Fidelity Fracas, Leaving Hillary for Barack

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Arianna Huffington says..."It's like being married, and suddenly you fall in love. You're a good person, and a loyal person ... you have a history with the Clintons,'' she said. "And you feel like you're cheating.''

If some Democrats have cheating on their minds, it coincides with the rise of Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, who has attracted big crowds and evidenced that elusive quality of political charisma, "something you cannot manufacture,'' Huffington said. "It is priceless -- and we haven't seen it for a long time.''

And that has posed trouble for the old love: Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York senator, front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2008 and the wife of former President Bill Clinton.

Tom Vilsack's Withdrawal Could Be Boon to Obama

Senator BO is already angling for Vilsackers left without jobs since the Iowa Governor is bowing out of the race.

From the San Jose Mercury News/AP:

"Other campaigns immediately began to seek out Vilsack's well-respected staff, hoping to pick up talented political operatives with experience in the first nominating state, and his political backers.

Gary Hirshberg, CEO and founder of Stonyfield Farm yogurt, was one of Vilsack's earliest and most prominent New Hampshire supporters. He said two minutes after Vilsack's announcement, Obama called seeking his support. Hirshberg told Obama he wasn't ready to commit to another candidate yet.

"Although we're absolutely undecided, I was very impressed," Hirshberg said. "Though we can wring our hands now about the role of money in these campaigns, it's still really vindicating to me to see, particularly here in New Hampshire, that grass-roots, house-to-house, person-to-person politics is still the order of the day. I think Senator Obama just proved that."

Obama Zero's-In on Cheney

Obama Riciducles Cheney's Iraq Comments (San Francisco Chronicle/AP)

Obama, speaking at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision this week to withdraw 1,600 troops is a recognition that Iraq's problems can't be solved militarily.

"Now if Tony Blair can understand that, then why can't George Bush and Dick Cheney understand that?" Obama asked thousands of supporters who gathered in the rain to hear him. "In fact, Dick Cheney said this is all part of the plan (and) it was a good thing that Tony Blair was withdrawing, even as the administration is preparing to put 20,000 more of our young men and women in.

"Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign signs over their heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing, you know that you've probably got some big problems."

Maureen Dowd: "Baddest One Hit My Hand"

Professional pot-stirrer, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, adds fuel to the Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton fire-fight.

She starts her Wednesday column with a few words from movie-mogul-money-bags and Barack supporter David Geffen...

“Whoever is the nominee is going to win, so the stakes are very high,” says Mr. Geffen, the Hollywood mogul and sultan of “Dreamgirls,” as he sits by a crackling fire beneath a Jasper Johns flag and a matched pair of de Koonings in the house that Jack Warner built (which old-time Hollywood stars joked was the house that God would have built). “Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together.

“Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television.”

You gotta love it.

Call Don King, Barack and Hillary Stick and Move

Yes the Obama-Clinton jab-a-thon that's been going on for the past few days is fun times. But, the really interesting thing about this ABC News article is the part about John Edwards' appearance on Today.

"This morning, for example, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., said on NBC's "Today" show: "I think it's awfully early for that sort of sniping back and forth."

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!?
Just the night before Edwards was doing pah-lenty of sniping himself at a democratic candidate's forum in Nevada.
In fact it was New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, not Edwards, who took the high road at that event.

"I think if we're going to win we have to be positive," Richardson said. "I think these name-callings are not good."

John, make up your mind. You can't be attack dog AND diplomat at the same time.