The last few weeks we've seen two things going on:

1. A McCain campaign that's not particularly together, without any coherent themes.  Given how uncharismatic their candidate is, it's a problem for them.

2. Obama speaking on a series of issues which have upset the grassroots. FISA is probably the biggest example.  Some have gone so far as to question whether they would vote for Obama or, even if they'd vote for him, if they'd contribute their time and money for the campaign.

Well, the time is coming to decide -- Will you fight or stay pure?

This is a key moment because McCain has reorganized his campaign operation and he is bringing in the Rove forces.

Today John McCain's campaign decided that it could not advertise on some of the PUMA like web sites-- the ones that promote Hillary Clinton and which are maliciously anti-Obama.

John McCain's campaign will stop advertising on several pro-Hillary Clinton Web sites that have attacked Barack Obama for being unpatriotic and, in one case, compared the Democratic nominee-in-waiting to Adolf Hitler.

This is really nasty stuff.

McCain's ads have also shown up on a pro-Clinton Web site named "Obama WTF" that accuses Obama of being "spineless," having "communist influences," "courting Jew haters" and being "in the pocket of America haters."

SavagePolitics.com, another anti-Obama site that has been targeted with McCain ads, has called Obama a "bold faced liar, a thief, a sexist and a racist."

With a tendency toward incredible meanness and name-calling, Hillaryis44 has hit a new low.

As we all know, journalist Tim Russert passed away on Friday.  It is clear from the coverage, that he was a very fine and caring man, to his family and to his co-workers. One of the most moving pieces I saw was a clip of Chuck Todd talking about Russert's love and appreciation of his father Big Russ and his son, and the way that Russert loved to interact with children. Russert also reached out to co-workers with family problems.  And of course he was a prominent journalist.

So what is the reaction of Hillaryis44?  To write a diary filed under "Scum" and to have postings like this:

Russert-Hillaryis44

Karma baby that is all I will say, first Kennedy and his brain tumor, then the flooding in Iowa and now Russert... Obamatrons beware the wrath of God, you could be next

I am hoping this nomination fight will get done soon and that Hillary Clinton, instead of stoking resentment against Obama, will try to calm down her deadenders.

Then I came across a new site which some Clinton supporters have set up with gems like this:

Beware of the giant alien-like amoeba that is currently terrorizing the United States of America. It’s known as the "BO". The BO is an amorphous creature from Chicago which landed in the U.S. Senate encased in a teflon meteor. This "BO", which is actually a living creature, attaches itself to rich ultra-left liberals, college students, marxists, and black people. The mass grows larger as it dissolves the common sense of it’s victims, then engulfs and eats any remaining shred of independent thinking.

HILLARY’S LEAD IN THE POPULAR VOTE SINCE MARCH 3RD
498,056
This is NOT a very strong indicator for the candidate claiming he is the nominee. I suggest we send this information to ALL super delegates. Perhaps by putting the NUMBERS in front of them, some of them will get off the Koolaid.

Remember Alegre? She used to post a lot here and then went on a well-publicized strike.

Well, according to a diary now on mydd written by someone other than me, she goes on conference calls for Hillary bloggers where they get their talking points.  

Not much of a diary but as I was cruising the blogs I came across a Clinton "blogger" conference call.  I started listening to the call and who do I hear but our local celebrity Alegre.   She said she was going to take her two children to the May 31 DNC meeting to share her views.  Now here is the kicker, she sounded like a normal, even nice person.   It was obvious she has a lot of emotional energy invested in this process but it was a very sincere caring passion.  I often think she goes over the top in her post but after getting a chance to hear her actually talking to Sen. Clinton I have a different, better view of her.  Still over the top but a a sincere over the top.  

As someone who has been involved in Democratic politics for over 35 years, this year has been amazing.  I started as a Clinton supporter and switched to Obama after the Iowa caucuses.  I have friends on both sides of the nominating battle.  

It has been a long and competitive process.  For many, if not most of us, great passions have been aroused.  In my view, those passions have mostly been aimed at supporting our preferred candidate.  This bodes well for the Democratic party's ability to come together to win the White House.

And, in my view, it is already happening.  You can see it in the two tracking polls.

Rasmussen has shown a close race in recent weeks.  Today's poll shows a marked uptick for Obama, giving him an 8 point lead over Clinton. But, more strikingly is what Rasmussen says about the polling since Tuesday's election:

Two nights of interviews for today's update were completed after the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries. For those two nights on a stand-alone basis, Obama leads Clinton by eleven percentage points.

Rasmussen

Zogby has been ok in some primaries but not in others.

But his numbers are jumping around like crazy the last few days.

The Saturday one-day sample gave Obama a lead:

Obama. . . had a good today at 46% to Clinton's 44%

Amidst all the talk about Obama's remarks, the Allentown, PA paper has endorsed Obama today.  The Allentown Morning Call serves Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.

In talking about Obama's ability to inspire and Clinton's tendency to polarize, the paper says:

Sen. Obama offers that vision to a nation that, like President Lincoln's, is divided. It is not about to set out on a literal civil war, but Republican and Democrat, young and old, conservative and liberal have much to fight about and are at each other's throats with little provocation. Finding common ground is the key, and Sen. Obama is better able to do that than Sen. Clinton. She has become a polarizing figure, an image that stems in part from the bitter partisanship of Washington during President Bill Clinton's administration. It was not for nothing that the journalist James B. Stewart called his book about the politics of those years ''Blood Sport.'' That rancor was not primarily Hillary Clinton's fault, but it is real, it persists, and her campaign so far has not dealt effectively with quelling it.

Besides telling an inaccurate story about what happened when she landed in Tuzla, there are other parts of Clinton's story that are flat wrong.

As Josh Marshall reports:

Sen. Clinton has said on a number of occasions that she was "the first, you know, high- profile American to go into Bosnia after the peace accords were signed because we wanted to show that the United States was 100 percent behind the agreement."  But this also seems to incorrect.

According to some quick research we did, it turns out that Madeleine Albright, then UN Ambassador, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs John Shalikashvili, then-Sec Def Bill Perry, various members of Congress and President Clinton himself had all visited Tuzla a few months earlier.

I was just reading Ben Smith's at Politico and noticed that someone in the comments has come up with a great action idea -- advertise in your local paper.

Here's the comment:

I just donated and also took out a full page ad in my local newspaper exposing the Bosnian lie. Money talks. Obama supporters need to put their money where their mouths are and start putting ads out. I put ad in our pennysaver too. If the media isn't doing it get the news out whichever way you can

I think this is brilliant!

The YouTube showing Clinton lying on St. Patrick's day about being under fire when she arrived for her Bosnia trip, followed by the news story from the time showing that she did, in fact, have a placid arrival ceremony is well worth circulating.  Bosnia YouTube  And I'm sure it's going viral real fast.

But a lot of people are not going to hear the news that way.  An ad in the local paper can be pretty inexpensive and it can include a link to the video, along with a statement that "There's no reason you should just believe me on this. Check it out yourself."

A few people can split the cost.  What say you?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a diary that showed that Hillary Clinton hyped her role in passing the Family and Medical Leave Act.

As the chronology and evidence laid out in that diary demonstrated, the bill had been passed twice by Congress and vetoed by the first President Bush. Congress decided to pass it once Bill Clinton was sworn in.  Two weeks before Clinton became president, congressional leaders announced their intention to pass it. It was HR1 and S1, the first bills introduced by Congress.  They were passed quickly and Clinton signed the bill into law sixteen days after taking office.

Last week, I showed that Clinton's claim that she helped to pass the Family and Medical Leave act was hype.

Now the Boston Globe reports that she did the same thing with another domestic policy in policy area that she talks about a good deal -- SCHIP, a health program that covers children.

Clinton makes big claims about her SCHIP role.

In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative "I helped to start." Addressing Iowa voters in November, Clinton said, "in 1997, I joined forces with members of Congress and we passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program." Clinton regularly cites the number of children in each state who are covered by the program, and mothers of sick children have appeared at Clinton campaign rallies to thank her.

This morning I called the main office of the Maine Democratic party.

I told them that I have volunteered for every presidential campaign since 1972 and have been a donor for awhile.  

I then told that that, should the national party nominate a candidate who was not ahead in the delegates won from primaries and caucuses, that I would not be volunteering this year and that I would urge the people I know to do the same.

I also said that I was not sure if I could vote for a candidate who was selected without having the most delegates chosen by primaries and caucuses.  In other words, I might not be able to cast a presidential ballot.  I would certainly vote for Tom Allen for the Senate seat and for my Democratic member of Congress and for the state races.  

By now, we all know how over-hyped are Hillary claims about her foreign policy experience – including her claims that she negotiated peace treaties and opened borders.

But there’s also hype in her claims about domestic policy.  Take, for instance, the claim on Hillary Clinton's web site that

As First Lady, she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act

Now, that sounds like she worked hard to get the FMLA put into law, that her efforts really made a difference.  However, this is patently untrue.  

If you don’t read this whole post, all you need to know is that Bill Clinton was inaugurated on January 20, 1993 and the FMLA was signed just sixteen days later, on February 5, 1993.

Just on that basis it doesn’t look like the First Lady had to do much of anything to get it done.  But read on for the full chronology which reveals the emptiness of Hillary's Clinton's attempt to get credit for  this legislation.

When pressed about releasing tax returns since the end of Bill Clinton's presidency her campaign says

Their tax returns since they left the White House will be made available on or around April 15.

Politico

On or around April 15?  This makes it very possible that they won't release the returns until after the Pennsylvania primary of April 22 - or perhaps just before - when there won't be enough time to examine them.

If it's important that the Democratic nominee is vetted, we should make sure that the Clintons RELEASE THOSE RETURNS.

Please work to put pressure on them to do so.

I just watched the "3 AM" ad from the Clinton campaign, the slimy Karl Rove style ad, the one that's supposed to scare the you-know-what out of you.

But that's not what this diary is about -- except for one little part.

At the very end of the ad, the text says that Texans should attend their caucus at 6:45PM.

Folks, the caucuses are scheduled to start at 7 PM

While it's a good idea to get there a bit early, they don't begin until 7.

I just went back and watched Obama's NH concession speech that was the basis for the Yes We Can video.

Here it is

Not only does he praise Clinton and all his opponents and say they also want to make the country better, he makes the case that the chorus of cynics will certainly grow louder -- as it did today.

As we know Hillary Clinton took out a $5 million loan to keep her campaign afloat.

Now it turns out, she's charging the campaign interest on the loan.  According to Politico

Hillary Clinton's $5 million loan to her campaign won't be a total loss for the candidate.

Campaign finance documents filed today show that she's charging her campaign an interest rate of 1.26%.

Now, that's not a lot of interest.  However, why would she do this?