Bob Somerby has documented well Frank Rich's hatred of Al Gore and the Clintons. And of course everyone is entitled to their opinions, but in his column today Rich accuses people of living in fairy tales while creating his own. Consider this:

People don’t change. Bill Clinton, having always lived on the edge, is back on the precipice. When he repeatedly complains that the press has given Mr. Obama a free ride and over-investigated the Clintons, he seems to be tempting the fates, given all the reporting still to be done on his post-presidential business. . . . “The Republicans are not going to have any compunctions about asking anybody anything,” Mrs. Clinton lectured Mr. Obama. Maybe so, but Republicans are smart enough not to start asking until after she has secured the nomination.

This is too funny. Does Frank Rich want to explain how HE knows about all this? Does he REALLY think the public is going to be "shocked" by whatever Whitewater-like triviality he thinks he knows about? But Rich has a history of believing in fairy tales. Last year he believed and tried to sell the fairy tale of John Warner getting us of Iraq. His history of fairy tale writing against Al Gore is notorious. Frank Rich lives in a glass house of fairy tales. Here is what Frank Rich needs to do - help us to enforce the new Obama rules. That would help, as opposed to his spinning more of his sad fairy tales.

Regarding the Media coverage of this primary season it now seems clear that there is a new rule that objectivity and appearances thereof are out the window. Certainly at NBC this is true. From the far right commentators like Joe Scarborough to the liberal newscaster Keith Olbermann and Establishment columnists like Eugene Robinson and Margaret Carlson any pretense of not openly rooting against the Clintons has now been discarded. NBC's performance last night was unlike any other I have seen outside of Fox News. Olbermann, who likes to trash Fox, properly in my view, should pause for a moment and consider how much his broadcast last night resembled Fox.

But Barack Obama has an opportunity here to make these new rules, as they pertain to him, lasting. And so does the progressive blogosphere. I have long stated that Obama is a Media Darling, and indeed it is one of the main reasons I tepidly support him for the nomination. Here are some of the rules that Obama and progressives should look to enforce through to the General Election:

Here's the vote tally for yesterday's South Carolina Democratic primary. Here's the map of counties.

A few observations I didn't hear on tv last night:

• While Hillary and Edwards only won one county each, in several counties, their combined totals exceeded Obama's. Among them: Anderson, Chesterfield, Cherokee, Lancaster, Lexington, Newberry, Pickens, Spartanburg and York.

• Hillary drew more votes than Obama in Oconee County, which was won by Edwards.

More...

This video of Hillary hugging two shrieking middle-aged female fans, who in a post-hug interview (at 58 seconds in) act like it's 1964, they are 13 and just met the Beatles, is hilarious.

If they are representative of the commitment of female voters over 50 to Hillary, and I suspect they are, they are going to give Obama's youth voters a run for their money.

I hope you watch it, it's a good laugh before turning off the computer after a long, dismal night of the worst television reporting and commenting in recent memory.

Bob Novak just said on Fox News that Condoleeza Rice might well be John McCain's running mate.

Is that to provide a hedge against both Obama and Hillary? Or another pundit's attempt to reduce the presidential contest to race and gender?

The problem is that too many people will realize whoever McCain picks as VP has a high chance of becoming president and I can't think of anyone who would say Condi Rice is equipped or qualified to be President. In fact, that's a very scary proposition.

My vote for the worst political pundit on tv, the one who is the least informed, least qualified, most biased -- who is such a relic that all his references are to ancient events with no current relevance -- is Carl Bernstein on CNN.

He's an embarassment to CNN and he may be enough to make me switch to another channel.

Who's your least favorite pundit?

Hillary is speaking from Nashville, Tennessee. Chelsea is with her. (Update: Video here.)

She talks about "Fighting for a new future for America."

She congratulates Obama and thanks the people of South Carolina. After that, she says now the eyes of the country turn to Tennessee and the Feb. 5 states...including Florida.

She says the crowd is bigger than they anticipated. She wants to continue the conversation she started a year ago. She wants the election to be about the next generation and the young people.

Her voice drops, she's really hoarse. She's speaking very conversationally, CNN cuts her off, saying she's into her "stump speech" and says you can finish watching her on cnn's website.

Edwards is on now. He joins the Clintons in congratulating Barack Obama.

Now "the three of us move on" to February 5th.

He's in. Good for him. He's working really hard and he's got important things to say.

Poverty, health care, veterans, the middle class, the homeless, people who want to go to college, "your voice will be heard in this campaign." That is so much more reassuring to me than hope and change.

He ends with, if you haven't yet voted on Feb. 5, "your voice will be heard and we will be there with you."

Update: Text of Edwards speech is here.

Caroline Kennedy in Sunday's New York Times, writes "A President Like My Father."

Shorter version: It's all about change. He's inspiring to her children. Hope, vision and again, change.

On his experience, aside from his three years in the Senate and community organizing:

in Illinois... he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years.

This is a disappointing piece, very short on substance.

Keith Olbermann came out of sports so I know he knows that cheering in the press box is frowned upon. But he has led a broadcast from the beginning of the night to the end that has been in essence a cheerleading session for the demise of the Clintons.

I guess this is their revenge for New Hampshire. Tweety must be kicking himself tonight to miss out on the party.

In all seriousness, this was an atrocious performance from NBC. From top to bottom.

Hilariously, NBC continues to be a joke. They now scold Hillary for speaking after Obama. NBC has jumped the shark. When Obama conceded in New Hamopshire, the concession part was a minute and then the speech went on and on. No one cut him off. Keith Olbermann's perforamcne has been utterly disgraceful.

Barack Obama is expected to make his victory speech any minute. Here's a place for your thoughts on it.

As always, the Media simply lacks common sense. They are taking Obama's rout of Hillary in South Carolina as proof that, as Keith Olbermann puts it, that "this is one campaign too many" for Bill. This is pretty obtuse. There are 21 states to campaign in on Super Tuesday. None of them are South Carolina. Even if you think Bill Clinton hurt Hillary in South Carolina, and I am not sure about the evidence on that, does anyone think having President Clinton campaign for the next 10 days across the country is a bad thing? There's the Media's Clinton Derangement Syndrome rearing its head again. Silly folks.