The horror... the horror ...

Team Clinton is sending more and more people over the edge. John Cole at http://www.balloonjuice.com/ slaps her, her husband, her advisers, and her supporters around ... and I think he might have actually held back a little ... or not.

Here are some excerpts:

"No one can drive me to the brink of madness like the Clinton family. No one. ... It is mind-numbing. This isn’t an election anymore. This is a secret bet between Bill and Hillary ala Trading Places in which they bet how much bullshit they can make the electorate swallow. ... It just never stops. ...

I know I am not a perfect person, but I like to think of myself as a good person. I am profane, I over-react, I say stupid things and sometimes mean things and then calm down and apologize, but I always try to be fair and try to do the right thing and try to give people the benefit of the doubt and I believe in forgiving people for their mistakes. I will always listen to people, even when I disagree with them. But no one, and I mean no one, has the ability to drive me so completely into madness like Team Clinton the past few months. Their non-stop nonsense just drives me insane as it dumbs down the rest of the electorate. ... and on and on and on and the bullshit just keeps coming so thick and so fast and without pause that she has well and truly driven me to utter unholy madness.

The only consolation is that I am not alone. Steve Benen, the Carpetbagger, is done. Atrios is disgusted. Tbogg is states he has never seen such a level of “intellectual dishonesty, disregard for reality on the ground, and shamelessnes” and is comparing her to Lieberman. Even Hilzoy, one of the most decent people to ever pen a blog post, is in full-on ridicule mode. Most people are looking at this train wreck, and the collective response is “WTF?” The talking heads on all of the channels are now verging on open mockery.

The talking heads on all of the channels are now verging on open mockery. ... Just make it stop, please. I am begging you. Make it stop. ... I am going to do everything in my power to ignore the Clinton campaign today, for mental health reasons. Dear God, please don’t let her compare herself to Ghandi today. I need a break."

Josh Marshall in a post labelled "Toxic" says:

"What she's doing is not securing her the nomination. Rather, she's gunning up a lot of her supporters to believe that the nomination was stolen from her -- a belief many won't soon abandon."

And here is another similar post at Americablog.com.

Their legacy is spinning down the drain.

Another week, another bunch of bigots ...

Here we are again, a huge Clinton win followed by a big Obama win. And it still doesn't mean squat. Senator Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008. It's all in the math.

But, once again, let's look at the results of a primary in another state in the Appalachian region. Over at DailyKos contributor DHinMI has another post and some more cool maps that show ...

"Obama does not appear to have a problem with white voters. However, Appalachia has a problem with Obama."

The exit polls show that some people in that region just won't vote for a black man.

Racism or bigotry. Take your pick.

I think he makes a good point ...

Listen to Bubba from 2004.

Thank you TalkingPointsMemo.com!

Who has their backs?

Since we are down to 3.5 candidates (you don't really think Huckabee can come from behind and win, do you?) I think we should move on to our VP forecasts.

The pick for Veep will be critical for each of the candidates, but perhaps for Senator John McCain most of all. The dude will turn 72 in August. And did you know ...

For the record, just checking actuarial tables, the odds are roughly 15% that a 72 year old person will die in the next 4 years. For a 60 year old person (like Hillary), it's about 5%.

So does McCain pick Huckabee to keep the Evangelicals close? Does he pick someone who really is a moderate, centrist who can draw from Independents and Republicans? Another move is to go with a hard edge Neocon to keep the Bush base (the 30-percenters) happy. Or how about the hilarious suggestion lately that he could pick Condi Rice as his running mate? And will all of this make Joe Lieberman jealous?
My prediction for McCain is ... Jeb Bush. I know it sounds nuts, but it's all part of the deal McCain made when he sold his soul to Bush/Cheney/Rove to become the Republican nominee in '08.

As for Senator Hillary Clinton, this is a tough one. I think she needs someone with a pleasing nature who isn't a Type A personality ... a shadow. A name tossed around is Senator Evan Buyh of Indiana.

But the winning ticket will be Senator Barack Obama from Illinois and Senator Jim Webb from Virginia. Webb is a former Admiral, a critic of the war in Iraq, and he has a son currently serving over there. He is tough. But like Obama he only has brief experience in Washington with less than two years in the Senate. But people clamoring for real change may be attracted to two people on the ticket who are not entrenched in Beltway politics.

PS - You'll notice that I didn't give John Edwards consideration. He is still tainted by the 2004 disaster.