Life is Old There ...

As expected, Hillary Clinton beat the you-know-what out of Barack Obama in West Virginia by something on the order of 66% to 27%.

This is becoming a White v. Black primary battle. According to the exit polls, 95% of the voters in West Virginia were White and, according to the AP piece written by Dave Espo and Matt Apuzzo:

"Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was wining a whopping 69 percent of their votes."

If you want this primary campaign to be over, then you write-off the Mountain State and continue your fantasy that Clinton will have some epiphany tonight and wake up tomorrow morning proclaiming Barack Obama is the one and true nominee of the Democratic party.

If you are not on illegal drugs, you look at her better than 2-1 win last night and say, "Why would she want to get out after a huge win in a state which is no less legitimate than North Carolina (which Obama won handily last week).

The only major difference between the two is that WV is almost completely White and North Carolina is about 22% Black.

The issue for Democrats is that according to the 2000 census, Blacks make up less than 13% of the total population of the United States, and so winning even overwhelming majorities of Black voters in November will not be enough to win the Presidency if he is getting the support of a minority of White voters.

I am not in favor of people voting on the basis of race but, obviously, people do.

Hillary Clinton is a Woman. Barack Obama is Black. John McCain is 71.

Those are facts. For most people those particular facts don't matter. For some, maybe for a lot, they do.

I did a phone interview with a newspaper reporter yesterday afternoon and after sparring for about 20 minutes, the reporter finally asked me "and you can answer this off the record, if you want" whether I thought America was ready to elect a Black President.

I said (on the record) that America was ready for a Black President, but I didn't think it was ready for this particular Black man (Obama) to be President.

I reminded the reporter that Obama has been in the US Senate for three years and has been running for President for two of them.

Remember, that Hillary Clinton said at the debate in Cleveland this past February that Obama

"chairs the Subcommittee on Europe. It has jurisdiction over NATO. NATO is critical to our mission in Afghanistan. He's held not one substantive hearing to do oversight, to figure out what we can do to actually have a stronger presence with NATO in Afghanistan."

To which Obama responded: "Well, first of all, I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007."

He was too busy running for President to (a) do the things a Senator is paid to do, or (b) learn the things that a President needs to know.

Go figure.

I told this reporter that, as far as I was concerned, someone like [NY Congressman] Charlie Rangel might make a formidable candidate for President having served in the US Congress since 1991 and, (according to Wikipedia) is the "Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He is the first African-American to chair the committee. Rangel earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in the Korean War."

Compare and contrast that to Barack Obama who didn't serve a day in military service, and has spent two-thirds of his entire three-year US Senate career running for President.

Thus he has been, by his own admission, too busy to do any substantive work on the important Committees to which he is assigned:

Foreign Relations

Veterans Affairs

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

See what I mean?

According to the New York Times, in his eight years as a State Senator in Illinois, Obama "effectively sidestepped" difficult issues by voting "present … nearly 130 times as a state senator."

Hillary won big in West Virginia last night and only a fool would bet the family homestead that she will be leaving this race any time soon.

New Topic: The Lad has, once again, published an essay which I would not have thought of in 1,257,350 years. You can read it from a link on the Secret Decoder Ring page.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the lyrics to the John Denver song about West Virginia, to an analysis of Obama's Committee attendance, to the NY Times look at the number of times Obama voted "present" in the Illinois Senate, and to The Lad's essay on RealClearPolitics.

Also a Mullfoto which will further erode my popularity in the Garden State and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Isn't That Bribery?

From the Green Room

Fox Studios

New York City

There is a disturbance in the Democratic Force which holds that Hillary Clinton might exit the race if Barack Obama would promise to help her recoup the reported $11.4 million she has lent to her campaign.

Here's my question: If Senator Barry were to call his pal Senator Hillary and offer to help her retire that debt in return for her getting out of the race … wouldn't that be offering a bribe?

According to Webster's Third Unabridged a bribe is defined as:

1: A reward, gift, or favor bestowed or promised with a view to pervert the judgment or corrupt the conduct especially of a person in a position of trust (as a public official)

2: Something that serves to induce or influence to a given line of conduct

Another definition for bribery (from legal-explanations.com) is … "to pay or offer monetary benefits for influencing a person to take an action or decision which he or she would not have done otherwise."

Hillary has not indicated she has any intention of getting out of this race. If Obama - either directly or through third parties - has offered to "pay or offer monetary benefits" for her to leave the race ("take an action or decision which he or she would not have done otherwise") isn't that offering a bribe?

Isn't that illegal?

I know Obama is from Chicago where bribery is, by long custom, is not just accepted, but expected, but still.

The reason I was in the Green Room at Fox's NY studios last night was because I was on the Geraldo Rivera program. In the Green Room and on the air we were talking about why Hillary would not get out of the race.

I said there were several reasons:

1. Barack - or more likely Michelle Obama - might make an unforced error. Something on the order of "finally being really proud of being an American," or telling the poor White folks of America they are bitter and use guns and religion as a crutch.

2. There might be another Jeremiah Wright type character out there.

3. Both

I also pointed out, on the air, that while Hillary should easily win the West Virginia primary tomorrow, the bigger deal will be if she wins the Puerto Rico primary on June First.

Why?

According to the 2000 Census, West Virginia has a population which is 94.9% White. Given the recent splits in who is voting for whom in the Democratic Primaries that would indicate that Hillary is a lock in the Mountaineer State.

Clarence Page wrote in a recent column that while Hillary was getting "about 60% of the White voters in Indiana and North Carolina last week, "Black voters, by contrast, turned out nine-to-one for Obama in Indiana and North Carolina, which is close to the black turnout for Democratic presidential candidates in recent decades."

However, the Black vote in recent Presidential elections has been only a little over 11% of the total; so if Obama is only getting 40% of the White vote, that does not bode well for November.

If Hillary wins the Puerto Rico primary - which, one assumes, will be largely made up of Hispanics - the public debate will switch from White-Black voting patterns to Hispanic-Black voting patterns.

If Obama, as now expected, becomes the Democratic nominee, this will be the question: How much damage might he do to the Democrats' efforts to wrest Hispanic votes away from the GOP - perhaps for decades to come?

New Topic:

A woman swimming in the Gulf of Mexico off Tampa was attacked by a … pelican. It's not funny, in that she had to get 15-20 stitches in her face and the pelican died but this is why the story struck me.

She has to tell people she was attacked by a pelican.

A couple of weeks ago I had an attack of the gout in my left foot. If you've never suffered from gout, you have no idea how painful it can be.

A friend called and heard the strain in my voice and asked me what was wrong. I told him about the gout. He said, "Don't tell anyone that. Tell people you got run over by a tank, or that you were trying out for the US national soccer team, or anything. But don't say you have gout.

Memo to that woman in Florida: Say you collided with a nuclear submarine; not a pelican.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Clarence Page and Pelican attack pieces. Also a Mullfoto showing how Fox has FINALLY decided to show proper respect and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Good News From Iraq

Good news is hard to find coming out of Iraq. In fact, any news coming out of Iraq is hard to find because a good deal of the news is good and therefore is not news.

Dear Mr. Mullings:

County, Indiana tried to figure out how to steal the election for Obama, but what in the world did that first sentence mean?

ASPA - American Sentence Parsers Association.

You know the old saying, "No news is good news?"

Yes. We believe we may have heard, read, or seen that once or twice in our lifetimes.

Well, when it comes to Iraq, the saying is turned on its head: "Good news is no news."

Good one.

Word flashed across the Internet late yesterday afternoon that Iraqi forces had captured a guy named Abu Ayyub al-Masri in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Who is Abu Ayyub al-Masri?

Al-Masri is the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, is all. According to Al Jazeera:

He is the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who was killed by a US air attack in 2006.

One of the first reporters to break the story was Fox's National Security reporter (and Mullfave) Catherine Herridge who correctly pointed out that it was Iraqi TV and the Iraqi government which had announced this - not the US military, which was being careful to distance itself from the report until independent confirmation could be obtained.

According to Reuters, "In late June 2006 the United States put a bounty of $5 million on al-Masri's head."

Given the current state of the US Dollar, that is now about $1.57 in 2008 dollars, but never mind.

Whether or not the Iraqis have the right guy, the broader point is that the central government is carrying the fight to the insurgents. If al-Masri wasn't snagged last night, he will be at some point.

While there are no straight lines in nature, the Iraqis are taking control of their country. Absent a unilateral departure of American and coalition forces (if-you-know-what-I-mean-and-I-think-you-do) Iraq will be a peaceful, successful, democratic ally of the West.

New Topic:

NOTE: The following actually had the approval of the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices!

What with this being Friday and all we, at Mullings Central, have a hard time being too serious for the entirety of the 750 word effort, therefore we bring to you the HEADLINE OF THE MILLENIUM!

I know the MILLENIUM is only about eight years in, but I'm telling you your great-great-great-great grandchildren will remember this one as the best headline.

From, of all sources the BBC … and I am not making this up:

Great Tits Cope Well with Warming

As you might well imagine, this headline got my attention.

Beach Volleyball?

Hollywood starlets?

Discovery Health Plastic Surgery Channel?

Nah.

Turns out the Great Tit is a bird. A regular bird. It is a bird whose chicks eat caterpillars and with warmer weather there appear to be more caterpillars for the chicks to eat and, ergo, the Great Tit chicks are thriving.

Get me Al Gore on the phone.

A few words about Mothers' Day:

According to one site:

In the U.S. Mothers' Day is a holiday celebrated on second Sunday in May. It is a day when children honor their mothers with cards, gifts, and flowers.

And, for some of us, schlepping up the New Jersey Turnpike to Exit 8A.

Seriously, though, being a Mom is probably the hardest job in the world. No matter how old their children are, they are still the babies. They worry when they don't hear from them; they brag to their friends when they do; and they heave heavy sighs in between.

God bless them every one.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Iraqi Al-Qaeda story; also the link to the Great Tit story from the BBC and a link to this somewhat tortured history of Mothers' Day.

Also, a Mullfoto about McDonalds in other lands and the Catchy Caption of the Day dealing with the Great Tit.

Dann Foolish

SPECIAL OFFER: This is an advertisement, please skip down if you don't want to read about it.

It is an ad for the services of a senior political advisor for a campaign in which you may be involved as the candidate, the friend or relative of a candidate, or a staff member to a candidate.

I am that senior political advisor and the reason I am making this offer is because Sunday, May 4, marked the six-month-to-go mark to the November general elections.

Please take a second and go to the proposal page which explains what I am offering.

Thank you,

Rich

---

As regular readers of MULLINGS know; when I am correct in a prediction I write about it every day for the next three or four months. When I am wrong, I either ignore it or remind you that there is no way to understand all of the permutations and combinations of events which can affect an outcome.

SIDEBAR

At dinner the other night with two other couples we got into a discussion about how many different combinations of glass-clinks could be organized.

I said, with the absolute conviction I have developed over many years of being a talking head on Fox and CNN, that the formula to determine it was 6x5x4x3x2 divided by 6.

I had no idea if I was correct and, before you hit the REPLY key, I have no desire, even now, to know whether I was correct.

I only mention this to remind you to take what I write with not just a grain, but with an entire peck, of salt.

END SIDEBAR

Recent events in Ohio prove my point. They have to do with the Ohio Office of Attorney General and the resultant ripples may well last all the way to next January 20.

The Attorney General of the State of Ohio is a man named Marc Dann. Marc Dann, a Democrat, was elected in the tsunami of 2006 which swept just about every Republican office holder down the Ohio River in the wake of astonishing scandals which attended to the GOP Governor at the time.

Keep that in mind: Scandals swept Republicans out of office in Ohio, and Democrats are now in control.

Marc Dann is a Democrat from Youngstown and after he was elected he hired three of his buddies to senior positions in the AG's office.

The four of them rented a townhouse in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio which caused an Ohio GOP official to claim that Dann, "turned the attorney general's office into a raunchy frat pad."

Putting aside for the moment the obvious redundancy of "raunchy" and "frat pad" it turns out that one of Dann's buds was sexually harassing the office staff (and possibly running his Youngstown construction business out of the AG's office) and at least two other pals were either complicit or turned a blind eye.

Not only that, but Marc Dann, the Democratic Attorney General his own self, was using the "raunchy frat pad" to spend quality time with his scheduler - an affair to which he finally admitted late last week.

All four of his subordinates were either fired or quit, including the 20-something scheduler with whom Democrat Marc Dann was having the affair in that raunchy frat pad, but Dann, the Democratic Attorney General has not resigned, and says he will not.

The Columbus Dispatch pointed out that Democratic the Attorney General's "troubles will be a renewable source of political fodder for the GOP and a form of drip-drip-drip water torture for Democrats."

Ohio is a pivotal state in any national election. It was President Bush's victory in Ohio in the 2004 Presidential election by 118,600 votes (out of more than five million cast) which gave him the Buckeye State's 20 electoral votes and cemented his victory over John Kerry.

With Marc Dann (D-OH) refusing (as of this writing) to resign it will give the Ohio GOP an easy target to use as a reminder to voters that scandal and abuse-of-power are non-partisan.

Joe Hallett wrote in the Columbus Dispatch over the weekend:

"As John Wayne once said, 'Life is getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.'

He also said, 'Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.'"

Republicans around the country should send notes of thanks to Democrat Marc Dann. He has single handedly put Ohio back in play in November.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the campaign proposal I noted at the top of the column. Also, lots of links to the scandal(s) involving the Democratic Attorney General of Ohio.

The Mullfoto compares the cost of filling the Mullmobile with the Skippy Scooter and the Catchy Caption of the Day which is ridiculous even by normal MULLINGS standards.

Elite in Indiana

From Marietta, Ohio

45750

I know you think I have been hitting this Obama-as-Elitist thing too hard, but here's the lead paragraph from Reuters' Caren Bohan writing from Fort Wayne, Indiana:

"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sought to convince Americans he is not elitist on Thursday as new polls showed his aura of inevitability has declined after weeks of negative headlines."

Hillary Clinton, sensing the vulnerability, jumped on Obama's opposition to a Gas Tax Holiday (which both she and John McCain favor) in Brownsburg, Indiana saying:

"I find it frankly a little offensive that people who don't have to worry about filling up their gas tank … think that it's somehow illegitimate to provide relief for the millions and millions of Americans who are … unable to keep up with their daily expenses."

I love that "frankly" thing. Does that mean the rest of the time she opens her mouth she is Shirley not being Frank?

SIDEBAR

That "Fort Wayne, Indiana" dateline reminded me of another elitist story.

Dan Quayle was the Congressman from Fort Wayne. I was Quayle's press secretary when he was a Congressman and a Senator.

In the 1980 race for US Senate against 18-year-incumbent Birch Bayh, Time Magazine insisted on referring to Quayle the same way that Bayh did: J. Danforth Quayle - a clear attempt to mark Quayle as an elitist man of privilege.

I called the Time bureau in Chicago and complained that they were giving credence to a ploy being used by Birch Bayh - although I've always thought a guy named "Birch" didn't have much to complain about a guy named "Danforth".

The editor I talked to said that Quayle's name was James Danforth Quayle and therefore their usage was legit. I countered with the fact that they weren't calling the incumbent President "James Earl Carter". They were using his preferred construct: "Jimmy."

We finally decided on a test. I asked whether he would accept the name the official publication the "Congressional Directory" used. He said he would.
vCongressman Quayle was referred to as "Dan Quayle" by Time Magazine for the rest of the campaign.

I had looked it up. I knew the answer before I had made the bet.

END SIDEBAR

Back to the next round of primaries. North Carolina and Indiana are on Tuesday. As recently as Monday of this week Obama had a lead of 15 percentage points over Clinton in North Carolina: 51-36. As of last night the RealClearPolitics average had Obama's lead down to about seven points: 49-42.

Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday.

Obama's lead in North Carolina has been sliced in half in just four days.

In Indiana, over that same period, Obama has gone from being ahead of Clinton by three points - 46-43 to down five 43-48; a switch of eight points in five days.

When you read in the Popular Press that Obama has put the Jeremiah Wright business behind him? Look at those numbers.

I said on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer Tuesday that Barack was going to find himself in the same position in North Carolina as Hillary had been in Pennsylvania: A win was not going to be enough. It had to be a BIG win.

More: According to the CBS.com website, a New York Times/CBS poll shows that 51% [of Democratic voters] now say they expect Obama to win the nomination, down from 69 percent on April 3rd, while 34% now expect Clinton to be the nominee, up from 21% a month ago.

Not only that - but helping make Hillary Clinton's case to the Super Delegates - the poll said 48% of Democrats now say he is the candidate with the best chance of defeating John McCain, down from 56% in early April. Minus 12.

Keep in mind, as we tick toward the Democratic National Convention in Denver in late August, that the Democrats still haven't dealt with that pesky problem of what to do about delegates - or lack of delegates - from Michigan and Florida.

What does all this mean? It means that unless something extraordinary happens, the Democratic National Convention is going to be Must See TV.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Reuters piece and to the CBS/NYT poll. Also a Mullfoto of the day proving gas prices are all in your head and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Wright is Wrong

An increasingly anxious Obama campaign had to have been watching in horror as Jeremiah Wright continued to elbow his way onto the national political stage with his performance at the National Press Club in Washington the other day.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank short-handed Wright's remarks as follows:

"Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his belief that the government created AIDS to extinguish racial minorities, and stood by his suggestion that 'God damn America.'"

Louis Farrakhan is the head of the Nation of Islam and has said things like:

"Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET [Black Entertainment Television]?... Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television."

And that wasn't 10 years ago. It was five months ago in November of last year.

After claiming that the oft-viewed clips of his sermons were taken out of the context of 30 years of preaching, Wright is now - with, as the Chicago Tribune called it, "caustic sarcasm" - defending those very snippets and putting them very much into context.

On the campaign trail, Sen. Barack Obama said of Wright, "He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign."

Obama is wrong. In the minds of many - if not most - Americans, Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama are very connected, spiritually and politically.

The Boston Globe's Joseph Williams wrote:

A series of high-profile appearances by [Wright] defending some of his more racially charged remarks threatened to undermine Obama's campaign just when he is trying to connect with white, working-class voters on the eve of crucial Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.

And Obama doesn't need any more problems on the white, working-class voter front. Obama tried to shake the "elitist" tag a couple of weeks ago by going bowling, at which he was dreadful.

The other day he threw a verbal gutter ball by saying:

"I was raised in a setting with my grandparents who grew up in small-town Kansas where the dinner table would have been very familiar to anybody here in Indiana: A lot of pot roasts and potatoes and Jell-O molds."

So … he was describing his grandparents' dinner table in small-town Kansas. The pot roasts and Jell-O molds and all. Was Obama faced with pot roasts and Jello-O as well?

I … don't … think … so.

And, we must assume, this was the same grandmother whom, Obama told a world-wide audience, damned-near fainted at the sight of Black people; "a woman who once confessed her fear of Black men who passed by her on the street." In that small-town in Kansas. As she carried her famous pot-roast and Jell-O mold to the K of C Hall. For the annual Founder's Day Pot Luck Dinner.

That description was typical of an elitist, Ivy-League-educated, snobbish, pretentious dope who thinks Hoosiers still sit in front of their black-and-white TV sets watching Howdy Doody reruns while waiting for their Jell-O molds to set up in the Frigidaire.

Here's the thing: I was Congressman and Senator Dan Quayle's press secretary. I spent a lot of time in Indiana. I'm not certain I ever saw a pot roast or a Jell-O mold.

I did see a potato. But, it didn't have an "e".

Jeremiah Wright is basking in the glow of the national spotlight; the spotlight which has been denied him lo these many years in favor of fellow Chicagoan Jesse Jackson and New Yorker Al Sharpton.

Jeremiah Wright is working out the decades of frustration, having attempted to do good works for the poor and underserved in Chicago while Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have been on the national stage in top hats and tails like Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle singing "Puttin' on the Ritz."

But the unkindest cut of all comes, again, from the Dana Milbank piece:

"Most problematic for the Democratic presidential front-runner was Wright's suggestion that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his former pastor. 'He didn't distance himself,' Wright announced. 'He had to distance himself, because he's a politician.'"

Maybe, on that, Wright was right.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Dana Milbank piece and to the Anti-Defamation League's summary of Farrakhan's greatest hits. Also a Mullfoto from the cooler at the business class lounge in Dubai the other night and an anatomically strange Catchy Caption of the Day.

The Racial Thing

The Republican Party of North Carolina is running an ad which features that footage of Barack Obama's preacher, Jeremiah Wright uttering his now-infamous imprecation for God to damn America.

The ad is not in opposition to Barack Obama; nor is it an ad in favor of John McCain. It is an ad aimed at the two Democratic candidates for North Carolina Governor.

The ad (and there is a link to it on today's Secret Decoder Ring page) attempts to make this case:

- Wright was Obama's "spiritual advisor" for 20 years.

- Wright is on record of saying some fairly awful things.

- Obama is a Democrat.

- Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore are Democrats running in the primary for Governor on May 6.

- Each has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

ERGO

- Perdue and Moore are "too extreme for North Carolina."

I have worked with State Parties off and on for more than three decades. This is the kind of ad which (a) seems like it was written over greasy cheeseburgers and cheap beer on a paper napkin, (b) sounded like a really good idea at the time, because (c) it would tie the North Carolina gubernatorial race to the Presidential primary, thus (d) providing a terrific fundraising opportunity, and (e) could be produced for $1.47.

John McCain immediately condemned it, which irritated the right wingers of the GOP but that was not enough for the main stream media. The New York Times, which has resolved to be the nation's decider of what is acceptable in this campaign and what is not (after spanking Hillary Clinton for the race she ran in Pennsylvania):

"Unless Mr. McCain quickly gets control of his party, we fear there will be worse to come."

Which caused Barack Obama, who would have been better off keeping away from anything having to do with Jeremiah Wright (but couldn't) to say:

"I assume that if John McCain thinks that it's an inappropriate ad that he can get them to pull it down, since he's their nominee and standard bearer."

Which demonstrates, at a minimum, a willful ignorance of the way State Parties operate.

Dear Mr. Mullings:

We could have gone for the whole rest of our lives - indeed we could have gone for the whole rest of the history of the Planet Earth - without having to deal with the mental image of Hillary Clinton being spanked.

Thank you SO much.

Signed,

Everyone

Let us not forget who was the first person to interject Race into this election cycle. It was not the North Carolina GOP. It was the once-sainted William Jefferson Clinton.

From ABC's Jake Tapper on January 26, 2008:

Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

Boy, I can't understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as "the black candidate."

Not only that, but the Washington Post put Race on its front page this weekend in a piece headed:

Party Fears Racial Divide

Attacks Could Do Lasting Harm, Democrats Say

In the piece, reporters Jonathan Weisman and Matthew Mosk wrote that following the Pennsylvania primary:

[Clinton's] backers may be convinced that only she can win the white, working-class voters that the Democratic nominee will need in the general election, but many African American leaders say a Clinton nomination - handed to her by superdelegates - would result in a disastrous breach with black voters.

The House Majority Whip, James E. Clyburn (D-SC), who is Black, said in the WashPost article:

"We keep talking as if it doesn't matter that Obama gets 92 percent of the black vote, because since he only got 35 percent of the white vote, he's in trouble. Well, Hillary Clinton only got 8 percent of the black vote. . . . It's almost saying black people don't matter."

Oh, yeah. This is all the fault of the North Carolina GOP. They're the ones bringing Race into this deal.

Here's the short hand: Republicans have nothing in this. The Racial thing in this cycle is between a White woman and a Black man for the Democratic nomination.

John McCain was correct: It's the Democrats' mess and it is going to get worse before it gets better.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the North Carolina GOP ad, the definition of the word, "imprecation," the New York Times article blaming the NC-GOP ad on John McCain, and a link to the WashPost front pager on Race in the Democratic nominating process.

Also a Mullfoto from my trip over to the Middle East and a Catchy Caption of the Day.