The Clinton Saga Ends Saturday

Finally, at long last the tumultuous journey that Hillary Clinton has been on will come to an end. It was a hard one to bring to a close but now we have confirmation she will endorse Senator Obama as the nominee this Saturday. Even last night as Obama crossed the threshold by earning enough delegates, Clinton gave a speech that touted her misleading popular vote count and single win of the night in South Dakota. Except for a few lines, there was no message of unity and certainly not one that addressed the reality of the race. Tonight that is thankfully changing.

From The NY Times:

Her decision came after a day of conversations with supporters on Capitol Hill about her future now that Mr. Obama had clinched the nomination. Mrs. Clinton had, in a speech after Tuesday night’s primaries, suggested that she wanted to wait before deciding about her future, but in conversations throughout the day on Wednesday, her aides said, she was urged to step aside.

“We pledged to support her to the end,” said Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Mrs. Clinton since she first ran for the Senate. “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”

Mrs. Clinton’s decision came as some of her most prominent supporters — including former Vice President Walter F. Mondale — announced they were now backing Mr. Obama.

Most likely what happened today was a series of denials and refusals by influential Democrats on Capitol Hill that told her she had run out of gas. Some probably talked regretfully (like Rangel), others were pressing her to concede and the rest told her that the way she was going at a V.P. nod was absolutely insane. If she wanted that, Clinton should have met Obama privately. Of course that may have happened and after being denied, she went public...something that made the situation worse. Thankfully she realized tonight that she should stop digging and start helping the nominee. Time will only tell what her conduct will be from now until November, but it will definitely have a bearing on how her political future unfolds.

Get Back To Congress Ronnie

I am sad to say that Congressman Ron Paul is about to head back to Congress and step away from his Presidential aspirations. Even after raising tens of millions of dollars and acquiring many rabid fans, the delegate count just isn't high enough for him (less than ten versus several hundred for McCain gives you long odds). Now that we are steaming through February, primary season is looming in the Great state of Texas and Ron Paul ultimately wants to save his Congressional hide.

From The Politico:

Last night, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman sent a message to his supporters signaling that he was scaling back his presidential bid.

The most telling passage:

"I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen."

Same as Kucinich, Paul has seen a real primary threat emerge back home. In both cases -- and see my colleague Josh Kraushaar's piece as a primer -- the challengers have made the case that the local congressman is gallivanting around the country on a quixotic quest, has lost touch with the folks back home and has taken stances out of line with the district.

Ron Paul may not be a Don Quixote, but with his millions in campaign funds, it'll be interesting to see what he'll do with that cash. Running for reelection in his part of Texas only costs a fraction of what he's got. Rumor has it The fact is the NRCC is nearly broke (and under investigation) and I'm sure they would love some of that dough. Though I doubt that Ronnie would be too willing to part with it for the type of Republicans that the NRCC tries to recruit.

Forty Million For Nothing

To the astonishment of many, Mitt Romney effectively dropped out of the race today, suspending his candidacy in front of an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He will hold onto his delegates, but no longer will he actively seek more. The statistical probability of him beating McCain is slim to none and for quite sometime now he has simply been spending throwing burning money at an alter to himself and for some conservatives, the anti-McCain candidacy. He leaves Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee to withstand the Maverick schmuck from Arizona further into the primary season.

And of course, he didn't go without a parting shot at Democrats, as ridiculous as it was:

"I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney said. "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win."

"And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," he said.

"This is not an easy decision for me," Romney added. " I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters... many of you right here in this room... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America."

Well I guess liberals don't love America, do we Mr. Romney? One thing is for sure, we love America even more now that you are gone and out of the race, diminishing the slight chance you had to continue the destruction of the Constitution by winning the race (which was highly un-probable from the get go.

At least we'll have one less voice spouting the GOP crap that they love using to bash liberal Americans. Too bad for Mittens it cost him $40 million out of his own pocket for all of that nonsense.

And Then There Were Two

This morning the news was leaked that John Edwards will be dropping out of the race, marked by a speech in New Orleans this afternoon. Although it pains me to write the name "John Edwards" next to the phrase "dropping out of the race" it was evident that this scenario would come to bear a long time ago. See, when you run a campaign to fight the fundamental ills of our society it can only be an uphill battle. John set out to bring light to the dire poverty that runs rampant in our country. Of course we don't see it very often, the media and advertisers do a good job of showing you what you should become instead of what actually happens to millions of Americans.

When he announced his candidacy in the Ninth ward over a year ago he showed us that our nation was not working and something had to be done. His participation in the debates and the race as whole moved the two other candidates to speak about progressive issues. John led the way in the debate about health care, fighting poverty and against the corporate greed of Wall Street. Instead of attracting a mega following like Obama, the media dogged him about a haircut, a fucking haircut!

As Barack and Hillary would go after each other in a tit for tat fashion, Edwards tried to calm the two and bring the debate back to the substance and policy ideas that the audience wanted to hear. In fact, when most people watched the three way debate, they favored Edwards...but then the media narrative before and after these events rubbed him out of the picture. The AP's article linked above called his campaign scrappy, but this man is anything but scrappy. He has been an inspiration to us all. His family is an inspiration and his message is as well. Who knows where he goes from here, but his presence will be missed on the campaign trail.

Kucinich Makes It Official, He's Out

Yesterday we got wind that Congressman Kucinich is dropping out of the Presidential race and will begin to compete to keep his old job representing Ohio's 10th district in Cleveland. Even after running once before, he is hardly known outside of Democratic activist circles and Cleveland because the media rarely covers him. In fact, he was excluded from several debates because many deem him so unelectable. Not only that, all the time he has been running for President has hurt him at home.

From The NY Times:

Mr. Kucinich, a former mayor of Cleveland and a six-term congressman, has a tough primary fight on his hands in Ohio’s 10th Congressional District. Four other Democrats are trying to defeat him on March 4.

One of his rivals, Joe Cimperman, a member of the Cleveland City Council, has been running commercials calling Mr. Kucinich a “part-time congressman” more interested in seeking higher office. And Mr. Kucinich recently posted an “urgent personal appeal” for contributions on his Congressional re-election Web site.

Well I don't know if I'd go so far as to call him a part-time Congressman. He certainly has done a lot for Cleveland over the years. For decades he has represented the area as City Councilman, Mayor and Congressman. Even though the nation never caught on with Dennis, as long as he recommits to his constituents he should be able to hang on for another term in Congress, doing things based on principle, things like.....this.

Uh...Uh...Uh...Goodbye Fred...Uh...See Ya...Uh...Later

Now its official, officially.

Separating Fred

Besides some hype at the beginning, there really never was much to the Fred Thompson campaign. For a few moments, conservatives touted him as the man who would win over the country, bring a Reagan-esque quality of candidate to the race and from that, he'd raise tons of cash and volunteers. Of course we knew this wouldn't happen and now it looks like this car crash is being towed to the junkyard.

From The Politico:

“Without a solid third-place finish, there’s no point in going on,” a Thompson adviser said Wednesday. “It was an honorable race, and he turned out to be a good candidate. The moment had just passed.”

A Thompson campaign source said there is “a strong likelihood” that if Thompson comes in a distant third in Iowa, with less than 15 percent of the vote, he would drop out soon—most likely before this weekend’s New Hampshire presidential debates.

The Thompson sources said they were describing a consensus expectation that is now widespread among his political circle, not announcing a decision that the candidate himself has definitively reached.

Fred dropped the ten ton weight on his foot when he said the campaign needed a second place finish in Iowa, something highly unlikely to happen tonight. He is averaging 11.5 points in the polls, higher than Paul or Giuliani but still in 4th place. As of this weekend, Republican voters will have one less candidate to choose that they can't stand.

Oh and of course, he's denying it all. Talk to us in a few days Fred, if you are still around at all.