Uh...Just What Are You Saying?

[Hillary] Clinton was responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of dropping out.

  Yahoo

Interesting choice of references for campaigning through June. Is she not-so-subliminally suggesting something?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Update: She apologized, saying she didn't mean anything other than campaigns have historically gone into June, and that the Kennedys were just on her mind a lot lately (what with Ted's diagnosis). I saw a YouTube clip, and I think that's exactly what happened. But it was a bad slip.

Update 5/25/08: I take it back. It was no slip.

Campaign News Blues

McCain's campaign is already negotiating with Obama's to set up debates this fall, Hillary having patronizingly been relegated to the redundant pile. Redundant or not, she's racking up a hefty campaign debt, which Obama has indicated he might be willing to help pay off. Fine, but do it with your own money, bub. Your contributors didn't send their money to you to have you turn it over to somebody else. Hillary put her own money in her coffers. Why the bail-out? There's a definite need in this country for campaign finance reform, and the debt and resolution part of it is right up there at the top of the list of needs.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Primary Colors

Dem strategist Robert Zimmerman reacts to the campaign contribution news.

"But the point is that the nomination will not be determined by how much money is raised, but by which candidate is best able to mobilize voters with a message. That's why I believe Hillary Clinton will be nominated and elected President.

   article

Not thinking clearly, apparently.

Since Obama's contributors (100,000+) number more than Hillary and John Edwards together, I'd say that even by Zimmerman's yardstick, Obama's still ahead.

I may be way off track, but I think the only way the Democrats can lose the 2008 election is if they run a woman. Any woman. And maybe particularly that woman.

Okay, another way is if the GOP still has control of the voting machines.

Buying the Top Job

Democrat Barack Obama raked in $25 million for his presidential bid in the first three months of 2007, placing him on a par with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and dashing her image as the party's inevitable nominee.

  Yahoo article

And kept quiet about it while Clinton's campaign was a-hootin' and a-braggin' for three days.

Hillary's campaign collected $26 million. And there's a couple of other key points. Number one:

The [Obama] campaign reported that the figure included at least $23.5 million that he can spend on the highly competitive primary race. The Clinton campaign has yet to disclose how much they can use for the primary [versus] money that is designated for the general election.

Read the article for how that works.

It seems Obama's donations, unlike Hillary's, have been small, individual donations from people not giving the maximum allowable, and who could therefore contribute some more later. (Of course, Hillary also has $10 million from her Senate campaign left over that she can throw in the pot.) Obama says he doesn't take money from PACs and lobbyists.

And, number two:

While Clinton has honed a vast national fundraising network through two Senate campaigns and her husband's eight years as president, Obama launched his bid for the White House with a relatively small donor base concentrated largely in Illinois.

[...]

[H]is early opposition to the Iraq war and voter excitement over his quest to be the first black president quickly fueled a powerful fundraising machine.

The race is on, Miss Inevitable.

"We should actually be publicly financing these campaigns," Edwards said. "We shouldn't be doing these money contests. They're not healthy, they're not good for democracy. Public financing is the answer."

Said Edwards, who has only raised $14 million.

But, he's right, of course. I wonder if he was pushing for that idea when he was running with the big money on Kerry's team.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Bush Meets Russian General

Sorry. I'm just going to lift the whole article...(but do visit Raw Story; they've always got unique bits and breaking news.)

US President George W. Bush met this week with a Russian general linked to atrocities in Chechnya, the White House said Thursday, while suggesting that the meeting should not have taken place.

Bush would have been "unlikely" to sit down with Russian General Vladimir Shamanov had the president known about allegations tying the general to the massacre of Chechen civilians, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush met with Shamanov as part of an effort to "reinvigorate" the work of a Russo-US commission on prisoners of war and missing-in-action soldiers, Perino told reporters.

"The president was attempting to reinvigorate that commission. That's why he agreed to this photo-op(portunity) with the official. The president was not aware of the allegations made against him (Shamanov)," said Perino.

Shamanov was one of three Russian generals in charge of a federal intervention against separatist rebels in breakaway Chechnya launched on October 1, 1999, now nearly into its 15th month.

He was removed from duty in January 2000 following allegations he turned a blind eye to the massacre of civilians in a Chechen village southwest of Grozny. But officially he quit his job for reasons for ill-health.

  Raw Story article

Yes, we are all too familiar with the old "quit because of my health" defense.

Did anybody check? Where was Karl? Was this more CIA vetting?

Lordy.