great post todd

I think the issue there is that they were trying to hurt him the Florida primary....

He's really said all sorts of crappy stuff and done crappy things. Must be beaten.

As for JRE, I'm still missing Edwards...

McCain really would be a third term.

Here's my new blog going up on the topic:

http://www.JohnMcBush2008.com

Strike that. I meant the gap between the level of support for McCain.

probably just a bad couple of polls -- just like Clinton in WA.

Seems likely. What I was trying to get at was that I think the poll was a reflection of bad press in IA at the time. The OH numbers are really surprising. It's also pretty clear that there is strong correlation between the gap between Hillary's and Obama's lead and the gap between the level of undecideds.

Well, there's some OH numbers in this...very surprising #s in fact. I wish SUSA had FL #s and PA #s. Although IA is small, I didn't quite know what to think of those #s. I think those polls were taken in mid-December, though, which IIRC was one of HRC's valleys.

and neither are some "bloggers" offline, especially the more anonymous ones.

she didn't.

what her campaign said -- explicitly (and bill clinton implied in december) -- was that the only important thing about obama was his race.

in other words, they are saying it's good that he's black, but that he's nothing more than black.

that's an insult to him.

look up ron fournier's article about how clinton won south carolina and you'll read the clinton campaign on the record on this topic. also watch bill clinton's charlie rose interview to listen to him talk about it.

Eh? The decisions are entirely separate. Requires no previous FEC ruling. Moreover, McCain hadn't previously declared that he would opt out of the general and primary. In fact, until now he's been operating under the primary campaign spending limits. He's now backed off his pledge, and given that, there's no reason for Obama to take him at his word.

As a result, Obama should feel free to play ball in the general w/o respect to what McCain does.

I don't think she said "I work so hard"

Lol, that's what I said, and I'm not an Obama hater.

He frustrates me at times, but I don't hate him, for sure.

That's pretty much what he said (I'm awesome because I admitted I lose papers, my opponents were just trying to praise themselves). I actually think Hillary's answer was the best of all three of them. She basically said that she pushes too hard, which I think a lot of people agree with.

I mean if he said something brutally honest like "my greatest weakness was that I smoked for years, putting at risk the health of my childrens' father" now that would have been a real admission; but he didn't say anything negative about himself, nor should he have.

I guess my point is that now that Edwards is out, why  mock him? I mean, it's just irritating.

I'm not ranting at you, btw -- I appreciate the fact that you agree with me. I just hope it gets through to Obama, because for better or for worse, people actually make decisions based on stupid shit like this.

Yeah, he was trying to be funny, but it was at John Edwards expense. It wasn't self-deprecating humor, it was a joke about how honest and golden he was.

If Edwards were still in the race, I wouldn't be nearly as bent out of shape, but Edwards is out of the race, and as you say, Obama should knock it off.