1. I'm going to get Ted Kennedy.

2. I'm going to get Claire McCaskill.

3. I'm going to get Bill Richardson.

4. I'm going to get Daily Kos.com.

Terry McAuliffe has always been reputed to be on top of his game, but perhaps he is cracking up just like his candidate. This morning on Meet The Press, he declared Tim Russert's dad prematurly dead.

The discussion that is making the rounds is that the Primary is over and we have a nominee. This comes complete with pictures on the cover of time blessed by the high priest of punditry Tim Russert. Daily Kos has exploded with diaries dedicated to the end of Clinton’s campaign, pleas for unity and speculation about paying off Clinton debt. I wonder though why we have this sudden and absolute switch from she has a good chance to she is mike huckabee.

Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President AND the CW among our media elite has acknowledged this event, the question becomes how will they react?

Will they:

1)Continue to cover her as front-runner, expending valuable resources on a horse-race they know is over?

2)Cut back on the day to day coverage of her campaigning, increasingly treating her like the Ron Paul of the Democrats?

There's conjecture after the jump...

Last night on MSNBC's election coverage the issue of McCain and his unreported gaffes came up. A legitimate point for anyone wondering why the media is so fixated on Reverend Wright but cannot bring themselves to give Pastor Hagee even a moment's notice.

They repeatedly ignore McCain's gaffes such as confusing Sunnis with Shi'ites and admiting "I Don't know much about the economy. I turn to my advisors." when the Economy is supposedly one of if not the top issue in the campaign.

Matthews and Russert (to their credit) are quite candid about the free pass that McCain has been given. Russert points out that it's a long race, though. He seems to imply that the media will become more critical of McCain at least on issues like the war and the economy.

I'll believe it when I see it, but for now this is a pretty great video:

I have yet to see this topic discussed at great length, but Tim Russert twice floated the premise last night that part of any "negotiations" between the Obama and Clinton campaigns may include the repayment of her campaign debt. Further, in discussing the recent $6.4 million loan disclosure, Ben Smith follows with:

Though these are technically loans, these are very difficult to repay, as they must be paid from primary funds. There's some speculation this morning that Obama could help Clinton retire debt, possibly including the campaign's debt to her.

I have been a long-time Obama supporter and have gladly donated to his campaign on several occasions; however the idea that my (or any supporters) funds would be used to repay Senator Clinton’s Quixotic primary fight is quite disturbing.

Is there any historical precedent for this? It’s bad enough that she has forced Senator Obama to burn through millions of unnecessary dollars in the past few primaries, but this suggestion is ridiculous.

This is huge. Russert says definitively, "We now know who the Democratic candidate is going to be." He also reveals Clinton has canceled all morning interviews and campaign appearances tomorrow.

Wow. Everyone should see this video. It's over. There should be no opportunity given to Clinton to pull a Lieberman now. This wisdom from Russert should be the conventional wisdom. If you agree, please recommend.

I just heard Tim Russert giving a very intelligent analysis of how tonight's events will change the conversations the Clinton camp will be having with the superD's starting tomorrow.

His main point was that since there no longer appears to be a realistic path to the nomination, there will be stark suspicion that the only reason she is staying in is to try to destroy Obama.

And Keith is talking about how the discussion of the gas tax was good for O b/c it took the focus off Rev Wright, and a few minutes ago I heard wild cheers as a re-energized Obama told the American people he trusts them to be smart, and just now Tom Brokaw told an anecdote suggesting maybe people are living up to that trust.  And I read that even Joe Scabborough says it seems to be over for Hillary.  And OH! MY! GOD! now even Pat Buchanan is talking like she has no case for staying in the race.

I am very afraid.

Give George Stephanopoulos his due. In his interview with Hillary Clinton yesterday, his questions about her proposal to extend a nuclear umbrella not only to Israel but to Iran's Sunni Arab neighbors exposed the incoherence of the scheme.

Clinton cast the NATO-like alliance as a way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. When Stephanapoulos pressed her on the logistics and the practicalities of a multi-state alliance, she explained:

We have all heard that old maxim that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  ABC found itself in a lot of hot water during the presentation of its last debate for many reasons, one of which was having a moderator who played an active part in the administration of a former President, the wife of whom was one of the candidates.  You would think most organizations would learn from such a mistake, just like the little kid who grabs the hot pan would learn to never put himself in that situation again.  If you were counting on ABC to have that same learning ability, you would be wrong.

As always Wright was the first thing out of Timmy's mouth.

This is a new thread for those who have not seen the show. We need a fresh discussion.  Apparently it ran earlier in some portions of the country.  This is for the 10:30am EST showing.

Ok guys, I didn't see any other diaries up for Obama's appearance on MTP yet so here goes. The show will begin in less than 10 minutes on the East Coast, so those of us who are early risers out here, and "unchurched" need to pitch in here for our fellow kossacks in later time zones and without cable.

Will Russert jump on the Wright bandwagon, or will he ask some questions that really matter? Has Obama turned a corner, or will the MSM continue it's efforts to take Obama down and elevate Hillary in his place?

And most importantly of all, how will our guy do?

Update [2008-5-4 10:1:52 by PLS]: Obama hits it out of the park! Timmeh stuck to Wright questions and other bullshit for the first 22 minutes before moving on to the gas tax pander, ethanol vs food etc. Obama handles all questions very well, and showed a great grasp of the real issues when Russert finally moved on.

In my last diary, I said goodbye to MSNBC because I had developed toxic levels of bile over their relentless Reverend Wright coverage, and because, if I had to watch Joe Scarborough's silly-putty face mouth the words "close the deal" one more time, I would vomit up an organ that I most likely need.

I read something very disturbing from Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic in his post on The Daily Dish "The Fierce McCarthyism Of Now" http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co... that
Apparently Hugh Hewitt wants Tim Russert to ask Obama these questions on his show this Sunday http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/...

What year did you join Trinity Church?

How often did you attend services there? (This requires follow-up after the inevitable ambiguous answer.  Was it quarterly, monthly, weekly?  Did you belong to any of the church's many organizations, like a men's fellowship?  These aren't trick questions.  Any church member knows exactly how often they go to church, and the patterns don't change much after they are set.)

When you attended the Million Man March, did you go with a group of men from Trinity?  Did you see Pastor Wright on that trip?

How often would you see Pastor Wright in a setting away from church?

Did you go out to dinner together?  Socialize together?  Travel together?

GoodFellas: Time Magazine has published it's fifth annual list of the World's Most Influential People. It's a mixed collection with a few standouts for hilarity.

Join the book club for David Sirota's upcoming book, The Uprising, due out on 5/27.

The "controversy" over Barack Obama's "bitter" comments was a media creation from start to finish - a brouhaha manufactured by very wealthy reporters and pundits who do anything they can to ignore, reject or otherwise downplay the very real issue of inequality and economic class in America. Using MSNBC's Chris Matthews and "The Wire's" Jimmy McNulty, I show in my new newspaper column out today that the very media ideology that spins up these "controversies" has gone from subtle to brazen in the last few weeks - and that intensification is breeding, yes, bitterness.

Josh Marshall posted this over at Talking Points Memo a few minutes ago. It bears repeating until this blatant smear gets shut down.

"I think pretty much everyone knows now that that picture of Barack Obama with his hands at his sides that's been making the rounds of the right wing sites actually wasn't taking during a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. So why does Tim Russert repeat this canard on national TV?"

Axelrod is on opposite Garin right now.  While no one ever accused Axelrod of being half as articulate as Obama is, he's pushing Garin around Timmy's set.

Garin wasn't able to answer Timmy's question about HRC's debate pledge to set up a NATO-type alliance in the ME.  He openly admitted that he wasn't well-informed about that subject.  He didn't distinguish himself anywhere else.