As much as I disagree with Dick Morris's politics, I am impressed by his intellect.  I admire the calm, articulate way he replies to questions, and he is brilliant at what he does, as evidenced by Bill Clinton's long association with him and the frequency with which he is invited on TV.  He always has something cogent and original to say like in the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcB5vHKo 9k

(for some reason this blog doesn't let mey embed videos like other blogs do)

From Newshound, another display of disgusting, smearing tactics by Dick Morris, Obama Shill. Let's get this straight--if it were one of Clinon's people doing this, there would be no end to discussion about it and how "terrible" and "divisive" or "polarizing" those Clintons are. Why this disgusting double-standard?--enough.

He accused them of money laundering and watch how he snickers it up with Sean while poor Alan can't even get a word in.

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By L.C. Johnson (bio/blog)

I suppose it is too much to ask of Obama supporters to read the following material and appreciate the arrogance and ignorance displayed by Senator Barack Obama, but folks, it appears he is going to do for Africa what George Bush has done for Iraq. Only worse. He is taking sides in a tribal war in Kenya that is on the verge of becoming a Rwanda-like genocide.

Really? Let's start with this uncomfortable fact. The leader of the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement opposition leader, Raila Odinga, is Barack Obama's cousin. Barack may not put much stock in the relationship, but tribal allegiances are still strong in Kenya and Barack is clearly viewed as a Luo by his fellow tribesmen. Robert Ethan reported recently that:

Dick Morris, toe sucker extraordinaire and a guy who puts bread on his table by trashing the Clintons against whom he nurses a grudge ever since they fired him for the said toe sucking, put this piece out a few days ago.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/article s/2008/01/how_clinton_will_win_the_nomin .html

Remember he is someone who has no interest in promoting the Clintons so it's reasonable to assume that when he makes statements that fly in the face of his general philosophy they are at least worth noting. Of course he gets in the obligatory digs against them but his broad outline of the situation is very accurate I believe. It jibes exactly with the diary we've already seen on the Clinton spin coming out of SC and going into FL. I've also seen him on a couple of talk shows where the usual Clinton haters were prancing around with glee at the thought of Obama winning SC and his response was "so what." The Clinton's by a nefarious scheme in his book, and no doubt that of the Obama fans have succeeded in marginalising the result out of SC. I don't agree it was a nefarious scheme but I do believe that when Obama made a dumb move they took maximum advantage of the situation.

It's very clear they are going to make a huge deal of FL which is only three days away and where she will probably get over 50% of vote. Then it's only a week to super tuesday. If anyone has taken a serious look at the polls there is a high likelihood she'll win 18-21 states. Even if Obama walks away with some delegates there is no way he's viable after this and he should withdraw if it happens. Whether he will is another matter.

Morris's take is exeptionally perceptive so take a read.

I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron:

"We can't be a new story.  There's nothing we can do.  I can't make her taller, younger, male.  There's a lot of things I can't do." - Bill Clinton yesterday.

Today, Hillary Clinton will lose New Hampshire to Barack Obama - and it will be a wider margin than most polls suggest.  The question now is whether the nomination is already over and, if so, how soon will Clinton drop out.  I believe it is over, but the Clintons will probably take a while to acknowledge it.  While there are many ways that Obama could have overtaken her, progressives should be pleased that: (1) Obama's rise has not been at the expense of John Edwards, and (2) Bill Clinton has become her biggest liability.  The Clintons won't give up yet, but they'll keep digging themselves into a hole - while consultants like Mark Penn continue to lose credibility.

Even though I dislike Dick Morris, I always pay attention to what he has to say.  This is because he is a very good pollster, who has been correct more often than not.  The fact that he is a Republican and a Hillary hater makes anything good that he has to say about her more reliable -- he is unlikely to be "shilling" or overstating her favorables.  In my opinion, his reputation as a good pollster is at stake here.  He needs to call this coming election correctly.

He gave an interview in North Carolina yesterday on the state of Presidential campaign.  You can find the transcript of the interview here.

He was asked the following question: "If you're right and Hillary Clinton does cruise to the nomination, how do you think that her being on the ticket will affect Democrats in Southern such states as North Carolina running for local or state offices?"

He answered the question as follows:

I think she will help Democrats all over the country, because I think she'll bring out large numbers of women, particularly single women voters, and so I think she'll dramatically increase the turnout among single white women.... You know that I think she'd be a terrible president, but I do think she's going to win. And I think that she will, for example, carry North Carolina. The thing that everybody's missing, when they look at how polarizing she is, is that they are polling with the current electorate. And Hillary's strength is her ability to attract new voters who have never voted before but who see her as a kindred spirit who can help them in their own lives. In 1996, the phrase `soccer moms' was coined for voters ... that Bill Clinton attracted. In 2004 the word `security moms' was used to mean women voters who Bush attracted because of his anti-terrorist position. And I think that in 2008, `single moms' will be the deciding factor.

He also made comments about Edwards and Obama. He was asked following question: "John Edwards is trailing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in both polling and in fundraising. Why is he trailing, and how big is the gap?"  He replied as follows.

I think he's trailing because I think Democrats are in a kind of a time war. When we hear something good about Obama, they say, `Oh, he'll be a great president someday.' And when we hear something good about Edwards, they say, `It's too bad we didn't nominate him in '04.' And when we hear something good about Hillary, they say, `She'll be a good president now.' And I think that Edwards' time has just passed in the Democratic Party.... His last hope was that he had a residual lead in Iowa, because of his campaigning there in 2004 and his obsessive attention to the state since then. But that lead has now vanished, and Hillary's ahead and I think she's going to have an easy cruise to the nomination.

He was asked a follow-up question: "Is (Edwards) dead in the water? Is there any scenario under which he could make a run for the nomination?"  He replied as follows.

No. I mean, yes, he is dead in the water; no, there is no scenario. His political career is over. He could come back and run for the Senate and have an interesting rest of his life in politics, but he's never going to be a candidate for president.

He also made the following comment regarding the Senate race.

I think the Democrats are going to do extraordinarily well in the U.S. Senate in 2008. I think that they're going to pick up seven or eight extra seats.... You have to go back to '64 to see a Democratic win as big as what's going to happen this time

I gather from this interview that Dick Morris is predicting (based on his own polling analysis) that Hillary would help the downstream tickets because she will bring in a surge of new voters -- single women, single mothers and minorities -- that haven't voted before.  This demographic that Hillary will bring in usually vote Democratic.  He is also predicting that Hillary will win the general Presidential election and that she will carry a red state like North Carolina.

Well, that sounds like music to my ears!  :)

From The Hill's Pundits Blog:

Dick Morris and the Hate-Hillary Republicans

Brent Budowsky

To understand the full magnitude of the catastrophic landslide that Republicans may suffer and Democrats may not deserve, read the last 50 postings of anti-Hillary operative Dick Morris on The Hill's Pundits Blog.

Most recently Mr. Morris predicted that Hillary will cause a stock market crash. No doubt within weeks he will suggest that Hillary will lead to the destruction of New York from mushroom clouds, that if Hillary is elected the Hale-Bopp comet will return and destroy life on earth, and he'll probably soon assert that Hillary has badbreath and body odor problems...

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