SurveyUSA has released another one of their statewide vice presidential match-up polls. This time of Virginia. In the straight match-up, Obama vs. McCain with no veep names, Obama leads by 7 points.

TPM Reader JP shares his take …

Perhaps my analysis is off, but isn’t the new Clinton campaign focus on the FL and MI delegates really about maintaining public attention (i.e., preserving oxygen). With Obama wrapping up the majority of available pledged delegates, the remaining primaries just aren’t that interesting from a media perspective and are likely to generate little coverage, especially with likely focus on issues such as Obama’s strategy for winning the election, VP selection, and the Denver convention. The outcomes of the remaining primaries can’t change the game (take the nomination away) UNLESS coupled with a decision to seat the FL and MI delegates. Lack of media attention won’t help the debt situation and won’t persuade super-delegates to change their votes. Hence, going “toxic” may be the only viable path if the choice is to stay in.

The House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Karl Rove to testify about the U.S. Attorneys purge, among other mucky things.

Late Update: The committee is especially interested in Rove’s involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. In conjunction with issuing the subpoena to Rove, the committee released a letter from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility confirming that it has launched an investigation of “allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, and Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor.”

A semi-contrary view from one of our shrewdest readers …

You argue that “the evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn’t think [that Florida and Michigan were] a problem at all.” That’s one way to read the factual record.

But I’d suggest that there are compelling reasons to reach the opposite conclusion. After the 2000 election, she called for the abolition of the electoral college. “I believe strongly,” she said, “that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people.” She argued then that “the total votes cast for a person running for president in our country should
determine the outcome.” Sound familiar?

Of course, as you point out, that’s not what she or her supporters were arguing when the convoluted rules of the nominating system seemed likely to deliver her the nomination. And that, I think, is where she lost her bearings. She and her aides decided not to rock the boat. Instead of using their clout to fix the problems with the system, thereby alienating voters in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, she and her surrogates mouthed the same platitudes we hear every four years about the unique role played by
early states and the lovable quirks of the caucuses. But when the rules she had always disliked started to work against her, she lashed out with righteous indignation.

I think Hillary is genuinely convinced that this election has been a travesty. That elections ought to be about who wins the most votes, full stop. Never mind the innumerable problems with applying that argument to the contests this cycle; it’s what she believes. And it’s of a piece with a set of grievances that she and her surrogates have voiced: that the media has treated her too harshly, that her candidacy has been hobbled by sexism, and that her opponent has enjoyed unfair advantages. Each of these complaints
springs from a common premise – Hillary could not have lost a fair fight for the nomination. And working from that premise, she sees herself not only as a victim, but also as a champion of those who, like her, have been wronged by the system. This really has become a moral crusade for her, and that’s impelling her forward long after she’s lost any realistic chance of winning.

Perhaps she can be persuaded to back away from the edge. But now that the dictates of her conscience and of political expedience have at last converged, Hillary is finally giving voice to the grievances that she’s long held back. As she’s done so, she’s tapped into a deep and powerful strain of resentment and – dare I say it – bitterness in the electorate. It’s not easy to put that genie back in the bottle, and it’s not at all clear to me that she wants to.

As you can see, Sen. McCain has now definitively “rejected” John Hagee’s endorsement. Yesterday’s story about Hagee’s suggesting that God used Hitler to facilitate the departure of the Jews (sort of a gentle word) from Europe, broken by Huffpo, was I guess the final straw. (A few weeks ago McCain said that trying to get Hagee’s endorsement was “probably” a mistake but that he was “glad to have” it anyway.) But since we’ve been on this story from the git-go I wanted to review the history on this one to take stock of the whole story.

I don’t doubt for a moment that the McCain camp didn’t know about this Hitler quote. But if you know Hagee’s history, it’s hardly surprising. And Hagee’s statements about Catholics, his claim that God destroyed New Orleans because of an over-the-top gay pride parade, and his claim that God was using Muslim terrorists to create a “bloodbath” in America because of US support for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine were right out there in the public domain. And certainly McCain’s camp did know about them.

The March 5th episode of TPMtv had a run-down of each of these statements from Hagee and McCain’s statements embracing Hagee …

Given that McCain has now clearly rejected Hagee’s endorsement, perhaps it’s time that he, a la Obama, give a speech on the topic of Republican presidential candidates pandering to lunatic fringe right-wing preachers at election time. It could start a whole national conversation.

Late Update: Dan Gilgoff at BeliefNet says the Hagee debacle is another example that McCain is a novice on cultivating evangelicals.

Republicans were hoping Rep. Vito Fossella would retire from his Staten Island House seat (which he now has). And the hope was that Daniel Donovan, the Staten Island DA, would run for the seat. The consensus seemed to be that Donovan was a solid candidate for the district. But now Donovan has decided to take a pass.

This is a good example of the compounding effects of a bad political season. This is a Republican district, though not by a big margin. In another year, presumably, Donovan would have gone for it. But it’s not that great a prize since the House Republicans seem destined to remain in the minority for some time. For that and other reasons, it’s not an easy environment to raise money in. And given how bad a year it looks to be for Republicans in general, there’s a good chance that Donovan could lose.

So Republicans have a tough environment to operate in. And they strike out when trying to recruit a good candidate to overcome that bad environment because the bad environment makes the good candidate not think it’s worth the risk.

May 31st, 2008: the survivors will call it Judgment Day, the day that Hillary Clinton tries to push the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to achieve the full seating of Florida and Michigan’s disputed delegates and perhaps wrest the nomination away from Barack Obama. But wait… can this really happen? We take a look at the actual situation behind the hype in today’s episode of TPMtv …

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

It’s like McCain’s Thursday Night Preacher Massacre.

Fresh off the defenestration of Rev. Hagee, now he’s dumping Rev. Parsley, the right-wing preacher-power-broker of Ohio, who says — inter alia — that America was founded to destroy Islam.

CNN is reporting this morning that the Obama and Clinton campaigns are in formal talks about ending her quest for the Democratic nomination and possibly giving her the VP slot.

These apparent talks are described by CNN as being in a “very preliminary” stage and as “difficult.”

It’s really unclear what this means or what’s really going on here. CNN doesn’t have anyone on the record. Just anonymous sourcing. We’ll have video of their report up shortly.

On first blush I’m skeptical that there really are “formal talks” in the usual sense of that phrase. The report appears to lean heavily on sourcing from within the Clinton camp, which is notable. The significance here may not be that there are formal talks underway or that the vice presidency is under discussion. The real significance may be that this is the opening salvo from the Clinton camp ahead of the negotiations that would likely accompany her withdrawal from the race.

Like everyone else, we’re trying to track this down now. But this may be the beginning of the beginning of the end.

Late Update: Here’s the video:

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If you’re interested please send a resume, two clips and a letter describing your interest and qualifications for the job to talk (at) talkingpointsmemo.com with the subject line “TPM News Editor Job”.

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