This is interesting:

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison -- who famously declared Bill Clinton to be the nation's "first black president" -- is endorsing Barack Obama for president today, an Obama campaign source tells ABC News.

In an October 1998 essay in The New Yorker, Morrison wrote: "Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime."

This is a double edged sword for Obama imo. The Media will love it as they will see it as a rebuke to the Clintons. It will get a lot of play.

The downside is EVERY story will focus on Morrison's "first Black President" remark. NOT exactly the focus Obama would want it seems to me. If I was on Obama's team, I wonder if they might have wanted to not have this one AT THIS TIME. But what do I know?

It is sad that it is even necessary. But Krugman provides it:

Whatever hopes people might have had that Mr. Clinton would usher in a new era of national unity were quickly dashed. Within just a few months the country was wracked by the bitter partisanship Mr. Obama has decried. This bitter partisanship wasn’t the result of anything the Clintons did. Instead, from Day 1 they faced an all-out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at hand to discredit a Democratic president. For those who are reaching for their smelling salts because Democratic candidates are saying slightly critical things about each other, it’s worth revisiting those years, simply to get a sense of what dirty politics really looks like.

Ezra Klein yesterday wrote:

Publius of ObiWi seems to think it is possible:

Here’s the point (and I'd welcome conservatives' thoughts on this) – Obama seems to be steadily gaining likeability points on the other side just because he happens to be fighting the Clintons. Any enemy of the Clintons can’t be that bad, the argument seems to go. . . . All that said, whatever likeability points he’s gaining now may not matter as people fall back into party lines for the election. But then again, it doesn’t take all that much peeling off of modern coalitions to create a landslide win.

Actually, it will take a significant amout of peeling off, say 5-10% at least. More than that there are two problems with Publius' argument. More . . .

Via Open Left:

[T]hree Florida polls released today all show Romney gaining. Zogby now shows a 30%-30% tie, while yesterday McCain lead 31%-28%. Insider Advantage shows Romney ahead 26%-24%, whereas yesterday it was a 23% to 23% tie. Rasmussen shows Romney extending his lead to 33%--27%, whereas three days earlier Romney only led 27%-23%. In fact, the last four polls conducting Florida tracking show the state moving from McCain 25.5%--23.5% Romney, to Romney 29.3%--27.8% McCain.

Let's go Mitt!

Proving yet again that the Right continues to not fire on all cylinders, Right bloggers Protein Wisdom's Dan Collins and Darleen's Place seem to miss the tongue in cheek nature of my "rules" and the actual point of my post "The Media and The 2008 Election: The Perfect Storm of Clinton Hate.

Darleen accuses me of:

jaw-dropping self-parody (really too giggle inducing to be labeled nascent fascism as it would otherwise be deserved)

Earth to Darleen, my "rules" are not serious. No fascism being advocated here. They are intended to sarcastically parody the rules applied in the Dem contest BECAUSE of the Media's hatred of the Clintons. But of course I forget that she believes that the Clintons are Media Darlings against all the evidence and indeed, admissions of the Media.

No need to worry though Right bloggers, the Media does not hate the GOP, especially not St. John McCain. I am sure the Media will be quite ok with the smear campaigns that would be launched by the GOP and the Right against Obama should he be the Dem nominee. I am confident you will NEVER have to write a post like the one I wrote.

Wolf Blitzer and the AP are reporting that Senator Ted Kennedy, a giant to many of us, will endorse Barack Obama.

Obviously, this is a huge endorsement, as far as endorsements go, for Barack Obama. And good for him. But endorsements simply are not that important.

As an aside, while Ted Kennedy has every right to endorse whomever he chooses, given the tenor of the campaign at this time, I would have preferred he remain ostensibly neutral in this campaign. It would have been better for Party unity. But what I want does not matter.

Big good news for Barack Obama.

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.

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.