Spin Cycle

Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Indiana J-J dinner, may have taken this white, working-class populism thing to a Cross-of-Gold rhetorical extreme (the authentic WJ Bryan is above). Speaking of the mortgage crisis, Clinton asked the crowd: "Why don't we hold these Wall St money grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?"

It should be noted that many (presumably non-grubbing) Wall Streeters are her biggest fund raisers and she's a big investor in a pair of hedge funds.

Also no word on whether she'll be reassessing her position on evolution or the League of Nations.

Glenn Thrush in Indianapolis

In the ever-dizzying process of delegate assignment, the state Democrats in Saratoga today added 85 to the 156 total that was decided proportionally at the polls on Feb. 5.

The state will have 281 overall, and those acted on today include 4 unpledged at-large -- AG Andrew Cuomo, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, C. Virginia Fields and Carmen Arroyo, all currently Clinton supporters who are "free to vote their conscience" at the Denver convention in August, which will of course depend on circumstances then. (Obama's camp today announced that 3 Obama supporters from Illinois had, likewise, been chosen today as "add on" superdelegates from that state).

There are also pledged pary leaders and elected officials -- 30 of them -- and pledged at-large delegates, totalling 51. In all, the delegation is decided with consideration to national rules that include affirmative action by race, gender, age, veteran status, etc.

In working this out, Suffolk's Barry McCoy has been tracking the numbers and pointing out that geographically, Long Island gets short-changed -- with heavy representation from New York City.In terms of Clinton-Obama, it's all supposed to come out as closely as possible to proportional to the state's primary vote.

Dan Janison

Maybe it's what you'd expect to hear from the fan base about the Rev. Wright uproar, but state Sen. Bill Perkins from Harlem (left in recent photo) insisted last night as colleagues gathered for the statewide Democratic meeting in Saratoga: "It looks like we're moving past that issue. He'll do what it takes to continue in the fight."

"It's getting toward the finish line," he said. "The mathematics suggest he's unbeatable," Perkins said -- unless "the new math" from the Clinton camp regarding delegates somehow comes to be believed. Indiana? "I think he'll win -- we'll have gotten past this latest episode" and the economy and foreign policy will take center stage, Perkins predicted.

Clinton supporters in the reception room at the Saratoga Hilton -- and of course there were many -- weren't buying it, of course. One well-placed Clinton operative, who declined to comment, merely smiled, without even acknowledging it had been a good week for their candidate.

Dan Janison

Someone else who thinks Indiana is getting very close to critical for Obama, who has spent seven weeks on defense stuck in Wright/bitter/Ayers territory. Michael Tomasky:

"In the last, say, three weeks, Obama hasn't put forward a single new proposal. He hasn't, at least on any evidence that I've seen, tweaked his stump speech much. He's been static and stale..."

"Indiana is, for my money, very, very close to being a must-win state for Obama. If he holds North Carolina and ekes it out in Indiana, she'll be dogged out of the race. If he loses Indiana, she carries on, as do the memes that he can't win white votes and can't relate to working-class people..."

"A final point: TV commercials. As far as I can see, Obama is still running a bunch of ads featuring him speaking heroically about change while people beam up at him rapturously....
Those ads were great a while ago. Now, they're terrible. They preach only to the converted. If you're a Democrat and you're not enraptured at this point, you're probably not going to be."

Call them parochial, but some of the region’s big-name Democratic pros are struck by the similarity between their party’s ongoing presidential drama and your classic super-charged New York primary.

“It’s very much like a New York Democratic primary,” says city consultant Henry Sheinkopf. “The thrills, the spills, the ups and the downs, the obsession with minutiae. The comparisons from reporters, in which even the slightest language change creates a news story. And, the obsession of reporters and candidates with ethnic groupings and racial activity.
“This one’s got everything!”

Fernando Ferrer, who ran for New York City mayor in 2001 and 2005, says, “I feel like I’ve seen this movie.” What he says saddens him is “the silly obsessing around the smallest and most insignificant of details.”

His campaign three years ago even saw a molehill get front-page treatment — that his Web site erred on where he attended school. So the former Bronx borough president says he was especially irritated when Sen. Barack Obama was challenged in a debate over ditching his flag pin — by a moderator who didn’t wear one either.

Mark Green, the 2001 mayoral nominee, finds a “superficial similarity, but ultimately a difference.” He sees “two credible progressive Democrats, one of whom happens to be white and one who happens to be minority.” But he predicts the second-place finisher will solidly back the winner against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Fran Reiter, a one-time Liberal Party leader and a Hillary Clinton backer, says in a New York primary, “we’re our own worst enemies...In the old days, with more machine-type politics, you avoided these situations because the party leaders basically made these decisions for you.”

Just like this year’s national contest, some New York races “seem like an endless campaign,” adds Queens consultant Evan Stavisky.

Jef Pollock, a Democratic consultant, says “there’s no doubt the tone is harshening” in the national contest. “Race was always going to be part of this debate. But we’re not even close to a New York-style bruise just yet — which is good.”

Dan Janison

Oh, the wails of August.

There has been a certain coyness in the way Hillary Rodham Clinton and her top aides answer the question, “How long will this go on?” The standard line, from Clinton herself and from operative Harold Ickes, is that all will be resolved in June, shortly after the Puerto Rico primary and two-plus months before the Denver convention. Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said last week “his gut” told him it would all be over by June.

Not all Clinton guts agree. A senior adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday -- flushed by the victory in Pennsylvania: “June? No one’s promised anybody anything. We’re going to push this ‘til August. We’re not giving up.” And, Clinton appends her call for resolving the Florida-Michigan fiasco to the end of major speeches – including her “turning the tide” remarks after she won the Pennsylvania primary. Back in February she said in Wisconsin: “I'm prepared to go the distance, that's what I've always been committed to doing, that's what I will do... The rules provide for a vote at the convention to seat contested delegations.”

Glenn Thrush

The radio host currently known as Lionel, who is found these days on Air America, gives this hilarious -- and characteristically hyperactive -- analysis of the Democratic primary numbers:

Their feet may be tired, but their spirits are totally energized.

Smithtown Councilwoman Patricia Biancaniello (right) and Brookhaven Democratic Committee Chairwoman Marsha Laufer (left) are in Pennsylvania today, along with others across the country, working the phones and hoofing it through neighborhoods to spread the word of Hillary. Last night, they joined other Clinton supporters to hold a sign on a bridge that read “Honk for Hillary.”

“We’re are having a lot of fun,” said Biancaniello, taking a break from the phone bank. “You have quite a few laughs.”

Both women said that the campaign on the national level is similar in ways to their own local campaigns; working the phones and walking door-to-door.

Laufer, who was inspired to become more involved in politics after holding a fund-raiser for Clinton in 2000, said the campaign is won one vote at a time.

"It’s about individual people, about educating them and being passionate about it and allaying their fears,” she said.

Stacey Altherr

Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs and 92 party volunteers are spending four days in Scranton making calls and knocking on doors for Hillary Clinton in a last-minute push leading up to Tuesday’s Pennsylvania presidential primary.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) a week earlier took a busload of 50 to stump for the former First Lady in Wilkes-Barre, and earlier, acted as a surrogate for Clinton the primary state. His activities were restricted last weekend because of Passover.

And even Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy joined the fray last weekend, taking 10 volunteers in two cars for a day trip to Easton, Pa. to wave Clinton placards outside an Obama rally where for presidential contender John Kerry was speaking. “It made for a great picture,” said Levy.

“They love her in Scranton,” said Jacobs, adding that nearly 1,500 showed up for Clinton at the city’s cultural center Monday morning. “They barely let her talk.” Jacobs, who has also been to New Hampshire and Texas for Clinton, said he’ll stay until the polls close then drive home, adding: “I have to be back at work in the morning.”

Rick Brand

Backlash against the "bitter" remarks could benefit Hillary Clinton bigtime, especially among fans of the Second Ameridment, if this report from Reuters is credited.

There's been a ball of confusion about numbers, but Quinnipiac is putting Clinton ahead by 7 points, which is just a bit shy of where her New York supporters think she should be to keep any underdog momentum toward a nomination possible. A Suffolk University poll looks better for her.

In the end game, however, the meaning of the Keystone state is in doubt.

UPDATE: And then, there's a whole different idea behind this piece discussing how changes in registration resulting from voter drives could affect the entire landscape -- in Obama's favor.

UPDATE: And of course, there is the negative atmosphere building in both camps, as Thrush vividly describes.

While attention turns to the Pennsylvania primary, Rick Brand profiles two Long Island women and their roles in pushing for the Democratic contenders for the White House.

By the way, the Onion has provided this useful rundown of the primary in the Keystone state.

Evidently regaining some of the attention that ended for him weeks ago, Rudy Giuliani, who never conveyed religious sensibility in his years as mayor, received Holy Communion, sparking objections from some at St. Patrick's.

Hillary Clinton, who in the Rudy tradition has taken to running to the right of her prior elected career, has won over one of Richard Mellon Scaife's newspapers (that's the financier at right), according to this account. Maybe she's trying to cobble together her own, modest right-wing conspiracy.

Undecided Democratic superdelegates want their party to win in November, but aren't quite sure what that'll mean -- a zero sum situation, according to this AP account.

Newsweek has Obama leading Clinton by 19 points nationally, 54-35.

The Gallup tracking poll has Hillary closing to within 3 (47-44) after the debate, from 11 back early in the week.

The last four Pennsylvania polls have Hillary up 3 and 4, down 3, and up 9.

Next Tuesday will tell much. There's still suspicion that polls -- and especially Pennsylvania polls -- overestimate Obama, because people hesitate to tell pollsters they're voting against the black guy, aka the "Bradley effect".....

All three U.S. Senators running for president have begun sticking faster than glue to an unwritten rule of the campaign trail: Gall is a virtue, and the biggest shame is being ashamed.

This cynical dictum might clash with the message of Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives today in New York. But nowhere was its force felt more than in the Democrats’ last debate before Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary.

Here stood Barack Obama, who repeatedly touts his opposition to President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, hailing the last President Bush on the 1991 Persian Gulf invasion.

When the candidates were asked how they would make use of former presidents in the White House, Obama just happened to sing the praises of the man Bill Clinton unseated. “I’m probably more likely to ask advice of the current president’s father than the president himself,” replied the change agent, “because I think that when you look back at George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy, it was a wise foreign policy.

“And how we executed the Gulf War, how we managed the transition out of the Cold War, I think, is an example of how we get bipartisan agreement.”

Oh? That might or might not sound surprising coming from a man his foes wish to paint as radical — even after he gave that hat tip to Ronald Reagan a few months back.

But you should avoid betting against Hillary Rodham Clinton in an audacity contest. She showed gumption-wrapped-in-apology during the do-or-die debate when called to account for her false story....

Dan Janison

Some viewers of last night's Democratic debate in Philadelphia were stunned that what sounded like a major new and potentially controversial foreign-policy proposal from Sen. Hillary Clinton slipped by without its being highlighted and expanded on by major news media. Sounds like grist for some followups as the week winds down.

Clinton was responding to a question from former Clinton administration flack George Stephanopolous of whether it should be U.S. policy to treat an Iranian attack on Israel "as if it were an attack on the United States."

"“Well, in fact, George, I think that we should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than just Israel. Of course I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States, but I would do the same with other countries in the region.”

Later in her answer she cited Saudia Arabia and Kuwait (click continued bar below for partial transcript on this question) in particular.

Some of the cyberspace reaction:

The blog of the Foreign Policy Association sees the difference between the candidates as one of more tone than substance., but says: "Phrases like 'trigger massive retaliation' — usually meant to imply the use of nuclear weapons — should probably not be used in campaign debates at all. But to use them at the same time that one is promising — irrespective of military advice — to begin a withdrawal of military forces from Iraq within 60 days of taking office, sends a mixed signal to the region that we would do well to avoid."

A Daily Kos blogger warns that further explanation is needed as to just what her plans are.

The debate host ABC Web site quotes, among others, Doug Bandow, a former special assistant to President Reagan, calling her proposal a dangerous one.

Here is a pro-Hillary, or anti-Obama, piece.

Here is a colorful anti-Hillary (and anti-Bush) rant.

Rep. Steve Israel (right) says some of his travels in Pennsylvania have brought him and Hillary Clinton volunteers he’s organized in contact with areas that are demographically and ideologically similar to Long Island suburban communities. “My volunteers can really relate to people in Wilkes-Barre and the suburbs of Scranton and Harrisburg and elsewhere,” he said.

Legis. Jon Cooper (photo left) reports that a recent rally for his candidate, Barack Obama, in Philadelphia included about 100 Long Islanders. Volunteers have been in Scranton, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, he said. As he has before, he's also set up offices at his company Spectronics for volunteers to make canvassing calls to Pennsylvania voters, and technology allows dozens of volunteers to make calls from home.

Tom Winpenny, a history professor at Elizabethtown College, in south central Pennsylvania, notes that he once ran for office himself -- even if it was just for school board in Manheim Township in Lancaster County. But he does have a certain take on the important primary race now going full tilt in his home state.

"I'm very interested in Barack's last little rant from a cocktail party on the West Coast," he told us today on the phone from his office. "This is solid Marxist doctrine that Barack picked up at Harvard. He just doesn't believe the workers are insightful enough to know what's best for them."

"I live in a really nice old suburb. We are dotted with Obama signs and no HIllary signs. So people who are talking about class distinctions there may be getting it right. It may be why she tried to drink the boilermaker the other day in the bar...It looks like Barack might have the latte liberals and the limousine liberals and whatever we may want to call them. I think people care about these comments, and I don't think there was anything accidental there," Winpenny said.

On Monday night, in a special panel set up by his school's political science department, Winpenny will speak in support of Republican John McCain, who he says can work both sides of the aisle -- and "the fact that he believes in nothing does not bother me." He said it's a generally conservative campus. He said a faculty member will represent Obama, but they couldn't find one to represent Hillary Clinton, so a student will do the honors.

"I have said for a long time that the president's low approval rating does not guarantee a Democratic victory. And it seems to me the Democrats could shoot themselves in the foot again... I would have been happy to see Bloomberg jump in. He seems capable."

Just a small slice of opinion from the land of the -- what -- bittersweet?....

Oh where have those days gone when the New York candidates Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani -- icons of the 1990's awash in campaign cash -- looked forward to the "Super Duper Tuesday" of February, riding the logic that fundraising power equals electability?

The general public has ceased to hear from Giuliani, of course. He's been left with millions of dollars in campaign debt and insiders doubt he can raise the funds -- especially while living la vida de luxe -- unless he kicks in a significant amount of his own personal stash.

And on the other side of the would-have-been eight-years-later "rematch," here's the latest pitch from the junior New York Senator:

"I've felt such a deep connection to the people I've met in Pennsylvania, and I'm proud of the campaign we're running here. But we are still being outspent 3-to-1, and I need your help to close that gap if we want to win. "

"In the next seven days, thousands of people will be making their final decision in the Democratic primary, and we must make sure they hear our message. We can't let our voices be drowned out by the Obama campaign's limitless spending."

Alas, for that "limitless spending". How much did the former first couple recently declare they raked in since leaving the White House?

Dan Janison

Some say — maybe with the best intentions — that major-league Long Island attorney William J. Cunningham III will become Albany’s “No” man, in a capital city full of “Yes” men.

Insiders expect that as Gov. Paterson’s senior adviser, Cunningham will seek to keep the top man out of trouble by bluntly warning him of bad ideas when he hears them. With his precise duties in the $170,000 post still vague, those familiar are using labels like “sounding board,” “minister with many portfolios” and “confidant.” He won’t be in direct charge of any agencies.

He's had strong links to such famous Democratic family names as Paterson, Clinton, Suozzi --and Ickes (as in Harold, photo above).

Cunningham, of Bay Shore, is a longtime friend of Basil Paterson, the governor’s father. The two worked together until 2002 at the Long Island law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein, where Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi’s father, Joseph Suozzi, is a prominent partner and where Basil Paterson represents major unions on contract issues.

That's the firm officials said on Friday will ask the state's ethics commission for a ruling on its voluntary procedures presumed to keep the elder lawyer out of conflicts with his suddenly-powerful son in Albany, leaving a number of questions open.

“I’ve known the governor for about 15 years,” Cunningham said Thursday. “I got to know David through his dad. I’d say one of the things David and I have as a common bond is we both love his parents Basil and Portia... Our paths would cross frequently enough that on Inauguration Day he took me aside and asked to speak with me. I met with him the following week...”

Cunningham, 56, knows the look of a political crisis. After serving as campaign treasurer in Hillary Clinton’s first Senate run, for example, he was thrust into the limelight in a controversy over two men he’d been representing who were granted criminal pardons by the exiting President Bill Clinton. They’d been referred by his Clinton adviser and law associate Harold Ickes, (himself the namesake son of a prominent FDR secretary) who is these days the Hillary Clinton point man on superdelegates in the bruising national Democratic primary.

Nassau and Suffolk Democrats know Cunningham for other reasons. After his first election in 2001, Thomas Suozzi plucked Cunningham — a former assistant U.S. attorney — from the Meyer, Suozzi firm and made him his chief deputy....

Dan Janison

For all the hubbub about the nasty and hard fought slog that has become the Democratic party’s nominating process, one thing is apparent when seeing the two candidates back to back -- their policy differences are slim indeed.

Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama addressed the Communication Workers of America union this morning and both were received enthusiastically. The 700,000-member national union has not formally endorsed either candidate, though local chapters have chosen sides.

On the issues, Clinton and Obama both say they oppose NAFTA and the free trade pact with Colombia, which President George Bush has fast-tracked, giving Congress 90 days to act on the legislation.

Clinton repeatedly stated her opposition to the pact, in the wake of . . .

It's a well-worn presidential campaign custom by now -- go on a late-night talk-show and joke about something bad happening in your campaign, to show you can laugh at yourself and try to convert the problem into a punch-line.

So based on that formula, what did Hillary Clinton joke about on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night?

Sniper fire, of course.

According to the AP, Clinton told Leno she almost didn't make it to his studio. "It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn't going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire," Clinton said -- referring to her earlier claims that she had dodged sniper bullets once while flying into Bosnia as first lady. Clinton later had to admit she "misspoke" when video surfaced of a very un-sniper-fire sort of arrival ceremony on the tarmac that day.

"This has been such a mismatch of words and action," Clinton said. "Obviously I've been so privileged to represent our country in more than 80 other countries, lots of war zones. I wrote about it in my book and obviously had a lapse. But here I am, safe and sound."

Also included was a gentle Leno jab at Clinton's two 3 a.m. and the phone is ringing at the White House ads. "Answering the phone at 3:00, that's gotta be tough," he joked.

"It happens every single night. Someone calls up and they have something to say. You've got to stop calling me," Clinton told Leno. She also talked of her family, saying she's proud of her daughter, Chelsea, and tsk-tsking hubby Bill because "he does get a little carried away sometimes" on the campaign trail. Many Democrats would agree.

Craig Gordon

House Minority Leader John Boehner (left) acknowledged today that the Republican image has been “damaged” by past failures to live up to the party’s core belief of fiscal responsibility in Congress.

But he's confident that Republicans in Congress will do well anyway – even pick up seats in the House this fall – thanks to the squabbling between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The longer the nomination fight drags on, Boehner said, the more disappointed Democrats will be when either Clinton or Obama lose the party's nomination, and the less likely those disappointed Democrats will be to vote come November.

"All this clawing between Senators Clinton and Obama is leaving scars among Democrats," the Ohio Republican said at a roundtable for reporters yesterday. "You just can't measure the number of people that will be disappointed and just won't vote."

That might sound like wishful thinking on the part of a Republican leader – except that it’s exactly the kind of thing some Democratic party big-wigs are saying as well, that a prolonged and messy battle for the nomination only plays into Republican hands.

Boehner was also positive in his support....

Wayne Barrett argues in this piece posted on the Huff that "the fact that it was Republicans who fomented the move-up of primaries in both these states to dates out-of-line with the DNC calendar is at the heart of the matter." He delves into the local histories of the push and how it steers the Clinton-Obama race, and dissects Obama supporters' arguments that the nomination should depend on a popular vote that excludes big states. He warns that for Democrats the boondoggle could become the 2008 equivalent of what the Ralph Nader candidacy was in 2000.

On the flip side, Salon features the "Tom Tomorrow" cartoon that lampoons the Clinton delegate-count arguments -- with such rationales as "it was Backwards Day when they voted".....here.

And Glenn Greenwald does his best to dissect McCain's purported Giuliani-like "centrism," here.

Dan Janison

Just to make you feel better:

It's not just Hillary on Bosnia. Both of the Democratic contenders mold reality.

The Clinton campaign puts together a memo on top exaggerations and embellishments by Obama. It's here.

After weeks of increasingly bitter campaigning, Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama broke from their presidential race today for tight budget votes on the Senate floor.

At around 1 p.m., the two competitors entered the chamber together, shaking hands. After casting their votes amid a crowd of fellow senators, Obama placed his hand on Clinton's back and guided her toward two desks, where the pair sat together in whispered conversation – too quiet to be overheard.

Clinton and Obama's chat lasted only three minutes and ended rather abruptly. Their meeting was full of head nods, serious faces and emphasizing hand gestures -- no laughs, no smiles, looking a little like an in-person reflection of their campaigns' long-distance sparring.

With a quick end to their private conversation, Clinton and Obama parted ways to meet with their fellow senators during the series of votes. Clinton sat casually with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) for more than 15 minutes, while Obama mingled around the chamber with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and other Democrats before leaving the floor.

Kristen Daum

UPDATE: Obama also found time to hit up New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who has endorsed Obama's rival, Clinton. Obama approached Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, then politely directed Schumer away from Reid for a private chat. Schumer and Obama spoke for about five minutes in hushed tones -- but in a much more friendly manner than Obama's talk with Clinton earlier this afternoon in the chamber.

Harrisburg mayor Steve Reed (left) didn't quite get his 15 minutes of fame during a campaign stop by Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania today. But he came close.

Reed spent around ten minutes introducing Clinton to a packed crowd downtown at the Forum.

Flipping through multiple sheets of a speech that seemed inspired by Clintons, he spoke of the need for experience in the White House and the plight of hard-working families struggling to pay bills.

Seven minutes into the speech, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell began visibly shifting on stage, while Clinton spent time examining the constellation art work on the theater's ceiling.

When he finally got the mic, Rendell noted Hillary's tight schedule and added the agenda gave "the mayor and the governor...a total of five minutes."

He added, "The mayor gave a great speech. Have we ever had a mayor on a ticket as VP?"

Added Clinton when she finally got the mic, "You heard everything you needed to hear from the mayor."

Mark Harrington

It's hard to think of a nastier epithet that a Hillary Clinton supporter could hurl than invoking Ken Starr, the independent prosecutor who investigated Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

So maybe Camp Clinton was telling us what they really think of Barack Obama Thursday while accusing him of negative campaigning.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson (left), on a conference call with reporters, went so far as to accuse the Obama campaign of "imitating" Starr during the Lewinsky scandal.

Wolfson said Obama’s statement that he intends to step up his attacks on Clinton’s record is reminiscent of what the Clintons endured during the investigations in the 1990s.

“I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president. But perhaps that theory will be tested,” Wolfson said.

Clinton, herself famous for alleging a "vast right wing conspiracy" against her husband, declined to address the Starr comparison at a news conference later in the day.

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded, saying this to the Chicago Tribune about pressing Clinton to release her tax returns: "It is absurd that after weeks of badgering the media to ‘vet’ Sen. Obama, the Clinton campaign believes that they should be held to an entirely different standard.

"We don’t believe that expecting candidates for the presidency to disclose their tax returns somehow constitutes Ken Starr-tactics, but the kind of transparency and accountability that Americans are looking for and that’s been missing in Washington for far too long,'' Burton said. "And if Sen. Clinton doesn’t think that the Republicans will ask these very same questions, then she’s not as ready to go toe-to-toe with John McCain as she claims.''

-- Craig Gordon in Washington

Seeking to keep momentum after wins in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Rodham Clinton today released plans to revitalize the "forgotten" front line in Afghanistan -- and get in some digs at Barack Obama along the way.

In a strategy designed to highlight what she calls her strength in international affairs and security, Clinton met with former military and diplomatic officials this afternoon to outline a plan to refocus attention on that war on terror front.

Clinton, whose campaign boasted of raising $4 million dollars online since polls closed Tuesday night, called for increasing international support for the effort, working with the Afghan government to increase security forces and appointing a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other measures.

The plan also calls for a strengthened counter-narcotics program to cut off a vital source of funding to the Taliban warlords and corrupt Afghan officials.

The event also way a way to draw attention to one of Clinton's recent lines of attack against Obama -- that even though he chairs a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan, he has failed to hold any hearings about the issue this year while running for president, despite leveling criticism over Bush's handling of the war.

Mark Harrington

Some day an anthropologist will study the fascinating process by which the supporters of a candidate stand in a room, watching the very first minimal returns on a wall-sized TV projection, and cheer wildly as their side takes a commanding lead -- with one quarter of a percentage point reporting. Sometimes the cheering gets broadcast -- a little like looking into mirrors placed across from each other. Above is the scene right now at Hillary's campaign digs at a tony historic building called the Athanaeum in downtown Columbus.

Dan Janison in Columbus, Ohio

Michael Hines, a 29-year-old African-American administrative assistant from Columbus, said early this afternoon he will vote as soon as he leaves work. He doesn’t hesitate to say for whom. “I’m voting for Obama. Specifically? I like what he has to say.”

A white man who preferred to be identified as Tom, who gives his age as 55, said "I usually lean Republican," but not this year. He said he doesn’t like John McCain’s stance on the Iraq war, that we could be there “for 100 years.” Nor does he like McCain on immigration – although it was hard to say how the likely GOP nominee differs from the mainstream Democrats in any essential way.

Given the choice of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, one man who wouldn't give a name said he disliked Obama less. “She’s a carpetbagger,” he said of Clinton, confiding with a laugh: “My father’s gone 10 years. He’ll roll over in his grave knowing I’m voting for a black or a woman.”

At a place called the Waffle House on Cassady Avenue in Columbus, two Obama volunteers, a man and a woman from Arizona, in town to canvass for the primary, sat at the lunch counter. “Just as long as McCain doesn’t get elected,” said the woman, who went on to say how she didn’t like that all the news organizations always lean one way or another.

And next to them was a guy named Don who, when asked his opinion of the race, told an odd story that ended with him getting beat up by college students at Ohio State when he was a kid. “And that’s my opinion,” he concluded. Which, of course, exposes the limitations of interviewing people at random.

Dan Janison

The Clinton campaign hasn't gone into the toilet -- they're just sending the national press there.

The filing area for the senator's TV town hall is the men's bathroom underneath the risers of the Burger Activity Center. Several of the nation's most famous and respected female journalists are, at this very moment, typing away not ten feet from a pair of men's urinals.

Glenn Thrush