By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

Now she wants to fight for revotes:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s hopes of ending the primaries with game-changing victories from new contests in Florida and Michigan grew dim on Tuesday as Florida officially scuttled plans for a new vote and Michigan lawmakers appeared far from a deal.

In a sign of how badly she thinks she needs the Michigan delegates to catch the Democratic front-runner, Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton made a last-minute schedule change and planned to fly to Detroit on Wednesday to plead with Michigan lawmakers to approve a new primary election in June to replace the January contest that awarded no delegates.

“We will go and make the case for a revote,” said Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama’s campaign has resisted a new contest, saying that Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count and that the Clinton camp was trying to change the rules to suit itself.

(Emphasis supplied.) I hope this ends once and for all the silly theory that it was Clinton who was resisting revotes. The Clinton Uncertainty Theory propagated by Mark Schmitt and adopted by pro-Obama bloggers should be officially dead now. BTW, Clinton was too slow on this. She needed to do this last week.

The Government's star witness, Stuart Levine, took the stand Monday in the corruption trial of Tony Rezko. He's a defense dream for a witness.

Levine was charged with corruption along with Rezko but pleaded guilty and agreed to testify. Technically, Levine could be sentenced to life in prison, but he said he hoped prison time would be limited to about 51/2 years in return for his cooperation with the government.

Levine dressed for and sounded the part assigned to him by the Government:

He displayed the demeanor of a practiced public speaker and lawyer and hardly the picture of a strung-out drug abuser that Rezko's attorneys hope will damage his credibility.

What about that drug use? [More...]

The Kinks. All day and all of the night. In recognition of the incessant news coverage today and tonight of Barack Obama's speech. Enough already.

This is an open thread.

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A new St. Petersburg Times, Bay News 9 and Miami Herald poll finds one in four Florida Democrats may abandon the party if their Jan. 29 votes aren't counted.

Howard Dean and Barack Obama may insist Florida’s Democratic presidential primary was meaningless, but a new poll shows Florida Democrats aren’t buying it, and one in four may not back their party's nominee in November if Florida winds up with no voice in the nomination.

Twice as many Clinton supporters -- 56 percent -- want the Florida primary to count as do Obama supporters -- 27 percent. Still, even among Obama supporters, the idea of counting that primary is slightly more popular than holding a new election or dividing Florida’s delegates evenly between the two candidates.

Key findings: [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

I hope Obama's speech worked politically today, for the sake of the Democratic Party. It was certainly a beautiful speech.

Meanwhile, PPP released a PA poll today. It is not surprising that Clinton leads Obama by 40 points among whites. What is surprising is PPP's finding that Clinton gets 27 percent of the African American vote.

Chris Bowers at Open Left has been numbers-crunching:

Obama needs 471.5 of the 875 remaining delegates, or 53.9%, in order to reach the magic number.

Clinton needs even more, 489.5 of 875, or 56.0%. Both scenarios are extremely unlikely.

Those numbers are very close to each other. Put another way, Hillary is only 18 delegates behind Obama in the race for the next 875.

Chris then makes predictions. But they all start with his (probably educated)guess that the credentials committee will refuse to seat MI and FL because it will have more Obama supporters than Hillary supporters on it. But these committee members like superdelegates can change their support at any time, and not all of them have declared, so I'm not prepared to agree with that. That said, here's how Chris sees it playing out:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In my earlier discussion about why Hillary Clinton should fight for revotes in Michigan and Florida, I noted that most bloggers, including Kos, had adopted Mark Schmitt's view that Clinton did not want revotes in Michigan and Florida - she wanted uncertainty. Now that it appears that there will be no revotes, Kos adopts my view of this Clinton uncertainty/revote issue:

A Quinnipiac poll out today shows Hillary Clinton has expanded her lead over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania over the past three weeks.

Among likely Democratic primary voters, she now has a 12 point lead, 53 to 41%. On Feb. 27, she led Obama 49% to 43%.

Hillary increased her lead among women while narrowing Obama's lead among men. The numbers:

• White voters go with Clinton 61 - 33 percent, compared to 56 - 37 percent February 27.
• Black voters back Obama 76 - 18 percent, compared to 69 - 23 percent February 27.
• Women back Clinton 59 - 35 percent.
• Men go 48 percent for Obama to 45 percent for Clinton, compared to February 27 when men backed him 50 - 43 percent.
• Obama gets 50 percent of Democrats with a college degree, to Clinton's 45 percent.
• Among voters with no college degree, Clinton leads 57 - 37 percent.
• Voters under 45 back Obama 57 - 39 percent while voters over 45 back Clinton 60 - 34 percent.

Quinnipiac says the momentum is with Hillary. As to race: [More...]

Back in September, I wrote about the arrest of NORML Founder Keith Stroup in Mass. at a rally for smoking a marijuana cigarette.

The case is headed to court Thursday morning. Keith and his co-defendant are challenging the constitutionality of the law criminalizing adult pot possession and use, and are requesting a jury nullification instruction:

[Their motion asks] the trial judge to inform the jury of their right to return a not-guilty verdict if, in their view, the defendants’ actions did not amount to criminal conduct.

This long-held traditional power of a jury — to refuse to convict if its members agree that such a conviction would create an injustice — is fundamental to the jury’s role as the bulwark of American individual liberty.

A copy of their motion to dismiss is available here. There will be a press conference at Boston's Batterymarch Conference Center after the hearing.

Cheers to Sen. Chris Dodd for introducing S. 2627 this week. The bill would amend the Higher Education Act to end mandatory elimination of financial aid to students with drug convictions. Loss of financial aid would only occur if the state or federal judge sentencing the student orders aid suspension.

The bill adds a new paragraph to the aid loss section of the statute that reads:

This subsection shall only apply to a student if the Federal or State court that convicted the student of an offense described in paragraph (1) has ordered that the student's eligibility for assistance under this title be suspended in accordance with this subsection.'.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy says:

Although the penalty should be repealed outright, the judicial
discretion bill would tremendously reduce its impact by turning it into an opt-in punishment instead of an automatic one. Take action now by spending one minute to edit and send a pre-written letter to your senators!

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. So far there are no co-sponsors.

ACLU Washington executive director Kathleen Taylor has an op-ed in today's Seattle Times, Let's Talk About Marijuana. It begins:

A College student loses his financial aid because of a youthful indiscretion. A woman coping with the ravages of ovarian cancer lives in fear of being arrested for using what best eases her suffering. Across town, a front door bursts open and police rush in to handcuff a man relaxing in his living room.

These events have one thing in common: marijuana. Whether it is being kicked out of college for a youthful mistake, being denied relief from pain as a cancer patient, or getting arrested for personal use in one's home, marijuana laws have far-reaching consequences.

The consequences greatly outweigh any danger or risk posed by marijuana. [More...]