So what did Obama mean when he stated:

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Sounds ominous having read about something similar in a novel recently. Not a WWII novel either. Just what is that national security force supposed to do? He doesn’t say.

Thou the overall speech sounded rather reminiscent of the New Deal. Take a listen and you’ll get the idea. Expanding AmeriCorps, proposing an Energy Corps and on and on. Where will he get all the money to implement all the programs he’s proposing?

Taxes, we’ll be taxed to death.

And it won’t work, government can’t solve everything by creating more and more programs. Only thing the government seems to get right is the military. They should stick to that. Something about the federal government being responsible for that in the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment states.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Like it says leave the rest to the states and the people, private enterprise and charities. Don’t put the federal government in charge.

Hattip WND.

Think Congress is doing a good job, that’s a new low. And the Democrats are in charge there. Makes you think, no? Quoting Rasmussen Reports:

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Reaching new highs and lows at the same time, a real record breaking Congress. And I think most if not all of them are up for reelection. Should prove interesting.

Take my Congressman, Jeff Flake, a Republican. Numbers USA gave him a C grade overall on his immigration voting record with some flagrant F’s in reducing chain migration, amnesties and unnecessary foreign worker visas. Republicans not doing much better than the Democrats and that’s just one issue. No wonder Congress is held in such high esteem.

Seeing as it is Independence Day I thought to highlight a bit from the Declaration of Independence that is of paramount interest.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Food for thought this election year. Rights given by our Creator - God. Consent of the governed, hmmm. I know where the governed have been overruled by judicial activism in a few instances, notably California and Massachusetts. Liberty threatened by political correctness or at least freedom of speech and religion are. I could go on but you get the idea. Let us remember what our soldiers fought to obtain - our freedom - and act accordingly. We have rights. Let us preserve them.

It would be advantageous if we got back to Constitutional government and got rid of all the excess bloat, regulations, and interference from the Federal government. To have a Supreme Court that would interpret laws according to the U.S. Constitution. And have elected officials responsive to the people they serve instead of their own interests. It is doable, we just have to want to do it.

We’re definitely in bear territory now, and not the furry kind either. The Dow just keeps sinking.

The stock market’s pullback, which accelerated in the final hours of the week’s last full trading session, left the Dow Jones industrial average officially in bear market territory, with the blue chips having fallen more than 20 percent from their October highs.

…The Dow fell 166.75, or 1.46 percent, to 11,215.51, the lowest close since August 2006. It now stands 20.82 percent below its Oct. 9, 2007 record of 14,164.53. The last bear market ended in October 2002.

And oil just keeps rising, what with the tension between Israel and Iran, no surprise either.

Crude oil hit a record $144.32 a barrel in after-hours trading after reaching a record settlement of $143.57, an advance of $2.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Energy Department reported Wednesday that U.S. crude oil supplies fell more than expected last week.

It’ll only get worse. With retirement not that many years off, things are looking rather bleak. I don’t like it very much.

I’ll like it even less if Obama gets elected and raises my taxes.

Listening to Obama speak today on FoxNews, I caught a glimpse and wondered. Did he just diss religion when he said about people “…should give to a man of the cloth and hope it trickles down.” How insulting. Does he think government is the solution to all man’s problems, that giving to churches is unwise cause the pastor takes the lions share of the donation? Well, I suppose he has his pastor, the Rev. Wright as an example. Geesh, they’re not all like that.

Obama is the Democratic candidate for President, he got the delegates and the all important superdelegates.

Cheered by a roaring crowd, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, taking a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket without conceding her own defeat.

I kindof doubt he’d pick her for VP but anything can happen. She didn’t concede defeat in her speech, could still argue her case that she’d be the stronger candidate. She did win in those big electoral vote states. It will be fun to watch in any case.

Obama sealed his nomination, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and support from party “superdelegates.” It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,151 by the AP count.

Why he even has the endorsement of old peanut-brain, Jimmy Carter. That says a lot and not in a good way. McCain better win this one or we’re doomed.

So the Obamas resigned from their church, big deal.

“Our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views,” they wrote. “These controversies have served as an unfortunate distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an untenable position.”

No denunciation, mind you, they just want the people to worship in peace. Divisive statements aside, he didn’t denounce Black Liberation Theology which is the form of Christianity preached there. Just what did he convert to anyway? The NYTimes summarizes.

Mr. Obama said that his resignation was not a matter of political convenience, but rather that he had reached the point where neither he nor Trinity’s pastors and congregants could worship in peace. He noted that reporters now pored over sermons and that some had called sick members at home to ask about the church.

Not politically convenient, oh please! As if that’s going to stop them. The can has been opened, the worms will come out. I’m guessing Sean Hannity won’t let it go either.

So he’s off to find another church but not until after the election. Guessing he doesn’t want to open any more cans until the Presidency is in the bag.

He acknowledged that the search would be a tricky business, not least because African-American pastors often pride themselves on speaking with a clear “prophetic voice” about social and racial injustices. Their aim is not to force parishioners to agree with every word, they say, but to spark thought.

Spark thought, that’s putting it mildly. Perhaps he’d be better off in a church that was less political and more Christian. I know they have those in the Black community cause their preachers have appeared on FoxNews. He could always find some mixed race church too, plenty of those. Maybe some elitist DC church. That would suit a President.

More fun here for Obama, another preacher problem surfaced.

Pfleger told the Trinity congregation, “We must be honest enough to expose white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head.”

He continued: “Reverend Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on. I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate.’

“And then out of nowhere came, hey, I’m Barack Obama. And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.’”

Pfleger then mimicked Clinton crying as the audience erupted into applause and gave Pfleger’s remarks a standing ovation. Clinton has become emotional during several interviews this year, and some media commentators have questioned her sincerity.

In his sermon, Pfleger added, “She wasn’t the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people cryin’.”

This is a preacher, Catholic priest even, this is a sermon? What in the world does it have to do with Jesus Christ which is what Christian churches should focus on? Faith? Repentence? Baptism? Confirmation? Charity? Golden rule? Service? Tithing, surely he might want to hit on that?

This is pure politics of the most hateful kind.

Oh and not surprisingly, Pfleger had praised Obama.

“Faith is key to his life, no question about it,” Pfleger told the Sun-Times. “It is central to who he is, and not just in his work in the political field, but as a man, as a black man, as a husband, as a father. … I don’t think he could easily divorce his faith from who he is.”

However, the brand of Christianity Obama and family was exposed to is Black Liberation Theology, troubling if that is what he believes. Irregardless of how he distances himself from the soundbites coming out of his preachers, he can’t escape the fact he has been influenced in a radical vein for around twenty years or so. One may indeed wonder what he would do as President.

You expected Ritzi and her kittens, not a chance. Catfight would ensue. So you get them. Have a happy one whether a mother or not.

image credit AFP

Well, someone would think she wouldn’t be in the offering as they have been at each other tooth and nail. Kindof like watching a cat fight but more fun.

“She is tireless, she is smart. She is capable. And so obviously she’d be on anybody’s short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate,” said Obama, who inched closer to winning the nomination by routing Clinton in North Carolina and almost defeating her in Indiana on Tuesday.

Some Democrats are saying Obama and Clinton would be a formidable team against Republican John McCain in the race to the November election.

According to a CBS News/New York Times poll released last week, a majority of both Obama and Clinton voters say they would favor a so-called “Dream Ticket” involving both candidates.

Well, that would unite the Democrats, more fodder for the Republicans too. Aside from that, people have been hinting for Hillary to bow out now but she isn’t. And the political pundits have been having a field day over why she’s still here. Reminds me, need to stock up on popcorn.

It could be a lot worse. Case in point, Burma’s government is worse.

Myanmar’s military government came under pressure on Wednesday to open its borders to more international help after a devastating cyclone that a U.S. diplomat said may have killed more than 100,000 people.

That’s a lot of deaths. In terms of loss of human life, it is a huge tragedy. Dwarfs Katrina although our government’s response to Katrina was less than optimal, ok abysmal.

image credit AFP

Naturally, politics only makes it worse, sounds familiar.

“What remains is for the Burmese government to allow the international community to help its people. It should be a simple matter. It is not a matter of politics,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

John Holmes, the top U.N. humanitarian official, urged Myanmar to waive visa restrictions he said were slowing efforts to bring in relief experts and supplies to help an estimated one million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Even the U.N. can’t get much action here. I listened to Laura Bush speak about this last Saturday but as the death toll wasn’t estimated to be that high, I didn’t blog about it. There was a volcano eruption somewhere else, earthquakes, lots of stuff I missed blogging about. Incidentally, she looked awful like she’s had too tight a face lift. To recap unless this escaped people, it was reported to be a Category 3, like Katrina actually. Cyclone is a hurricane.

The cyclone, with 190 kph (120 mph) winds, slammed into coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta southwest of Yangon on Saturday. Witnesses reported villages destroyed and people fighting for survival by clutching trees.

Reminds me of the tsunami although on a smaller scale, only one country affected. One who’s government is slow to accept aid. Still a major humanitarian disaster.

Disasters can strike anywhere and it is better to be prepared rather than expect government to do it. They tend to muck it up under the best of circumstances. Come to think of it, government can be a disaster. If Newt is right, it just may be come November. We shall see.

Oil just keeps going up and up. The latest. This hits the pocketbook faster than anything a politician proposes.

Oil futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market’s upward momentum looked past the government’s report of an increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose for the first time since last week.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery hit a new trading record of $123.90 in after-hours activity on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling up $1.69 at a record close of $123.53 a barrel.

That means gas will er has gone up too. And will keep going up.

At the pump, meanwhile, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose Wednesday for the first time since last week, adding 0.8 cent to $3.618, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices are back within a cent of the record $3.623 a gallon set last week, and are expected to rise to an average of $3.73 a gallon next month, according to the latest Energy Department forecast.

And may make it to $4 a gallon sooner rather than later. Not good at all. Hillary has proposed a gas tax holiday for the summer. Problem with that is summer will be here before she or, more likely, Obama gets elected. Any relief, if it is to come, will be from the Bush administration. Dems haven’t come thru with their promise to bring down gas prices either. Typical empty rhetoric.

By the same comments he only found offensive before, well those and a few more. From CNN is his response.

Sen. Barack Obama said he is “outraged” by comments his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made Monday at the National Press Club and is “saddened by the spectacle.”
Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday denounced comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“I have been a member of Trinity Church since 1992. I have known Rev. Wright for almost 20 years,” he said at a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “The person I saw yesterday is not the person I met 20 years ago.”

Obama said he is outraged by Wright’s remarks that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.

Maybe he should have paid attention to the clips that have been running on FoxNews these past several weeks that sparked the outrage. Took Wright hammering in the point for Obama to get the point.

“What particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing,” Obama said, adding that Wright had shown “little regard for me” and seemed more concerned with “taking center stage.”

His mild refuting of them earlier came across as disingenuous. And it took him a few days and more than one reiteration by Wright to notice Wright dismissed his distancing himself from Wright as political posturing. Wonder too if it still is. Note, with both of them, it’s all about “me.”

Obama said Wright’s comments were not only “divisive and destructive,” but they “end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.”

Obama said he did not think Wright’s comments accurately portrayed the perspective of the black church and said they “certainly do not portray accurately” his own values and beliefs.

Oh yes, I had failed to come up with Wright’s comment on that, something along the lines of it being not an attack on him but an attack on the black church. Maybe Obama was one of those C & E people and just failed to catch the offensive sermons. That would have been a good excuse. He goes on to really distance himself from Wright.

Obama said Monday that Wright’s remarks were “antithetical to our campaign; it was antithetical to what we’re about.”

“I cannot prevent him from making these remarks,” but “when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts what I’m about and who I am. … It is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country.”

Well, Wright left no doubt where he stands and it isn’t taking sound bytes out of context. Obama had no choice but to come out forcefully against his former minister if he’s to win the election and put this mess to rest. But do we believe him or is it politics as usual?

The Reverend Wright story isn’t going away, well not with him going on his ‘all about me’ tour. This in USA Today article.

“I come from a religious tradition where we shout in the sanctuary and march on the picket lines,” he said. “The black religious experience is different. … Different does not mean deficient.”

During a nearly hour-long interview aired Friday on PBS, Wright said he had been “crucified by corporate-owned media.” He did not recant his controversial sermons — including one in which he suggested that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were payback for “terrorism” that the U.S. government had perpetrated abroad in military actions against Libya, Panama, Iraq and in the nuclear attacks on Japan that ended World War II.

He said he is being exposed to “vitriolic hatred” and death threats because Americans “would rather cling to what they are taught” than come to grips with facts about their government’s acts of oppression against Native Americans, African-Americans and foreign civilians caught in the crossfire of war.

And what Barack Obama had to say about the controversy, note he doesn’t say which comments offended him.

“I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past,” he said. “The fact that he’s my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue.”

OK, that means he’s fair game for the Republicans. Meanwhile over at CNN, Wright clarifies his position.

Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor told an audience of thousands at an NAACP dinner Sunday that he was “descriptive” but “not divisive” when he talks about race relations in America.

“I describe the conditions in this country,” the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said during his lively keynote address at the Detroit chapter’s 53rd Freedom Fund dinner.

“Conditions divide, not my descriptions,” he said.

“I am sorry your local political analysts and your neighboring county executives think my being here is polarizing and my sermons are divisive, but I’m not here to address an analyst’s opinion,” he said. “I am here to address your 2008 theme … (of) change is going to come.”

Um, not divisive, not buying that. And from the sound bytes I’ve heard today and I’ve heard plenty, he’s still divisive.

The baby quote making the rounds:

Speaking about sex education at an event in Pennsylvania Saturday, Obama said, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network, that he will educate his young daughters but “if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.”

He’s not talking about just any daughters, teenagers, he was referring to his own daughters who will not have a typical upbringing, especially if he wins the White House. Something about wealth and privilege.

Since when is a baby a punishment? I always felt one was a blessing from God.

However, this will not hurt Obama, nothing has so far. Even after the Pastor Wright flap, he’s more popular than ever at least according to the latest Gallup poll.

In the speech, Obama said:

“I can no more disown him (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”

Equating white grandma who said some things in private with a racist, anti-American preacher who espoused some extreme left-wing views to the public and had DVDs made of them. And to a radio interviewer, he said:

“She is extremely proud, and the point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person who, you know, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, there is a reaction that has been bred into our experiences that don’t go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way. … That’s the nature of race in our society … and we have to break through it. And what makes me optimistic is you see each generation feeling a little less like that, and that’s pretty powerful stuff.”

So, typical white people are racist. I would resent that if I were a typical white person. And he expects typical white people to vote for him? I guess if you don’t you’re racist. Or it is a typical thing to utter racial epithets. Unintentionally, without thought. But sermons aren’t without thought so that comparison with the pastor doesn’t wash.

I’m trying to decide which article expressed my feelings better, the one by Joseph Farah, where I got the above quotes, or the one by Barbara Simpson. Both are good. She brings up some very important questions, those being.

What would he do as president? How would he change things? What kind of judgment would he have in his appointments, legislative support, judicial appointments and foreign affairs dealings?

Where would his sympathies lie?

I wonder the same thing.

Grandbaby kept me up late last night, she’s adopted my kid’s schedule. Great for her but not so for me as I am usually up by 6AM. Yeah, I actually babysat for a few hours, bout fell asleep watching her too.

Then I spent the day at the shop getting needed maintenance done. Engine had been running rough, time for a tune-up, clean out the fuel injectors, that kind of stuff. I feel poor.

Spent the afternoon laying with kitties, always a nice activity, and listening to the news. Gee this Pastor Wright is getting a lot of airplay or rather reaction to him, Obama’s reaction, the race speech, reaction to that, unending bloviating on whether it will make a difference. Not for me, I vote Republican.

Like I said, laying with kitties is nice. Bazel didn’t lay with me thou today, he and Meowza got into a big fight earlier and Meowza had the tummy. Bazel has a good memory.

And as I got somewhat less that four hours sleep, going to bed early.

OK, so Obama knew his pastor made controversial remarks. So then it should have come as no surprise then that Wright made very controversial remarks.

“Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely,” said Obama.

But he said the snippets of Wright’s sermons circulating on cable television and the Web in recent days do not tell the whole story about Wright.

“As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children,” Obama said.

Yet he had Wright serve on his campaign, that is until his sermons came to light.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose sermons raging against the U.S. have sparked controversy, is no longer formally tied to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign, an Obama spokesman said late yesterday.

He knew about the remarks before then but it took the news media getting a hold of them before he did something about it. Wonder what Wright will do informally or what he may do in the future administration were Obama to become President.

Obama said he wasn’t aware of Wright’s incendiary comments until he began running for president early last year.

Yet he still had Wright serve on the campaign knowing. That is telling.

Something actually good about John McCain, not much but something.

McCain, a national-security expert by inclination, has voted for free-trade agreements and fought protectionism. On the domestic front, he tried to kill many federal programs and opposed President George W. Bush’s 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan, which may cost almost $400 billion over 10 years.

He actually opposed that prescription drug plan. Which would better have been handled by a Medicare supplement HMO style. Aside from that, his past record on taxation has been described as “profoundly disturbing” and his recent turnaround may be “expedient rhetoric” to win over the conservative base IMHO. I still don’t trust him.

Just read this in the news on Yahoo.

Republican Mitt Romney quit the White House race Thursday, after spending millions of dollars of his personal fortune, in a move which all but handed John McCain the party’s presidential nomination.

Romney, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, suspended his bid to emerge as conservative standard bearer in the Republican party, after a disappointing showing in this week’s Super Tuesday nationwide nominating clash.

“This isn’t an easy decision, I hate to lose,” Romney said, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying he felt compelled to quit to allow McCain to battle Democratic plans to “retreat” in the war on terror.

“Because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside,” Romney said, as cries of “No, No” rang out among the thousands of activists, who had earlier chanted “We want Mitt,” “We Want Mitt.”

I so don’t want McCain. Although I can understand his desire to not spend any more considering the odds of winning with McCain’s considerable vote lead, I was at least hoping that between Romney and Huckabee they could siphon enough votes off McCain to force a brokered convention. Majorly sucks. Now we’ll have a liberal against an ultraliberal come next November. Not a conservative in the lot. Not worth voting if you ask me. Country is doomed.

All those Primaries on one day. I voted early, good thing as there were quite a few people there. Usually, there’s barely one or two when I vote. Workers said turnout was high. I can only imagine what it will be after work gets out for most people.

Now if only my vote counts. Arizona is McCain territory and my lone vote for Mitt Romney might not mean very much. I’m sure there are the “anybody but McCain” voters out there but they’ll split the vote between Romney and Huckabee and that will ensure a McCain victory unfortunately.

What’s worse is the prospects for November as I doubt there will be much of a choice. McCain vs Hillary, ewww.

That John McCain is a porkbuster. In his own words, he would decimate the pork.

The Arizona senator’s criticism of pork pleases crowds, for no one likes to see tax dollars thrown at silly things. “No earmarks,” he says. “Not 10,000. Not one. Zero.”

As the article points out, that is going to go over big in next Tuesday’s primary states who have their own pet pork projects they want money for. Or not. Or they maybe think that means other people’s pork and not theirs.

Maybe they will ignore all that and vote for the guy anyway cause they like his stance on other things like immigration and campaign finance reform, stuff like that.

We’ll know Tuesday. Chances are he’ll win big cause of Huckabee taking votes away from Romney. That will happen. Doubt any will realize a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain or they don’t care or want that outcome. Depressing as McCain is far from being a conservative despite the no earmark talk.

Rudy Guiliani and John Edwards are announcing their plans to quit their run for the Presidency.

Following his third place finish in Florida, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop out of the presidential race today and endorse Sen. John McCain.

Last night, Giuliani stopped short of announcing he was stepping down, but delivered a valedictory speech that was more farewell than fight-on.

The former mayor finished a distant third to the winner, McCain, and close second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Republican officials said Giuliani would endorse McCain on Wednesday in California. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the public announcement.

“I’m proud that we chose to stay positive and to run a campaign of ideas in an era of personal attacks, negative ads and cynical spin,” Giuliani said as supporters with tight smiles crowded behind him. “You don’t always win, but you can always try to do it right, and you did.”

That’s unfortunate, John McCain doesn’t need any more endorsements. Guy’s ahead and not a conservative by a long shot. Well, it’s down to a two man race. McCain vs Romney with Huckabee running as a spoiler to take votes away from Romney. At least that opinion has been voiced, forget by who. I’m rather hoping McCain doesn’t win. McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold being two reasons why.

Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters’ sympathies, The Associated Press has learned.

The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two aides. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement. Clinton said Wednesday that Edwards called her to inform her about his decision.

Another two man or man and woman race, Obama vs Clinton. It’s getting tighter on both sides. We’ll see after next Tuesday if it stays that way or if there will be a clear-cut winner on either side. This may be an election where voting will be optional as there won’t be a conservative in the offering at least noone that I would want.

South Carolina: Obama 55%, Hillary 27% Edwards 18% in his home state. Bet Hillary is frosted.

How sweet it is.

The thought of Hillary vs McCain sickens me, no choice at all.

I really feel that whoever gets elected, this country is headed left. Towards socalism, increased governmental control, less freedom and eventually total destruction. It will happen, well the total destruction part anyway.

Just a matter of time.

The story heading over at CNNMoney read:

Recession fears batter stocks

Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 fall to more than 9-month lows on Citigroup’s almost $10 billion loss and a weak Dec. retail sales report. Intel earnings and forecast disappoint after the bell.

For the market, it was not a good day, the Dow plunging 277.04 points - 2.17 % - to 12,501.11. Even Apple fell 5.45% to 169.04, MacWorld underwhelming expectations and rumors. No “One more thing…”

However, it was a good day for Mitt Romney as quoted by Yahoo.

Mitt Romney scored his first major primary victory Tuesday in his native Michigan, a win he desperately needed to give his weakened candidacy new life and set the stage for a wide-open Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days.

Thus overall not such a bad day after all.

I found it beyond belief when I first read about it so I had to check the source, the Daily Kos.

With a history of meddling in our primaries, why don’t we try and return the favor. Next Tuesday, January 15th, Michigan will hold its primary. Michigan Democrats should vote for Mitt Romney, because if Mitt wins, Democrats win. How so?

…And we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.

…If we can help push Mitt over the line, not only do we help keep their field fragmented, but we also pollute Romney’s victory. How “legitimate” will the Mittster’s victory look if liberals provide the margin of victory? Think of the hilarity that will ensue. We’ll simply be adding fuel to their civil war, never a bad thing from our vantage point.

Well, it certainly makes it more interesting for journalists and pundits but it is getting down and dirty. To clarify his post, Kos states:

Nope, we’re pushing Romney because at the end of the day, Romney is spending a lot of money on ads trashing his fellow Republicans. We want more of that money spent trashing his fellow Republicans. We want an unsettled field with Republicans fragmented and fighting. We want the theocons (Huckabee), the neocons (McCain), and the corportate cons (Romney) to maintain viable top-tier candidates in the race for as long as possible, since it fuels their civil war. Heck, if we truly hit the jackpot, we might even get a brokered GOP convention.

To summarize, this isn’t a vote for Romney. It’s a vote for “clusterf—”.

And by sowing doubts about the validity of any theoretical Romney victory (especially a close one), we also pollute his victory. So even if Romney wins, he loses.

Sad cause whether or not Democrats do what Kos is suggesting, the idea is out there (trust me, it’s out there) and thus taints any possible Romney victory. Lest anyone need reminding, Kos is big, really big as one might assume from the some 924 comments on the first post and 610 comments on the second.

Would have been better for Romney not to have aired those attack ads as they have only served to hurt him. That’s what debates are for. Sides, the press was doing a good job of attacking all the candidates anyway.

IMHO, no matter who wins in November, we lose.

Tried to watch the debate but when they got to Ron Paul I just couldn’t watch any more. Sorry but I can do without his whiny rantings. He doesn’t make much sense to me anyway. Sides which I don’t agree with anything I’ve heard that comes out of his mouth.

How many debates are they going to have anyway? Haven’t we had enough?

I’m going to bed, tired of all this.

Update: I missed the best line.

…one of the debate moderators directly asked Paul on the “electability” question: “Do you have any, sir?”

John McCain. Won. New Hampshire.

For the record, so did Hillary Clinton.

I don’t particularly care for either one. McCain has some questionable dealings with the likes of Teddy Kennedy, like that immigration bill they cosponsored, stuff like that.

And Hillary, well she’s too far Left to suit me. Sides, eight is enough (years that is) of the Clintons.

Oh well it’s on to Michigan, Mitt Romney’s home state. Wonder if he will strike out. Who knows maybe we’ll have another surprise.

Update: Clinton and Obama each got 9 delegates so Hillary winning is a moot point.

Taken from an article I read over at ABC News cause I didn’t watch Leno.

“As you may know, ‘caucus’ is a Greek word meaning ‘the only day anyone pays attention to Iowa.’ ” — Jay Leno

It’s all over, move along folks. New Hampshire is next in the longest election year/multiyear ever.

Boring.

For the record, Huckabee and Obama won this round which means they get the most delegates from Iowa.