There are 3 reasons the Clintons will never concede no matter what. As long as they can draw a breath it won't matter if Obama is the nominee or the President, he will remain just an obstacle to a goal that they are determined to attain at any cost.

The Reasons?

1. Obama is standing between Hillary and her lifelong ambition. She will not be denied. If she can't beat him in the primary her next best option is to have him lose the GE, failing that if she has a position like VP or Senate Majority leader she can use it to sabotage his presidency. She is nothing if not determined to win no matter the cost. Her tenacity is admirable but the win at any cost mentality is not.

From the statements made by Crocker about the most recent events in Iraq you would think it was the pro-American Iraqi government forces against the pro-Iranian forces of Sadr in Basra and Sadr city. He made the case that  the Iraqi's remember Iran's action in the Iran Iraq war (neglecting to mention that encouraged by Reagan Saddam was the aggressor) and that was minimizing Iran's influence with Shia and turning them against groups like the Sadr movement.

Sounds like the beginning of progress? It might be if it wasn't an absurd and complete lie.

I'm a regular reader of James Wolcott's blog at Vanity Fair. Even when I don't agree with him his writing is reliably intelligent and witty. He has just posted some comments about Obama's speech on race and I think his comments are emblematic of a strawman argument that contrasts Hillary as a down to earth scrabbler and Obama as a head in the clouds academic.

To quote Wolcott:

I watched most of Obama's speech afterwards online and found it serious, moving, in a Tiger Woods league of its own, but I question that a "conversation" or dialogue about race is what the country wants or needs right now--it may be a pedagogical aria that appeals to the political media elite and other word-crafters but occupies a plane irrelevant to most people's concerns as the economy implodes.

The Republican revolution did not happen in one election cycle. It took a long range strategy and investment in states where they were the minority party for generations to build the organization and electoral coalition that captured the Presidency and the Congress.

When Howard Dean took over at the DNC and began making good on his promise of a 50 state strategy he was ridiculed by DLC stalwarts and Clinton insiders like Bergala and Carville for wasting money and resources in states that 'don't count'. Obama has taken Deans 50 state strategy and made it a reality fighting for every vote in every state and building a powerful and effective ground organization in red states as well as blue. If Clinton wins this nomination you can kiss Howard Dean and the 50 state strategy good bye.

What does it mean for red state governors, congressmen, local state elected officials and the local party organizations?

A lot of energy is being expended on demanding the party step in to reign in Hillary or that the super delegates must step in and put a stop to this  before it destroys the party, or that Hillary must do the right thing and step aside. You are wasting your time.

Obama is standing between Hillary and her life long ambition. She does not give a crap what the party elders think, what you think, she is not going to be reigned in, she is not going to quit and she is going to do what ever it takes to win. The only way to stop her is to beat her. The super delegates will not step in until there is an absolutely clear winner. A TKO won't do it, it needs to be a knock out. Expend all that energy on PA. An upset win by Obama there could end the race. And if that does not happen it's on to the next 9 primaries.

The administration and the news media have been touting the surge in Iraq as a success. Levels of violence have been reduced. Sunni militia's have turned on Al Qaeda and Al Sadr's Shia militia, the Mahdi Army have continued a cease fire begun 6 months ago. We are now back to the level of carnage and mayhem of 2 or 3 years ago. The civil war has been turned down from boiling over and brought back down to a  simmer. So what has all the sacrifice of American life and treasure to bring about this reduced level of violence brought? Who has been the beneficiary of all this sacrifice?

The answer was beamed to TV screens across the middle east recently, although it received barely a brief mention in American media. The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejahd's visit to Baghdad, a first for a high-ranking  Iranian official was announced with great fanfare. When the American President visits Iraq there are no announcements preceding the visit. He must sneak in directly to fortified bases and any contact with Iraqi's is behind blast walls protected by US forces with schedules and itineraries a top secret.

It has been a tough couple of days for the Obama campaign. In the critical days leading up to March 4th Clinton put him on the defensive and rested control of the media narrative. The Right Wing Canadian government leaked some malicious misinformation about a meeting they requested and Hillary ran with it. Obama was caught unprepared and flat footed. She has been hammering the "Obama has got a speech while John McCain and I have got experience" meme aggressively. Obama's response seems to cede the experience advantage to her but counters that judgement matters more.

With the delegate math being what it is Clinton  has one hope. She knows the super delegates will go for the candidate who can win and has the wind at their back when it's time for them to weigh in. If she can make Obama damaged goods, make him unelectable and get some momentum going into the finish the Supers will have no choice but to pick her if they are to have a chance in November irregardless of the delegate count.

When it comes to the war in Iraq the main Republican talking point seems to be, "no one is interested in dwelling on the past we are where we are now so lets talk about what we do from here". This is a peculiar stand for a party that claims to model itself on the more efficient methods of private enterprise and prizes personal responsibility and accountability.

If you hired a CEO to run a business and the CEO failed miserably at meeting his stated goals, showed a complete lack of foresight and planning and had driven the company into the ground, would the board and the shareholders be OK when reviewing the CEO's performance with the CEO telling them "no one is interested in dwelling on the past we are where we are now so lets talk about what we do from here". Not likely.

Driving home I tuned  into Ed Shultz show just in time to hear a caller predicting defeat in November because Obama will get shredded by the Republicans. Sounding like Eeyore in a sad and forlorn voice she spoke regretfully of the opportunity the party lost by not picking Hillary. This was not the only Hillary supporter to call in with a message of doom and gloom. Sowing doubt and fear callers raised the specter of the the big scary Republican slime monster that on it's way and warned in mournful voices that only Hillary could save us.

What is all this crepe hanging and hand wringing all about?

I'd like to make a proposal to the Obama campaign. In the next debate propose to Hillary that she join him in petitioning the DNC to sponsor primaries in Florida and Michigan in the beginning of April. The two campaigns should offer to foot part of the bill. Nations call snap elections so if we have the will there is more then enough time to organize two state elections. Although Caucuses would be cheaper these are not caucus states and the rules should follow the states already agreed upon rules on whether it is open or closed and primary or caucus so no one can say changes where made to benefit either candidate.

Hillary keeps hammering away at how she's got the cunning and toughness to best the Republican's at their own game and at how inexperienced Barack is. But if Clinton's supporters are to be believed, inexperienced, wet behind the ears Obama just swiftboated the Clinton's and come out smelling like a rose ( if you believe the exit poll's ). To add insult to injury Obama's also completely taken control of the media narrative.

Bill Clinton, the most skilled politician of his generation threw everything but the kitchen sink at Obama and he was double teaming with the "experienced" Hilary, and they got their asses kicked. I don't believe Obama was the one dragging this down into the mud but if the Clinton apologists are right then I'm even more impressed with Obama. He can fight like Rove and come out looking like Ghandi, he can outmaneuver 2 Clinton's in the press and with the electorate, that's a whole new level of political jujitsu!

Not bad for a guy who supposedly is not ready for prime time.

So far Bilary's strategy of dragging Obama down into the mud and off his message and transforming him in the media from the post-racial candidate of hope who wasn't black enough to the angry black politician seems to be working. Bill Clinton is the most talented campaigner and politician of his generation. He's proving much more subtle and devious then Rove and his crude Republican ilk at the politics of slime. Many might say that the Republicans will do worse to the Democratic candidate in the general but I don't agree. The Republicans will be much cruder and sleazier and easier to parry. Bill is a much more formidable opponent and this is turning out to be Barack's trial by fire. So far he has played right into the Clinton's hands and if he can't find a way to blunt the Clinton's slime machine and stay on message well maybe he's not ready for prime time.

While the hit on Hilary in the debate for being on the board of Walmart was absolutely true. You could see Hilary was positively giddy that Barack was getting down to her level. She was looking forward to the food fight. See Obama's as bad as I am! Just another sleazeball politician and I'm better at it. I can beat the Republican's at their own game so I'm your best shot at winning!

"They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread? "

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," (Depression era song)
lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

The Fruits of the Republican Revolution

A global credit crisis, collapsing housing market and equity markets worldwide teetering on the edge. We are at the beginning of the unraveling of the great Republican scam. Ronald Reagan was certainly a transformational president. He began the transformation of the American economy from the greatest economic income producing engine in the world into a vast Ponzi scheme designed to transfer wealth from the American middle class into the pockets of a tiny elite - and it worked. The unions were destroyed, New Deal liberalism was demonized and America's manufacturing base was boxed up and shipped out. It's been downhill for middle class earnings and astronomical gains for the richest 2 % ever since.

John Edward's economic populist message has been an inspiring call to the party to return to it's roots as the party of working Americans rather then a shill for corporate interests. I'm voting for Edwards in the primary not because I think his confrontational style would be the most effective method for effecting change in the current environment but because I want his message heard loud and clear by the party.

I'm encouraged by the rise of Obama (and Edwards) and the decline of Hilary. If the Obama wave is truly catching fire and he becomes our next president I think Edwards would make a great attorney general (I don't think he woud be a good VP choice for Obama considering the different approaches).

For 7 years the laws protecting workers safety, voters rights, consumer, patient and investors rights have been flaunted with impunity. The combo of Obama as President with a pit bull for the people at the helm in Justice could be very effective.

Watch any WWII era American war movie and it was easy to tell good guys from bad guys, The evil, ruthless, immoral Nazis and Japanese tortured captured POW.s, allied spies and local insurgents with abandon. The line was always "You will tell me what I want to know" or "We have ways to make you talk". Nowadays those lines are more likely to be spoken by the fictional TV character American CIA agent Jack Bauer. Right wing talk show hosts and Republican politicians alike love to use Bauer as a model for the hypothetical "if you knew it would save American lives wouldn't you torture a terrorist"?

Well let's look at how that hypothetical might work out in the real world. Let's say you rounded up 1000's of young males along with some suspect women, children and old men in a war zone, like say Iraq. Now let's say we put those rounded up in a prisons like say Abu Ghraib. Now we know they have information we want and it could save American lives and win us the war so what would Jack Bauer do?

With the Republican party in self-destruct mode the big money puppet masters need a new political machine to keep their ponzi scheme running smoothly and it seems they have settled on Hillary as their best chance to contain the damage and maintain control of our futures. From Larry Kudlow to Alan Greenspan, Hillary has become the 'responsible' and 'realistic' Democrat. The Wall Street wing of the Republican party is looking forward to a replay of the Clinton's in driver's seat.

Now that no communications by non-US citizens are guaranteed any expectation of privacy when handled by US communications networks I wonder whether there will not be an effort by foreign governments and corporations to guarantee the privacy of their citizens and businesses by becoming independent of reliance on US telecommunications networks. Certainly the US government and US businesses want a guarantee of privacy and security of private and business communications and would not allow a foreign government with no respect for international law to poke around at will in the communications of US citizens and businesses.

Hostility to science and scientific research is already ceding future development in areas like stem cell research to foreign business. American colleges that always attracted the worlds best and brightest are getting more competition from foreign campuses as life is made more difficult for foreign students. Will the shredding of the constitution and the transformation of the US government into Big Brother also have an unintended economic impact on telecommunications, finance, and banking?

It was hilarious watching the financial pundits and Wall Street suits on CNBC today demanding government intervention as the market's tanked and the credit markets seized up. This is the crowd that thinks the government has no business in education, social services, health care or interfering in businesse's right to pollute the environment, fleece consumers and endanger the health of it's employees.