Some of you previously wondered what Paul Krugman would say about Hillary adopting the McCain gas-tax-holiday pander approach. Today, Krugman's colleague, Thomas Friedman, slammed both of them.

Full essay here

Friedman begins:

"It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering."

Thanks for the link, but I really wanted to see if Krugman had the sack to take HRC to task.

Sure, booked. No escrow necessary.

Sosossoso true.

this is so good, I had to steal it from the front page of Kos:

"Things I have learned during this campaign season:

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.

The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife's private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.

The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the "straight talker".

People in the heartland don't like it when you call them bitter, but they do like it when you explain to them that they're too dumb to understand issues more important than whether or not they like to be called bitter.

Arugula is the measure of a man.

Bowling is the measure of a man.

Orange juice is the measure of a man.

Flag pins are the measure of a man.

Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that's good too.

A recession is only a recession if you call it one.

Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Broder, Charles Krauthammer and Bob Novak are all intensely interested in giving advice to the Democratic candidates because they just want to be helpful.

There are people in this world dumb enough to believe every one of these things."

Obama and Clinton tied 2 for 2 for Supers so far today. Obama nets 2 House members, Clinton 2 non elected.

Mom,

Please provide a link.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...167/257/506203

thanks Orlando.

sorry Wookie, if I did a no-no.

Hillary going for the black vote!

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...te-to-clinton/

Whats a good place for me to keep track of super delegate endorsements?

Caucus blog seems to report all of them.

FWIW Angelou endorsed Clinton back in 2007 and campaigned heavily for Clinton in South Carolina:

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7475690

more of those pesky "facts" from the "nytimes" (read: multiple sources) natedogg thinks are for elitist tax-and-spend idiots which point out how bad the McCain/Clinton policy is.

full article from Reuteurs

Natedogg's article, "people are stupid for saying it's just 30$", still unpublished, although rumour is it will be packed with a Karl Rove special report as part of a "McCain: Hero of the Working Man, Economy Expert" special on Fox.

Yeah I knew she endorsed her because the Angelou/Morrison split was big news for a minute. Seems like an effective ad; I don't want to dredge up that old controversial news bit about whether black women should choose between their race or gender, but I have to imagine there are a lot of black women who are on the fence and can be swayed by little gay things like this.

BTW Dvaut how do you get all these (often obscure and old) links to support all of your points? Photographic memory?

I just remembered Angelou doing the rounds in SC for Clinton and the "My Girl" ad was somewhat notable and received some play, so I Googled "my girl clinton south carolina angelou". I bookmark alot of links, but usually if I'm dredging up old and obscure stuff it's because I recalled bits and pieces of the story and was able to find a relevant link by Googling, which is pretty much what happened here.

Obama's got 3 today:

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_poli...dorsement.html

- Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_poli...for_obama.html

- Indiana Rep. Baron Hill (9th district, where IU/Bloomington is located, but mostly white -- potentially valuable endorsement for Obama, but I doubt it). Hill is pretty moderate and might be pre-disposed to favor Hillary, it was a bit interesting to see where he was coming to come down. Hill is probably going to be targeted by the GOP in November -- the 9th District is competitive between the two parties -- so you can see this as a little bit of tea-leave reading about who Hill thinks gives him the best chance to ride the coattails of in November.

- California Rep. Lois Capps

dvaut really knows his ****. i listen to the pundits all day while i play poker and ive been kind of panicky lately about clinton pulling off a miracle. a big thank you to dvaut for often making me feel better

The pundits have an interest to keep you tuning in because it makes them money. They have an agenda to make this race appear close so as not to lose the ratings they get.

Remember, these are the same pundits who go crazy everytime a white woman goes missing.

i do realize that but it has been a bad couple of weeks for obama.

Rush calls for resumption of "operation chaos," i.e., Republicans registering in order to vote for Hillary in the N.Carolina primary.

Linky

I didn't realize he ever called for a moratorium.

You actually seem to concede much of the punditocracy is just noise, but then you go and claim its' been "a bad couple of weeks for Obama".

Based on what? "Obama down 2% on Rasmussen!!! Up 5% on Gallup today!!! Up 5% in PA last week, down 10% in PA this week....oh, he lost by double digits in the actual contest, almost?!?!? But pretty close to the 10% everyone predicted he'd lose by months before, and exactly in tune with the demographics we've seen play out in all the races before!?!?!? Oh noes now Reverend Wright is talking!!!! Sean Hannity thinks there's trouble ahead for the Democrat Party!!! zomg Rich Lowry agrees!!!!!! But then he gave the most eloquent press conference in the history of press conferences, now he's back on track!! Look, he shot up 1% on the Rasmussen tracking poll today!!! Momentum again!!!!!")

Nothing about this race has fundamentally changed at all, in months.

On April 3rd, McCain was beating Obama 48-41 in the daily tracking poll. Today it's McCain 46, Obama 45. On February 25th -- right in the middle of Obama's zomg huge winning streak, at the height of Obama mania -- Obama's favorability ratings were 52% favorable, 46% unfavorable.

On April 29th, mired in the worst of weeks for Obama, where he nearly considered committing suicide and dropping out of politics altogether after losing YET ANOTHER BIG STATE BY DOUBLE DIGITS and the very public breakup with his Jedi Hate Master, the Racist America Hating Wright that all Americans hate -- his favorability ratings were 52% favorable, 45% unfavorable.

Again, all this, after what was ostensibly the worst couple of weeks for Obama in the history of ever. He lost another BIG STATE, by double digits, he can't close the door on Clinton, zomg Jeremiah Wright holy **** that guy is BLACK and so is Obama, and now the voters know it for real this time how black they are!!!!! And elitist!!!! Terrible bowlers too. Couple bad bowling scores with Jeremiah Wright repeating himself and zomg ANOTHER BIG STATE loss everyone predicted, and it's clear this has been the worst period of Barack Obama's life. Nay, any politician's life. Nay, any human's life. Ever.

Again, maybe the pundits are right that this time, the 1596th game changing event of the election, REALLY will be the game changing event of the election. Maybe Obama will be destroyed by Wright, and Obama will probably be forced to ignite himself in a grease fire and concede the election to McCain. How should I know? This stuff really might happen. I should hope *I* don't make you feel any better because I'm skeptical all the talk about how zomg so much has changed NOW, the race is so different, one candidate is collapsing, so much movement, momentum, blah blah blah is happening. I could very well be wrong. But the pundits and the media have been screaming this for months upon months, and yet nothing is fundamentally different now, as opposed to February 5th. I'm frankly surprised anyone who's been actively following this election is getting "sad" about this news, feeling "depressed" about that news, feeling giddy about this, elated about that, etc. etc. But I think it's a testament to just how powerful a repetitious chorus of idiots in the media and elsewhere, no matter how idiotic they are, can frame perceptions.

OK, agreed here too.

# Clinton has not gained any ground among pledged delegates in March and April combined. Here is the tally, according to Green Papers:

* PA: Clinton +10
* Iowa 2nd and Third Tier: Obama +9
* Colorado 2nd Tier: Clinton +2
* Mississippi: Obama +7
* Wyoming: Obama +2
* Vermont: Obama +3
* Texas: Obama +3
* Rhode Island: Clinton +5
* Ohio: Clinton +7

That results in a net gain of zero for both candidates in March and April.

# Obama has netted 28 superdelegates during March and April, according to Democratic Convention Watch. At the start of March, Clinton led 240-193 among supers, but as of this writing her lead has been cut to 261-242. That is a net gain of 28 superdelegates, and 28 overall delegates, for Obama over March and April. In other words, overall Obama is actually gaining ground in terms of delegates, despite the perception that he is stumbling.

From Open Left

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As bad as Chicken Little's like me may think things are, Obama is still in good shape to win the nomination.