America is having to confront the reality of racism's persistence. I think that's a healthy thing. Consider this AP report. A partial transcript is below.

TPM is all over this:

In a 60 Minutes interview that was recorded March 4 and which aired March 9, John McCain pledged that he would be "doing the medical records thing with the media sometime in the next month or two."

NYT:

Senator John McCain on Sunday sharply criticized one of Senator Barack Obama’s supporters, a former member of the Weather Underground, as an "unrepentant terrorist" and called on Mr. Obama to condemn remarks by the supporter expressing regret that his group did not conduct more bombings in the United States in the 1970s.

Obama doesn't just use his index/middle-finger combo to secretly attack people:

Here's rolling coverage of the live chart that 6-ABC in Pennsylvania is airing of undecided voters' ratings of the candidates during the debate.  For live video, paste this in Windows Media Player.

A lot of the numbers are just a reflection of how much uninterrupted time a candidate gets, as the chart tends to float upward gradually. Most of the 60s are shorter answers. Also, Clinton is doing a good job of pivoting from the controversial questions to crowd-pleasing issues, and gets high scores when she does.

The final "Who won?" question is Clinton: 50, Obama: 23. They asked Clinton's Ed Rendell who won, and he first said ABC sucked, then that Clinton was far and away the best.

We've all read these stories before. What makes this diary urgent is that we haven't all connected the dots.

It is imperative that everyone understand the immediacy of the threat that comes from a victory for McCain. Through a series of published statements, McCain has made his intentions clear: He doesn't need very long to start a war and pass it off to his veep.

Sen. Clinton is air-dropping attack ads on Wisconsin, but isn't showing up in Wisconsin to talk to the voters.

20 debates aren't enough for Clinton. There must be 21. Meanwhile, Clinton is absent from Wisconsin and its voters all week.

Obama has debated and will debate about his health care plan. Obama has debated and will debate about his record. Obama has debated and will debate about strengthening Social Security. Contrary to Clinton's negative attacks, Obama has answered Clinton's questions in 18 debates so far, and Clinton will be free to continue these attacks to Obama's face in two more debates to come.

Hillary Clinton is a strong woman. She is not one who breaks down when people give her a compliment, as she did today, or when people ask her, "How do you do it?" as she did in New Hampshire. That is, unless it's election eve.

On CSPAN Live. Watch online here (paste into Windows Media Player if it doesn't open directly).

I will update this later with more details.

Apparently, South Carolina is a black state, so it doesn't count. Way to f*** over the party's most loyal voters, Bill. No wonder African Americans see Dems as taking their votes for granted. Heck, now the Clintons are being openly abusive to black voters, apparently thinking they can win without them in November.

Bubba: Obama Is Just Like Jesse Jackson (ABC News)

Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign.  And Obama ran a good campaign here."

This was in response to a question about Obama saying it "took two people to beat him." Jackson had not been mentioned.

Boy, I can't understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as "the black candidate."

Bill's remarks were such a blatant attempt to marginalize the role African Americans in our democracy, that the media is now openly hostile. What else can they be, without appearing to condone such disparagement as fair play?

After reading Kos' trip down memory lane, I decided to take a detour. He mentioned that he ran the Hispanic/Latino News Service in the late 90s, so I did a search, dredged up the URL, and popped it into The Wayback Machine. Success!

I didn't take credit at the time, but it was me who was behind the very first petition to cancel the Democratic debate that was to be hosted by Fox. And with the help of fellow Kossacks, that initial effort exploded into something huge -- and we got the job done! Now there's another event on the horizon that Fox is hoping to use to claim fair-and-balanced, non-partisan legitimacy with: our convention. With convention plans being made now, it's urgent that we bring our voices together to accomplish change again! (And isn't it great having an election cause that all of us can rally around?)

This following crossposted from the new ad-hoc blog, No Luxury Box for Fox! It begins with findings of fact:

It's a Drudge Match!

It is so close to happening! As the election season heats up, Daily Kos has been showing some spunk in the traffic department, while Drudge has been on his steady, inexorable decline:

I'm still undecided, but this article in the New York Times really disturbs me. I remember reading how Michelle Obama's concern for her husband's safety was a factor in deciding whether Obama would run, and I remember reading how Obama's family had gotten Secret Service protection very early.

Conservatives have one strategy that turns out their base on election day that Democrats and progressives have yet learned to master. It's a strategy that hijacks the national debate every election season. It's simple. It's ballot initiatives.

Conservatives know that if they put measures on general election ballots that excite themselves, more conservatives will show up to vote, and more Republicans will get elected. Progressives seem to lag behind in finding the right issues for making the initiative process work for them.

I think there's one issue that we can put on the national agenda that will not only turn out progressives in droves, but also make the 2008 election all about Mr. 25%.  That issue is the censure of George W. Bush.

See if you can spot the trend.

Ron Paul is nothing like Howard Dean on the issues.  That doesn't even have to be debated.

But could Ron Paul parlay his strong and passionate web-organizated support base and a surprisingly strong Q3 fundraising total into a come-from-nowhere leading position in GOP polls?

I certainly hope so!

Here's why.