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What kind of impact has the Palin pick had on MSM coverage? We've gone from wall-to-wall adoration of last night's speech, to—literally within hours—Andrea Mitchell having to remind viewers of some guy named Barack Obama. Mitchell was kibitzing the choice of Palin with Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson and Time editor Rick Stengel. Not merely did the liberal [see here and here] Stengel praise Palin, he even compared her favorably with . . . Hillary Clinton. And Mitchell closed the segment by acknowledging that Obama had been "overshadowed." RICK STENGEL: She has a very, very appealing story, and one of the things...

Just how did Barack Obama (D-IL), a rather undistinguished state senator, get elected to the U.S. Senate and without doing anything noteworthy in that august body go on to capture his party’s nomination for president before even finishing out his first term in Congress? A combination of heartlessness and happenstance - and some say, caucus fraud. Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog, chosen an Official Honoree in the Political Blogs category by the judges of the 12th Annual Webby Awards (the Oscars of the online universe) along with CNN Political Ticker, Swampland (Time...

Very few Republicans have made it onto MSNBC air during the networks' Dem convention coverage, but even that is apparently too much for Keith Olbermann. As Chris Matthews was interviewing GOP consultant Mike Murphy in the interlude between Bill Clinton and Joe Biden tonight, Olbermann could be heard off-camera angrily demanding "let's wrap him up, alright?" It was Murphy's surmise that, in the privacy of the polling booth, Bill and Hilary would pull the lever for McCain that seemed to set Olbermann off prompt him to call for the hook. View video here.

Hillary, dressed to avoid a hunting accident, was all about Hillary last night at the convention. She didn’t tell us about Barack Obama’s character, his ability to lead the United States in a troubled world or even how he would thump John McCain in November. Her speech boiled down to: Obama’s the nominee and I support Democrats, so I support Obama. That is it. She even got in a couple of nice digs . . .

The Barnicle clan should be grateful Mike landed the MSNBC gig. It could have been tough making ends meet had he chosen a career in used-car sales. I base that on some hilarious footage from today's Morning Joe, as Mike failed to persuade a Hillary fan to back Barack. And don't miss Mike Murphy's brilliant analysis of Hillary's speech, at the end. At 7:35 AM EDT, a Hillary supporter, Judy Duval of Fort Collins, CO, was brought by the set, still sporting her Hillary button. Under questioning from Joe Scarborough, Judy said that Hillary's speech was great but hadn't convinced...

Keith Olbermann has forgotten the figure-skating judge's cardinal rule: be sparing in the marks you award early contestants, to leave room for the favorites who perform at the end. After his gushing appraisals of Michelle Obama's and Hillary's convention speeches, how can Olbermann possibly top it in his praise of Biden's and Obama's to come? Mixing metaphors here, let's compare the baseball-analogy grades that the Morning Joe crew gave Hillary's speech at show-opening today with Olbermann's assessment of last night. As you'll see, they range from solid single to Keith's grand slam. View video here.

Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann put their own feud aside to agree on something tonight. Hillary honcho Howard Wolfson is a puppet, nay, a Tokyo Rose traitor, for going to work for Fox News. It was the McCain campaign's use in its ads of Hillary's anti-Obama statements that triggered the outburst. KEITH OLBERMANN: Irony upon irony, instead of the commercials designed to destroy Hillary Clinton, [the Republicans] are using Hillary Clinton in commercials designed to destroy the Democratic nominee. CHRIS MATTHEWS: Those are crocodile tears. And you wonder whether an objective person, either rational or post-rational, would be able to...

Carl Cameron is reporting that if you are looking for Hillary to carry any water for Barry, you've got the wrong girl. Here's Ace's take. But the gist is: Yeah, she'll knock the "Bush/McCain" economy, but she won't "lay the wood" to them (not her job), and she'll support Obama, but she's not going to be making the case for Obama (or party unity), because that's also not her job. So she's announcing "Yeah, I'll do the minimum required of me, but gee, if you wanted me to be an attack dog, you should have made me Veep, and if...

As frustrated Democrats converged on Denver yesterday, some began chanting "caucus fraud," while others shouted the word "sweetie," a reference to the time Obama called a female reporter by the same name. One Clinton supporter who spoke to ABC News said Obama couldn't be trusted. Another said, "He's shifty and untrustworthy." It was assuredly not the kind of message Obama and his diligently image-conscious team were counting on at the Democratic National Convention. "I'm thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic Party. I believe the magic of Barack Obama was his ability to turn lifelong Democrats like us into McCain supporters overnight,"...

They don't care if they make Chris Matthews happy, or if they make Hillary Clinton look bad. They don't even care that she wants them to stop. "This is where you see the civil war!" burbled Chris Matthews, experiencing near-asphyxiatory pleasure on an outdoor stage in the sweltering Denver heat, while behind him two competing groups, Obama supporters and the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) backers of Hillary Clinton, chanted "Obama! Obama!" and "Hillary! Hillary!" at each other. Matthews looked as though he might wet himself as a camera panned the crowd, and he declared, "We're at ground zero!" Actually,...

Rendell: 'Bad Person' Wouldn't Support Universal Health Care Pennsylvania governor says Clinton's fight for 'universal care' in line with Obama By Paul Detrick Business & Media Institute 8/25/2008 5:43:43 PM An opponent of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s health care proposal is a “bad person” in Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s book, even if that opponent is Sen. Hillary Clinton. “Hillary has fought for universal health-care for all her life. The McCain plan is respectfully a joke. Sen. Obama has a real good plan to bring health care to every American,” Rendell told CBS “The Early Show” co-host Harry Smith...

Tonight on stage in Denver Hillary Clinton, one of the most accomplished practitioners of the fine art of political deception, will pull off the biggest stunt of her career so far. In her speech to the Democratic convention Mrs Clinton will have warm words for Barack Obama. She will pledge herself to work for his election in November. She will urge her campaign supporters and the millions who voted for her in the primary to bury their differences and throw their support behind the nominee. She will, no doubt, describe herself as humbled. Don’t believe a word of it. There...

Bad poll numbers for Barry the night before the big show. The Hillcats are tearing him up. “Even last week, just before his choice of Joe Biden as his running mate became known, most polls tended to show Obama with a single-digit advantage over McCain,” adds Holland. [snip] So what’s the difference now? It may be supporters of Hillary Clinton, who still would prefer the Senator from New York as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Sixty-six percent of Clinton supporters, registered Democrats who want Clinton as the nominee, are now backing Obama. That’s down from 75 percent in the end...

Obama hires a random white guy as the V.P. and he thinks that will bring the Hillary folks back into the fold? Think again. Have a nice convention Barry. Better add a few truck loads of catnip to the grocery list or you are gonna need a whole lot more tazers and cages in Denver.

The full text of the ad is below: Script For "Passed Over" (TV :30) ANNCR: She won millions of votes. But isn't on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth. On his plans: HILLARY CLINTON: "You never hear the specifics." ANNCR: On the Rezko scandal: HILLARY CLINTON: "We still don't have a lot of answers about Senator Obama." ANNCR: On his attacks: HILLARY CLINTON: "Senator Obama's campaign has become increasingly negative." ANNCR: The truth hurt. And Obama didn't like it. JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

It's just a hunch, mind you, but Hillary, Bill and even Chelsea will be speaking covering two nights at the Democrat Convention, so it seems they are on friendly terms with Obama, so if Hillary wasn't picked as VP running mate, or even on the short list, what else would appease her, but a promise to be the first judicial nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States.

That didn't take long. Exactly five minutes before Obama's official text message went out this morning, Howard Fineman had an article up at Newsweek praising the process by which Obama picked his running mate. Fineman found much to like about how Obama handled things. He even turned lemons into lemonade, claiming Hillary really didn't want to be considered and that Obama "did her a favor" by not doing so. First, the praise: "The minute-by-minute story of how Obama handled the selection is interesting, and revealing of the way the Democratic nominee works. He insisted on the utmost secrecy; he paid...

Don't worry, Barack. Hillary has absolutely no intention of pulling Lucy's football away from you during the Democrat convention next week. So it is absolutely safe for you to go ahead and kick that football in the form of allowing Hillary's name to be placed into nomination during the roll call vote. Most DUmmies, although irked that Hillary is still striving for attention, seem to have no fear about Hillary at the convention as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Clinton's creating a 40-member team." Yes, they believe that it is safe for Hillary to bring a political...

Barack Obama is planning to announce his VP pick via text message to his supporters. So in the spirit of the times, let's text message something to Sen. Obama: Brck: b fraid. b vry fraid. hlry stl h8s u. That's what we glean from this startling piece of video of Hillary, supposedly on the campaign trail for Obama today in Florida. Chris Matthews aired it at the top of tonight's Hardball: HILLARY CLINTON: I am doing everything I can to campaign for Senator Obama. I think it's fair to say that I have done more, as Senator Rich said, in...

Is it "wishful thinking" for Republicans to imagine that Obama will take Hillary as his running mate? CNN's Ed Henry thinks so. He made the comment to anchor Heidi Collins in a report on the veepstakes during CNN's 9 AM EDT hour today. HEIDI COLLINS: Another name keeps bubbling up: Hillary Clinton. Ed Henry is on the VP watch yet again today. Alright, so what do you think today, Ed? Because I know yesterday it might have been different. ED HENRY: Well it's interesting. You mentioned Hillary Clinton. This name has been surfacing over the last 24 hours. Some Democrats,...

Comic goes on another tear, vows to vote Cynthia McKinney for president. Roseanne Barr has followed up her Brangelina tirade with a verbal assault on Barack and Michelle Obama, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, and Democrats overall. The liberal comedian's latest blog rant also blames Oprah Winfrey's support of Obama for taking away primary votes that would've gone to Sen. Hillary Clinton. Below is Barr's posting in its entirety: democrats want to lose and therefore did not fully vet the candidate they shoved down everyone's throat. I am the first blogger to blog about...

After hearing her name placed in nomination at the Democrats’ convention next week, Hillary Clinton will no doubt urge her followers to support Barack Obama. What good that gesture will do for the Obama candidacy remains to be seen. Clinton already has made it several times, but a new Pew Research Center poll shows that 28 percent of her primary voters do not intend to vote for Obama, a number virtually unchanged from June. Of special concern are women, particularly older ones, whom in the past could be counted on to vote for whichever Democrat was running for president. Many...

WASHINGTON -- A massive e-mail and Internet campaign is under way aimed at derailing the nomination of Barack Obama and making Hillary Clinton the party's standard bearer next week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. "It's downright nasty," said Myron Lowery, a superdelegate and City Council member from Memphis, Tenn. He shared dozens of messages he's received with The Commercial Appeal of Memphis. Lowery said he does not think Clinton herself is behind the effort, but that it's "her supporters, acting on their own because they're proud of what they have done for her." Most of the messages Lowery...

A brother of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and local Democrats who backed her unsuccessful presidential campaign socialized privately Monday with a top surrogate of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. The private gathering featured Carly Fiorina, Mr. McCain’s top economic adviser, and took place at the Dunmore home of political consultant Jamie Brazil, a longtime friend of Mrs. Clinton’s family who has signed on as paid national director of Mr. McCain’s Citizens for McCain Coalition. The attendees included Tony Rodham, Mrs. Clinton’s youngest sibling, his wife, Megan, and their two children; attorney Kathleen Granahan Kane, who...

Image from Gawker.There are very few sure things in politics. One is that Barack Obama will change his opinion on the issues. The other is that the Clintons are nearly impossible to destroy. And so, since Barack Obama will not be the nominee until the Democrat Convention is over, and it ain't over yet, Hillary cannot be counted out. There are reasons to think something is cooking over in Camp Clinton.

It's not only funny for the Affirmative Action slam, it gives Hillary voters a real reason to vote for Johnny Mac.

a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal. “Our toast to The One,” they say in unison, “is that he’s toast.” “Obama should have picked you, Hillary,” John McCain tells her. “It isn’t fair, my friend. But it just makes it easier for me to whup him.” Hillary replies. “I’m looking toward the future now, a future that looks very bright, once we send Twig Legs back to the back bench.” “He’s a bright young man, but he got ahead of himself,” McCain says. “He needs to be taught a lesson, and we’re the ones to do...

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention August 14, 2008 11:09 AM ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News. "Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said. "It's to honor everyone...

This is a torturous month of what-ifs for Hillary Clinton and her still substantial number of followers. First, they have to wonder if the Democrat-friendly media that helped her for so long may have doomed her by refusing to follow a John Edwards adultery story that could have given her the Iowa win that Barack Obama used as his nomination springboard. Instead, Hillary and her followers will have to make do with a Tuesday night convention speech the week after next. But she could have accepted the nomination that Thursday night if only she had followed the instincts of discarded...

The ostensible subject of Maureen Dowd's column of this morning, Yes, She Can, is the way that Hillary, with a big helping hand from Bill, is undercutting Obama and casting a shadow over his upcoming convention. But did Maureen bury the lead? Tucked down as her 12th paragraph comes this [emphasis added]: The Clintons know that a lot of Democrats are muttering that their solipsistic behavior is “disgusting.” But they’re too filled with delicious schadenfreude at the wave of buyer’s remorse that has swept the Democratic Party; many Democrats are questioning whether Obama is fighting back hard enough against McCain,...

For all that has been written and said about Hillary Clinton’s epic collapse in the Democratic primaries, one issue still nags. Everybody knows what happened. But we still don’t have a clear picture of how it happened, or why. The after-battle assessments in the major newspapers and newsweeklies generally agreed on the big picture: the campaign was not prepared for a lengthy fight; it had an insufficient delegate operation; it squandered vast sums of money; and the candidate herself evinced a paralyzing schizophrenia—one day a shots-’n’-beers brawler, the next a Hallmark Channel mom. Through it all, her staff feuded and...

Turns out Hillary's campaign had a strategy that would have killed Obama's fledgling campaign in its crib but didn't use it in time. Mark Penn, the top campaign strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign, advised her to portray Barack Obama as having a “limited” connection “to basic American values and culture,” according to a forthcoming article in The Atlantic. [snip] Penn, the presidential campaign’s chief strategist, wrote in a memo to Clinton excerpted in the article: “I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and...

Bill and Hillary Clinton are undermining Barack Obama by fanning the flames of division within the Democratic Party rather than being advocates for unity.

Huh? Hillary Clinton is actually working to undermine Barack Obama? But how can that be? We thought the Democrats were all one united family now happily singing Kumbaya together. Yes, the DUmmies are finally waking up to harsh political reality as you can see in this THREAD titled "ABC - Hillary still telling friends in private that she doubts that Obama can win." And now they are mad that Hillary has cast aspersions upon the electibility of their Obamassiah. So let us join the DUmmies screeching in outrage at Hillary in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble...

Hillary Clinton supporters will march through Denver during the Democratic National Convention to show appreciation for the New York senator's historic primary run and urge the party to place her name in nomination.

This is a terrific analysis of a major political shift that has occurred here in the USA during the recent primaries. The article’s author uses a review of a left-wing book to help make his case that the moderate policies of the Democrat Leadership Council have been swept aside as the party returns to the craziness that doomed them in previous elections, and explains the viciousness of the tactics the left uses when confronted.

There's no current wisdom more conventional than that which has Hillary Clinton entirely out of the veepstakes. Take the opening of yesterday's Hardball, for example, with Mike Barnicle sitting in for Chris Matthews. MIKE BARNICLE: It didn't get much notice in the media and it didn't show up in any newspaper obituary pages, but the idea of a Democratic ticket of Obama and Hillary Clinton died a very quiet death this week. How did the dream-team ticket disappear so fast and so quietly? Introducing a later segment, Barnicle displayed a statement from a group that had been pushing the idea...

Whatever bump His Rockstarness got in the polls from his concert, summer vacation, foreign policy training trip visit to Europe and the Middle East has vanished. The RCP average has Obama up by 2.6% today and McCain is trending up. The Gallup poll was tied yesterday, and Monday had McCain leading by 4, the first time since May any poll had him in the lead. What happens if Hillary supporters become (more) convinced that Obama is damaged goods and really start throwing sand in the gears at the convention?

Hillary Clinton Knew What MSM Knew But Didn't Report in January?Does Hillary Clinton read the Enquirer? Did Hillary Clinton know what the major news organizations knew back in December, but didn't report on: namely, that John Edwards had a problem--a "love child" problem? Did she "suggest" that Edwards get out of the race--which surprised some observers--or she would start asking some questions of her own? It now becomes clearer: if Hillary Clinton had started publicly asking "love child" questions back in February before Super Tuesday, that would have forced the press to cover the allegations. The same allegations that...

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., shake hands with supporters after she talked about support for Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) convention in San Francisco, Thursday, July 31, 2008

Imagine if a bunch of disgruntled Mitt Romney supporters were currently stalking John McCain or Republican events loudly demanding that their candidate be nominated. Think the national press would be featuring it bigtime as an example of Republican party disunity? Well, the same thing is happening except the people are disgruntled Democrats expressing their opposition of Barack Obama while loudly continuing to support Hillary Clinton. They are known as PUMA ("People United Means Action" or "Party Unity My Ass").  PUMA was formed last month in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton conceding the Democrat nomination to Obama. However, contrary to being just...

Does anyone know who (I think it was someone prominent) said something to the effect of this during the Dem primaries, that in picking Obama, the Dems had managed to find a candidate who made Hillary Clinton seem moderate and politically attractive? I'm trying to remember who said it, because at the time I remember thinking it was a scathing indictment of how radical that party has become.

Around two dozen Hillary Clinton supporters, some carrying signs saying "Dump Dean," attempted to shout down Democratic national chairman Howard Dean during an appearance in Charlotte today. The protesters, who described themselves as members of a group called "Charlotte Front and Center," shouted and waved signs as Dean spoke to about 150 people at a voter registration rally on West Boulevard. The demonstrators said they were protesting what they said was a decision not to put Clinton's name in nomination at next month's Democratic convention. Dean was briefly drowned out by shouts such as "I own my vote." "I'm gonna...

A company associated with Hillary Clinton's top presidential campaign advance staff has purchased a website domain that hints of a 2012 presidential bid for the vanquished senator from New York. HRC2012.com was bought by the Markham Group on June 8, according to whois.com Greg Hale of the Markham Group served as a key advance aide to Sen. Clinton, organizing political events for the campaign. The Markham website calls him the "lead consultant for advance and visual messaging." Partners Paul Neaville and Robert McClarty (the son of former White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McClarty) also worked on Clinton's advance...

At least that's what it'll look like to Obama. The Wall Street Journal reports that Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and senior adviser to Sen. John McCain, met with a group of 25 prominent supporters and fundraisers for Sen. Hillary Clinton at a private home in Westchester County, NY. The group included several so-called "Hillraisers," each of whom have raised in excess of $100,000 for Clinton's failed primary campaign. An organizer of the meeting, Amy Siskind, said that the pro-Hillary groups represented pledged to help deliver, "hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of votes," to McCain if the groups find...

Yesterday, Barack Obama tried on his most unconvincing costume–that of commander-in-chief–giving a national security speech at Purdue University and submitting his plan to keep America safe: The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also released a nine-page document on “Confronting 21st Century Threats,” in which his campaign said the White House, Congress and some U.S. allies had succumbed to a mind-set of “conventional thinking [that] has failed to adapt to a world of new threats.” If Obama is so concerned with the rigidity of old school approaches, why did he try to stifle the most radical shift in national security thinking–the Petraeus...

Well we must apologize... Tonight on Patriot Action Live we wanted to take at least one half of the Hillary Clinton Challenge. On Saturday, appearing before the American Federation of Teachers, New York's Junior Senator, one time First Lady, and one time Democratic Presidential Hopeful Hillary Clinton, the candidate that proved it was not only possible to squander a huge lead over her rival, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, but that she was just the person to do it, said that this campaign would be a tough one, but that it shouldn't be. She would then go on to elaborate saying...

Mika Brzezinski might be an Obama backer, but she really should sit down with Hillary Clinton. The woman who turned $1,000 into $100,000 could clue her in to the workings of the commodities markets. Be it cattle or crude oil, the concept's the same: these are "futures" markets in which prices are set on traders' expectations of what conditions will be some time down the road. Mika's need for urgent remedial help on the matter became evident during the first minutes of today's Morning Joe. Ostensibly fulfilling her news-reading function, Mika veered from the prepared text to inject her own...

The world's most listened-to talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh (over 30 million regular listeners) has developed a program known as "Operation Chaos." This program is designed to get conservatives, Republicans and others to register as Democrats and cross over to vote in primary states, to keep the contest going up until the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Many feel that "Operation Chaos" has helped to keep Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), the former First Lady and wife of former President William "Bill" Clinton, in the race against the neophyte candidate Senator Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL). With Senator Clinton still...

This shirt won a contest on Hillary's site. They received 5,000 submissions and 125,000 people voted for their favorite. Hillary says. While the primary race may be over, I think the winning t-shirt -- and it won by a landslide -- still makes a wonderful statement about everything you and I accomplished in this historic race and our determination to keep fighting for what we believe in. Hmmm. Fighting John McCain? I think she may be reminding us Obama is only the presumptive nominee. The Country Music design, here, wasn't among the finalists. Go figure.