As a follow-up to my earlier post about Samantha Power and surrogates gone wild, Drudge reports Barack Obama has renounced and rejected his senior foreign policy advisor's remark to a Scottish newspaper that Hillary Clinton is a monster.

According to Drudge (the only place right now this is appearing):

Statement from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton: Senator Obama decries such characterizations which have no place in this campaign...

ABC News reminds us:

In December, Obama said he had "been very clear to my campaign. I do not want to see research that is involved in trying to tear people down personally. If I find out that somebody is doing that, they will be fired. And I have been absolutely crystal clear about this, and I have been clear about this for a very long time."

Also check out Martin Lewis at HuffPo.

I want to know more about Samantha Power besides her educational and publishing background. If Obama is elected, she could be in his cabinet. What are her positions on foreign issues?

Ann Althouse has new information about the dirty tricks I first reported about campaign shenanigans in Tuesday's Texas caucuses.

Ann says it's a likely explanation for why Obama is winning in caucus delegates but not in primary votes.

Just another reason to avoid caucusing at all cost now. Caucuses can work when they are held as originally intended...for small neighborhood groups of voters to get together in a room and discuss the candidates and policy and then advocate for their choice and vote. They don't work when you have hundreds of people lined up to get in, are limited to designated two hour period and descend into chaos.

The caucuses I attended this year in Iowa and Denver were chaotic. Texas sounds worse. I hope the Dems learn from this experience.

In the latest edition of Surrogates Gone Wild: Obama's key foreign policy aide Samantha Power has called Hillary Clinton "a monster."

We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.

"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

Power is a Harvard Law grad.

Ms Power was head-hunted by Barack Obama to become his foreign-policy adviser in 2005 and combines this role with her job as a Time magazine columnist and professor of practice of global leadership and public policy at Harvard.

Will Obama fire her? He should.

Comments over 200, now closed.

Update: Little progress has been made:

"Although there have been a lot of conversations about how to assure that our delegation is seated, the logistics and cost of any firehouse primary may simply be insurmountable," said Liz Boyd, Granholm's press secretary.

...Granholm's comment instantly deflated hopes in Michigan of finding a solution, barely a day after expressions of optimism. "That took the oxygen out of the room," said one Democrat in the middle of the discussions, who talked about the deliberations on the condition of anonymity. "I'm regrouping."

Update: A Michigan state legislator was just on CNN. He said there are no concrete plans for a do-over be it a primary or a caucus. While there have been discussions, nothing has been decided. He is an Obama supporter. He's telling everyone to slow down, a do-over decision (or whether it would be a primary or caucus) is not certain. He also acknowledged that he supported the early primary and the reason for it was to be more relevant. He said they made their bed, they will lie in it.

Contrast this to Florida where the primary was moved up because the Republican dominated legislature forced the early date on them.

Big Tent Democrat has another update below the fold.

***

Just in from the New York Times:

[Update, 6:30 p.m. The D.N.C. also wants it to be known that Mr. Dean doesn’t necessarily oppose the “re-seating” of these delegates. Mr. Dean offers up the options of a do-over or an appeal to the credentials committee.]

[More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

I think a lot of folks are getting the message on Florida and Michigan. While some vociferous Obama supporters are adamant against counting Florida and Michigan, others are realizing that Obama and, more importantly, the Democratic Party will suffer badly from this situation. As a result, Obama folks like Chris Bowers and Mark Schmitt are urging a different type of solution. Schmitt aims his advice directly at Barack Obama:

Here's the answer, and it's a little off the wall: He should offer a major concession. Agree to seat the Florida delegates from the January primary, along with a do-over caucus in Michigan. Don't concede the full legitimacy of the Florida primary, but just acknowledge that all the candidates were on the ballot and the expense and political cost of a do-over is too high. Seating the Florida delegation would be conditional on a do-over caucus in Michigan. . . . The advantages to Obama here are tremendous: it puts him firmly on the record in favor of enfranchising both states, it denies Clinton a second win in Florida, it shows a more magnanimous and graceful brand of politics than the win-at-all-costs mania we're witnessing from the Clinton camp, and it draws out the actual mathematical challenge she faces, without the fudge-factor of Michigan and Florida.

I think we have made some progress on this when the position being urged upon Obama by some folks who support him, very smart folks too, is that Obama should seat the Florida delegates based on the prior vote and re-do Michigan. BTW, we have to count the votes towards determining who is winning the popular vote too. Do not pretend those were not real people voting. Otherwise, we could redo by mail.

The new World's Greatest Pollster, SUSA, released its 50 state electoral maps today. Kos has a good discussion of the results, which show both Clinton and Obama garnering narrow victories over McCain.

My own thoughts are that while there are some incredible results, no way McCain wins New Jersey against either Clinton or Obama for example, it does demonstrate some basic points. First, while Obama clearly expands the electoral playing field, he also is the bigger risk in key battleground states. There is more risk and more potential reward with Obama as the nominee.

Clinton is clearly stronger, imo, in the big battleground states and she clearly flips Arkansas. Obama in most Western states. This is tied in part to the demographic makeup of their support and Hillary longstanding baggage. Because Obama will be better treated by the Media, he could expand the map. He could also get wiped out.

If Obama can prove some big state strength in PA or in a revoted FL or MI, then his superiority is proven and he will have earned the nomination. If he does not, then Clinton will have a chance to make her case.

(By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only.)

Hillary Clinton today released her specific plan for Afghanistan. Among the points: Redesign the counternarcotics plan:

She will target enforcement against drug lords, labs, and corrupt officials, not farmers. Using the inspirational agricultural programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal as a model, she will propose to the international community and the Congress a multi-year program to develop Afghanistan’s agricultural sector to provide alternative livelihoods. This is the best way to undermine the terrible nexus of drug lords, corrupt officials, and Taliban who are now strangling the legitimate side of Afghanistan’s economy. This would mean an integrated approach to agricultural development that employs all resources from seeds to fertilizer, irrigation to electrification to roads, and markets to education.

On building the country's security and police force, she will ask NATO to step up to the plate. Isn't that was Obama should have done when he chaired the Foreign Relations subcommittee that had oversight over NATO in Afghanistan?

Barack Obama's February fundraising numbers are out. He raised $55 million.

In other news...

With Hillary's wins Tuesday, more superdelegates supporting Obama are holding off saying she should withdraw. Other superdelegates are holding off on endorsing period.

Obama faces an uphill battle in Pennsylvania.

John McCain is stepping up the inexperienced argument against Obama:

When asked if he would meet with Raul Castro of Cuba, McCain turned his answer into a criticism of Obama. “I would not in any way, as Senator Obama wants to do, legitimize an individual who has been responsible for education, repression, political prisons and a gulag,” McCain said. "I don't know if [Obama] is naïve or not, I know he is inexperienced.”

This is an update to my late night post last night, which at the time seemed just an amusing late night tidbit.

Wyoming is turning serious. There are 23 county caucuses in the state Saturday. In addition to Bill, Chelsea and Obama, Hillary's going too:

• 03/07: In Cheyenne - Hillary Clinton Attends “Solutions for America” Town Hall
• 03/07: In Casper - Hillary Clinton Attends “Solutions for America” Town Hall
• 03/08: Election Day

Does the outcome matter? The AP reports:

The number of registered Democrats has grown by more than 1,000 since the start of the year, the secretary of state's office says. Republicans have 136,000 registered voters, compared to 59,000 Democrats.

[More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Perhaps Howard Dean wants to clarify his remarks in light of this from Marc Ambinder:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting several Republican House seats in both states (FL-08, FL-09, FL-13, FL-24, MI-07, MI-9).

Democratic strategists are worried about the DNC's tough no-compromise-on-the-rules stance and want a compromise. Dem candidates in these districts are getting pummeled in town hall meetings on the subjects of getting their delegates seated. And many of their major donors are beginning to pressure them to pressure the presidential candidates.

Michigan and Florida is EVERY Democrats' problem.

By Big Tent Democrat

Hillary Clinton supporter Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida has called for a revote:

"The Democrats in Florida want their votes counted under the principle of one person, one vote. And we're a little sensitive about our votes not being counted. And so, if the only way to do that is to do it over, then I would support that." . . . "I have written to Howard Dean today to say, if you're not going to seat the Florida delegation, then pay for another election, and let's get the party unified, and let's get Florida and Michigan seated," Nelson said, adding that if the DNC doesn't get this resolved it faces a “train wreck.”

Obviously Nelson is tacitly speaking for the Clinton campaign here. Time to put some pressure on Florids Governor Charlie Crist to put Florida's money where his mouth is.

36 hours, $4 million online raised by Hillary. Not bad.

She's now trying for $6 million in 48 hours.