Vote Obama And There'll Be REDS IN YOUR BED!

Prepare yourself: Ari Fleicher's quarter-billion dollar hate machine is spinning up. And yet McCain wants to portray himself as the honest candidate, calling on Barack Obama to join him in the public funding programme (or: McCain is broke, Obama isn't). Of course, seeing as how the Straight-Talking-Maverick managed to somehow bend public finances to underwrite his primary campaign, let's just say this offer is less benign that it seems. Anyway, it looks like Obama isn't taking the bait unless 527 groups are included, which will probably be enough to scuttle further talks.

Poor Hillary. She looked like the inevitable winner just over two months ago. Heck, even one month ago, it seemed unlikely it would be anybody but her. Last night she was beat like a whipped cur by Obama in Wisconsin, a state that she she was winning comfortably in November. A seven point lead turned into a twenty-point crushing blow. At this point, it's almost impossible for her to catch up to Obama in pledged delegates, and even her firewall states of Texas and Ohio are looking susceptible to the powers of Obamarama. After ten straight defeats, the Clinton team must really begin to think about conceding.

Because if she doesn't, there's going to be trouble. In one of "look back in a month and laugh at Ian!" predictions, I'm going to suggest that if she doesn't pull out after Ohio/Texas, and she loses or ties Texas, Gore will announce that he's supporting Obama; giving a clear sign to the superdelegates that it's time to bring this contest to a close.

And then we have eight months of mud-slinging to look forward to! Hurrah!