The Victory Fund reports: "Last night, while most political onlookers were watching the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Indiana and North Carolina, a Virginia resident quietly made history as he became the state’s first openly LGBT African-American elected to public office. In his first bid for elected office, Lawrence Webb won a seat on the Falls Church City Council by a margin of 39 votes. He joins two other candidates on the City Council: Nader Baroukh and Robin S. Gardner." Said Webb: “I am grateful that the citizens of Falls Church have entrusted me with the responsibility ...

Barack Obama got a sweeping win in North Carolina but failed to close the deal, as Clinton prevailed by a small margin in Indiana. That’s right, read into the win what you will, hold it up to the light and examine it for what it’s worth. You have a few more days to dream of that Obama Bloomberg ticket; ain’t gonna happen. Change is gonna come but it ain’t gonna come with John Edwards. When all is said and done Barack Obama will perform the ultimate act of reconciliation, a statesmanlike gesture so grand that it will place Hillary Clinton ...

Two points. That’s Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in Indiana, where pundits, pollsters and press thought the Senator would surely trounce Barack Obama for the Democratic primary. Obama, however, surprised us all by securing a projected 49% of the vote, while soaring ahead in North Carolina, where he took a whopping - and telling - 56% of the vote. Clinton, meanwhile, only grabbed 42% of the Tar Heel State, giving Obama a fourteen point margin of victory. And a considerable delegate boost: at least ninety-four. So, where do the Democratic presidential candidates go from here? Well, the next primaries, ...

A ...

Page Edited by John Norris 2 ...

Barack Obama speaks. Less than 200 delegates away from the nomination. ...

Wow, I thought that North Carolina was going to be a win for Obama. I was thinking by 8 points. While the votes are still being counted, it appears that Barack Obama will beat Hillary Clinton by more than 15 points. As I said before, this doesn’t change anything. Hillary Clinton was behind without a realistic means of catching up before North Carolina. Now, she is slightly farther behind without a realistic means of catching up. ...

Things are progressing pretty much as expected in the Indiana and North Carolina Democratic presidential primaries this evening. There are 72 pledged delegates at stake in Indiana and 115 in North Carolina. The networks have already called North Carolina for Barack Obama. With 4% of the precincts reporting, he is leading Hillary Clinton 64% to 34%. No winner has yet been projected in Indiana. 37% of the precincts have reported. Mrs. Clinton is currently leading with 56% to Mr. Obama’s 44%. Thus far, the voting pattern seems to be following what we have seen in most of the rest of the nation. ...

It’s too early to call percentages, but Barack Obama won today’s North Carolina primary. Shocker, right? [MSNBC] ...

With Indiana and North Carolina, the largest cache of delegates before the convention in Denver, finished their voting process.  What have we learned?  Nothing.  Nothing will be decided.  Both candidates will have more votes and more delegates.  Neither will drop out of the race.  And so it goes. I have been trying to look for a silver lining in all of this.  Because everytime a candidate blows his or her nose, it is reported as news.  The real crime is that we have had enough time for the news to completely cover each candidate’s position on real issues but they haven’t.  ...

It is relatively easy for progressive-minded people to dismiss Patrick J. Buchanan as a nut. The political pundit and two-time presidential candidate has made various statements over the years that are dismissed as bigoted, narrow-minded, or reactionary. We believe that, particularly at this point in our history, it is important to understand Buchanan’s assertions in a way that might help to shed light on the problems with racism in contemporary America.Lately, Buchanan has gotten attention for his on-air comments and blog postings about race. Rather than exploiting snippets of his most controversial statements, we chose just one example for ...

Republican presidential heir apparent Sen. John McCain offers an olive branch to the Christian right. Speaking at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, the Arizona Republican blasted Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for not voting for the confirmation of John... ...

What identity could Barack Obama choose that would be both sincere and successful? Not long ago, people were asking if Mr. Obama was “Black enough.” Somehow maybe even Bill Clinton was more Black than Senator Obama. Once Senator Obama established his color, he then had to figure out how to present himself as a candidate who is also a Black man in a nation with a rough racial history. He’s not a self-styled centrist like former U.S. Representative Harold Ford of Tennessee. He’s not a careerist in a safe district like Representative Charles Rangel of New York. He’s not an old-style activist like Jesse Jackson.      So who and what will ...

Barack Obama and Tim Russert discuss the gas tax holiday on Meet the Press. ...

Page Edited by John Norris 2 ...

This is an excellent video put together by TPM media. (I wish I had the staff to put this kind of stuff together.) I think that it clearly shows that Hillary Clinton is pandering for votes. The gas tax holiday is bad on so many levels. These are clips from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton along with news personalities talking about the gas tax holiday. ...

Remember the gas wars? For you young-uns, that was when competing gas stations would lower their prices to entice you to purchase their gasoline rather than their competitor’s. Ah, the good old days. It seems was have a gas war of sorts going on in Indiana and North Carolina tonight. Those two states hold their presidential primaries tomorrow and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are arguing over Mrs. Clinton’s (and John McCain’s) silly plan to suspend the federal gasoline tax for three months. (It will never happen, and wouldn’t really help anyone if it did, but it makes for good ...

There are certain axioms, certain fundamental pillars, upon which this blog is based. One is that all politicians are, by definition, moral defectives. Another is the ubiquitousness of the Politics of the Warm Fuzzy Feeling. Another is Kip's Law. Yet another — one you have seen repeatedly here — is that the laws of economics are no more subject to repeal by a legislature than are the laws of physics. Perhaps it's time to add a flying buttress to that last pillar: No truth, including economic truth, can ever be "elitist" — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday ...

Journo Frank Rich wonders why the media hasn’t paid more attention to John McCain’s absolutely insane, anti-gay preacher pal, John Hagee: “Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church. That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his ...

Formerly cute, currently overrated actor Tom Hanks pledged his support to the “inspirational” Barack Obama, who he compares to FDR, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. Obama, he says, “embodies the America I’ve been waiting for…” ...