The media has waited with baited breath - and a volume of verbiage the world has rarely seen outside of coverage of Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears’ crotches - for Hillary to do her concession bit and for the two to hug and cry together. But they’re not giving that to us - at least, not yet. And either way, it’s OK.

I don’t want this to be a presidency driven solely by sound bytes and carefully crafted media images. I don’t expect two people who’ve fought so hard for their own campaigns (or the myriad thousands who’ve labored for them) to sudden love each other and make nice.

I don’t want Hillary Clinton named VP (and I think any announcement there will come much closer to the convention, if not at the convention itself in late August in Denver) simply because she was “the other candidate.” If there’s a better person for the Obama Democratic ticket, then I want that person considered. We’re not into legacies here, unless it’s the legacy for ALL of America, and not for a relatively privileged few (named Bush or Clinton or Kennedy, et al).

But what we need most of all is for the American people to unite in an understanding that the way ahead is tough regardless of how we go: that we may have to accept a period of increased hardship to try to get this nation - and the world that watches it - back on track. We’re already hurting; we can probably survive a little more.

And unlike the Bush-McCain technique, we need to take care of America’s working and middle classes through good education, job training, health care, and so much more. The Bush-McCain technique is to give and give to the wealthiest, and the rest have to wait til it trickles down the inner leg of the fatcat Republican peeing gold.

Caroline Kennedy has been named to head up a three-person VP search team for Democratic presumptive nominee, Barack Obama.

This differs from George Bush’s 2000 VP search team, headed by Dick Cheney, with only Cheney serving as membership, and - surprise! - decided Dick Cheney would be the best candidate for the job!

But does anyone worry with as much as Cheney is smirking and still acting like cock of the walk that you wonder if HE knows something (like what really went on with September 11th and Iraq, to name but a few) you don’t, which is why he’s not worried about having to leave the WH anytime soon.

Hillary Clinton may not be conceding yet, but as predicted, Barack Obama - based on delegate counts - has just announted “I will be the nominee.”

According to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s Countdown Monday night, Hillary Clinton is giving every signal of suspending her campaign today, as the final two Democratic primaries play out.

However, it should also be noted that a suspended campaign can be resurrected, right up to and including at Convention time in late August.

I’m not certain quite the purpose for showing the inner workings of the Democrats’ Rules Committee as they wrestle with the issue of delegates and super delegates in contested states Florida and Michigan.

On the one hand, I think it’s valuable to some to understand how all this gets worked out re: who will be the Democratic Party nominee. On the other, however, bringing out (so called, cough, cough) big guns like CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to discuss things like the Austin petition and half votes and whether Howard Dean will say, “yeeehaaaaaw” again (he won’t, but CNN likes to make Dems seem dumb) makes the whole thing seem a little ditzy.

Me? I suspect it’s a ratings black hole.

I have such confidence in you that I’ll bet my best cup of coffee that you’ll score higher than a Dana Milbank or a David Sirota on this trivia challenge at The Week Behind.

I won’t say you’ll score better than a George Bush, because he’d have to be able to read to take the test and… well…. he’s cognitively challenged (to say the least).

The more moral the Republican, the deeper the kink and the more likely (ick) there is video evidence. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother whom Crist replaced as the GOP governor of the state, was fortunately too fat to allow video taping. Cough.

No word on whether Paris Hilton is in Crist’s sex tape. Rumors that Michael Jackson’s chimp, Bubbles, participated is also uncomfirmed. Snort.

Well, this is the weekend the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention meets to hammer out what’s happening with delegates and super delegates, Florida and Michigan primary votes and what to do with them, et al.

Both DNC chair Howard Dean and many other ranking Dems have said they expect the race to be over soon after June 3rd, the date of the last scheduled donkey primary; that a commitment from superDs on who they’ll cast ballots for is wanted soon thereafter.

Yet others are beginning to suggest this is a race that may continue all summer through to the Dem National Convention in Colorado, the first time the convention’s been a real political potboiler since at least 1972. And I’m not sure Dems would be hurt badly by a later decision either: as long as the DNC continues its smart ads that target John McCain rather than a Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama, I doubt there’s a danger. We’ve seen an exodus AWAY from the Republican and even the uncommitted voters coming into this presidential election cycle; I strongly resist the notion that something will magically drive these candidates back to Mad Dog McCain. You?

Now, to be fair, it’s never taken all that damned much to get Connecticut Senator (formerly Dem, now independently installed up the butt of the Bush/McCainies) Joe Lieberman to wander off the reservation. And whenever he wanders, it reminds you that the mind is one hell of a thing to waste but that his is more like loooonnnnng overpoached goose.

Yesterday was no exception for Joltin’ Joe-mentum. He rushed to the defense of nutcase tighty righty McCain religious nut, Rev. Hagee, who had JUST announced that Jews were at least partly responsible for their own genecide in the Holocaust. Lieberman defended this man (and I use the term man oh so loosely), but declined to answer questions re: whether he would allow Hagee to annihilate him because Lieberman is clinically depressing.

I’d call Joe an ass, but the anal sphincter is useful at least once a day whereas I can’t recall the last time my former senator (Lieberman) was ever useful (unless trying to inflict a sick migraine headache upon yourself).

Has John McCain ever, EVER just admitted he was wrong? I mean, less than twenty plus years after the error, like in fighting Arizona making Martin Luther King Day a holiday.

To choose the Memorial Day weekend to defend his insistence that he’s right in his failure to support the GI Bill truly is unconscionable. But my, oh my, is he ever showing “the Bush support” of our soldiers: giving them the shaft even faster than they shaft the enemy, whoever that is (and I tend to think our biggest fears should lie in the Bushies/McCainies).

Though I was nursing a miserable stomach flu that had me using my DVR to catch spots I missed in rushing to worship the porcelain goddess, I saw rapt through HBO’s “Recount”.

As honest as it was (and I thought it avoided some of the most fiery yet since proven true material), I realized there was probably no production that could completely tap my sick outrage at what happened in the Gore/Bush 2000 election.

Ironically, I was very ill on Election Day 2000 but I’d dragged myself out of bed, completely dazed, because I never felt like my vote was more important. And yet, at the same time, it never, ever permeated my consciousness that Bush could be named president. My partner voted Nader - and I let him have it for his decision - at least in part for how nasty the so-called left got toward Ralph for running, but though I never thought Bush could steal it, I felt the election was just too important to “waste” a vote.

Late in the day, I was very surprised at how well I heard Bush was doing. But it still did not dawn on me that what was about to happen ever could (and yet his stolen re-election in 2004 also surprised me because I could not fathom that we’d let him get away with it twice). After that, we made a concerted decision to turn off the media until 10 or 11 PM ET when at least some real count was in.

It was around 2 AM when Florida was turned from a Gore win, to a too-close-to-call one, and then around to a Bush victory. We were already hearing some stories about the Palm Beach and poorer Floridians having big problems either with nonsense design or broken voting equipment or being challenged as being on a felon list (and some 500-1,000 or more people were kept from voting for every “felon’s name” listed on the stuff that came from ChoicePoint, who has since been awarded much of the control for our terrorist watch lists, etc).

This is how feverish sick I was, both physically and from the news: around 2:30 am, I started telling God that he’d be welcome to “take me” if only he wouldn’t let Bush win (and I’ve been a little pissed at Him/Her ever since).

As outrageous as that night was, what followed was worse. The media kept telling us we were all tired of the fight to get the recount (I only recall the Bushies being tired) because we were eager to focus on the holidays (sheesh!). But the people I spoke with, while they wanted it over, certainly didn’t feel Gore or anyone else should just capitulate to suit the MSM. And some of these folks were Bush voters. Thus, long before 9/11, we’ve been letting the media, probably at the direction of the politicos it supports, tell us what should happen because of what appears to be an INACCURATE read of where the American public is.

So “Recount” could not quite recapture the terrible dawning horror of that first Tuesday in November of 2000. But could anything, especially knowing the great ruination of our country ever since?

And what was your reaction to “Recount”?

You want to see this (Sunday, 9 PM EDT, HBO).

Is it just me or is this issue being blown out of all possible proportion?

As Time and some other media outlets note, Hillary has referenced the June candidate selection before using her husband’s ‘92 selection as candidate and the Bobby Kennedy candidacy that went on until he was shot in June 1968 as markers. This seems to be the same thing she was doing in answering this question.

But, my God, last night people were calling her race effectively over, with no hopes of the VP slot, for making the same reference… one even Bobby Kennedy’s son insisted should not be construed as offensive.

According to Politico from a CNN report, key people within Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination to run against Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election are now talking to fellow Dem opponent Barack Obama’s key folks about Clinton becoming the VP candidate on the ticket.

On one hand, this surprises me; nothing about Hillary’s rhetoric this week suggested to me she was ready to end her race until every possible avenue had been explored. On the other hand, it would make sense that if Hillary feels she can’t come from behind to get the candidacy, she’d be willing to consider the #2 post (though few VPs have played such a busy role as Bush’s Dick Cheney).

This avenue would give Hillary something (though there are still rumors she might be a leading contender to replace the recently-quit NY governor Eliot Spitzer). But would it give Obama enough to agree? I’m not sure.

How about you? What’s your take?

Have you noticed?

Despite how obvious it was that the Pentagon and the Bush Administration, in their most recent assessment of Bush’s big escalation of war in early 2007, were lying about how “peachy” the situation in Iraq is, all the Republican talking heads on TV now note that the surge worked, that this is indisputable fact, and that the only people who would claim Iraq isn’t going well are hateful, God-ridiculing Democrats.

They’ll claim this even when we see GI deaths going up again, larger and larger suicide bombings, on days when “insurgents” nearly blew up the First Lady of Iraq and days when they just sit back and watch “the American saviors” unintentionally kill a slew of civilians due to “bad intelligence.”

The worst part of all this, however, is that some of the relatively non-partisan news anchors and reporters don’t challenge the GOPers when they make this outrageous claim. A Republican strategist will let loose with the pronouncement of how wonderful Iraq is and, even if the headlines just reported another big bombing, the anchor sits without uttering a single question or asking the basis for such a preposterous claim.

First, the mainstream media joined the tighty-righties in villifying Barack Obama for about three minutes worth of comments given by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, over the decades in which the men knew one another while simultaneously, they paid little attention to John McCain’s increasing zeal for the support of Christian fascists like the late Jerry Falwell and the current bizarro crops like Rev. Hagee.

When the press did finally notice McCain’s brown nosing of Hagee, they still gave it little press UNTIL McCain finally this week pulled the plug on Hagee, long after others told him he should. In other words, the MSM decided not to report much about Hagee until they could report that McCain “did the right thing” and kicked him to the curb in rejecting the loon’s endorsement without noting how damned hard McCain sucked up to get that endorsement.

While I think it’s a full-blooded guarantee that WHOEVER John McCain picks to run with him on the Republican presidential ticket for November’s election will be a 325% right winging whackjob with an agenda as big as his (or her, since SuckSecretary of State Condi Rice’s name keeps coming up in relation to McCain’s VP choice) ego, hearing former GOP challenger Mitt Romney is on the relative short list of potential veeps leaves me stone cold (and dyspeptic!).

Well, we’ve rarely seen such concentrated wealth in one party’s Prez/VP combo. Cindy McCain alone is worth a very conservative $200 million.

But, unless one or both of these folks wants to just write a personal check to pay off the national debt (and they’re welcome to write that check if they don’t get elected, too), I don’t think we need more over privileged, under taxed, rich emperor wannabees in the White House.

While the right just LOVES to depict Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as elitists out of touch with the people due to their money and celebrity, BHO and HRC at least earned their money, and not on the bloodied backs of so many broken Americans and laborers worked to death in factories propped up by our fair trade pact agreements that are growing, rather than curing, poverty and the unsustainability of declining resources.

On another sour note, if McCain is willing to consider Romney and Huckabee and Sam Brownback as VP possibilities, there really isn’t any hope that he would align himself with a sane, moderate type that might provide our only lifeline if the GOP steals this presidential election for a record three in a row.

While this has frequently been a much-referenced topic with Hillary Rodham Clinton, she’s been working overtime since Tuesday’s primaries in Oregon (where she lost) and Kentucky (where she won big) to renew her demands for the popular vote/delegate seating to happen in the states of Florida and Michigan, where because the states chose to hold primaries ahead of the official February 5th (1st Super Tuesday), Democratic primary voters there did not get counted.

Now, Clinton knew the rules that required the 2/5/08 start date for Dem Party primaries (and in Florida, was enacted by a mostly Republican state house), and agreed not to campaign in those states where, for example in Michigan, Hillary was the only Dem candidate on the ballot.

As I’ve written before and no doubt will write again, as much as I hate votes not being counted, and ahead of the decision from the DNC Rules Committee expected next week on whether these votes can count, I just don’t see how you can seat these two states’ votes when other Democratic candidates followed the rules and were not available on the ballot. This isn’t anti-Hillary; it’s about general fairness. If Barack Obama’s name was the only one to appear on the ballots in these two states and he was now making the same claims as HRC, my reaction would be identical.

What’s your take?

Just as predicted for Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Kentucky and Oregon:

* Hillary Clinton took Kentucky by a commanding lead (65% to 30%)
* Barack Obama won Oregon which, while not anywhere near as dramatic as HRC’s win in Kentucky, was still pretty damned significant (58% to 42%)
* The pundits all bitched and moaned that Hillary hasn’t dropped out of the race yet, which they tell us a dozen times an hour every hour

Here’s the breakdown from CNN.

I’ve doubted this possibility before, that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (who’ve both done well ahead of the pack back when there was a pack) might ultimately end up both on the ticket as President/Vice President. I’ve also been angered when some pundits insist that Obama absolutely MUST invite Hillary as his running mate (since it appears he may be ahead now in super delegates as well); I don’t think any candidate is required to pick his or her failed challenger as veep.

On the one hand, I think it would be exciting to see a biracial man identified most often as black and a woman of any color assume the top spots. Senators Obama and Clinton are both brilliant, committed people with much to offer ALL of America, and not just the blue staters.

On the other, I do not know if it would be enough of an advantage to Obama to bring in Hillary’s supporters to his camp to offset the negatives among which I count the fact that Hillary would truly be wasted in a veep spot unless to bring her closer to the Oval Office as commander in chief next time around.

I won’t bother with the ridiculous banter we keep hearing about the “dangers of having a horny Clenus back at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with more time of his hands.” Until this campaign, Bill was doing some good work. I hope he reclaims his true senior world leader status once the campaign ends because we need him there as much as Hillary perhaps does not (he’s not always aided her campaign, I think).

But how do you feel about an Obama-Clinton ticket? If you’re a Clinton supporter, will you toss your support behind Obama? If you somehow aren’t sure, would having Hillary as veep help you support Obama? Or, if you’re a Barack supporter, how do you feel about who should be his veep running mate?

The DNC has launched McCainpedia.

After all, the more you know about John McCain, the more concerned you will be.