Clinton apologises to the Mexicans

Another sign from the Obama administration that it trying to turn back the clock on eight years of Bush


The quote of the day in the New York Times

“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Mrs. Clinton said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

Crystal ball gazing-best left alone

Could these be the worst predictions of the year?

Thanks to Alice Fishburn for the link.

These two stand out of the 10 listed

Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I’ll predict that right now.” —William Kristol, Fox News Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006

and this from the Economist a week before the Kenya elections

For all its flaws, an example to others.”

Perhaps journalists should leave the crystal ball gazing to the experts

Two for the price of one-The return of the Clintons

The BBC'S American correspondent has got it spot on when he directs us to this article in the New Yorker about the return of the Clintons

The decision infuriates many Obama supporters. Pulling the lever for Obama was supposed to usher out the Clinton era of baby-boomer entitlement and drama.
Shades of "The Godfather": Just when you think they're out, someone pulls them back in.

A joint ticket-the only alternative for the Democrats

As it looks like the Democrats have finally selected the candidate for November,I have to agree with Iain Dale that the best way forward now would be to have Hillary on a joint ticket to fight John McCain.

This is not going to be the easy battle that people are thinking.McCain is not George Bush,he is a canny polititian and has a good track record.

The election will be fought in a number of key battlegrounds and Obama will need Clinton's support to win the swing states.

There will be much speculation as the day rolls on plus an inquest on what went wrong for the Clinton campaign which 6 months ago looked on track

The final nail for Hillary?

Has the championing of Barack Obama by John Edwards the final tipping point in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Edwards who withdrew from the raceback in January has waited until now to decide which candidate to endorse.It seemingly offsets Clinton's victory in West Virginia yesterday.

The Washington Post reports

Appearing with Obama at a rally ,the former senator from North Carolina and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee gave what sounded in places like a eulogy for Clinton's candidacy, praising her tenacity and describing her as "made of steel." But he emphasized that the party must now get behind Obama.
"When this nomination battle is over, and it will be over soon, brothers and sisters," he said, "we must come together as Democrats and in the fall stand up for what matters in America and make America what it needs to be."

Time to end the contest

Has last night's results in the Democratic primaries left Hillary Clinton with a bridge too far to climb?

Quite possibly.By only narrowly winning in Indiana and losing by double points in North Carolina,Clinton has lost the momemtum of the past couple of weeks.

According to the New York Times

The results from the two primaries, the largest remaining Democratic ones, assured that Mr. Obama would widen his lead in pledged delegates over Mrs. Clinton, providing him with new ammunition as he seeks to persuade Democratic leaders to coalesce around his campaign.

Although in the Washington Post Dana Milbank thinks that

Obama's big win in North Carolina, coupled with Clinton's squeaker in Indiana, adds to a sense that his nomination is inevitable.

But

the split decision also gave Clinton a reason to remain in the race and force the party's superdelegates to decide it.
In other words, there is no exit plan. We're going to West Virginia! And we're going to Oregon and Kentucky! And we're going to Puerto Rico and Montana and South Dakota! Yeeaarrgghh

It is now time for her to step down and withdraw from the race and let the Democrats have a clear run with Barack Obama against John McCain

Gloves off as the last battle for the Democratic nomination begins

Quite a unique day today,one great power(former) has just elected a new President,one great power(current) is about to pick the person who will be the overall favourite to be its next president.

Tonight sees two large primaries in Ohio and Texas and they are seen as the last gasp of the faltering Clinton campaign.If she is still behind Obama after tonight,she may well feel the hands of senior democrats on her shoulder urging her to step down.

The public in the United States are waking up to a momentous day in the 2008 campaign

At the Washington Post,they report that

Clinton vowed to press on in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination after critical primary tests in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, even as advisers to Sen. Barack Obama said the latest round of voting would do little to improve her standing in a race in which she has been dealt setback after setback.

At the moment,Obama has 1,352 delgates to Clinton's 1,239, a margin of 113.The Obama camp puts it at 162 and even the Clinton camp says 160.There are 370 pledged delegates at stake today and after that onlyly 611 pledged delegates will remain.

The New York Times gives some pointers to watch for as the results come in

Should Mr. Obama sweep all four contests, her hopes will plainly be extinguished. Should she carry Ohio and Texas — as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said she must to retain a shot at the nomination — she will no doubt fight on to the next big battle, on April 22 in Pennsylvania, and, perhaps, all the way to the convention in Denver. Trickier to handicap would be a split decision, in which Mrs. Clinton won Ohio, for example, but lost Texas.
For people who want to think about possible permutations, keep this one in mind. Because of the way Texas allocates delegates, it is entirely possible that Mrs. Clinton could win the popular vote there but lose to Mr. Obama on delegates

Back in the UK,political betting thinks that the funding issue may be the final straw in the wind.

One thing that we have not heard from the Obama campaign yet is how much money was raised in February and there’s speculation that this is being put on hold just in case Hillary is seen to have re-gained the momentum in today’s primaries.
Her campaign has announced that she raised $35m during the month - a move that just brought a statement from Camp Obama that they had exceeded the total without saying how much.

The Los Angeles Times focuses on Ohio where

Clinton has the backing of freshman Gov. Ted Strickland, who long represented the southeastern Appalachian region in Congress. Obama has the backing of the mayors of the state's three largest cities, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The mayors' ties to local political bases could be significant in a state where recent polls showed Clinton with a 6-point lead and 1 in 10 voters still undecided or uncertain.

Over at the Huffington post,the final skirmishes are reported

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled over national security and trade in a frantic burst of last-minute campaigning on Monday as Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Obama of deception as new evidence of discord surfaced within her own camp.

According to the blog

With less than 24 hours to go before voting in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island, Mrs. Clinton's campaign released a sharp television commercial attacking Mr. Obama for being AWOL from his chairmanship of a Senate oversight committee on the forces fighting in Afghanistan -- "he was too busy running for president to hold even one hearing," the ad said -- while Mr. Obama's campaign counterpunched that Mrs. Clinton had herself missed important hearings on Afghanistan before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month.

Courtesy of Iain Dale,a politicians worst nightmare