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Here's a little chuckle for a Tuesday morning.
The funny folks over at Comedy Central have apparently become loyal Ticket readers too. Especially the ones on that website's wonderfully insightful Indecision 2008 News Desk -- "Something Approximating Election News with Something Approximating Honesty."
Last night the website's blogger took one of our recent items -- "Barack Obama may campaign at a NASCAR event" -- and had a little more fun with it. (See the headline on this morning's Ticket item.)
The Ticket had reported Thursday that Obama was considering attending a NASCAR event in coming months because, well, that's where white working-class votes are.
And the Democrat can use some. A whole bunch, in fact. We noted that Bill Clinton went to a NASCAR event in 1992 and got booed and boycotted, while George W. Bush received a friendlier reception in more recent years.
Comedy Central's CubbyChaser linked to our item about Obama's plans with the comment: "Why does this not surprise me in the least?"
And he provides a doctored photo of the Democratic nominee that should become a poster. We're not going to ruin his sight gag. You can click here to see it for yourself.
And be sure to note Obama's sponsor.
--Andrew Malcolm
Power is perishable, and when politicians exit the stage, it often doesn't take long -- especially in Washington -- for their importance to be only vaguely recollected.
 So with the death today of former Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina at age 86, we offer some reminders of the central role -- for good, ill or a combination of both, depending on one's viewpoint -- he played in public policy and political discourse (The Times' obituary can be read here).
Back in the late 1990s, the Almanac of American Politics said flatly of Helms that "no American politician is more controversial, beloved in some quarters and hated in others...."
This, at a time when Bill Clinton was deep into his presidency.
First elected to his Senate seat in 1972, aided by Richard Nixon's landslide in that year's presidential election and the increasing GOP appeal to the South's conservative ethos, Helms at first was chiefly known for his staunch -- and often colorfully expressed -- opposition to abortion rights, gay rights and a raft of other liberal causes.
He truly became a figure to be reckoned with, however, through his tenure on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (he eventually became its chairman). As the political almanac put it, he used his seat "to conduct something like his own foreign policy." During Ronald Reagan's presidency and the administration of George H.W. Bush, Helms and a band of loyal aides "developed their own sources and attempted to manipulate State Department appointments to help the contras in Nicaragua and rightists in El Salvador."
Helms was revered on the right. In comments on MSNBC today, Pat Buchanan judged him "the second most important conservative of the second half of the 20th Century" (the first, of course, being Reagan).
And he was reviled on the left, perhaps never more so then during his 1990 reelection campaign when he faced a spirited challenge from an African-American, Harvey Gantt.
That race overshadowed all others in the nation that year, and it lives on due to the controversial -- many say race-baiting ads -- that Helms employed.
The best-known ad sought to tap into resentment against "quota" hiring practice by showing white hands crumpling a job rejection notice while a narrator intoned that the better qualified applicant had been bypassed for a minority hire.
Less well-known is a spot that berated Gantt for waging a "secret" campaign because he was advertising on black-owned radio stations.
Helms won the election, 53% to 47%, and then defeated Gantt by virtually the same margin in a rematch six years later.
As our friend Frank James notes in his posting on The Swamp, Helms "was more complicated on racial issues than the caricature he had with much of the public."
Still, some will see irony in the timing of Helms' passing -- just a few weeks before Barack Obama makes racial history when he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Newsmakers
As of now, Barack Obama seems committed to competing vigorously in Georgia and North Carolina -- the two states are among 18 that have been targeted for two waves of general election ads by his campaign.
But Obama's ultimate chances of carrying those two states -- as well as Mississippi, where some of his  supporters believe he has a shot -- are nil, argues Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland's Baltimore County campus.
Schaller brings an impressive pedigree to the table in making his case; he's the author of the 2006 book “Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South.” As summed up in this blurb, Schaller contended that for Democrats -- certainly those seeking the presidency -- "spending valuable resources in Southern states is a dangerously self-destructive strategy..."
In an Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times, he focuses his general thesis on the particulars of Obama's candidacy. For instance, he walks through the prospect of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee maximizing black turnout in Mississippi and winning 95% of that vote (John Kerry corralled 90% four years ago), and concludes that Obama still would come up short in the state.
A major hurdle for Obama throughout the Deep South, Schaller writes is this: "the more blacks there are in a Southern state, the more likely the white voters are to vote Republican."
The one state in the region that Schaller thinks Obama has a "reasonable chance" of winning is Virginia -- in part because the percentage of its black population is low, compared to most other Southern states, and in part because, he writes, it has been transformed by a "huge influx of upscale non-Southerners."
Virginia also is one of the states where the recent spate of Obama ads has been airing (a list that contains several traditionally GOP states, as we noted previously).
Despite Schaller's overview, many Democrats in the South are feeling feisty these days, as illustrated by this news from Mississippi.
President Bush traveled there today ...
Read more Barack Obama & the South: Forget about it, says an expert »
Much attention, understandably, is being paid to the notes Barack Obama sounds in his first general election television ad, which starts running Friday and can be viewed here.
Its emphasis on family values, self reliance and patriotism would have made Ronald Reagan's media shop proud. And in case anyone misses the point, the spot's title -- "Country I Love" -- says it all.
What really grabs us, however, is where the ad will appear (and, in one case, where it won't).
For the most part, the 18-state list is predictable. It includes the battlegrounds, large and small, that political analysts expect to watch through election day: Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico among them.
But the list also includes a handful of reliably Republican places where Obama aides have been saying they believe he can compete, based on strength he showed among certain voting blocs during the primary season.
The states in this category are Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina and Virginia.
And then there are two states -- Alaska and North Dakota -- where the airing of the Obama ad demonstrates that:
A) His campaign knows something about these GOP redoubts that the rest of us doesn't;
B) When you're riding herd over an organization that raises massive amounts of cash seemingly without breaking a sweat -- and just today announced it was breaking free of the restraints imposed by the campaign finance system, as our friends at The Swamp write about here -- you can afford to take a flier on a couple of longshots, especially when the media markets are inexpensive;
C) It's always fun, when the November election still seems a long way off, to play in a few of your rival's backyards, if for no other reason than to cause some headaches on the other side.
Probably some combination of A, B and C explains the decision to advertise in Alaska (which President Bush carried with 61% of the vote in 2004) and North Dakota (which Bush won with 63% of the vote four years ago).
Looking at all seven states where the Obama ad buy raises eyebrows, here are some of the daunting historical facts ...
Read more Barack Obama ad targets include some shockers »
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...
Read more Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two »
It looks like Mike Huckabee, the former radio announcer, Baptist preacher, governor, bass guitarist, author and Republican presidential candidate, can add another occupation to his resume: paramedic.
Republican p residential nominee-to-be Sen. John McCain, take note.
At a luncheon preceding the North Carolina state Republican Party convention this weekend, Huckabee, the convention's keynote speaker, noticed that a fellow diner appeared to be choking on some food and having difficulty breathing.
The other diner was state Sen. Robert Pittenger, a GOP lieutenant governor candidate. This appearing to be a bad year for Republicans, they can't afford to lose even one vote.
So Huckabee, who received EMT training in college and is a former lieutenant governor himself, leapt up and immediately performed the Heimlich maneuver on Pittenger.
Pittenger began breathing normally again. Huckabee was declared a hero by unanimous vote. The breakfast and convention went on as scheduled. Pittenger is even back on the campaign trail.
After he regained his breath, Pittenger said he had been laughing when he choked on a piece of food and instinctively stood up. "The governor came over," he said, "and did the Heimlich and got the relief."
In fact, Pittenger added, Huckabee "called me in the car as I was driving home to make sure I was OK."
Huckabee's daughter, Sarah, who also serves as his spokesman, said her father reacted instinctively, as he has in other similar incidents, according to the Palmetto Scoop.
Some cynical commentators online are suggesting the incident was staged, and that Pittenger probably suffers from acid reflux or something and Huckabee's efforts were perhaps unnecessary. Not according to Pittenger.
Obviously, the commenters are Democrats worried about the possibility of a heroic Huckabee as McCain's vice presidential running mate running around the country campaigning this fall, saving the lives of Republicans, independents and disaffected Democrats wherever he goes.
And don't forget to take the vice president's poll here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: AP / Charlie Neibergall
So, it was a revealing slip the other day when, as reported in the Ticket, former Sen. John Edwards said he was going to endorse the Democratic presidential candidate he had just voted for in the North Carolina primary and then referred to that person as "him."
Tonight, according to sources in the Obama campaign, Edwards will endorse Sen. Barack Obama at a rally in Michigan, a crucial state for Democratic plans to recapture the White House Nov. 4.
It's perfect, and not accidental timing, for the freshman senator as it will shift the political conversation away from Sen. Hillary Clinton's lopsided victory in West Virginia Tuesday.
In public and in private conversations today in Washington with potential campaign donors, she was trying to use the win to show momentum and raise questions about Obama's. It's a bitter pill for Clinton, who had adopted several of Edwards' campaign themes, including fighting poverty, in an effort to win his endorsement.
But now the prime-time focus will be back on the Democratic front-runner, who will let other Democrats and the media ask the recurring question, "Why doesn't she just give up in the face of the unconquerable delegate math?"
In her victory speech last night in West Virginia, the New York senator indicated she would stay in the race until "everyone" is heard, possibly including settling of the Michigan-Florida vote-counting morass.
In a campaign appearance today, Clinton's spouse, ex-president Bill Clinton, remarked he never thought it would be the Democrats who would not be counting votes from Florida.
Now, that leaves only one big kahuna out there ...
Read more Confirmed: John Edwards to endorse Barack Obama tonight »
Some people have been looking for signs of a graceful exit from the Democratic presidential race by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. They probably should not be holding their breath.
Terry McAuliffe, her campaign chairman and himself a former head of the Democratic National Committee, made it clear Sunday that isn't happening anytime soon.
And Clinton's chief spokesman, Howard Wolfson, went on "Fox News Sunday" to state and re-state a firm belief that his boss would win and she was in the race until somebody got 2,209 delegates, which would mean counting Florida and Michigan.
McAuliffe was in there swinging too on both "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press," arguing that Clinton still has a chance to win the party nomination.
It's a good time for her campaign to make that argument because, if you believe some state polls, Clinton is poised to crush Barack Obama in West Virginia in Tuesday's primary voting there, some suggest by as much as a two-to-one margin. Once a solidly Democratic state, it's gone to the GOP two straight times now.
And if the superdelegates are smart, McAuliffe suggested, they'll resist the Obama bandwagon effect, hold out and not do anything that might turn off the many....
Read more Don't push her! Clinton's campaign chair warns fellow Democrats »
Former Sen. John Edwards has been out of the Democratic presidential race for what seems like one or two geological eras. But these guys don't like to be outside the spotlight too long. The attention is addictive.
So in recent days Edwards has reappeared all over television as if he was running still--or again. In fact, quick, go turn on your TV now; he's back on CBS' "Face the Nation" this morning.
But the other day he was on MSNBC, chatting with host David Schuster. Of course, the question these guys know they're going to get is the one the TV hosts know they're going to ask, trying to make a headline:
Who, goes the question, are you going to endorse for the party's nomination, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
Everybody knows they're not going to answer; the ex-candidate is gonna use some kind of dodge, as Edwards, of course, did. He said....
Read more John Edwards reveals he voted for Barack Obama last week. Or did he? »
Here it is again, our regular Saturday noon Ticket Notice listing of the Sunday morning TV talk shows, so you can choose who you're going to talk back to from your couch.
ABC's "This Week": Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), McCain supporter a nd former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina, and a round table with the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, ABC News' Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will
Bloomberg's "Political Capital With Al Hunt": Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
CBS's "Face the Nation": John Edwards, McAuliffe and Politico's Jim VandeHei
CNN's "Late Edition": Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (Ret.), Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Samir Sumaidaie, and a round table with CNN's Ed Henry and Jessica Yellin
C-SPAN's "Newsmakers": Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) will be interviewed by New York Times congressional reporter David Herszenhorn  and Damian Paletta of the Wall Street Journal.
"Fox News Sunday": Obama strategist David Axelrod and Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson; the power player is Ben Stein.
MSNBC's "The Chris Matthews Show": Ron Allen, NBC News Clinton campaign correspondent; Katty Kay, BBC American politics correspondent; John Heilemann, political reporter, New York magazine; and Michelle Cottle, senior editor, the New Republic
MSNBC's "Tim Russert": Barbara Walters, TV journalist and author of "Audition"
NBC's "Meet the Press": Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), Clinton chairman Terry McAuliffe, and a round table with Washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza, CNBC's John Harwood, NPR's Michele Norris and the Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photos: Associated Press
Did she, or did she not, play the "race card?"
That's the question being hashed over in much of political Washington concerning comments Hillary Clinton made to USA Today in making her case for soldiering on in her bid to draw to an inside straight and overtake Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race.
Here's the passage swirling the discussion: " 'I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,' she said in an interview with USA Today. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article 'that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states (those voting in Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries) who had not completed college were supporting me.' "
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.
Her defenders scoffed at the notion that she was sowing divisiveness, saying she was merely stating the obvious and that she resisted any mention of the almost monolithic support from blacks that has been central to Obama's successes.
Clinton herself, the article says later, "rejected any idea ...
Read more Hillary Clinton and the race card »
With the Democratic primary struggle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton possibly prolonged by Republicans crossing over to perversely support the New Yorker, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has unfurled a figurative "Mission Accomplished" banner on his radio program.
And although the bombastic broadcaster has absolutely no control over any of it, he has also officially urged two seemingly contradictory things: that Clinton should continue her now nearly hopeless struggle to win the Democratic presidential nomination -- "You've come too far to quit now; don't listen to the voices of surrender" -- and urged Democrats to nominate Obama, the freshman senator from Illinois.
"I now believe he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees," Limbaugh said. "“He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote. But Democrats do not win with that.”
That's the showbiz point of Limbaugh's initially silly but then seriously serious Operation Chaos, not to pick any particular Democratic candidate but to help them both bloody each other to irreparably hurt the liberal cause for the fall campaign.
Limbaugh says he came upon the disruptive idea when it ...
Read more Rush Limbaugh proclaims 'Mission Accomplished' in Operation Chaos vs. Obama, Clinton »
The good thing about an exclusive political news story is that you're the only with it.
The bad thing about an exclusive political news story is that you're the only one with it. And that can sometimes be because you're dead wrong. Remember the botched state election calls in the 2000 presidential election?
The amount of Mylanta going down over at CBS News must have really gone up Tuesday evening after the initial euphoria of bein g the first network to call Indiana a win for Sen. Hillary Clinton. And the only one. And the only one. And the only one.
For five full hours. All alone out there in political TV land.
So why exactly did CBS News feel comfortable doing that so far in front of the rest of the media?
The network wouldn’t provide details today about what went down at its decision desk last night, except to say it felt confident in its call at 8:09 p.m. Eastern time. That's when CBS anchor Katie Couric broke into the “NCIS” sleuth show to report the network was projecting that Clinton would win Indiana and....
Read more CBS mum on calling Indiana for Clinton so early -- and correctly »
ABC's George Stephanopoulos summed up the prevailing pundit opinion on “Good Morning America” today when he predicted that undeclared Democratic superdelegates would start flocking to Barack Obama. Yet the first party honcho to tip his after Tuesday's primaries that boosted  Obama signed up with ... Hillary Clinton.
A cynic might note that in announcing his support for Clinton, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina was aping his ill-fated pro football career -- joining the roster of a losing team.
But after washing out as a quarterback in the mid-to-late '90s with the Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders, Shuler succeeded as a politician by making clear to the constituents of the western tip of the Tar Heel state that although he was a Democrat, he shared their moderate-to-conservative opinions on most issues. That enabled him, in 2006, to knock off an eight-term Republican incumbent.
In endorsing Clinton, Shuler was hewing to the views of those who sent him to Washington. Although Clinton lost North Carolina to Obama by 14 percentage points, the results in Shuler's district were almost exactly the reverse: she won by 13 points.
He had said he would back the candidate who carried his home turf, and so he had, a spokesman for Shuler announced.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Allsport
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama just got through assaulting each other a few hours ago over delegates from Indiana and North Carolina. And now a bunch of Clinton supporters are pushing the idea of a "unity ticket" featuring both of them.
How likely does that seem right now?
But wait! They don't have to decide that right now. It's a long time until Denver in August. Several geological ages in this political cycle.  Do these two look like Democratic running mates or a couple beginning therapy?
The proposal is being pushed through a new website, founded by Adam Parkhomenko, called VoteBoth.com.
It's the much-talked-about-and-more-recently-ignored-especially-by-the-Obama-folks-idea of a so-called Dream Ticket. At the moment one might think that Obama would be on top, if he (and Michelle) would even consider the idea, given his vote totals, delegate totals, state totals and the feared sentiment among many Democrats if the first serious African American candidate was denied the top spot.
Not to mention the resulting ubiquitous White House presence of a certain ex-president who's said some divisive things in support of his Mrs. But, hey, this is politics, right? Bygones and all that for the good of the party come November.
The red, white and blue website with the title that flashes between Obama-Clinton and Clinton-Obama is currently not very full of press clippings on the effort. Maybe this will become a new one there. Maybe not.
But here's an interesting piece of background to get minds thinking and tongues talking: The website founder, Parkhomenko, used to be the assistant to Patti Solis Doyle, who used to be the campaign manager for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
How's that for coincidences?
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: CNN
According to the prepared remarks for his North Carolina victory speech Tuesday evening in Raleigh, Sen. Barack Obama was supposed to say, “I want to start by congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory in the state of Indiana.”
But Obama changed that line. And here's what he ended up saying, “I want to start by congratulating Senator Clinton on what appears to be her victory in the great state of Indiana.”
It may have been a hopeful move on his part, having won a big victory in North Carolina and, in the end, coming a whole  lot closer to putting Sen. Hillary Clinton away for good with a surprise win in Indiana. But by apparently coming within about 20,000 votes of also capturing the Hoosier State, Obama's campaign now says it plans a major change in direction.
On the Obama plane out of North Carolina tonight, his chief strategist, David Axelrod, apparently convinced that Clinton can no longer beat them, told The Times' Peter Nicholas that Obama will likely cut back his intensive primary campaigning in the remaining states; West Virginia is next Tuesday. And start his actual general election campaign almost immediately.
"We've got to multi-task here," Axelrod said enroute back to Chicago. "Superdelegates are a part of this and also a focus on the general election is important. Sen. McCain has basically run free for some time now. Everyone is eager to get on with this."
Of course, putting out such self-serving remarks may also help feed the impression that pervaded much of the evening's television chatter on how much longer Clinton could last and how graceful would be her exit. Right now, the campaigns' attention is focused on the less than 300 uncommitted superdelegates.
The fact is Obama scored so well in Lake County, Indiana especially among Gary's overwhelmingly black population, that he came within some 20,000 of scoring a huge upset.
Obama could start campaigning more against Sen. John McCain as a way of, in effect, marginalizing Clinton's continuing effort and convincing superdelegates it's all but over.
A major swing by a growing number of them could undermine Clinton's rationale for continuing, although no one underestimates the remaining fight in Clinton.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: ABC News
ABC's "Nightline," in its wrap-up report Monday night on the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, just  couldn't resist.
Barack Obama was asked to respond to a controversial comment James Carville recently uttered about Obama's anatomical makeup and that of Hillary Clinton (who Carville favors in the Democratic presidential race).
If we've learned anything about Obama as the primaries have ground on, it's that he is slow to anger. But Carville can try anyone's patience, and he clearly has tested Obama's.
Said the Illinois senator: "Well, you know, James Carville is well-known for spouting off his mouth without always knowing what he's talking about. And I intend to stay focused on fighting for the American people because what they don't need is 20 more years of performance art on television. And that's what James Carville and a lot of those folks are expert at ... a lot of talk and not getting things done for the American people."
In the middle of an earlier flap sparked by one of his remarks, Carville made a point of saying he would quickly enlist in Obama's campaign if he ends up being the Democratic nominee. We imagine the Obama staff would be tempted to declare him 4F.
The full interview with Obama can be seen here.
--Don Frederick
Photo credit: Getty Images
Barack Obama already had come to rue the comment he made, while campaigning in Indiana in April, about the potential importance of the state's primary. And he probably rues it a bit more after Hillary Clinton and her crew threw it in his face tonight, conveniently skewing for their own purposes one key word.
In the days before the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, Obama conceded that Clinton had the edge in that state, made himself the favorite in North Carolina (which joined Indiana in conducting a primary today) and said the Hoosier state "may end up being the tiebreaker."
Clinton, taking the stage in Indianapolis a few moments ago to claim what may end up a narrow win for her in Indiana (a key county expected to tilt toward Obama remained to be counted), immediately spotlighted his comment -- except she ignored his use of the conditional, saying he had predicted Indiana "would" be the tiebreaker.
Around the same time, her staff issued a memo that similarly tried to use the "tiebreaker" comment as a way to put the best possible spin on a day that was less than stellar for Clinton, given that her dual hopes of winning ...
Read more Clinton puts a word in Obama's mouth »
When Barack Obama took the stage to bask in his big victory in North Carolina's Democratic presidential primary, all but one of the television networks remained unwilling to call the day's other contest, the primary in Indiana.
 But Obama showed no such hesitation, saying early in his remarks that he wanted to congratulate Hillary Clinton "on what appears to be her victory in the great state of Indiana."
Maybe Obama has great confidence in the number-crunchers at CBS, the one network that had broken from the pack earlier and given Indiana to Clinton. But more likely, his comment was simply in line with the tone he clearly sought to strike -- gracious about triumphing in North Carolina by a comfortable, and politically important, margin and anxious to start healing fissures within Democratic ranks.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of Obama's speech was his reference to exit poll findings that a growing portion of his partisans and -- to an even greater degree -- some Clinton backers are saying they would be unwilling to line up behind the Democratic nominee in November if their choice does not prevail.
"I don't believe it," Obama said, launching into a brief discourse on the need for Democrats to remember which side they truly need to be on.
Even as he spoke, the race in Indiana got closer -- with about three-quarters of the vote in there, Clinton's lead had shrunk to ...
Read more Barack Obama willing to concede Indiana »
If there's one sure thing we should have learned from the year's protracted Democratic presidential race, it's that waaaaaaay too much stock is invested in the predictive power of the early waves of exit polls. So perhaps it's just as well that the first reports on what these surveys show seem contradictory.
First, from the good news for Barack Obama/bad news for Hillary Clinton department. The venerable Matt Drudge blares this on his website -- "HILLARY'S 'DOUBLE DREAM' DASHED: EXITS SHOW EASY OBAMA WIN IN NC."
But then there's this report, on Time magazine's The Page website -- "Fox: Was Rev. Wright 'very' or 'somewhat' important? Indiana and North Carolina: 48% Yes."
That's a high number of voters with Obama's former pastor on their mind, which his camp can't feel good about.
-- Don Frederick
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. -- Hillary Clinton began her presidential campaign in pearls, assembling a team of fundraisers that included luminaries from New York's financial services industry.
She's ending it in pickup trucks, Dairy Queens and fire stations, taking a 2-by-4 to "Wall Street money brokers" and vowing to break up oil-rich OPEC.
No development in the 2008 campaign is quite so striking as Clinton's transformation from a front-runner policy wonk with deep pockets to a cash-starved populist staking her hopes in today's North Carolina and Indiana primaries on a promise to lower gas prices.
"If I were president, I would be jumping up and down in the White House" to cut gas prices, she shouted to a crowd of several hundred supporters at a firehouse here.
Necessity is the mother of Clinton's populism, longtime observers say.
"It's a highly effective argument in a primary during an economic downturn," says Doug Schoen, a former pollster for former President Bill Clinton.
"She's not a true populist -- not at all," Schoen says. "She wasn't getting white males ...
Read more Hillary Clinton: From pearls to populism »
Rush Limbaugh, the self-appointed Commander-in-Chief of Operation Chaos, is puffing on his immense cigar and gloating at this very moment in his Florida bunker. And preparing to celebrate two more grand and glorious political victories over Democrats today, no matter who wins the primaries in Indiana and Florida.
 Usually as shy and retiring as, say, P.T. Barnum, the influential conservative radio talk-show host is in his bombastic element these past couple of months, ordering many of his 12 million-plus obedient daily listeners to switch their voting registration presumably from the Republican party and go cast a ballot wherever they are for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Not because he suddenly likes her after all these years of anti-Clinton rants. Nor, judging by what he's said on the air, because he's a huge fan of the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, who isn't conservative enough for the broadcaster.
Rushbo says he couldn't care less who wins the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He just wants the two surviving candidates to beat up on each other as long as possible, hopefully...
Read more Rush Limbaugh says Clinton-Obama race is proceeding precisely according to his plan »
California competes with Utah as the state with the lowest per capita tobacco use. Less than 14% of the adult population smokes, California health officials estimate.
Now, in honor of the primary tomorrow in North Carolina, the nation’s largest tobacco-producing state, The Ticket takes a look at political donations by the growers of those ground-up leaves to the 2008 presidential campaigns. “The golden leaf is a bedrock to North Carolina,” that state's Department of Agriculture proclaims on its website.
The truth is, The Times' indomitable campaign finance expert Dan Morain finds, where once tobacco interests and money carried a lot of influence, this time there's not much tobacco money flying around this cycle.
The candidates who took the most tobacco money have dropped out of the White House race. So much for big business picking winners. One-time Republican front-runner and cancer survivor Rudy Giuliani took $114,000 during his unsuccessful run. Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, whose home state is home to UST Inc., formerly known as U.S. Tobacco Inc., accepted $55,000.
Among candidates still standing or running...
Read more Tobacco dollars still in politics, but few go to Clinton, McCain or Obama »
Early in the 1980s rising television star Oprah Winfrey was looking for a local church in Chicago. Not surprisingly, she like many blacks including four years later a community organizer named Barack Obama, was attracted to Trinity United Church of Christ and its dynamic, outspoken pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
That South Side church was THE place for upwardly mobile Windy City blacks to connect and it had an aggressive community ou treach program. And attendance continued Winfrey's childhood connection with black churches and their shared sense of community and support.
As The Ticket noted Sunday morning, the same reasons caused other black clergy to steer the young Obama there, saying he'd have more luck connecting with black churches in his urban organizing efforts if he actually belonged to one himself. Obama's friends later added that alighting at Trinity with its forceful male leader was also part of the mixed-race Obama's exploration of his black identity in the absence of his father.
Things went along fine for several years, as Oprah's fame and fortune exploded and as Obama laid the groundwork in local efforts and political connections for his political career.
But something began bothering Winfrey. By the....
Read more Why Oprah quit Jeremiah Wright's church and Barack Obama didn't »
The day Barack Obama first appeared in the church office of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., more than 20 years ago, the pastor warned him that getting involved with Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ might not be "a feather in your cap."
Obama was a community organizer then trying to build support for his group on the South Side of Chicago, and a friendly minister at another church had suggested that he'd have more luck with black clergy support if he actually joined a congregation himself.
"Some of my fellow clergy don't appreciate what we're about," Wright told him that day, as Obama would later recount it. "They feel like we're too radical. Others [think] we ain't radical enough."
Obama ended up joining, a story he tells in his memoirs, and later was influenced enough by Wright to derive the title of a subsequent book, "The Audacity of Hope," from one of the pastor's sermons.
Some have speculated that Wright became a father figure for Obama, whose father had left the family and returned to Africa. As The Ticket noted the other day, others believe Obama was attracted by Wright's cerebral nature, as opposed to other less-educated black ministers on Chicago's South Side.
But despite the warning, the association did not seem to be a terribly risky one for Obama, given the arc of the career he was beginning to craft even then.
He was carefully constructing his resume as a street-savvy community organizer while also applying for admission to law school. Within the walls of Trinity, he found a connection to the African American community he'd lacked as a child raised by his white mother and grandparents, an important cultural marker for a biracial candidate who later would try to appeal to black and white voters alike.
He'd share church membership with some of Chicago's influential thinkers and leaders, among them lawmakers, judges and Oprah Winfrey. And in Wright he would find ...
Read more Ticket Special Report: How and why Barack Obama allied himself with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. »
A small but revealing shift today by the Obama campaign in the public packaging of its candidate, who's caught some flak in recent weeks for his elitist comments and references. (Not to mention Rev. Jeremiah Wright.)
Clearly that elite criticism touched an Obama nerve as the multimillionaire, Ivy League-educated lawyer Hillary Clin ton goes about the Rust Belt downing shots in urban taverns, talking about hunting and "buying" gas with a sheet metal worker. It paid off for her in dominating the recent primary results among the small working class towns of central Pennsylvania.
So Barack Obama and his surrogates began a barrage of seemingly casual comments noting he was the child of a single mother who once used food stamps. No more talk in possibly bitter small towns of Harvard, Columbia and the outrageous price of arugula in Hyde Park these days.
But now, instead of being introduced by the usual local politicians or officials at his public events as a reward in local publicity for their backing, the honor of preceding the candidate on stage and saying a few words to the crowd and cameras is being awarded to regular folks chosen by his advance teams.
The goal: to counter a perception among many that...
Read more Obama tweaks public events to stress regular guy but then came the roller rink »
Barack Obama refuses to be put on the defensive as the odd presidential candidate out in the great (though temporal) debate over the federal gasoline tax, steadfastly opposing the call by both Hillary Clinton and John McCain for suspending the levy through the summer. 
In Indianapolis today, Obama derided the proposal as the type of "phony" idea that politicians often promote "to win elections instead of actually solving problems." (For more, see this story by Times reporter Peter Nicholas.)
Camp Clinton, however, clearly likes the dog it's got in this hunt. Not only did did the candidate herself press her case today in North Carolina, but consider this quip by one of her campaign advisors, Doug Hattaway, to Times reporter Noam Levey: "The Obama campaign seems bitter about sliding in the polls and they're clinging to these gas tax attacks."
Hattaway, of course, was making a play on words now associated with Obama's mini-sociological dissection of small-town life. But Hattaway also might have been feeling chipper about the gas-tax issue because of where he was standing at the time -- the Auto Racing Hall of Fame, in Mooresville, N.C.
Hard to imagine anybody in his immediate vicinity -- or for miles around -- whispering a word against anything that might lower NASCAR racing costs.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: Getty Images
A few minutes of lighter political entertainment on a Saturday evening before we have to get into all the heavy stuff on those political talk shows tomorrow morning, leading up to Tuesday's crucial votes in North Carolina and Indiana:  Click here.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Barack Obama's two little girls are too young to date yet, but if their dad were to end up serving two White House terms, they might want to take heed of some recollections from Hillary Clinton today.
At a forum in North Carolina that, as the Associated Press story put it, focused less on politics and more on "chick chat," Clinton reminded her audience that Chelsea, her daughter (and current key campaign surrogate), "was a teenager in White House, which meant that the Secret Service went on her dates. A lot of her girlfriends' mothers loved it when they double dated because there was a guy with a gun in the front seat."
She offered no word on how the guys courting Chelsea felt about that.
But she did concede that for those fellows, "it was really intimidating to talk to her father. And, I guess, to me."
The gathering was sponsored by the website momlogic.com, which has more on it here.
-- Don Frederick
Photo Credit: AP
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As the fevered North Carolina primary campaign kicked into its final gear this week, John Edwards accentuated his decision to remain neutral in the Democratic presidential race he once competed in by  going off on a family vacation to Walt Disney World.
But whatever recreation he and his wife, Elizabeth, were engaged in Friday night, their ears must have been burning -- in a good way. At a state party dinner in Raleigh, N.C., Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sang the praises of the Tar Heel native son they vanquished earlier this year, as well his high-profile spouse.
Clinton spoke first at the gathering and, as Times reporter Noam Levey relates, she stressed her commitment to the causes Edwards and his wife hold dear. 
"Let me say what a great fighter North Carolina and working Americans everywhere had in John Edwards," Clinton said as the crowd cheered. "His courageous fight to end poverty is a fight I will see to the finish."
(Clinton has, in fact, pledged to create a Cabinet-level office devoted to focusing on poverty.)
"Let's take a minute to express our gratitude," she added.
But there was more. Clinton ...
Read more John and Elizabeth Edwards are stars of a show they aren't at »
Fair is fair.
On the heels of Barack Obama's starring role Thursday in the Top Ten segment on the "Late Show with David Letterman," CBS has announced that Hillary Clinton will get the same slot on Monday's show.
Obama had delivered a Top Ten list back in January, but Clinton is a veritable mainstay for Letterman. The CBS release announcing her latest appearance notes that it will be the 11th time she's been a part of the program.
And, actually, perhaps there is a fairness question surrounding the chance Clinton gets for friendly exposure on a broadcast network on the eve of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
Got to give her campaign credit, though: It's getting better at this gambit. On the eve of the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries, in early March, her chance to soften her image was confined to cable -- a guest spot on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
-- Don Frederick
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