Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

Jonathan Martin at Politico writes:

^{McCain readies unorthodox campaign}:

And finally — and perhaps most importantly — McCain will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree to get out his message in a fashion that aims to not only minimize his financial disadvantage but also drive a triangulated contrast among himself, the Democratic nominee and President Bush.

McCain advisers acknowledge they have little choice but to seek free entry into the media marketplace, as they have no chance of matching Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in a dollar-for-dollar ad war, given that the Arizona senator’s fundraising totals pale in comparison to both his prospective opponents and the Bush-Cheney political machine.

But aides also hope they can turn necessity into virtue and argue that by facing tough questions from reporters on his bus each day and potentially even tougher ones from audience members at frequent town hall meetings, McCain will demonstrate how he’s different from two politicians who are far less accessible.

The acerbically wonderful Athenae over at First Draft responds:

Right. I can't imagine why he'd think that strategy would pay off. Maybe he should have a barbecue, invite some reporters over, treat them like pals. That might help, too.

Seriously, this whole story has this breathless, Blanche DuBois attitude about it, the whole "Ooh, he's such a brave, strong man, running such a scary, unorthodox campaign ... can he pull it off? Tune in tomorrow to find out!" soap opera feel. Couple that with the typical "McCain will rely on the media, of which I am in no way a part, even as I report on McCain" dodge, and you have like a perfect storm of the political press. Blech.

Blech, indeed.

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's ABC debate/campaign-weary Rescue Rangers are Unitary Moonbat, PaintyKat, vcmvo2, Truth of Angels, grog, and joyful, with YatPundit driving the editmobile top-down on a gorgeous NOLA Spring evening.

• Don't forget to check out the other three NOLA/Gulf Blogathon diaries today: Louisiana 1976 offers Earth Day #1: Katrina & The Environment. commonscribe discusses insurance woes in NOLA/Gulf blogathon: Insuring profits over people. buhdydharma's contribution is NOLA Blogathon, New Orleans: Canary in the Coal Mine. (YatPundit)
• Extraordinary Measures, Part I is mlharges' beautifully-written contribution to the marvelous selection of diaries comprising the heartbreaking, 2-day NOLA/Gulf Blogathon. (joyful)
• Darrell Goodliffe shows us how the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica meshes with current events to bring us the most cutting-edge television show on the air. It is not enough to survive, you must be worthy of survival... So say we all. (joyful)
• bored now brings us Some Final Impressions of Pennsylvania Before the Countdown. (joyful)
• Translator takes us back to the future in this latest adventure with Ben Franklin and The Doctor. (vcmvo2)
• In An Iraqi Gives His Side, jimstaro grimly recounts why our policy of training an Iraqi force to "stand up so that American forces can stand down," is not working! (vcmvo2)
• The chattering class ought not run afoul of mastrwik, who eviscerates some recent punditry from Maureen Dowd: And Now, Some Lies About Obama's Elitism. (Unitary Moonbat)
• Mentarch points out, via copious links, that the Decider's speech to the pontiff may have been a tad hypocritical in Indeed, Mr. President - Yes, Indeed! (Unitary Moonbat)
• In Decoding Bush Deceptions re Climate Change, A Siegel systematically takes apart Bush's latest Orwellian attempt to reframe his "legacy" on the environment. (vcmvo2)
• resa carefully details why we should Just Say NO to Corn (Yes to Bees, Farms, People). (vcmvo2)

Please join Diary Rescue by suggesting your picks in this Open Thread.

Dean to Superdelegates: Make Your Endorsements Now

Those numerate in delegate math know that Hillary Clinton cannot become the Democratic nomination unless Barack Obama is so damaged by some unforeseen event that he has to give up his lead and drop out of the race.  There's just about no conceivable scenario in which that will happen, but Hillary Clinton and her surrogates have been trying to keep wavering superdelegates from endorsing Barack Obama by arguing that he can't win in November.  Their strategy has been to prolong the race and hope for Obama to destruct.  

Last month Howard Dean did his best to take the "let's just wait until the convention" option away from Clinton when he said we would have a nominee no later than July 1st.  Last night Hillary Clinton undermined her own private argument that he can't win by publicly declaring that Barack Obama can defeat John McCain.  This evening, quite possibly in reaction to the travesty of last night's debate, and probably because he's hearing increasingly frantic concerns from leading Democrats that the longer Hillary Clinton stays in a race she can't win the longer John McCain gets a free pass, Howard Dean scrapped his July 1st deadline:

An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and "I need them to say who they’re for starting now."

"We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time," the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. "We’ve got to know who our nominee is."

Even if she wins Pennsylvania there's no way Clinton will make up any serious ground on Obama.  Dean may be pushing superdelegates as a tactical move, to help Obama's momentum.  After being far, far behind Clinton in Superdelegate commitments in January, he's now narrowed the gap to just 19.  If Clinton wins Pennsylvania on Tuesday—as most people expect her to—she probably won't pick up more than a dozen net pledged delegates; Obama would still maintain a lead of over 150 pledged delegates.  There would be nowhere for Clinton to make up the margin.  More importantly, it would push Obama closer to the magic number of 2,025 delegates for the nomination (excluding MI and FL).   Dean may be hoping that he can spur a sizable contingent of superdelegates to endorse  Obama, which in combination with the pledged delegates he'll pick up in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Guam on May 3rd, and North Carolina and Indiana on May 6th, could very well put him over the 2,025 threshold.

Dean has many reasons to Clinton to concede sooner than July 1st.  He would avoid refereeing the dispute over seating the MI and FL while Clinton is still claiming she has a chance for the nomination.  A Clinton concession in the next few weeks would allow the DNC to announce that those delegates would be seated, and would finally take away from the GOP in those two states the talking point that Democrats don't care about those states' votes.  

A Clinton concession would also allow Obama to start directing 100% of his resources toward defeating McCain.  It would lead to a huge influx of money at the DNC so they could begin to really ramp up the field operations for the fall, and hopefully to start doing ads against McCain.  And most importantly, it would allow Democrats to start unifying, turn away from attacking each other, and turn instead toward campaign against John McCain and the GOP.

Barack Obama will be our nominee.  The sooner all Democrats are working together to ensure his election the better.  

The questions America wanted answered

Just how badly did ABC trivialize the presidential debate in Philadelphia yesterday? Here is a thumbnail sketch of the questions that Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos believed the American public urgently needed to have answered before Pennsylvanians cast their votes. Here is what the elitists at ABC imagine Americans care about.

1. Process (VP running mate)

2. Bitter

3. Bitter/Process (can Obama win?)

4. Process (can Obama win?)

5. Process (can Clinton win?)

6. Wright

7. Wright

8. Wright/patriotism

9. Wright

10. Wright/patriotism

11. Bosnia/Clinton's honesty

12. Clinton’s honesty

13. Flag pin/patriotism

14. Ayers/patriotism

15. Iraq (would you ignore commanders?)

16. Iraq (do you know better than commanders?)

17. Iraq (would you ignore commanders?)

18. Iran/Israel (Iran will threaten to use nukes)

19. Pledge no tax increases (with McCain attack)

20. Capital gains tax rates

21. Gun registration

22. Guns/ D.C. law

23. Affirmative action

24. Gas prices

25. Foreign oil

26. Process (how would you use GWB?)

27. Process (superdelegates)

~ categories courtesy of georgia10, with slight modification

There you are, America. Those are the "issues" you ought to be paying attention to, according to the serious people at ABC. Those are "tough but appropriate questions", according to Stephanopoulos - adopted just as they've been framed by Republicans.

Six questions about process; five questions about Pastor Wright; four questions about patriotism; three questions about whether Gen. Petraeus should get to decide US policy on Iraq; two questions about a poorly worded comment that few voters realize they ought to care about.

What is missing from this list is virtually everything that voters in Pennsylvania (PDF) and throughout the country say actually matter to them.

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