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I'm certainly not anywhere near the wisest amongst us.  I've been very deep into this battle against the Clintons, myself (check my comments for proof).  As much as I came to admire and respect Barack Obama, I came to loathe the Clintons.  And the reasons, I feel, are valid.

But if, like we say, "the nomination is his" why then are we still so obsessed with everything Hillary?  We claim to be above the Clinton drama, and yet each day there are still three or four anti-Clinton diaries on the Rec'd list.

File this under "Did she REALLY say that?!?!"

Caught this at TPM.  What a lovely thing to see!

New Gallup numbers shed some light on the question of whether Wright is really going to turn out to be a major liability for Obama in the general election.

Amusingly, the poll finds that McCain's association with George W. Bush is more damaging than Obama's association with Wright.

Number of likely voters who say Bush makes them less likely to vote for McCain: Thirty-eight percent.

Number of likely voters who say Wright makes them less likely to vote for Obama: Thirty-three percent.

And 64% say Wright won't affect their vote at all.  Look for that number to DECREASE, not increase, as McCain and his surrogates try to beat THAT dead horse all the way up until November.

....can she run the White House?"

Didn't see this diaried yet.  It's a story in McClatchy that talks about what Obama himself has mentioned as a good criteria for judging his "Executive experience"

Obama has said, from early on in the campaign, to "watch how he runs his campaign" if you want to see the kind of manager he is.  And, conversely, to watch how Ms. "Ready-on-day-one" Clinton runs hers.

So, Hillary puts out an ad on the final day before PA, that resurrects bin Laden, and most of the catastrophes of the last 50 years, to scare PA voters to her side.

Since she was at +6 to 8 on Monday, and won by over 9, it may well have worked.  We should expect much more of this in the last days before the Indiana vote.

There's a very readable inside account of Hillary's campaign out at The New Republic.  Most of it describes exactly what we thought about Mark Penn.  That he is tyrannical, and uses his ever-present polling as a weapon against rivals in the campaign.

It's called "Voices In Her Head"

But the surprise here is that not only is Bill "off the reservation" in so many remarks he's made to hurt the campaign, but that he's actually muscled in his own people to try and "save" it after Iowa.  

The American Postal Workers Union today UNANIMOUSLY endorsed Barack Obama for President!

I'm quoting the endorsement in its entirety, because it is a press release:

UPDATE:  original title claimed he had joined the race.  He is putting together an exploratory committee.

Fred Thompson Freepers must be beside themselves with glee, that they won't HAVE to vote for John McCain in November.

They now have their candidate.

UPDATE: - Will update with link, as soon as one shows up.

Here it is:  

The Times now has up their own write-up of the results, which paints a more mixed picture for Obama. Here's the Times pdf of the poll internals. Here's the one from CBS.

UPDATE II:  From TPM -

Overall, though, in most of the key measures that people are now watching, the internals pretty much all look good for Obama and he appears to have been damaged very little by March. But, again, take a look at the internals and let me know your thoughts.

....and Josh is no softy for Obama, so no grain of salt needed!

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This is the funniest thing I've read all year, so far.  But it's shaping up to be a long year.  

Josh at TPM has a great story up this morning about how the Hillary supporters are not just moving the goalposts, but changing the sport altogether.

Hi, just a short, totally unrecommendable diary to pass the time.  I was just talking with Mrs. Karamazov about when we both started supporting Obama.  I was originally for Dodd.  Didn't even know about Obama then.  And Dodd would have been an excellent president.  I hope he gets a place in Obama's admin.

In a stunning turnaround, the former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay said Thursday he would be a defense witness for the driver of Osama bin Laden.

Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who resigned in October over alleged political interference in the U.S. military tribunals, told The Associated Press he will appear at a hearing for Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

"I expect to be called as a witness ... I'm more than happy to testify," Davis said in a telephone interview from Washington. He called it "an opportunity to tell the truth."

Washington Post has a much more compelling version of the story.  

I need sleep, so will post only a few quotes, without analysis:

After ten losses in a row, what else would you expect from her highness?

Hillary was heard last night to mutter:

They'll pry this nomination from my dead, cold hands!!!

From ABC Blog "Political Punch" we get this wonderful news:

No, I'm not getting ahead of myself.  I'm an Obama supporter, but I'm not talking about his (or even Hillary's) first 100 days..............but OURS.  

After eight long years of darkness.  After fear and division, facilitated by a craven White House and Republican Congress, have torn our nation asunder.  After torture.  After indefinite detentions, without habeas corpus.  After warrantless spying.  After Katrina.  After the politicization of our Justice Department.  After tax cuts for those who didn't need them, nor asked for them.  After a seemingly endless occupation of Iraq.  After signing statements.  After a thousand compassionless vetos.  After Executive orders designed not to strengthen America, but only to strengthen The current president and the Republican party.  After stubborn refusal to regulate sub-prime lenders, and worse, to encourage the practice.  Even after an ineffectual Democratic Congress...............

I play a lot of chess.  When one player makes a move that has significant ramifications for their game, it's called a "blunder."

Hillary Clinton's firing of Patti Solis Doyle was such a move.  Not only the move itself, but the timing of it.  I wasn't sure how many Latinos would  realize that one of their own had been dumped, only a few weeks before a major contest in Texas.

But, perhaps it only takes one.  And he's a Superdelegate.

So, not just the money of $750,000+ individual donors, making average donations of about $100 each, but the big online betting money too?

Thought it was just American Democrats and Independents who are ready for Bush to be history?

Think again.

Germans are gaga over Barack Obama. He's got Japan pretty jazzed, too, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Russia's leaders, not so much: They prefer a Republican _ as long as it's not Kremlin critic John McCain.

And Mexico's president? He doesn't have much use for any of them.

America's extraordinary presidential campaign has captivated politicians and ordinary people around the globe. With so much at stake in the race for the White House, the world is watching with an intensity that hasn't been seen since the Clinton era began in 1992.

After eight years of President Bush, the latest mantra in U.S. politics "transformational change" is resonating across the rest of a planet desperate for a fresh start.