, you know the banks would be asking for the world so why not treat them the same way?

What makes it worse is that none of the candidates are saying much about this bailout. Are they really in agreement with this policy of supporting the lifestyle decisions of Wall Street? Sure we are seeing tens of thousands of Wall Street bankers being fired but we have yet to see any real changes on Wall Street. Just like last year - despite record lows - we're going to read about bonuses that are more than most people make in a lifetime or tens of lifetimes and guess who is funding it all? Lots of people would love the Wall Street lifestyle, but I don't see Wall Street lining up to fund it without strings. Read the rest of this post...

Now Hillary says Obama won't be the winner even if he reaches 2,025 delegates

Honestly, go ahead. At this point, I'd love nothing better than to see an all-out war in the Democratic party, instigated by Hillary and Bill Clinton. The DNC, God bless 'em, is afraid to take Hillary on. The Democrats in Congress are afraid to take her on. The superdelegates across the board are afraid to take her on. We are a party of fear. Not the Republican kind of fear, that they project outwards on to voters, we internalize our fear and become sniveling wimps. There's a reason that Republicans always brand us as the party of weaklings, it's because sometimes we are. And it's sickening. And it's why people like George Bush and Hillary Clinton are able to step all over our leaders, and repeatedly undermine our agenda. Because we let them, and they know we'll let them. So at this point, I welcome a Democratic civil war to finally clear out the wimp wing, and I suspect the Netroots, in tandem with the black community, will be leading the charge. If it takes spending the rest of this year attacking Hillary instead of John McCain, then so be it. I don't want another President Clinton if it's going to mean four more years of Republican-lite and another stolen election. Read the rest of this post...

Feed Scott

This week is Scott Kleeb web in the blogosphere. By this Friday, I'd like AMERICAblog to raise $10,000 for US Senate candidate Scott Kleeb, from Nebraska (click the blue box below to reach our donation page for Scott). DailyKos has set themselves a one-week goal of raising $20,000 for Scott. Atrios has been pitching in as well.

I know we're all fixated, and/or fed up, with the Hillary vs. Obama saga, but, our congressional candidates need us now. Please help Scott, and the other candidates we're promoting. ActBlue, the folks we're using to channel donations to Scott and other Democrats, has raised $40 million for Democratic candidates over the past four years. Your credit card is safe with them. So please consider helping out with a donation to our endorsed candidates. We'll be highlighting new candidates all the time between now and the election. Again, click on the blue box to donate to Scott, and feel free to read more about Scott's race here. Read the rest of this post...

More Hillary superdelegates are considering bolting

From the LA Times: "Some who have supported her say they'll switch to Barack Obama if she doesn't make big gains in the remaining Democratic primaries." Read the rest of this post...

MSNBC: If Obama wins more delegates, he really loses

From MSNBC:

You'll know it will be a mediocre to bad night for Obama if his campaign has to talk about who won the most delegates tonight, rather than by how much they won each state.

Okay, so, let's get this straight. The metric for winning the Democratic nomination is the number of delegates you win. But, NBC is telling us, that if Obama wins more delegates than Hillary tonight, and expands his lead over her, then he'd better not talk about it or else that will be a sign that he really lost.

What a load of crap. Under this logic, how does Obama win tonight? By winning more votes and NOT winning more delegates? Under that scenario, you just know NBC and all the other pundits-who-won't-give-up would say "wow, Obama didn't gain a single delegate tonight, he's in trouble." The mainstream media loves a good fight. They know this is over. It's been over for months. But they just can't stop enjoying watching Hillary destroy our nominee. So they spout crap like this, saying that delegates don't really matter when delegates are the only thing that matters. Read the rest of this post...

The one economist who supports Hillary's gas tax plan says it's "pointless"

Elitist. Read the rest of this post...

Windows Mail replaces Obama with Osama, Klingon with Clinton

A friend emails me that his Windows Mail program keeps trying to replace "Obama" with "Osama." He notes that he bought the computer in December 2007, when Obama was already a well-known candidate. A bit odd, though I suspect just a glitch (but you never know, programmers are wacky people). Kind of a funny one, though. Oh, and when you type in Clinton or McCain, you get bupkis. But when you type in "Klingon" you get "Clinton." (But, as reader Rob, who discovered this, notes: "At least the Klingons joined the Federation.")



Speaking of which, here's a funny story about a Wired.com writer whose spell-check keeps keeps trying to change his name "Zjawinski" to "Lewinsky." Read the rest of this post...

Hillary lied about Stephanopoulos and NAFTA

Gee, no one could have predicted that.

Here is what Hillary had to say this past Sunday during her love-fest with Stephanopoulos on ABC:

Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA. I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters.

(LAUGHTER)

STEPHANOPOULOS: [inaudible] opinion.

CLINTON: Yes, but we were in meetings together where we said, look, we think there's going to be a lot of downsides, and we're not really thinking through that.

That's not what happened. Stephanopoulos talked about those meetings on his show two months ago. Here's what he had to say on March 23, 2008:

JAY CARNEY ("TIME"): I think there's a lot of creative and revisionist history happening on people's views of NAFTA. At the time NAFTA was a huge and important push that President Clinton made in his first term. The administration was behind it. There's no indication that the First Lady wasn't behind it. And when he secured it, it was considered a success, that had righted his presidency after a very difficult opening several months in its first year. So I think Senator Clinton has a real problem here arguing that she was against it.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS): It is true, though. I was in some of the meetings. It is true, that at the time, she was pushing health care. And she didn't appreciate the fact that NAFTA was getting a lot more time on the schedule.

And here's the video of the same thing:



So, Stephanopoulous says that Hillary expressed concern that all the attention to NAFTA was taking attention away from her health care proposal. She did not oppose NAFTA because she thought "there's going to be a lot of downsides, and we're not really thinking through that." She simply thought NAFTA was competing with her own legislative priorities. So, again, Hillary's memory of an event conflicts with what really happened. Read the rest of this post...

No gas tax gimmickry in Senate Democrat's legislation

Now, if you need further evidence that Hillary Clinton's colleagues aren't on board with the gas tax gimmickry she and McCain are proposing, here it is (from Roll Call, sub. req.)

When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rolls out his party’s much anticipated gas price legislation later this week, one element that won’t be included is any sort of “gas tax holiday” provision.

Despite calls for a temporary gas tax repeal from the presidential campaign trail — and from some on Capitol Hill — Reid is expected to strenuously avoid bringing that issue into the debate, both to keep the Senate out of the Democratic presidential nomination fight and to sidestep splits within his own party.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has called for a temporary gas tax repeal, as has Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — although unlike Clinton, he would not pay for it through a new short-term tax on oil company profits.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) prefers providing the public with a tax rebate to help out amid soaring energy and food costs.

Leadership aides say the issue is much more local for Reid: There is no consensus within his Democratic Conference in favor of a tax repeal.

Now, if Hillary Clinton really cared about this issue, she'd leave the campaign trail and rush back to D.C. to fight for her proposal. But, she doesn't really care. This was politics, not policy.

The gas tax scam does show that Hillary and her campaign are more than willing to screw over the rest of the Democratic party. If Hillary somehow steals the nomination, she and McCain would be on the same side -- and against the Democratic House and Senate candidates -- on the gas tax scam. Read the rest of this post...

The pundits are in a frenzy over game day in NC and IN. Hillary said NC will be a "game changer" (but the game is already over)

The top political writers at The Washington Post and The New York Times take a crack at telling the rest of us what the results in North Carolina and Indiana will mean.

The pundits have had a blast dissecting the Democratic primary. They all know it's over, but this is great sport for them. Team Clinton plays right into it, feeding the frenzy.

Bottom line is pretty simple: The candidate with the most delegates wins the nomination. That's Obama. He is the inevitable nominee and has been for awhile. Clinton and her new found media pals can come up with news machinations every day, but the facts are the facts. They've created a cottage industry of spin to keep this process going.

Importantly, Clinton told us North Carolina will be a "game changer":

“This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country – probably even a lot of the world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”

For once, we'll take her at her word because those actually sounded like unscripted words for a change. If she doesn't win North Carolina and win big, it's over. If North Carolina doesn't change the game like she said it would, she should drop out this week. And, her staff can then stop doing the GOP's work. No more destroying the Democratic nominee.

And, if you want a really good chuckle, check out this brilliant analysis from the king of the pundits, Mark Halperin. He gets paid a lot of money to provide this pablum for Time Magazine -- and the talking heads on cable will undoubtedly parrot these exact talking points. Everyone reading this blog could do a better job. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Here we go again. Voters are voting in Indiana and North Carolina. Back in January, could you ever have imagined we'd still be at it? Polls opened in Indiana from 6 a.m and will stay open til 6 p.m., but that 6 p.m. might be Eastern and it might be Central time. Indiana has two time zones. It's simpler in North Carolina, polls opened at 6:30 a.m. and remain open through 7:30 p.m.

A lot of people have already voted in both states and turnout is expected to be quite high. We'll keep track of what's happening throughout the day.

And, we will, of course, be monitoring results. But, I am ignoring all early exit polls. They suck.

With that, start the thread. Read the rest of this post...

'Gas tax holiday' would cost state $126 milion plus 4300 jobs

And the benefit to consumers? About $28. We can't afford more Republican economics like this. This article is only for the state of Washington so imagine this across the US.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations subcommittee and has endorsed Clinton. She doesn't support a federal gas tax suspension.

"She has a firsthand look at what's going on with our transportation systems, our roads and our bridges, and from her perspective, this is bad idea," said her spokeswoman, Alex Glass.

There's no guarantee that the plan would result in lower gas prices, but it would deteriorate highway funding, Glass said.

"The gas tax funds the Highway Trust Fund, and there are a number of critical infrastructure needs -- roads and bridges across the country -- that need to be maintained and repaired," she said. "We just can't afford to have crumbling infrastructure."

Read the rest of this post...

Bernanke, the genius

No, you don't say?

"High rates of delinquency and foreclosure can have substantial spillover effects on the housing market, the financial markets, and the broader economy," Bernanke said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Columbia University School of Business in New York.

Naturally none of this prevents him from a strict whatever-Wall-Street-wants policy of cushy bailouts and rate cuts. What next? Is Bernanke going to boldly state that interest rate cuts to banks don't transfer to individuals or that when the dollar goes down, gas prices go up with each rate cut?

Where the heck were Bernanke and Greenspan, the Fed, and the Republicans when this fragile system was being built up? They're all supposed to be so smart, so how did they honestly think that real estate would always increase? Have they never studied bubble economies before? How did we get stuck with such an incompetent bunch? Read the rest of this post...