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So priceless it should cost money, the greatest Hillary interview ever:

FB: And millions of Americans still enjoy the benefits of your successful health care plan in some distant parallel universe!

CLINTON: That's right, Fafnir. No one has more experience failing to fix health care than me. I worked in the White House for eight years failing to fix health care, and as president I'll make failing to fix health care my number one priority.

FB: Well that sounds pretty good, Hillary Clinton, but what if I wanna vote for someone with even more experience, like John McCain or Zombie Strom Thurmond or Andrew Jackson's collection of antique spittoons? Those spittoons have been in the White House for a long time an I hear they got a formidable command of foreign policy.

CLINTON: Ha haaa! Well you know, anyone off the street with a scary black pastor can talk about change, but it takes a fighter to fight for change. And I'm a fighter. I'm tough. And if you lived my life you'd be pretty darn tough too. I mean, I had to go to Wellesley. That was my safety school. But I was strong anyway and I endured. And as president I'll fight the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry and the health care industry, just as soon as they stop giving me millions of dollars!

FB: That's that no-nonsense down-to-business style I like about you, Hillary Clinton! You don't just talk about change. You talk about how much you don't just talk about change!

...

CLINTON: I didn't vote for the war, Fafnir. I voted to give the president the authority to go to war. What was he going to use that authority for? Maybe he'd just frame it and hang it in his office. Maybe he'd use it to prop up one of the legs on his desk. Maybe he'd use it to sing songs and dance jigs and lift weary spirits down at the old folks home! I honestly couldn't say!

FB: Oh, you know I had to try! Now let's say you were president tomorrow. What's the first thing you'd do in Iraq?

CLINTON: Well the first thing we have to do is to start holding the Iraqis accountable. Our troops have done everything they've been asked to do: blow stuff up, kill things, kill things that're trying to run away after we've blown their stuff up. But where have the Iraqis been on this? Nowhere. You know, war and occupation isn't a one-way street. When are Iraqis finally going to put some real effort into rebuilding the government and infrastructure we've worked so hard to destroy? Where's the cooperation here? Where's the sense of responsibility?

FB: Yeah, what's wrong with those guys? Every time you try to get em to stand up an take charge they're all "oh, death to America, oh, my child is dead, oh, I have no limbs."

CLINTON: And it's not like we don't have our own problems back in the U.S. They've got a couple hundred thousand dead people? Well, let me tell you something, four dollar a gallon gasoline is no picnic either!

Read the whole thing

As Tom in Raleigh says:

Well, for the sake of fairness, Obama has served up some whoppers of his own. Remember when he told Hillary that she was "likable enough?" Yeah, well, turns out she isn't.

The Obama speech was terrific, and I would expect it to help restore the slipping poll numbers he's seen in recent days. But even more significant for this primary campaign is the news today that Michigan, like Florida, is unlikely to see a re-vote. If true, it's a stake through the heart of Hillary's campaign. There's no way they'll be able to seat both delegations with the numbers that came out of the unofficial primaries. Obama has a guaranteed pledged delegate lead and therefore the upper hand in deciding the eventual rules - so best case for Hillary is some kind of cut in the total numbers of delegates awarded while maintaining the existing ratios. Even that seems dreadfully unlikely for Michigan

This all but guarantees Hillary will go into the convention far behind in pledged delegates, popular vote, and states won. Far behind. Almost regardless of how well Obama's speech today plays in Middle America, it's going to wipe out any remaining plausible rationale for a mass abandonment of the superdelegates (who have been breaking almost universally for Obama for the past three months - the only lead Hillary has left is among her chummy DLC pals who've been committed to her since the beginning)

Hillary simply can't win, the end. It's over. The fat lady has been singing so long her voice beginning to go

Update: just wanted to add, it's unfortunate if these states never do hold fair contests, more so for the voters in those states than anyone else. In all likelihood re-votes would have resulted in a near-tie in Michigan and a slight to significant advantage for Hillary in Florida, and she deserved the opportunity to win those delegates. That said, I can hardly feel sympathy for her now - if as the frontrunner she had done the honorable thing the joined with Obama, Edwards, and most of the other candidates in wholeheartedly rejecting these unsanctioned votes, I think its quite likely the two states would have found a way to move or redo their primaries by now

Instead she gave only nominal support to the DNC position and almost certainly led these states to hold out a hope that they'd be given amnesty for their rebellion. Certainly if Clinton had dominated the race or even if the current Obama/Clinton positions were reversed, that outcome was likely. Only now that it's clear there's little chance of that happening have the states tried - too late - to reverse course. Hillary and the Democratic leaders of these states brought this outcome on themselves

If you were wondering what type of people still support Hillary, this may be of assistance:

I also love the unintentional sexism of "we need a woman to clean it up."

I'm honestly wondering if this is some huge joke. Are major players in the Clinton campaign actually being allowed to say things like this:

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is

then this:

[W]e reject these false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary. This campaign should be about the leadership we need for a better future and these attacks serve only to divide the Democratic Party and the American people.

No, that isn't Hillary denouncing Ferraro's comments, but Clinton's campaign manager criticizing Obama for daring to question what Ferraro said.

and then Ferraro again today:

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?

This is by far the worst display so far, and there's no lack of competition. This is blatant racism, and the fact that Ferraro wasn't made persona non grata 24 hours ago makes it clear that it's coming from the top. Christ, Howard Fineman just said the same thing on MSNBC. It's absolutely mind-boggling. If a high-profile McCain supporter said something like this they'd be in tar and feathers within an hour

The rest of the Democratic party needs to put a stop to this now

Having Sinbad push you into it:

What kind of president would say, 'Hey, man, I can't go 'cause I might get shot so I'm going to send my wife...oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.'

I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'

I can't believe Hillary actually boasted "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady." What was she, the red-shirt guy in Star Trek?

"Clinton/Sinbad '08 - We're both complete jokes!"

In a thoroughly offensive interview with Bill Maher, McAuliffe says an extremely stupid thing:

You are not going to be able to swift-boat Hillary. You are not going to be able to go at her on national security, because she trumps John McCain on national security

Does McAuliffe even know what the fuck swift-boating is? The entire point is to take a strength of the candidate(e.g. Kerry's war record vs. Bush's) and turn it against them. To say that she can't be swift-boated because she has an advantage on the issue is the inverse of the truth. Of course this is a something of a moot point because Hillary actually isn't strong on national security

In practical terms, tonight's results look a lot like those from Super Tuesday. Both days have been PR wins for Hillary with little to any practical benefit in the race

The math is pretty simple. To be on track to close the pledged delegate gap, Hillary would have needed to pick up 50-60 delegates tonight. Instead it looks like she'll get under 10, possibly as few as one or two. A week from now Hillary is likely to be further behind in delegates than she was going into the March 4 contests. Barring a complete Obama meltdown, she's lost the pledged delegate race, and lost it decisively

It's now incumbent on Hillary to explain to the democratic party and the country exactly how she plans to win the nomination. The options she has left are:

• win the remaining contests by 20-30 point margins (i.e. win 380 of the remaining ~600 delegates)
• win a knife fight at the convention

Which is more plausible is left as an exercise for the reader

Quoth from dailykos:

oh there is hillary? i thought it was just speech. just words!

touché

And here's why I wanted Hillary to get out a week ago:

Also: yes, it's really over

Clinton in the debate, responding to a question on dynasty, said that she thinks America is great because everyone gets where they get because of their merits, and then ends with the non-sequitor that "it took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and it might take another Clinton to clean up after the second Bush"

There's so much insanity in this answer:

• the obvious contradiction between the start and end of her response
• that she would actually believe it a good thing to encourage voting for "a Clinton"
• the idea that there's "equal opportunity" in this country in not an especially common one among liberals

And she still won't fucking admit her war vote was a mistake. She is making the obscene lie that she didn't know she was voting for the war, and didn't know Bush would fuck it up so bad. Everyone knew that

"Right on day one" - wow, that's the fucking best line of the debate

Fuck her and the coat-tails she road in on. I have never been a fan of Hillary, and was displeased with her entering and becoming the presumptive nominee in this race. But I always believed if it came down to it, I would not have a problem voting for her against any of the other candidates in the general election

That was before I spent a month watching her campaign ratfuck Obama. Off the top of my head, various racial & personal attacks and lies by the Clintons or their representatives:

• bill clinton says it's a "fairly tale" obama opposed the war
• campaign misrepresents an obama statement from '04 and says by voting to fund the war obama somehow contradicted his anti-war stance
• campaign misrepresents illinois "present" votes on abortion bills, co-ordinated w/ planned parenthood
• campaign says obama has changed position on health-care. he hasn't
• Bill Shaheen pushes the drug issue and suggests obama may have sold drugs as well
• BET president makes drug reference "doing something in the neighborhood"
• "shuck & jive"
• Bob Kerrey repeatedly referring to Obama's muslim heritage, his middle name 'Hussein', and the idea he might be a Muslim Manchurian candidate
• "Barack Hussein Obama" robocalls in Nevada
• "Obama campaigned in Florida" (by running a national TV ad)
• repeated misrepresentations of Obama's reagan comments

Hillary's entire campaign has become a lying racist swiftboat: "Look, this guy is almost as bad as I am, but my mediocrity is backed by more experience. And he's black"

No thanks. Beyond all these specific sins, watching an ex-President use his bully pulpit to go around sliming a member of his own party in a desperate effort to ensure his wife's election to the office he is no longer constitutionally allowed to hold is enough for me to vow never, never to vote for this woman. Not. Fucking. Ever

Timeline of events:

January 13th: Robert Johnson of BET says "Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing but he said it in his book.", making an obviously veiled reference to Obama's admitted teen drug use

Later in the day, after people hearing the reference claim foul, the Clinton puts out a statement from Johnson saying:

My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect

With their own spokesman adding "That's not what he was talking about"

January 15th: In the debate Clinton is asked about the incident. She gives a bizarre set of responses:

CLINTON: Well, Bob has put out a statement saying what he was trying to say and what he thought he had said. We accept him on his word on that.

But, clearly, we want to send a very clear message to everybody that this campaign is too important for us to either get diverted or, frankly, get the message of what we want to do for our country subverted by any kind of statements or claims that are just not part of who I am or who Barack or John are....

So I accept what he said, but I think what’s important is what I say and what each of us says about the kind of president we intend to be and how we’re going to get there.

RUSSERT: Were his comments out of bounds?

CLINTON: Yes, they were.

To paraphrase, "he made a perfectly innocent comment about community organizing - a comment I believe to be grossly inappropriate." This is what happens when you're still holding on to the old lie(that the comments were innocent) while trying to transition to the new lie(that we're very sorry)

January 17th: Johnson releases an apology letter to Obama, saying: I'm writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the uncalled-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event. In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology.

Hillary Clinton, candidate of unity and change

Boiled down to it's core:

Obama is severely, perhaps critically lacking in First Lady experience.

Hillary Clinton, 3rd place. Her speech was the must revolting thing I've seen in months. She talks about change and children and the environment, all without a shred of emotion or humanity. She said "force should be used as a last resort, not a first resort" without a hint of irony. She and Romney deserve each other - both rich, soulless LOSERS

I said good day!