It’s ten minutes long but really worth it for the vitriol at the end.

All well and good, but does he really sign off with Murrow’s iconic “Good night, and good luck.” all the time? Really?

Sir, you offend me!  Barking buffoon Buffenbarger tries to describe Daily Dose staffers and misses by a mile.

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Ian has this article, on concerns about Clinton’s donations from big arms manufacturers — and, in particular, the money she’ taken from Textron:

Last October, in an examination of campaign contributions in 2007 from employees of major defense industry contractors, Thomas B. Edsall wrote on the Huffington Post that “Senator Clinton took $52,600, more than half of the total going to all Democrats, and a figure equaling 60 percent of the sum going to the entire GOP field. Her closest competitor for defense industry money is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R), who raised $32,000.”

Critics have previously rapped Clinton for voting in 2006 against Senate Amendment 4882, which would have banned the sale of cluster munitions for use in heavily populated areas.

Acknowledging that $2000 in PAC money is a minor amount in the scheme of campaigns, Segal, in an interview, nonetheless says that he is an Obama supporter “substantially because of the difference in his and Clinton’s behavior relative to issues like this.”

The full press release is after the jump.

more »

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA8Wy51Ionk]

Is anyone else offended that Hillary thinks this can win over the young people demographic? Here’s my advice, H-bomb: if famous people aren’t making videos in your honor that bring people to tears and spur them to vote for you, you should probably keep relying on your experience instead of trying to fake being cool.

TPM has the scoop:

A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states’ minority communities. In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed “great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted.” Refusing to seat the states’ delegations could remind voters of the “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries,” he said.

Bradley Portnoy, a junior at Brown and Michigan native, says, “As a nominal resident of Michigan who actually voted in the election and supports Obama, I would at this point feel *more* disenfranchised if the delegates were seated.”

David Sirota has a dead-on deconstruction of the awkward class dynamic that’s evolved on the Democratic side of the presidential race:

And so, as Marable says, Obama’s pitch includes “no mention of the class struggle or class conflict.” It is “hope” instead of an economic case, bromide instead of critique. The result is an oxymoronic dynamic.

Obama, the person who fought blue-collar joblessness in the shadows of shuttered factories, is winning wealthy enclaves. But Clinton, the person whose globalization policies helped shutter those factories, is winning blue-collar strongholds.

Obama, who was schooled by the same organizing networks as Cesar Chavez, is being endorsed by hedge fund managers. But Clinton, business’s favorite, is being endorsed by the United Farm Workers-the union that Chavez created.

Obama, the candidate from Chicago’s impoverished South Side, is finding support on Connecticut’s gilded south coast. But Hillary Clinton, the candidate representing Big Money, is finding support from those with relatively little money.

As the campaign heads to the struggling Rust Belt under banners promising “change,” this bizarre class war may end up guaranteeing no real transformation at all.

My deep ‘hope’ is that Obama’s cautious rhetoric is well calculated, and not representative of how he’d govern. And I do think that his record in Illinois hints at this…

She waited til the morning-of, out of fear of coming in third.

An excerpt, courtesy of ABC’s Raelyn Johnson: “Hello, This is the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. Before you vote on Saturday, you should know that John Edwards voted for permanent trade relations with China. That’s right, John Edwards voted for the bill that cost thousands of jobs. Like the ones in the textile mills he talks about so much down here. You should also know that John Edwards made nearly a half a million dollars working for a Wall Street investment fund. A fund that’s been profiting on foreclosing on the homes of families; including 100 homes right here in South Carolina. . . . Can you trust John Edwards? This call is paid for by the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign.”

Standard Clintonian hypocrisy: Remember of course, that Chelsea Clinton works for a hedge fund. And most-favored-nation status for China was pushed through by Bill.

Got News If You Want It

• Bush begs for the oils, H-Clint: “Pathetic…”
• McCain v. Romney= much bitchslappery.
• Rush Limbaugh deftly incorporates the words ’spade’ and ‘hoe’ into discussion about Obama and Clinton. Stay classy Rush!
• Those damn gay hackers!
• Actor Brad Renfro dead at 25

I know that this doesn’t mean anything, but we don’t have much to go on in RI, and I think it’s notable in that the numbers are so damn close to what most people would probably expect. Clinton’s up over Obama by slightly more than I’d have guessed, but that’s in line with the one legit poll that I’m aware of.

Now, it’s time to demonstrate the power of the Daily Dose: Why don’t we all head on over and vote for Mike Gravel.

College Republicans to Welcome Senator Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign to RI on Post Road outside of T.F. Green Airport at 3:30 PM Today.

Group plans to gather to thank Hillary for voting for war in Iraq, pledging to keep combat troops there to fight Al Qaeda.

Warwick, RI – Today at 3:30 PM the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island and its chapter members on six campuses throughout the state will gather on the corner of Post Road and Airport Road (Staples Parking Lot) with signs and banners to welcome Senator Evan Bayh and Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign to Rhode Island, and to thank her for voting for the war in Iraq and for pledging to continue the presence of troops to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq if she is elected President.

Senator Hillary Clinton, who served as College Republican President when she was a student at Wellesley, will benefit from a fundraiser held at 6 PM tonight in Warwick, Rhode Island.”From one former College Republican Chapter President to another, I would like to welcome the campaign of Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton to Rhode Island and thank her not only for the vote she cast in 2002 that authorized the war in Iraq, but also for her recent commitment to keep combat troops in Iraq to fight Al Qaeda if she is elected President next year,” said State Chairman Ryan Bilodeau.”The average Rhode Islander should be proud to have Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the state today,” added Bilodeau. more »

  Second poll in a week showing Clinton losing her Iowa lead, seemingly for the right reasons — with emphasis on militancy towards Iran.

Obama, an Illinois senator, leads for the first time in the Register’s poll as the choice of 28 percent of likely caucusgoers, up from 22 percent in October. Clinton, a New York senator, was the preferred candidate of 25 percent, down from 29 percent in the previous poll.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who led in the Register’s May poll, held steady with 23 percent, in third place, but part of the three-way battle.

Obama’s lead is even stronger among women:

In the new poll, Obama leads with support from 31 percent of women likely attend the caucuses, compared to 26 percent for Clinton. In October, Clinton was the preferred candidate of 34 percent of women caucusgoers, compared to 21 percent for Obama.

On another front — I’m not that good at knowing what people are going to think about things, but am pleasantly surprised that reaction to Clinton’s interview on CBS this week is a strong as it’s been. The interview where she denied ever even considering the possibility that she might lose.

“The Iraqis will greet our troops as liberators with flowers and candy…”

Wait — sorry, that was somebody else, expressing intense hubris in light overwhelming evidence of potential fallibility. Here’s Hillary, being as mindlessly self-aggrandizing as GWB’s ever been, in her own special, uber-maipulative way:

“If it’s not you, how disappointed will you be?” Couric asked.

“Well, it will be me,” she said….

Clearly, she has considered the possibility she won’t be the nominee?

“No, I haven’t,” Clinton said.

I posted last week about the possibility of candidates teaming up to beat Clinton in Iowa.

So this statement by Edwards (now a few weeks old) caught my eye today:

“The differences between Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) and myself are much more dramatic than the differences between Sen. Obama and myself,” Edwards told reporters after receiving the endorsement of the progressive group Caucus for Priorities, which seeks a reallocation of defense dollars into social programs.

“Down the line,” Edwards said, on issues such as “What we would do in Iraq? What we should be doing about Iran. What we should be doing about corrupting influences in Washington and a broken system, (there are) really big differences between Sen. Clinton and myself.”

I don’t read too much into it — Perhaps the statement was just a condition of the endorsement, or maybe Edwards is trying to steal some of Obama’s thunder. But it gives me hope that they’re trying to figure out some way to work together.

  The Clinton team keeps on pretending that there’s reason to think she’s the only Dem who can win the general election. There’s a mounting body of evidence that this just ain’t the case.

Today there’s this new Zogby poll that shows Clinton trailing the top Repubs, with Obama and Edwards still leading them. Will Dem primary voters develop some guts, or are they gonna put up yet another smarmy middling candidate, in the Gore ‘00 and Kerry ‘04 molds?