it was a double whammy of a day for Hillary Clinton, who got pounded at the polls in Mississippi as Gov. Spitzer’s mushrooming sex scandal brought ugly headlines reminiscent of her husband’s philandering.

Barack Obama cleaned up in the Magnolia State, 60% to 38%, with 95% of precincts reporting. He was declared the winner by TV networks moments after the polls closed, likely giving him the majority of the state’s 33 delegates to extend his lead.

"It’s just another win in our column, and we are getting more delegates," Obama told CNN.

The win was the latest in a string of racially divided matches, with Obama grabbing about 90% of the black vote, according to exit polls.

"I’m confident that once we decide on a nominee and we go through the convention, that, in fact, the party’s going to be unified," Obama added.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams issued a statement congratulating Obama, saying, "Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania" - which votes next on April 22.

Back in the loss column after big wins in Texas and Ohio on March 4, the cloud over her home-state governor seemed to hang over Clinton’s campaign as she stumped earlier yesterday in Pennsylvania.

Clinton already had to sidestep questions about Spitzer Monday. "Let’s wait and see what comes out of the next few days," she said. "Right now I don’t have any comment."

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This title will mean nothing to those who don’t understand the world of reality TV. But, how could anyone in this election cycle not be totally familiar with the voyeur genre that has caused us to reduce every issue and every person to their basest level. Following the 2008 presidential race is a combination of watching a blow by blow of the NFL playoffs, and the final weeks of American Idol when the viewers vote on the winner.

Last season an attractive young man, Sanjaya Malakar, with little experience singing in public, somehow made it to the finals and as cute as it was when he was selected, his talent just was not cutting it, and as a result, the more gifted singers were being eliminated.

It was revealed that a rebellious segment of society, rejecting the concept of American Idol, decided to stuff the ballot box and give Sanjaya a helping hand. At first it was charming and cute, then it became annoying until a full-scale counter rebellion was mounted.

With both Obama and Clinton being Sanjayaed, switching rolls with each pulse of primary voting, it is like following the hopes of fans playing fantasy football. There are times when you place a wager on the team you hate most in the hopes that they beat the rival of your favorite team. When he is down, the crossover Sanjaya electorate decides that they should throw their votes to him to keep Hillary from gaining the lead. When he is leading as in the Texas and Ohio primaries, the opposite occurred. Even Rush Limbaugh played a part in Sanjaying the race for the specific purpose of keeping Hillary in to keep it interesting, entertaining and topical. That is pretty much what Howard Stern’s motive was when he called for his listeners to vote for Sanjaya on American Idol.

The irony in the entire manipulative maneuver is that Hillary always stands the chance of winning a primary, which causes almost every heart in America to stop beating. They immediately shift reality shows to the first “Apprentice” with the insufferable, self-absorbed, egotistical, inexperienced and over-confident Omarosa who reminds the electorate of Hillary . . . or vice versa. She was the rubbernecking fiasco that caused network TV to slow down and take a closer look. Even Donald Trump had her reappear in the final version only to verify, that yes, we were all correct in our first impression of her.

So as Hillary gives us jaw-dropping performances that go well beyond the boundary of shrill and catty, we have Barak who actually begins his speeches on a losing night with the word “change.” In the first five minutes of his speech he worked the word in at least 5352 times until it almost became a therapeutic mantra. “If I say this enough, even I will believe it, or come up with something else because I am so sick of this same speech, I could really use a change.”

It is only fair that John McCain, now the Republican candidate, be compared to some figure in reality TV since that is the theme here. It is tough since he floats between the “diplomatic” Simon Cowel and the very gracious Donald Trump who issues the edict of unemployment with the same charisma and ceremony that John McCain would.

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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton _ no stranger to political sex scandals _ sounded a short, sympathetic note Wednesday for disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, saying she is thinking of his family.

"I’m deeply saddened by this turn of events and my thoughts are with Governor Spitzer’s family during this painful time," Clinton said in a statement.

The Democratic senator from New York went on to say she looks forward to working with the incoming governor, David Paterson.

Clinton issued her statement through her Senate office, but the scandal has ramifications for her campaign.

When Spitzer steps down Monday, she will lose one of her superdelegates, those party officials whose support may end up deciding the Democratic presidential nomination if neither she nor Sen. Barack Obama show large gains in the remaining primaries ahead.

Spitzer, like the rest of New York’s Democratic Party establishment, had been an outspoken booster of Clinton’s campaign.

At a joint appearance last year in Washington, Clinton praised Spitzer for trying to "break some of the political pottery" in the New York capital of Albany.

Source: Seattle Times

Sen. Barack Obama claimed victory by a wide margin over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Mississippi’s Democratic primary Tuesday.

"What we’ve tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country. Obviously the people in Mississippi responded," Obama told CNN after his win.

Mississippi had 33 pledged delegates up for grabs, which will be allocated proportionally.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama had 61 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton’s 37 percent.

The state’s Democratic voters were sharply divided among racial lines, exit polls indicated. 

As has been the case in many primary states, Obama won overwhelming support from African-American voters. They went for him over Clinton 91-9 percent. See the results

The state has a larger proportion of African-Americans (36 percent, according to the 2000 census) than any other state in the country. And black voters make up nearly 70 percent of registered Democrats.

But Mississippi white voters overwhelmingly backed the New York senator, supporting her over Obama 72 percent to 21 percent.

According to The Associated Press, only two other primary states were as racially polarized — neighboring Alabama, and Clinton’s former home state of Arkansas.

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With the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination likely to go on for weeks or months, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are battling to define what it means to be winning — and, in some instances, they are overstating their own advantage and understating the gains of the other.

The candidates are not only playing to voters in the crucial nominating contests to come, especially the primary in Pennsylvania on April 22, but also wooing the Democratic superdelegates, the party leaders and officials whose votes seem increasingly likely to decide the nomination.

Mr. Obama is emphasizing the breadth of his appeal — his lead in the popular vote and in pledged delegates and his victories in states that Democrats have trouble carrying in general elections. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has focused on her victories in states with the most Electoral College votes, like Ohio and California, and her strength among groups like women, blue-collar workers and Hispanics.

As the two candidates seek to cut each other down to size, the greatest flash point between them is over the “big state” victories that have largely gone to Mrs. Clinton. While she claims that those victories make her the stronger contender in November, Mr. Obama points to the greater number of states in his column. He added a victory in Mississippi to his total on Tuesday.

The skirmishing is just one front of an increasingly charged battle that on Tuesday drew in remarks by Geraldine A. Ferraro, the former New York representative who is a Clinton supporter, that Mr. Obama owed his success partly to his race.

The Clinton campaign’s argument that Mrs. Clinton has been winning in Electoral College battlegrounds falls short somewhat because of Mr. Obama’s victory in a bellwether state, Missouri, and his success in states that Democratic officials believe they may have a chance to carry this fall. These include Virginia and Colorado, which have been increasingly electing Democrats to statewide offices, as well as traditional swing states like Iowa.

“It’s the most ridiculous claim she’s making,” said David Plouffe, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager. “We have won big battleground states in the primaries like Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa. We’ve also won states like Virginia that we believe Senator Obama will put in play in a general election and Senator Clinton will not.”

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No one doubts that Hillary Clinton is playing for all the marbles this year.  But what if she fails to undercut Barak Obama’s lead and loses her party’s nomination?  And what if the Illinois senator goes on to capture the presidency this November?  What does the future hold for Senator Clinton?

Well, not much, not by Clintonian standards, and that’s why she has begun laying the groundwork to help John McCain defeat Senator Obama in a General Election matchup.  Absent her own presidency, a McCain presidency may better serve her interests.
If she loses her fight with Barak Obama, it is hard to see Senator Clinton satisfied with a consolation prize.  Given her vaunting ambition and oversized ego, the vice presidency would not suit her.  She’s never made a good second banana, anyway; her tenure as First Lady proves it.  Her fingerprints were all over policy during her husband’s administration, starting with the infamous attempt at government control of the nation’s healthcare.  She was meddlesome in personnel decisions — Janet Reno, among others.  For her, the Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton was a co-presidency.  That her name wasn’t right alongside her husband’s on the marquee must still chafe.   
And what would the vice presidency avail her?  Would she see it as a steppingstone to the presidency eight years hence?  Not likely, given that she’d be in her late sixties then, and after two terms of a Democrat in the White House, voters may well be ready to elect a Republican. 
What about one of the high profile cabinet portfolios — State, Defense, Attorney General?  In terms of a path to the presidency, none leads directly; all are contingent on direction from the White House.  And her success, to some measure, would become a President Obama’s success.
And, lest we forget, Barak Obama would have something to say about bringing Senator Clinton into his administration.  As someone with a well-earned reputation as brassy, overbearing and experienced at in-fighting, Senator Clinton would be a millstone around the Illinoisan’s neck.  Bringing Senator Clinton on board is something Barak Obama is not likely to do unless his back is to the wall.  
A seat on the Supreme Court?  Legislating from the bench may intrigue Senator Clinton, but how often are justices in the news?  How many monuments around Washington are dedicated to Supreme Court Justices? 
Or might Senator Clinton settle for status as the Grand Old Lady of the United States Senate?  Not realistic, since every corpuscle in Hillary Clinton’s body exudes "executive."  For someone who has a hunger to lead, collegiality goes only so far.
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On Tuesday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews voiced agreement with New York Times columnist Orlando Patterson, a Harvard sociology professor, as he read a passage from Patterson’s latest column during which the Harvard professor declared that, in watching Hillary Clinton’s recent campaign ad questioning Barack Obama’s qualifications for handling a 3:00 a.m. emergency, he "couldn’t help but think of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the racist movie epic that helped revive the Klu Klux Klan with its portrayal of black men lurking in the bushes around white society." Declaring that the ad reminded him more of "a 911 call than 9/11" with "a mother protecting her kids from a prowler outside," Matthews declared such an ad "would be racist." (Transcript follows)

Matthews brought up the column during a discussion with Independent Women’s Forum leader Michelle Bernard and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, both of whom are black but neither of whom agreed with Matthews on Patterson’s column, while discussing Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro’s recent charge that Barack Obama’s race was a factor in his electoral popularity. Matthews: "I want to throw some more wood on the fire here, because I agree with this guy. Orlando Patterson is a sociology professor at Harvard."

Read it all at Newsbusters

When he deputized Warren Christopher to oversee his search for a running mate in the spring of 1992, Bill Clinton recoiled at the suggestion that he might use the process to float names and score political points.

“I think it’s important not to play games with people’s names,” Mr. Clinton insisted. “I don’t think that’s a good thing to do.”

Sixteen years later, though, that’s precisely what Bill and Hillary Clinton are doing as they try to damn Barack Obama—the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination—with the faint praise that he’d make a fine candidate for vice president.

“I’ve had people say, ‘Well I wish I could vote for both of you,’” Hillary said in Mississippi late last week. “Well, that might be possible some day. But first I need your vote on Tuesday.”

And Bill said that his wife “has always been open to“ a Clinton-Obama ticket, “because she believes that if you can unite the energy that he’s brought in and the people in these vast swaths of small-town and rural America that she’s carried overwhelmingly, if you had those two things together, she thinks it’d be hard to beat.”

Read more here at NY Observer

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