Good morning, and welcome again to Videos of the Week. The big story this week was, of course, the virtual coronation of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee. We have a couple of clips related to the making of that sausage, plus a few morsels of John McCain, a couple of cool tricks, and a Mike Gravel chaser.

Before we get to those, I just want to quickly plug Political Machine reader Tom Fitzsimmons' satire work over at The Specious Report, and at Daily Kos. Drop in there, laugh it up, and leave him a good rating, won't you?

By popular demand, I am adding the Obama 59 state gaffe, right after the jump.

Leading off this week is a video from my buddy Cenk at The Young Turks. For reasons that will be obvious later, I'm going to tell you nothing about it.

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain's hand-picked choice for convention manager, Doug Goodyear, resigned after Newsweek ran a story about his lobbying work and involvement in 527 groups in 2004 that were fined for improprieties.

McCain has denounced 527 groups as recently as this past February.

Goodyear, CEO of the DCI group, a consulting firm that lobbies for ExxonMobil, General Motors and the military junta that runs that great democracy Burma, said in a brief statement, "Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign".

Astonishingly, the McCain campaign's first choice, Paul Manafort, was nixed due to HIS lobbying efforts for foreign heads of state that included Ferdinand Marcos and personal relationship with Russia's Vladmir Putin. The campaign was concerned about the appearance of McCain being to closely tied to Washington lobbyists.

Does John McCain NOT have anyone close to him that ISN'T a lobbyist? Does his staff need introductory courses on how to vet people? I'm sure they'll run and take my advice, but they might just want to expand their circle of influence before he starts getting called on this stuff in earnest.

I'm guessing here that Saturday Night Live is not planning on ever having Senator Clinton on as guest ever again or else this is snark so deep that it's over even my head. However, I embed, you decide.

Tommy has a great rundown, but let me add one interesting fact-o-tum to the mix. UPI is reporting that the Clinton campaign is out of money and canceling events:

The cash-strapped campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton has forced curtailments of political events and advertising as the primary season winds down, aides say.

...

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported options are being considered to allow Clinton a graceful exit from race with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who leads in pledged delegates and popular vote.

One supporter familiar with the campaign said Clinton wanted to leave on an up note, possibly after winning a couple of the remaining primaries. The supporter also said Clinton would want a resolution concerning the seating of Florida and Michigan delegates, who lost their seats the Democratic national convention as punishment for the states' changing their primaries.

The last paragraph (emphasis mine) is an important one and the reason why she hasn't thrown in the towel yet. She will win in WV and KY, she may even blow Obama out, and this is where I disagree with Tommy, even with the late news, I don't think it's likely that she will lose outright. She will have more delegates and more bargaining power in a few days, so it would be quite easy to persuade her that she owes it to her supporters to stick it out for at least a little while longer.

And if that's so bad, why did Reagan go to the convention in 1976 and Kennedy in 1980. That was Kennedy's last hurrah, but Reagan weirdly enough might be an inspiration to Hillary (yeah I know!) . By going to the convention and fighting for his platform, he was able to set himself up for 1980, thanks to Gerald Ford's loss.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that Hillary doesn't care about the damage to the party, because she is setting herself up for 2012 in the face of an Obama loss. In this case, she would need Obama to actually lose, so again, her interests are aligned with McCain, not the Democratic party. If that's the scenario, she fights to the end, regardless of the delegate count. For the Democratic party, that's one ugly thing to think about. This is where my healthy dose of cynicism comes in handy.

Update: 3 more Supers go to Obama today. See end of story for details. 6pm:Make that 4.

As my friend, David Knowles, noted yesterday, Barack Obama has now taken the Superdelegate lead from Hillary Clinton for the first time in this campaign. After taking the lead, more and more supes began to fall Obama's way. Even before Tuesday, the delegate math had stopped adding up for Hillary.

The Political Machine also reports that Rasmussen has stopped polling the Democratic Primary race, Terry McAuliffe has signaled that the end is near, and negotiations for a VP slot are already under way.

In the face of such inevitability, the question is now, not if, but when Hillary Clinton Conventional wisdom varies a lot on this, from just after the Kentucky primary on May 20, to June 3, the date of the last primary, with some convinced she'll still go to the convention. I suggest a different date. If not today, then tomorrow or Monday. She can skip right over the defeat and go right to accepting that Vice Presidency, having ended on the high note of a victory in Indiana.

The alternative is to watch a flood of Supers go to Obama, and possibly even lose in West Virginia and Kentucky. She can be Rocky Balboa from the first film, or William Wallace's vanquished Braveheart.

Whatever happens, I want to see Democrats behaving with grace and good sportsmanship toward Hillary and her supporters. Obama himself has struck the right chord, as did Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday's conference call, but the same cannot be said for Ted Kennedy. Worse than that, though, was this display of disrespect on CNN Tuesday night, which I have just now seen for myself.

Barack Obama makes the remark he's visited all "57 states" but still hasn't made it to Hawaii (his birthplace) or Alaska. (His 57 plus the two he mentions having missed equal 59 states!) Here's the quip:

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reports that on Wednesday a majority of House Republicans voted "against motherhood." Actually, they voted against a resolution "celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day." After the resolution passed unanimously, Republican Representative Todd Tiahrt of Kansas stood up and said, "Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote." The House re-voted and this time 178 Republicans voted against the resolution.

Milbank lampooned the move, writing, "Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it." The reason Republicans voted against the resolution is because they are trying to delay everything brought before the House as part of their obstructionist strategy.

When asked about the vote House Minority Leader John Boehner explained, "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day." Baffling. "If Boehner's explanation doesn't make much sense," Milbank wrote, "he's been under a great deal of stress lately." Milbank was referring to Repupublican Representative Vito Fossella's love child scandal. Fossella did not vote on the pro-Mother's Day resolution.

Via ABC News, the inevitable has happened:

For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate.

The tipping point occurred this morning, when New Jersey's Rep. Donald Payne defected from Clinton to Obama, and Oregon's Rep. Peter DeFazio, previously uncommitted, saw fit to join up with the Obama wagon trail.

By ABC's count, that gives Obama 267 supers, while Clinton has 256. Later this morning, Clinton edged back with the endorsement of Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Carter, so it looks as though she only trails now by 1 superdelegate.

UPDATE: Back up to a two-point lead. Obama nabs another.
UPDATE II: Make it a three-point lead courtesy of another California super, Ed Espinoza.
UPDATE III: Up to seven. Wilber Lee Jeffcoat (S.C.), Vernon Watkins (Ca.), Mazie Hirono (Hi.), and Laurie Weahkee (N.M.) all get on board Obama's bus.
UPDATE IV: Add five more for Obama on Saturday, including another defector.


My hunch is that many supers were waiting to see if Clinton was going to make a graceful exit from the race. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Therefore, she has put many reluctant supersdelegates in the position of having to do the dirty work.

How dire is Hillary's situation? She is now asking fence-sitters for their secret allegiance. If your supporters won't publicly declare their support, you know you're in trouble.

Well, the proverbial fat lady, she has ditched the sotto voce and is belting it out loudly for all to hear.

The Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog reports today on economists who responded to the question: "Which of the three remaining presidential candidates offers the most responsible fiscal policy proposals in your view?"

The question was part of the Journal's latest economic forecasting survey. About half of the survey participants elected not to answer with a candidate preference. Of those who answered, 75% selected John McCain. The depressing reasoning? "His [policies] are the least horrible," according to James F. Smith of Western Carolina University.

Since Tim Russert and I declared the Democratic nomination settled, there has been a whirl of discussion about Hillary joining Obama's ticket as Vice President. According to Politico's Ben Smith, however, prominent Obama supporter and Democratic Party royal Ted Kennedy says, "Not so fast...":

Obama should choose a running mate who "is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people," Kennedy said. "If we had real leadership - as we do with Barack Obama - in the No. 2 spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful."

Wow. What a D move, and I don't mean "Democratic." I can't wait to see the comments on this one. Now, I know that Ted is a beloved figure among Democrats, and who am I to argue with an elder statesman? I'm going to have to re-think my whole position on this "Dream Ticket."

(...3, 2, 1) OK, I'm done. You're wrong, Ted, wrong! In bold fonts!