PunditGuy

John McCain is distancing himself from President George W. Bush, and that’s hardly surprising. McCain has to run on his own record, and not that of a previous president. Still, one has to believe that the animosity between these two still exists in a real way. I don’t expect many joint appearances this fall.

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George W. Bush, GOP, John McCain

Hillary’s sniper fire just won’t die down.

NYP: The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked – and her countrymen infuriated – that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she’d written – all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

“I was surprised when I heard this,” Bicakcic said, referring to Clinton’s assertion that she braved snipers upon landing, ducking and sprinting to military vehicles.

Sema Markovic, 22, a student, said she has long respected Hillary as a strong leader but was angered by her remarks.

“It is an ugly thing for a politician to tell lies,’ she said. “We had problems for years, and I don’t like when someone lies about them. It makes us look bad.”

It makes us look bad.

Hillary, are you listening?

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Bosnia, Hillary Clinton, Lies

Barack Obama acquired yet another superdelegate today with an endorsement from Senator Amy Klobuchar. Yet, Ms. Klobuchar did not go so far as to encourage a Clinton withdrawal from the primary race. She echoed a comment from Obama and said she thinks Hillary has the right to continue her campaign.

“I believe Sen. Clinton has every right to continue her campaign,” Klobuchar said this morning in a conference call with reporters. “She should continue.”

As the Democrats’ presidential campaign remains frozen in a delegate stalemate, the party’s superdelegates have begun migrating to Obama’s side.

Citing Obama’s sweeping victory at Minnesota’s precinct caucuses on Feb. 5, Klobuchar said her neutrality had placed her “within Barack and a hard place — and I chose Barack.”

She also said her continued silence about the race had become awkward, although “overall I haven’t had a lot of hand-wringing over this.”

Despite growing fears within the party that the presidential campaign could become increasingly toxic, possibly ending in a bloody fight on the floor of the national convention, Klobuchar said she remains optimistic it will be resolved peacefully long before then.

“I have faith that our candidates will work this out and resolve it by early summer,” she said. “I believe they’ll do the right thing and we’ll figure this out.”

“early summer”…

That’s code for the growing hope that Clinton will come to the realization that she has no chance of winning and as such, she’ll bow out by the last contest and not pull the kamikaze move and go kicking and screaming all the way to the convention.

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2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Amy Klobuchar

The Congresswoman was speaking at a campaign rally today and could barely get a word in edgewise. She supports Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But, the crowd wants Obama. They made their displeasure known.

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Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Sheila Jackson Lee

Democrats hate Rush Limbaugh, and they are going completely wacko over Operation Chaos. Apparently they’ve been successful with a counter strike in Kentucky.

Thousands of Kentuckians who have switched political affiliations over the past three months in hopes of voting in May’s Democratic presidential primary will instead be barred from casting ballots. Secretary of State Trey Grayson alerted Kentuckians on Wednesday to a little-known state law that forbids people who change their party registration after December 31 to vote in the May 20 primary.

Some 9,000 people have switched parties since Jan. 1. Grayson said voter registration drives by supporters of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton could inadvertently cause the number of ineligible voters to grow.

9,000? Not bad.

That’s funny — the campaigns are getting in the game trying to recruit more voters by getting people to switch parties. If they find a way to arrest Rush and put him in jail for inspiring voter fraud (so far they’ve been unsuccessful), will Obama and Hillary be put in jail too?

Don’t bet on it.

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Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Operation Chaos

Forget about pressure from the DNC, bad poll numbers, or her credibility gap. The real issue for Hillary Clinton is – money. The lack of money, that is. It could be the single factor that brings her campaign to a halt.

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2008 Election, Hillary Clinton

Hmmm…this is getting interesting. First Dr. Dean says the primary season has to be over by July 1st. Now, we have a little ditty from Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Sen. Patrick Leahy is suggesting that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton abandon her White House run.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and six-term Vermont lawmaker said there is no way that Clinton is going to win enough pledged delegates to get the nomination. Leahy told Vermont Public Radio, in a show that aired Thursday, that Clinton ought to withdraw and should be backing Sen. Barack Obama. But Leahy said that’s obviously a decision only Clinton can make.

“Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out. But as I have said before, that is a decision that only she can make,” Leahy said in the statement.

Are we witnessing the beginning of a multi-Senator line-up behind Obama? What with the Casey endorsement today, and now Leahy’s public statements, could this be the start of a landslide of Democrats who pressure Hillary to quit?

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Barack Obama, DNC, Hillary Clinton, Patrick Leahy

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Sen. Barack Obama today.

In a surprise move, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has endorsed Senator Barack Obama in advance of the April 22 Democratic primary. Mr. Casey had said he would remain neutral in the race in part because he wanted to help broker a reconciliation between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton afterward.

“I believe in my heart that there is one person who’s uniquely qualified to lead us in that new direction and that is Barack Obama.” Mr. Casey said during a rally in Pittsburgh Friday.

Mr. Casey is going against the grain in his state, where polls show Mrs. Clinton ahead by at least 12 percentage points and where she has the endorsement of most of the state’s major Democratic figures.

Assuming she wins the primary in Pennsylvania, watch for Hillary to use Casey’s endorsement as proof that superdelegates can thwart the will of the people and line up behind the candidate of their choosing. This is the kind of endorsement she needs to give credence to her belief that she can stay in this til the convention.

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Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bob Casey, Pennsylvania