I know, I know, not another VP speculation diary, right? Yeah, it's making my head explode too.  But after watching former Gen. Wesley Kanne Clark address the Russia-Georgia conflict this evening on CNN's  Situation Room I was struck by how perfectly Clark's experience and knowledge match the foreign policy challenges we face today.

In what appears to be a serious shift in his own strategy of loving men, Gov. Charlie Crist, "single" for nearly three decades, has announced his engagement to his "girlfriend" of nine months, Carole Rome.

What do you do when you intend on being a VP candidate and you also happen to be a gay republican?  Yep.  I would take this as a sure sign that Crist has been given a strong signal that he will be McCain's VP choice.  

You can find more about the story, including details about the ring and other useless information HERE.

On a personal note, I find it disappointing that we live in a country that WILL elect a black president, but there are still such fears about being openly gay that a Republican can't come out of the closet.

Sorry for the short diary, but I mean, really what else is there to say?

Ok, this is what is really going on today.  Hillary's campaign was prepared to concede tonight.  She had already begun preparing concession remarks.  Then they got word out of South Dakota pointing not just to a Hillary win, but a BIG Hillary win (20+) points  *via drudge- who has been spot on in the past few contests with Clinton campaign leaks.

So they took the concession speech off the table.  They think they can use the big win (and upset) in South Dakota to be major leveraging power for her.  She will insist on the VP spot and point to the fact that he has been mortally wounded as he crosses the finish line. (A wound which she has helped to inflict).

She will go after Obama's supers and point to his poor performance in South Dakota.  

OK, I've had it with this whole idea of so and so throwing so and so "under the bus".  I can't remember the last time I heard a whole segment on a major newscast in which some political analyst didn't use the phrase. "Obama is throwing Wright under the bus", "Hillary just threw Obama under the bus"... etc.

Well, let this be my official notice- Today, I am throwing "Under the Bus" under the bus.

Important- see Update 4 below- the Clintons are NOT releasing details for 2007 income, as they promised. They are instead filing for an extension. This is the year that Bill made the most money from consulting fees, speeches in foreign countries, from Vinod Gupta (Survey USA) and, in theory, from Burkle's company.

Breaking on Drudge right now:  

World Exclusive: 4/4/08 15:43:06 ET
2000-2007 Returns
$109 Million in Income
Feds Taxes Paid: $33.7 million
Charity: $10.2 million

Update 1:
Her Senate Salary: $1,051,606
His Presidential Pension: $1,217,250
Her Book Income: $10,457,083
His Book Income: $29,580,525
His Speech Income: $51,855,599

Update 2:
Official returns posted on Clinton's official campaign website
Here.

Ok, I've had enough of people asking Hillary to quit the race.  I've had enough of pundits wondering how she can win it.  I've had enough of her campaign moving the goal posts, hedging, dragging this primary out, and pretending like she can win in 2008.  It is clear, Hillary Clinton will NOT be the democratic nominee for president in 2008. And she knows it.

Hillary Clinton (for all of the friendly and less friendly adjectives I could use to describe her) is not stupid.  She can probably add and subtract even better than Chuck Todd (snark).  She knows that Barack Obama will be the democratic nominee this year.  And the reason she is not quitting has NOTHING to do with 2008.  Explanation follows.

Attention fellow Kossers- I need your input!

As an internet nerd/ entrepreneur, I thought it was time to lend some internet-based love to the Obama campaign.  I believe that one of the strongest arguments for Obama right now is his electability over John McSame. Obama polls stronger than Hillary Clinton in most head to head matchups against the old man from Arizona. Now we must convince the remaining super delegates, along with the remaining primary voters, that Obama is more electable than Hillary in the general election.

With that in mind, I have purchased a domain name and set up a temporary website at www.MoreElectable.com. Read below for how you can help!

In what must be the most despicable, unprofessional news article that I have ever read on Faux News...  The front page of FoxNews.com shows an article titled "Obama Gets 'Panther' Ok". They point to a public profile set up by somebody claiming to be a member of the New Black Panther Party who supports Barack Obama.

Here's the problem- anybody can set up a profile and blog on the my.barackobama.com section of the website claiming support of Obama.  There is no way to tell if this came from the 'black panther party', and even if it did, Obama's campaign has absolutely nothing to do with it, no control of it, and no knowledge of it when it is posted.

Fox is hellbent on portraying Obama as a black vigilant.  This, after his speech yesterday in which he sought to begin an honest and healing discussion of race relations in our country.  It is disugsting that Fox would stoop this low.

To read the disgusting, inflammatory story  Click Here.

Update- Fox has now changed the story to say that the campaign removed the endorsement. Unfortunately I didn't copy and paste the original article.  It was awash in falsehoods.

Open note to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

Your loyal constituents in New York need you.  Will you heed their call?  The red phone is ringing in the highest office of the Empire State.
No one but you, Hillary, has crossed the threshold of experience sufficient for the job. Your experience in cleaning up after cheating prominent male politicians uniquely qualifies you for the Governorship of New York.

Chris Matthews just mentioned what he called a 'Convention Walkout' that would occur at the Democratic National Convention if superdelegates were to go with Hillary although Obama had more pledged (elected) delegates.  Can you imagine 2000 delegates getting up and walking out of the building? I can.

In fact, I think there will be far more serious consequences.  If Obama loses the nomination due to superdelegates, even though he won more elected delegates, I predict riots across cities in the United States that make the LA Riots look like a walk in the park.   I hope to God that I'm wrong.  But if more pledged delegates belong to Obama and Obama loses the nomination due to supers, then we're talking about the 80% of African Americans that voted for Obama feeling that their voted didn't count.  

At the very least, you can be certain that many delegates, voters, and especially black voters feel disenfranchised and no longer participate in the Democratic party. At the least, you can bet on a severe rift within the party.

There is a poignant column in the New York Post today that urges Al Gore to pick up the red phone.  I believe it is imperative that he answers the call immediately, or risk losing the coalition that democrats have worked so hard to build over the past few years. It really is an emergency 3 AM crisis.  

Why Now?  As columnist Charles Hurt points out: Clearly, neither candidate is going to drop out before the convention. The math simply isn't there for either candidate to garner a win on the basis of pledged delegates. So eventually, it's going to come down to superdelegates (of which Gore is the most prominent) anyway.  If he waits, he risks the democratic candidates tearing each other apart to the point that John McCain only has to re-hash negative talking points that have been driven into the American psyche about the Democratic nominee. Furthermore, he gives Republicans more time to organize and coalesce around a message... and to raise more money.

Going into this, we all knew that Texas was a two-part process.  The mainstream media definitely knew this- they enjoyed throwing about the term "Texas Two-Step."

Well, the results are now becoming clear.  Hillary won one of the two steps by a small margin.  Obama won the other by a bigger margin.  When it's all said and done, it appears that Obama has won Texas by at least three delegates.  The Austin American Statesman sums it up: here.

I stress that caucus results are still coming in. They could change. My own projections, based on what I've read from other (reliable) sources, are that he will actually net more than a 3 delegate gain in Texas.

The most popular overweight, orally fixated, drug addict, Satan of the airwaves (otherwise  known as Rush Limbaugh) is encouraging his Texas listeners to vote for Hillary if they have not already done so.  

According to my friend who was listening in, several callers called in to say they would be doing (or have already done) that very thing.  Now, contrary to his previous positions regarding John McCain (Rush was against him before he was for him) this is not because Rush hates McCain.  And it's not even because Rush is enamored with Hillary's supposed 3 AM phone prowess.  

No,  Rush knows that Obama is the more electable democrat.  He thinks that McCain can beat Hillary.  The fact that Obama has opposed the Iraq war diffentiates him from Hillary. It differentiates him from McCain.  But Rush knows that given a war veteran who supported the Iraq war, and a former first lady who also supported the Iraq war, the voters will go with the war vet to answer the phone at 3 AM. Obama is the only candidate who can say he made the right decision from the beginning to protect American  troops and America's pocketbook.

Sometimes I have to wonder if Howard Wolfson is actually an undercover Obama supporter.  Because the things he chooses to fight for are constantly re-affirming the widely held belief that Hillary is petty and negative.  

Take this 'plagiarism-gate' for example.  The Clinton campaign attacks Obama for borrowing from Patrick's speech. Of course they know internally that this is done all the time in politics.  It's somewhat akin to making a pop song- there are only so many melodies that sound pleasing, and after that it's kind of all re-hash.  So somebody at the Clinton camp thought they could get some headlines out there about Obama not really being the master orator that the world believes he is.  So stupid.