If the Obama campaign is behind Rep. Jim Clyburn's boneheaded attacks on the Clinton camp, they are making a big mistake. Sending Clyburn on to Olbermann tonight (when Rev. Wright will be on Bill Moyers, Wright will be making speeches the next two days as well) to make racially inflammatory and ridiculous charges is just plain dumb. Craig Crawford writes:

Once again, a racial dispute over Bill Clinton’s words erupts in advance of a Deep South primary where African-American voters are crucial. And once again, Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., is at the forefront of attacks against his party’s former president. . . . Clyburn is leveraging his status as the highest-ranking black leader in Congress to stir the pot in advance of North Carolina’s May 6 primary. . . . The danger for Obama is that another racial meltdown in the Democratic Party could add to his already complicated efforts in appealing to some white voters.

Complicated indeed, especially after Clyburn throws the dynamite. This is a terrible mistake. On Olbermann, Clyburn tried to walk it back. Too late. Damage done. If the Clintons were REALLY willing to do anything, they would go after Clyburn for this.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

(Comments now closed.)

Via Confluence, Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe says:

Fairly or not, the majority of voters don’t trust Senator Clinton.

Well, fair or not, voters think Obama lacks experience. Which all goes to prove, Geoff Garin was right.

By Big Tent Democrat

The Gallup Daily tracking poll shows a boost for Hillary Clinton and a tie between her and Barack Obama wth Obama at 48% and Hillary at 47%.

The latest results, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from April 22-24, include two days of interviews conducted entirely after Tuesday's Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Support for Clinton is significantly higher in these post-primary interviews than it was just prior to her Pennsylvania victory, clearly suggesting that Clinton's win there is the catalyst for her increased national support.

Obama's lead dwindled steadily all week, falling from a high of 10 percentage points in interviewing conducted in the three days just prior to the Pennsylvania primary. However, the percentage of Democrats supporting Obama has changed little (declining from 50% in April 19-21 polling to 48% today). Most of Clinton's increased support (from 40% to 47%) has come from previously undecided voters.

Hillary is also doing better than Obama against John McCain: [more...]

The U.S. Sentencing Commission says 3,000 crack cocaine sentences have been reduced since the guideline amendment went into effect in March.

There are 19,500 inmates serving time for crack cocaine.

In the 40 or so motions I've seen filed in Colorado (cases in which I had one of many co-defendants) the Government seems to file an objection to every request. It either says the guideline doesn't apply or the court should exercise its discretion and deny the relief.

I've mentioned before that the reductions are small, and only apply to a limited group of defendants. I only have one client out of dozens of crack defendants I've represented who appears to be eligible for relief. Sure enough, the Government is opposing the request.

The Sentencing Commission's report is great news for the 3,000 who have obtained relief so far, but it's a drop in the bucket as to what's needed. Congress needs to change the mandatory minumum sentencing laws. It needs to make the penalties for crack cocaine and powder the same without raising the levels for powder. [More....]

Keith Olbermann's latest: A discussion with Howard Fineman about the need for a superdelegate to "take [Clinton] into a room and only he comes out."/p>

Bloggers say he called for Hillary's murder. Here's a different take by RiverDaughter at Confluence:

Ok, so I interpret your statement to mean that you would like a superdelegate to take Hillary Clinton into a room and somehow intimidate her, you don’t specify how, to drop out of the race and that at the end of this process, only one of them, preferably the superdelegate, would emerge.

Hyperbole? A figure of speech? Sexist? Or a call to snuff her out?

Clinton pollster Geoff Garin asks some fair questions:

So let me get this straight. On the one hand, it's perfectly decent for Obama to argue that only he has the virtue to bring change to Washington and that Clinton lacks the character and the commitment to do so. On the other hand, we are somehow hitting below the belt when we say that Clinton is the candidate best able to withstand the pressures of the presidency and do what's right for the American people, while leaving the decisions about Obama's preparedness to the voters.

Who made up those rules? And who would ever think they are fair?

Indeed. but double standards rule the day. Consider this inane post:

Elizabeth Drew writing in Politico confirms what we have been seeing for months - the House Dem leadership is populated by fools. Consider this unforgivable ignorance:

[T]he congressional Democratic leaders don’t draw the same conclusion from Pennsylvania and also earlier contests that many observers think they do: that Obama’s candidacy is fatally flawed because he has as yet been largely unable to win the votes of working class whites. They point out something that has been largely overlooked in all the talk – the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries were closed primaries, and, one key congressional Democrat says, “Yes, he doesn’t do really well with a big part of the Democratic base, but she doesn’t do well with independents, who will be critical to success in November.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Ohio was an Open Primary. Indeed, the exit polling indicated that 69% of the Ohio vote was Democrats, 16% was Independents and 9% was Republicans. Clinton and Obama split the Republican and Independent vote equally. Clinton won Democrats 56-42. In case these all important House Dem leaders are interested. This is their profession. This is their business. And they do not even know basic facts like this. What a incompetent leadership group we have in the House. Just pathetic.

(By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only)

The FL/MI issue will not go away:

Other Florida Democrats -- led by Hillary Clinton supporters -- are turning to public protests to keep the pressure on the national party. Rallies are planned Saturday in seven Florida cities, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, to demand that the national party count Florida's delegates. Hundreds of activists are also expected to ride buses to Washington to rally Wednesday.

"This has to do with our civil rights," said Millie Herrera, a potential Clinton convention delegate and the president of the Hispanic Democratic Caucus of Florida. "No one has the right to invalidate our votes."

The Creative Class of the Democratic Party wants this issue to go away. It will not.

(By Big Tent Democrat)

MSNBC and Reuters are reporting that a US cargo ship fired upon an Iranian boat in the Persian Gulf. This event makes Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen's statement on Iran even more ominous:

Recent combat operations in Southern Iraq in Basra highlighted yet again Iran's activities in ways that very specifically pointed to activities which, in fact, resulted in the deaths of coalition soldiers. And I think for the ability to create stability in that part of the world that not just this alliance, but those who are allied, will have to deal with Iran in the very near future."

Kevin Drum has Mullen revising and extending his remarks.

It is in this context, that Hillary Clinton's umbrella of deterrence proposal is shrewd politically and as a matter of policy. It deserves debate in the Democratic contest.

Criminal defense attorney Gerry Goldstein, lead counsel for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has wasted no time in filing a blistering attack on the raid on the polygmanist sect's Texas compound:

At the crux of the 39-page motion Goldstein filed Thursday in the Texas 51st Judicial District Court on behalf of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a revelation that the man authorities were looking for, Dale Evans Barlow, was in Arizona at the time of the April 3 raid. Texas Rangers searched the polygamist sect’s Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, for a week after receiving reports from a woman claiming to be a 16-year-old named Sarah Jessop, who alleged that Barlow was sexually abusing her. However, police now suspect the reports were a prank engineered by a woman in Colorado Springs with a history of false reporting.

More...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of the Trinity Church, gives his first interview since becoming a household name to Bill Moyers on PBS tonight.

You can watch a clip and read some details of what he says here.

I was struck by his comments that Barack Obama's race speech was "the politican talking."

Wright said he was hurt by what he considers unfair use of the sound bites, but understood why Obama had harsh words about his statements during a speech on race that the candidate delivered in Philadelphia. Wright said he is obligated to speak as a pastor, but Obama addresses audiences as a politician.

"I don't talk to him about politics," Wright said. "And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician.

Hillary Clinton said after her Pennsylvania win that the tide is turning. Thomas Edsell, political director of Huffington Post, today says the media has begun to turn on Barack Obama.

For the first time, reporters working for magazines, newspapers and web sites have abruptly decided that she might well be right, and the results for Obama have been brutal....

....The new tenor of media coverage is visible almost everywhere, from Politico, Time and The New Republic to The Washington Post and The New York Times.

....The first hard punch was thrown by my friend and colleague John Judis in a widely distributed piece on The New Republic web site, filed sometime around 3AM Wednesday, seven hours after polls closed in Pennsylvania. In the article titled, "The Next McGovern," Judis writes: [more...]