WASHINGTON (CNN) — Florida’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist, tells me he’s ready to let the Democrats hold another primary in his state if necessary to allow Florida delegates have a say at the Democratic Convention in Denver at the end of the summer. Right now, the Democratic National Committee has prohibited Florida from seating those delegates because the state moved up its primary against party rules. (The same is true for the Democrats in Michigan.)

But now, Crist says he would be ready to let the state organize another round of voting for the Democrats if that’s what they want and need. That is significant because state primaries are paid for by the taxpayers; state caucuses, which had been suggested by some Democrats as a compromise solution that would allow the state’s delegates to be seated, are paid for by the parties.

Obama would not only benefit from another clear primary victory, but this campaign would be a boost in the general election. Obama would have a chance to showcase his inspiring rhetoric and present his plans as President of the United States as Florida will be a key state in the battle for the White House.

The whole question of seating the Florida and Michigan delegates, of course, would become moot if Hillary Clinton were to drop out of the race. But if she does well Tuesday in Rhode Island, Vermont, Ohio and Texas, the race will continue to Pennsylvania on April 22 and maybe even longer – perhaps all the way to the convention in Denver.

Again, if Obama sweeps “Junior Super Tuesday” on March 4th, he will become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

Bill Foster, businessman and scientist, will be challenging perennial Republican candidate Jim Oberweis for the seat vacated by Hasert in the 14th.

We strongly recommend Bill Foster in this special election where the winner will immediately be seated in Congress. This will mean that the Democrats will gain one more seat in Congress. For those that reside in the 14th please vote for Foster. If you do not reside in the 14th, you can donate to the campaign, or you can volunteer your time and energy for this great cause.

The opportunities abound this year in Illinois with several long-time Republican seats with a good chance of turning Democratic. The Democrats have an opportunity to capture seats in the 6th, 10th and the 11th Congressional Districts. More about those races later. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

The real loser in this process is John McCain. He is the lone voice in the wilderness except that no one really cares what this lone voice has to say “my friend.”

More Iraq, fifty or a hundred years. Whatever, my friend.

Don’t really know much about the economy. No tax cut. Yes tax cuts. Whatever, my friend.

Immigration. Build a wall. Don’t build a wall. Let em stay. Round em up. Whatever, my friend.

Ethanol. I’m all for it I think. Whatever, my friend.

The only problem is that the general election isn’t being held today for if that was the case Obama or Clinton would defeat McCain in a landslide. Eight months is an eternity in politics and so much could change. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

McCain, 71, on Wednesday issued a toughly worded statement accusing Obama of replacing his signature appeal for “the audacity of hope” with “the timidity of despair” when it comes to Iraq.

McCain has steadfastly defended the Bush Administration war agenda. The “Straight Talker” has been fairly consistent on his pro-Iraq War position, although he has occasionally critisized Bush’s handling of the Iraq War. But now he has criticized Obama’s recent statements about the Iraq War situation.

“Is Senator Obama unaware that Al-Qaeda is still present in Iraq, that our forces are successfully fighting them every day, and that his Iraq policy of withdrawal would embolden Al-Qaeda and weaken our security?” McCain said.

To which Obama hit forcefully back that Al-Qaeda didn’t exist before the McCain Iraq War vote.

Obama, who is also under attack from Clinton as a foreign policy novice, hit back by arguing there was no Al-Qaeda threat in Iraq before the US-led invasion nearly five years ago.

But McCain’s problem don’t end with the Iraq War. He has been taken on as a not so “straight talking” candidate as evidenced by his flip-flops on major positions such as the Bush tax cuts. The issue came up during the Florida Republican primary when Mitt Romney blasted McCain’s flip-flopping positions on tax cuts, immigration and ethanol.

Romney shot back that McCain was “against the Bush tax cuts” but “now he’s for making them permanent.” And “he was for McCain-Kennedy” immigration reform, Romney continued. “Now he’s for a new program on immigration. He’s changed his view on issue after issue. He was against ethanol, then for it, then against it again.”

I’d suggest that before McCain the flip-flopper criticizes other candidates statements, he get his own house in order. He needs to make up his mind on which position he’s taking this time. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

I was right.

There was such a consensus, however, that Hillary Clinton was the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination.

How quickly events have change. The question being whispered here and there is will Barack Obama ask Hillary Clinton to join the ticket and that will she accept.

I now believe the answer to both questions is yes. I believe he will ask and that she will accept.

What an exciting prospect. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (AP) — John McCain says to win the White House he must convince the country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, he says, “then I lose. I lose.”

He quickly backed off that remark.

The likely Republican nominee told reporters: “Let me not put it that stark.” On his campaign bus Monday, he said Americans will judge his candidacy on whether they believe he can lead the country on the economy and national security. He said, “Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security.”

Senator McCain had it right the first time.

• Adopt single payer national health insurance,
• Cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget
• No to nuclear power, solar energy first
• Aggressive crackdown on corporate crime
  and corporate welfare
• Open up the Presidential debates
• Adopt a carbon pollution tax
• Reverse U.S. policy in the Middle East
• Impeach Bush/Cheney
• Repeal the Taft-Hartley anti-union law
• Adopt a Wall Street securities speculation tax
• Put an end to ballot access obstructionism
• Work to end corporate personhood

Ralph Nader is the idealistic man in a non-idealistic world. Those of us that grew up in the 60′s and 70′s vividly recall that world of idealism. And yes, purely on the issues he is.

But I just can’t do it. That is, support or vote for Ralph Nader. He is dead on with every one of my issues.

And why can’t I support or vote for him (besides the fact he is not electable)?

In the year 2000, in one of the great ironies of our time, Ralph Nader, the idealist, help to elect George W. Bush to the Presidency. Subtract Nader from that campaign and Al Gore would be serving his last year in what I believe would have been a great eight years with his approval ratings at an all-time high. Al Gore would have continuing peace abroad. Al Gore would have continuing prosperity at home. Of this, I have no doubt.

I am wholeheartedly supporting, volunteering and voting for Barack Obama. He is not perfect on all my issues, but he is certainly much closer to those issues than John McCain.

I want “single-payer.” I want the bloated defense budget cut drastically. The time for solar power is here and needs federal sponsorship in a big way to really succeed. I want an end to this “dumb war” in Iraq. But I am certainly will never get these things with John McCain as President. Not even close. He will be so busy fighting his “hundred year war” in Iraq, there will be no money for anything else.

Do not support Ralph Nader and allow history to repeat itself. I wish he would fade away. He has accomplished great things in his life, but he may be remembered as the man who elected George H. Bush to the Presidency. I sense this time the voters will ignore him. But voting for Nader will only help elect McCain and what a terrible event that would be for us and the world. He might as well sign on to be John McCain’s campaign manager. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

“So, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” Clinton said while her loyal ally, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, also tried to draw a contrast between Clinton and Obama by saying, “She just knows more. She knows more.”

The attacks on Obama are a sign of desperation on the part of the Clinton campaign and are not unique. The attacks bear no weight because similar attacks were lodged against Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign against George H.W. Bush. And similar charges lodged against Reagan in 1980. And against Carter in 1976. And against JFK in 1960.

And with apologies to Strunk and White’s book, The Elements of Style: etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And so it goes. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

What is bothersome about the attacks is that they are dripping with sarcasm.

“I could stand up here and say ‘Let’s just get everybody together, let’s get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect,’ ” she said Sunday while campaigning in Providence, Rhode Island. Rhode Island and Vermont also hold contests next Tuesday, but only have 36 delegates up for grabs.

The sarcasm doesn’t hurt Obama and diminishes Clinton’s candidacy. Reading on Walden Bookstore.

That’s why she has been losing battle after battle by double digits in every corner of the country ever since. And no matter how much bad stuff happened, she kept to the Bush playbook, stubbornly clinging to her own Rumsfeld, her chief strategist, Mark Penn. Like his prototype, Mr. Penn is bigger on loyalty and arrogance than strategic brilliance. But he’s actually not even all that loyal. Mr. Penn, whose operation has billed several million dollars in fees to the Clinton campaign so far, has never given up his day job as chief executive of the public relations behemoth Burson-Marsteller. His top client there, Microsoft, is simultaneously engaged in a demanding campaign of its own to acquire Yahoo.

There was a huge gap between the campaigns, explains Rich, in their work ethic.

The gap in hard work between the two campaigns was clear well before Feb. 5. Mrs. Clinton threw as much as $25 million at the Iowa caucuses without ever matching Mr. Obama’s organizational strength. In South Carolina, where last fall she was up 20 percentage points in the polls, she relied on top-down endorsements and the patina of inevitability, while the Obama campaign built a landslide-winning organization from scratch at the grass roots. In Kansas, three paid Obama organizers had the field to themselves for three months; ultimately Obama staff members outnumbered Clinton staff members there 18 to 3.

He even questions Clinton’s competency as a leader, citing a “disheveled campaign” and comparing it to her “botched” healthcare task force.

This is the candidate who keeps telling us she’s so competent that she’ll be ready to govern from Day 1. Mrs. Clinton may be right that Mr. Obama has a thin résumé, but her disheveled campaign keeps reminding us that the biggest item on her thicker résumé is the health care task force that was as botched as her presidential bid.

In summary, Frank Rich’s piece simply states in graphic fashion that Barack Obama ran a better campaign than Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama’s remarkable rise comes as no surprise to me, having watched this brilliant politician rise from the ashes of a crushing defeat in a Congressional race in 2000, where he couldn’t do anything right. Since that time, has done nothing wrong. And that success is not accidental. Reading on Walden Bookstore