Back from a long weekend…

  • The rapidly disintegrating Hillary campaign (or so the big papers tell us) is in the midst of full-on damage control mode, rushing the candidate to several feisty trail events over the weekend (”Shame on you,” Obama…) and advisers telling reporters - including PB - in a Saturday conference call that the stories about rock-bottom morale and a resignation that the run is over among campaign workers and HRC is “nonsense” and that Obama’s “momentum” is strictly “media driven.” All public signals from the HRC camp point to a strong final push for Ohio and Texas, but cracks are apparent. On the call, Howard Wolfson declined to go into detail when asked whether the campaign’s strategy for 3/4 has shifted to an underdog/uphill battle against Obama. He only repeated the fateful mantra that has gotten Hillary into this mess in the first place: “We’re going to win.”
  • The buzzards are beginning to circle: Hillary’s withdrawal from the Dem race is the subject of a flashy Jonathan Alter piece in Newsweek today, where he notes that HRC has “no chance” at the nomination and that she should get out now in order to preserve her political career and unify the splintering party. For those of you who might agree with Alter’s devil’s advocate argument in the middle of the piece - that HRC has a chance for a monstrous comeback because of New Hampshire - just stop it. The two situations are uniquely dissimilar and have no relation to one another. NH was the beginning; we’re now at the end, where any slip-up (i.e: losses) means certain death.
  • More Hillary: With HRC already in a populsit mood on the stump,an effort to draw out the wily Edwards for an endorsement that she thinks could save her run, look for her campaign (and the candidate herself) to play up the death of ex-UAW head Douglas Fraser today as a way of sucking up any bit of remaining support from the unions. They also think it could help with a JRE endorsement, but that’s not likely. Edwards isn’t stupid enough to go with a sinking ship this late in the game. He was intrigued by the possibility of being a major HRC savior after the Potomac primaries, but she’s too far gone now.
  • Huckabee’s still in the Republican race as determined by his surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend. He popped up on the “Weekend Update” segment of the show where he spoke about his campaign (really). Then he failed to leave at his cue, presenting a perfect match with the GOP race overall. Now Seth Meyers knows how McCain must feel…
  • Uh-oh; Ralph Nader, after nearly endorsing John Edwards during the Dem primary, bashes Hillary and Obama and decides he’s making another run for president. The rage is building among the Dems…
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