http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/26/b ill.clinton.mon/index.html

   Here we have it folks. The latest excuse from the Clinton campaign, coming from the Big Dog himself. It's not that Hillary has run a poor campaign, it's not that Obama beat her throughout red, blue and purple America. It's now a COVER UP that will stop Hillary from being the Democratic nominee.

  First off, hats off to the Clinton campaign...solid win! Congratulations!!

  Now let's analyze the importance of this win tonite. Hillary Clinton will go on...that's a given. But just how much have her nomination, and White House hopes improved? The smart money is they have hardly improved at all. I know I know, Hillary wins big states....Hillary is our first stringer, blah blah...the arguments for why I belive all these arguments are misguided are below the fold

   All over MyDD today are diaries and comments by Clintonites just FURIOUS at the negative campaign being waged by Barack Obama. Conveniently of course, they ignore the fact that their candidate, Hillary Clinton is running a campaign basically calling Obama a wimp. These Clintonites apparently think that's just fine, but are blowing a gasket over Obama daring to sharply attack Hillary.

  Now, however, the campaign of Hillary "3AM and I'll tell tales of being shot at" Clinton has reached a new low.

Back in 2006, before any Democrats had announced their intentions to run, I was cheering the quality of our potential field, which included such top-notch Democrats as Gore, Edwards, Clark, Clinton, and Obama.  I also wrote:

I hope that having such a high-quality field won't, perversely, lead to a greater-than-normal number of gratuitous potshots being taken by Democratic bloggers and diarists

Well, if only I had a nickle for every one of those gratuitous potshots!

Today we have a recommended diary on MyDD which charges a Democratic presidential candidate with lying (in capital letters, no less!) - and the charge is so cockamamy that even to call it cockamamy is to elevate it too much. Yet, alas, the diarist is not too embarrassed to pen it in his diary, and the recommenders are not too embarrassed to press the Recommend button.  

The issue? Obama has more than once said he was "a law professor" or "a constitutional law professor" at the University of Chicago. He did indeed "serve as a professor of law" at this university, according to the university, but his staff title was "Senior Lecturer," not "Professor."   Thus he was a small-p professor, not a big-P Professor.

Did Obama nefariously imply that he was a big-P professor? Should he have been very careful, as the diarist argues, to say "I taught law" rather than "I was a professor of law".  After all, people may not hear the a and may well conclude in any event that he was a big-P and not a small-p professor.

As if it needed to be stated:  this Democratic presidential candidate has a great deal of expertise in the field of constitutional law, which is what allowed him to be hired to teach constitutional law at a prestigious law school.  Thus, no one who has come to believe that this Democratic presidential candidate has a great deal of expertise in the field of constitutional law, has formed a false belief.

Giving the diarist the benefit of the doubt, I would assume he is a fine and loyal Democrat.  Nonetheless his diary unfortunately exhibits the characteristics of both trolling and concern-trolling.  Trolling because the title of the diary makes a completely over-the-top charge that a Democratic presidential candidate is guilty of "lying", and concern-trolling because the diarist asserts that if Obama wasn't fibbing, then in the best case he was foolishly careless to use the word "professor" since it could be used against him!

We secretly removed who said each of these statements, let's see if you notice:

"They [Islamic Terrorists] watch our elections as closely as we do, maybe more closely than some of our fellows citizens do..."1

"There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence [in Iraq], and we're heading into an election..."2

"When it comes to better securing our homeland and fighting the forces of terror, results matter. And when it comes to choosing a President, results matter."3

"Let's not forget you're hiring a President not just to do what a candidate says during the election, you want a President to be there when the chips are down."4

"So, you know, words are not actions. And as beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are, they are not action."5

"You see, it's not enough to advocate reform. You have to be able to get it done."6

"My opponent has good intentions, but intentions do not always translate to results."7

"You know, what we've got to do is translate talk into action and feeling into reality."8

"The murders in Madrid are a reminder that the civilized world is at war."9

"I don't think it was by accident that Al Qaeda decided to test the new Prime Minister"10

At the SEIU Convention in Washington DC, members took a straw poll and chose John Edwards as their candidate.  This is not a formal endorsement; the Executive Board of the International will make a decision next week about who the endorsed candidate will be.

But SEIU has always been a "bottom-up" organization, and Andy Stern has told candidates in the past that to get their support they must earn it - by engaging their rank-and-file members.  If John Edwards gets the SEIU endorsement, it will be a huge boost.

Read more about it here.

I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron, San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily.

With Hillary Clinton leading among Democratic primary voters, pundits are asking the same question they asked about Howard Dean four years ago - can she win the general election?  In response, some have pointed to the matchup polls both nationwide and in swing states, proving that even Hillary can defeat the Republican nominee.  But that's because Republicans are in such disarray that whoever gets the Democratic nomination - Clinton, John Edwards or Barack Obama - is favored to win.  Hillary could still get elected President, but it would be a much closer race than if Edwards or Obama were the party's nominee.  Moreover, Hillary will hurt down-ballot Democrats in red states (and even swing states) and give Republicans a shot in the arm - making it difficult for 2008 to be a year of progressive realignment.  For activists who say they're in it for the long haul, a President Hillary Clinton will not help in 2010, 2012 and beyond.

John Edwards kicked off his 31 county, seven day, Iowa Bus Tour today in Des Moines.

"Over the next seven days, Edwards will talk about his vision for our country. Each day of the bus tour will focus on a different critical issue facing America - ending the war in Iraq, restoring economic fairness to rural America, rewarding work, delivering true universal health care, creating a new energy economy, strengthening education and building a One America where every person has a chance to succeed."

"We are the Party of the People!"