Former President Bill Clinton is taking on a greater role Hillary's campaign. The Wall. St. Journal today:

His relentless approach to battling Barack Obama -- on the trail and inside the campaign -- is becoming key to Sen. Clinton's newfound success, as she has won four of the last six primaries.

He believes the campaign should be stronger in its attacks on Obama. He's also increasing his campaign appearances.

Mr. Clinton also told the campaign to double the number of his daily appearances. "Look at this schedule -- you've got me down for four events," he said the week before Pennsylvania's primary, according to one operative. "Give me six, eight a day. Get me to the suburbs where I can make a difference."

His involvement has had a positive impact. In the rural counties in PA where he campaigned for Hillary, she got more votes: [More...]

The DNC Rulea and Bylaws Committee will meet May 31 to decide whether the DNC exceeded its authority in stripping FL and MI delegates because the states held early primaries.

The plan under consideration: Allowing all the superdelegates to vote and giving the pledged delegates 1/2 vote (or only seating 1/2 the pledged delegates.

Michigan lost 128 pledged delegates and 28 superdelegates, for a total of 156. Florida lost 185 pledged and 25 superdelegates, or a total of 210.

If it were valid, Florida's election would have given Clinton 105 delegates to Obama's 67. Michigan's would have given Clinton 73 delegates, while 55 were uncommitted. That means awarding half-delegates would give Clinton 89 more delegates and Obama 33.5, with 27.5 uncommitted.delegates.)

More...

Supporters of both Obama and Clinton seem unable to even consider a Unity Ticket. I think that is exactly why it is necessary. The divisions are extreme now. They are not ideological. Heck, how could they be? There is not a dime's worth of difference between the candidates on the issues.

Some want imagine there is some huge philosophical war going on - some New v. Old Politics fight to the finish. That is delusion or a grasp at thinking there is something really meaningful to this nomination fight. Others have absolutely no concern about the divisions in the Party. Indeed, there is more concern about the probable winning candidate's base:

The Field’s presumed qualifications are that it will be a Catholic Democrat of evident competence and experience, a team player, and someone the nominee and his base consider ready to be president.

(Emphasis supplied.) We already know how immature Nancy Pelosi has been. I wonder if there are any grownups left in the Democratic Party.

If Rep. Darrell Issa has his way, you'll need to read the fine print carefully before signing up with an Internet Service Provider:

Issa suggested that Internet providers could get "consent from every single person who signed up to operate under their auspices" for federal police to monitor network traffic for attempts to steal personal information and national secrets.

Issa's plan would give the FBI yet another mechanism for invading your privacy.

"That's very troubling," said Greg Nojeim, director of the project on freedom, security, and technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It could be an effort to achieve, through unknowing consent, permission to monitor communications in a way that would otherwise be prohibited by law."

Do you really want to consent to an an "FBI-can-monitor-everything clause" when you sign up with an ISP? Since most of us would balk at such a blatant invasion of our privacy, and since people who send us email (particularly from another country) may not themselves have consented to sharing their thoughts with the FBI, Issa has a back-up plan which, unsurprisingly, is even worse. (more...)

Read Somerby on Olbermann. Scroll down to "The Torch Is Passed."

Countdown has almost surely become the most propagandized show in cable “news” history. Yes, you can still find pure crap in the mainstream press. But pure crap abounds now on Countdown.

Obama's O'Reilly is Olbermann. This is an Open Thread.

Comments now closed. Thread cleaned of some insults. Not finished yet.

Howard Dean said:

[Superdelegates] have every right to overturn the popular vote and choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat John McCain in a general election. . . If it's very very close, they will do what they want anyway. . . I think the race is going to come down to the perception in the last six or eight races of who the best opponent for McCain will be. I do not think in the long run it will come down to the popular vote or anything else.

I hope Howard Dean is wrong. While it is true the super delegates have the power to vote by any criteria, I hope they respect the will of the people as demonstrated by the popular vote (the pledged delegate count is NOT a reflection of the will of the people.) I know Jeralyn disagrees with me, but calculating who is more electable and ignoring the will of the people is simply wrong in my view.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

A new Rasmussen Pennsylvania poll finds Hillary Clinton still more likely than Barack Obama to beat John McCain in in November.

Key points:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Pennsylvania finds McCain with a statistically insignificant 44% to 43% advantage over Obama. Clinton attracts 47% of the vote against McCain while the Republican earns 42%.

Two weeks ago, in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a nine-point lead over McCain and Barack Obama had an eight-point edge over the Republican hopeful. Now, however, Clinton’s lead is down to five points and Obama trails McCain by a point.

More results:

....Clinton is currently supported by 78% of Democrats, Obama by 65%. Among unaffiliated voters in the state, McCain leads Clinton by twelve and Obama by five.

Obama's favorability ratings are down in the state: [More...]

American Research Group has released a new Indiana poll. Hillary leads Barack Obama, 50% to 45%. 5% are undecided.

Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 51% to 43% among men (43% of likely Democratic primary voters). Among women, Clinton leads 56% to 40%.

Clinton leads 55% to 39% among white voters (85% of likely Democratic primary voters). Obama leads 91% to 7% among African American voters (11% of likely Democratic primary voters).

Obama leads 55% to 41% among voters age 18 to 49 (51% of likely Democratic primary voters) and Clinton leads 59% to 35% among voters age 50 and older.

25% of likely Democratic primary voters say they would never vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary and 34% of likely Democratic primary voters say they would never vote for Barack Obama in the primary.

Where have we heard all this before? Everywhere.

As I've written before, Barack Obama tends to be all over the place on gun rights.

Via Instapundit and Say Uncle, I see he has given a new interview to the Chicago Sun Times on his position.

In it, Obama argues for federal legislation putting more cops on the street (a position shared by Hillary who has issued a detailed plan on the topic) and for more gun control laws.

Here's what he had to say: [More...]

The trial of former Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano on illegal wiretapping charges was just about to wind up. But the Government today decided to call a rebuttal witness to impeach the credibility of former police sergeant Mark Arneson, one of Pellicano's co-defendants, and it blew up in their face. The witness may now be charged with a crime and the Judge is considering a mistrial.

Allison Hope Weiner has been in the courtroom and writes up what happened for Huffington Post. For those of you who like good trial theater, this is it.

Today, Tweety (NBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews) brings up Bill Clinton's 1990 promise to not run for President in 1992. To Tweety this proves what untrustworthy people the Clintons are. Of course, Tweety is oblivious that, unlike Hillary Clinton who made no such statement, Obama also said he would not run for President:

Russert: When we talked back in November of ‘04 after your election, I said, “There’s been enormous speculation about your political future. Will you serve your six-year term as United States senator from Illinois?”

Obama: Absolutely. I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not changed.

Russert: So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?

Obama: I will not.

I do not write this to criticize Obama. Pols do this type of stuff all the time. I write this to criticize the brazen and shameless hypocrisy of Tweety and NBC. Their hatred of the Clintons deranges them.

By Big Tent Democrat

Greg Sargent reports (a report marred by some nonsense which I will discuss below) that Keith Olbermann expressed regret for his unfortunate remarks:

This line drew some very sharp criticism from The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, who noted acidly that Olberman could "only mean one thing: Beating the crap out of Hillary Clinton, to the point where she is physically incapable of of getting up and walking out."

Which prompted Olbermann to send Sklar an apology:

It is a metaphor. I apologize: the generic "he" gender could imply something untoward. It should've been "only the other comes out -- from a political point of view." You could've called for reaction first if your main motive had merely been criticism.

Here is my question - shouldn't the apology be directed to Hillary Clinton, not Rachel Sklar? More . . .