A new WaPo/ABC poll shows Obama gaining supporters from John Edwards:

NET LEANED VOTE: 11/18/07 7/31/07

Barack Obama 30 27

Hillary Clinton 26 26

John Edwards 22 26

Edwards has decided to run a negative campaign filled with personal attacks on Hillary Clinton. If Edwards' goal is to help Obama, his tactics are working well. If he is trying to win, his tactics are disastrous.

BTW, the WaPo story is headlined "Clinton Slips . . " As you can see, it is Edwards who lost support. Clinton's support is exactly the same as this poll showed in late July.

Some may not believe this, but I have been bending over backwards trying to become a solid supporter of Barack Obama. I really do believe he has a bundle of political talent and generally holds sound views on most issues. But as I have written since 2006, he has simply failed to be the type of Democratic politician we need in this political climate (See my many posts on Obama for more detail.)

Recognizing this problem, Matt Yglesias defends Obama:

I also think I should take my hat off to Hillary Clinton's campaign -- I think this has been less a failure on Obama's part, then cleverness on Clinton's. She's managed to position herself on foreign policy issues in a way that signals her differences with Obama very clearly to the tiny community of specialists while completely blurring them to the broader audience of voters. I'm not sure how this can be overcome . .

I am sure how it can be done and should have been done for the past year at least - by leading on the issues NOW. As Markos writes:

I don't know how many times I've written this, and maybe I'm just wasting my time, but rather than talk about leadership, Obama and Clinton could actually shows us what that leadership looks like by fighting to prevent the Senate from capitulating on Iraq.

More.

Minnesota can say goodbye to U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. She's being transferred to a job at Main Justice in D.C.

Now, how hard was that? Should have been done months ago. Background here.

Last week Rudy Giuliani touted Bernie Kerik's crime record. Now, in a speech calling for wants a virtual border fence instead of a real one and in response to critics who say he turned New York into a sanctuary city, he touts his own.

"The policies that I utilized with regard to illegal immigration were in the context of overall policies that probably were the most successful in the history of the country in creating an orderly, legal, lawful society," he said.

His arrogance knows no bounds.

Las Vegas criminal defense lawyer David Chesnoff is everywhere these days.

Two weeks ago, he got a good result for Darren Mack, charged with killing his wife and shooting a judge (life with parole after 20 years rather than life without parole which is what he would have gotten if the jury didn't buy Mack's insanity defense.)

He's representing David Copperfield in the alleged sex assault investigation stemming from an incident in the Bahamas, which he calls a "smear campaign." Last week he got deportation proceedings halted against an Iranian World Poker player.

And now, he's gotten boxer Mike Tyson a sentence of 24 hours in jail on a felony cocaine possession and DUI charge even though the prosecutor asked for a year in jail. Tyson's success in rehab convinced the judge not to hammer him. Nice job, David.

I just received an e-mail from the John Edwards campaign, written by John's mother Bobbi. It's very clever -- on two levels. She writes:

As a member of our campaign family, If you donate just $20.08 (for the year we'll elect my son the next president of the United States!), I'll send you Elizabeth's recipe for bread pudding, David and Judy Bonior's recipes for "Sweet Potatoes with Apples" and "Mushroom Soup," along with Joe and Kathy's recipe for "Old Fashioned Down on the Farm Country Stuffing" -- and my own special recipe for one of John's favorites, Mac n' Cheese! Click here to make a contribution and get five favorite Thanksgiving recipes!

Level one: You get something back for your donation -- that's a great selection of "comfort food" recipes and it gives you a homey, warm feeling just reading the list: Mac 'n Cheese, sweet potatoes, bread pudding.

Level two: While I have no data on this, I suspect that it's mostly women who are in charge of the family thanksgiving day menu and interested in holiday recipes. By offering the recipes, it seems like Edwards is targeting women voters, trying to take some from Hillary.

I've put a short poll below as to who chooses the Thanksgiving day recipes (not the menu)in your house:

Flailing presidential candidate Tom Tancredo met his match at a debate in New Hampshire this weekend.

Tancredo was pitching his "English only" plan, denigrating not just the U.S. but Europe.

Describing the United States as "the last best hope" for carrying on the ideals of western civilization, Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo called last night for an end to the nation's "bilingualization" and "Balkanization."

"I think Europe can not be counted on to help us in this endeavor," Tancredo said last night at Magdalen College in Warner. "They've already become, to a large extent, Islamicized. And that is worrisome."

Several audience members challenged him, including Siham Elhamoum, a recent college grad from Vermont [More....]

What a pathetic campaign the Democratic Presidential race has become. I could not be more disgusted by it. And the answer appears to be yes, the Obama campaign is mudslinging too:

Barack Obama has unveiled a new line of criticism against Hillary: In speeches he appears to have started to point to the allegation made in Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta's Hillary book that the Clintons secretly formulated a 20-year-plan to deliver the presidency first to Bill, and then to Hillary. "I'm not in this race to fulfill some long-held plan or because it was owed to me," Obama said the other day. Asked if that were a reference to the Gerth allegation, an Obama spokesperson left virtually no doubt that it was, telling Newsday: "Barack Obama has not been mapping out his run for president from Washington for the last 20 years like some of his opponents."

Shame on the Obama campaign. Shame on Democrats. This race has devolved into the pettiest, stupidest most substanceless campaign I think I have ever seen from Democrats.

I have long said this. Today, I am proven right:

Senate Democrats appear ready to omit Iraq withdrawal timelines from a supplemental spending bill in hopes of clearing in December funds for the troops — but House leaders have no intentions of following suit.

Good for Speaker Pelosi and good for House Democrats. Now who do we have to worry about? The eternal capitulation leaders, Hoyer and Rahmbo. Watch out for them.

The answer appears to be yes. Responding to this Edwards ad:

the Clinton campaign said:

"If John Edwards really cared about working people, he wouldn't have taken a $500,000 salary from a hedge fund that is foreclosing on working people around the country," said Clinton campaign spokeswoman Hilarie Grey. "Sen. Edwards should spend his time talking about how he's going to help those people instead of launching ridiculous attacks against Sen. Clinton."

Empty, stupid GOP talking points from the Clinton campaign. Awful. And in case you are wondering, I remain a STRONG supporter of NAFTA and free trade. Edwards is dead wrong on NAFTA and trade. Explaining why would be good from a candidate. But if unable to do so, going to personal attacks in response is unconscionable. Shame on the Clinton campaign.

At Daily Kos, Devil's Tower misreads a question and answer from the last Democratic debate. When pressed by Wolf Blitzer to choose between US national security and human rights, Chris Dodd said:

DODD: Obviously, national security, keeping the country safe.

Devil's Tower took this to mean that Dodd would compromise the Constitution:

The job of the president is to defend the Constitution. The Constitution first, the Constitution last, the Constitution always. Nowhere is the president given one inch of leeway to consider setting aside that Constitution in exchange for an illusion of security.

Devil's Tower is mistaken. What was being referred to by the question was US posture when human rights in other countries may conflict with US national security interests. Not when the Constitution might conflict with our own security interests. It is ironic that Devil's Tower misinterprets Dodd, who has done more to fight for the restoration of habeas corpus than any other member of Congress. More.

Sunday night is usually my favorite tv night. Not tonight. The American Music Awards pre-empted the good shows and the only other thing on was football.

I tried, I really did, to get into the Music Awards show -- if not for the music, for the dresses. Both were pretty dismal. The best of the music was Sugarland doing a song with Beyonce.

It made me long for the old days, when singers had personality and belted out their songs while having fun onstage. Here's Janis, and a live version of "Piece of My Heart" -- performed in Germany in 1970 1969. Watch how she invites the audience onto the stage and how much fun she's having.