Mark Casey Online

Today was a big day for Obama.

A very big, very good day for Obama.

First, we have the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, which took place today to decide what to do about Hillary Clinton’s much-bemoaned issue of seating the delegates from primaries in Florida and Michigan, both of whom broke the rules and theoretically deserved no votes at the convention. And the DNC, if you can believe it, almost followed its own rules.

(Analysis below the photo)

Among the millions of pounds of minutia discussed was the fairly straightforward issue of awarding a state which held an unapproved primary only “half-votes” at the condition, which is what they decided to do with both states. This is a huge boon to the Obama campaign, as it keeps him well within reach of the “magic number” for a delegate majority. (It also bolsters the potential Clinton argument of having won the popular vote, because it gives her more votes than Obama in each state.)

But that’s not all! Obama also quit his ridiculously controversial church this evening, which is the best possible thing he could ever have done. Now, whenever the pastors from that church get out of hand, no one can somehow suggest that Obama actually agrees with what insane religious zealots say. (As if, by the way, anyone actually believes the stuff they usually hear in church on Sunday.  …Okay, some people do.)

So, a stiff jab followed by a crushing uppercut, and suddenly Hillary Clinton and John McCain had better watch out — they just lost the only two things which have ever hurt Obama.

And they lost them on the same day. Ouch.

Since when did the evil, maniacal, vindictive, win-at-all-costs Bush Administration that everyone hates so much turn into an episode of Dawson’s Creek?

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, has written a new book which accuses the Bush Administration of lying, cheating, stealing, and, to quote, “Using spin and propaganda” to lead the nation into war.

And he also says some stuff that 80% of the country doesn’t already know. Like the fact that he was involved in both war spin and helping to mislead the public, a prosecutor, and everyone else in the world during the investigation into Chaney and Libby’s infamous CIA Leak scandal — going so far as to talk about secret meetings.

But, instead of just ignoring the situation or disregarding McClellan’s claims as irrelevant, like every person in power always does when one of their former allies turns against them, the entire fleet of White House toadies has come out in a row to talk about, like, what a total loser Scott McClellan is. From den mother Karl Rove being the first to respond, to a hilariously ironic faux-outrage displayed by current White House press secretary Dana Perino, as if what she has to say carries weight in the discussion of White House press secretaries doing whatever they’re told.

In any case, I have one phrase to quote back to this suddenly squeamish White House, as they bend over backward to discredit a colleague’s silly memoir:

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Nice little piece on MSNBC.com today, even if it is a little naive.

Apparently someone on their news staff was really surprised to learn that a lot of “normal” people out here are concerned about the environment when they shop.  Among the tidbits is this lead:

Here’s the type of conundrum that Wendy Richardson often finds herself debating: If she is three miles from her office and realizes she has forgotten her reusable water bottle, is it more environmentally friendly to drive her Toyota Prius hybrid back to get it, or to walk 100 feet to a convenience store and buy a bottle of water?

Most people wouldn’t even think twice about buying the bottle of water, then tossing it in the trash. But Richardson is the type of person who tries, with everything she does, to literally help save the world.

Wow.  What a weirdo!

Okay, granted.  That story is both a little lame and a little overzealous.  But the rationale remains:  what a strange thing it is for people to go out of their way to buy ‘Green’ products.  Otherwise, it’s a pretty good piece, and I guess it’s meant to speak more to people who think “Going Green” is totally lame than it is to people who actually do it.

The internet was set ablaze on Friday because Hillary Clinton referenced the fact that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated during the primaries as her rationale for staying in the race.

Here’s the video — commentary below:

At first, it seemed like she had gone crazy — she had finally lost control of her already weak grip on reality, and started to publicly root for the death of Barack Obama. But it wasn’t true.

No, she didn’t go crazy until Sunday.

As of today, she is using her mouthpieces at CNN to both blame Obama for the fact that people are outraged, not her own foolishness, and also to claim that her mention of RFK had nothing to do with Obama, saying:

I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for — and everything I am fighting for in this election.

She also blamed the editor of the New York Daily News, who was nice enough to give her Op-Ed space to explain herself, and Bobby Kennedy Jr., for god’s sake, for “misinterpreting” her comments.

And obviously they were misinterpreted. No, Robert Kennedy, a man who died on his way to becoming the nominee of the Democratic party, obviously has nothing to do with Barack Obama, her opponent, who happens to be a man on his way to becoming the nominee of the Democratic party. The only possible alternative, of course, would be that she was comparing herself to RFK. So… let’s just not delve too deeply into that possibility.

No, definitely not.

Well, we now know what Hillary Clinton has been up to these past few weeks.

Ever since May 6, when she lost heavily in North Carolina and barely managed to scrape out a win in Indiana — a state which was supposed to represent her base — Clinton’s behavior has been odd, to say the least.

Barack Obama’s status as the party’s eventual nominee seemed to be a certainty rather than a mere likelihood. But Clinton ramped up her rhetoric, choosing to loudly repeat her argument that Obama couldn’t win, rather than live out the remainder of her candidacy in reserved grace.

Some of her comments, such as repeatedly asserting that working class, white citizens would never vote for Senator Obama, seemed to be nothing more than political posturing — predictable, if damaging, ploys designed to rally her supporters in the remaining contests.

Other claims, however, were less obviously useful. And far less obviously true. For example, a mainstay of her campaign this month has been the idea that she is ahead in the popular vote, which she is not. Even if one assumes that she is softening our ears to the argument in preparation for the day it becomes true, which her campaign hopes will happen after Puerto Rico, it doesn’t change the fact that telling this lie with a straight face makes her seem either manically delusional or maniacally Karl Rovian — whichever you think is worse.

But now, today, we can safely say what it was all for. We know the argument that no one but her can win over certain demographic groups, bolstered by the claim that she is the new Al Gore — winner of the popular vote, but pitied loser of the prize — it was all meant to make her irresistible as a Vice Presidential candidate.

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A Boston TV host was fired by Comcast Cable, a well-known supporter and contributor to the Republican party, after publicly protesting the New England EMMY chapter’s decision to honor Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.

Nolan, the fired former host of the network’s CN8 Channel, believed that it was improper for the regional EMMY organization to nominate a figure as “partisan” as O’Reilly.

The host had this to say:

“He’s delusional,” Nolan said of O’Reilly. “He’s a man that mangles the facts. He inflates and constantly mangles the truth, and his frequent target is the ‘left-leaning’ media — the ones who do report the news fairly.”

Now, I realize that it’s only a local EMMY honor. But that’s the whole point. Why would Comcast risk their sterling reputation just to stamp out a little regional squabble?

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Oh, this is just too good to be true.

You know those LifeLock commercials? With the guy who has a semi-truck drive around with his social security number painted on it in gigantic size, while he hands out flyers advertising his social security number, all to prove that his identity is safe because he uses “LifeLock?”

Well, that guy’s identity wasn’t safe. And yes, he really was using LifeLock. He’s Todd Davis, the company’s CEO. But someone in Texas successfully used that social security number to secure himself a loan. More hilariously, the CEO admits that, even with LifeLock, plenty of people could already have “stolen” his identity by using his SS number to get a drivers license.

Best of all, Todd admits that LifeLock isn’t great at catching these things, calling drivers license fraud alerts “flimsy,” and saying this about the potential for people to take out loans in his name:

“There’s nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything. There’s nothing to indicate my identity has been successfully compromised other than the one instance.”

So, basically, LifeLock doesn’t do much unless you’ve already been sued or have a warrant out for your arrest. Nice.

Now, the company’s being sued by people in three states who allege that their service isn’t what it claims to be. Specifically, the lawyer responsible says that all LifeLock actually does is charge you 10 dollars a month to set up fraud alerts related to their credit report, which people can do for free.

Very interesting stuff coming out of the McCain campaign today. I’m not really sure what it means.

First, John McCain’s top media adviser stepped down yesterday because he’s been saying for months and months that if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, he wouldn’t want to run against him. Now, surprisingly, he’s actually made good on his word, choosing to resign rather than trying to stop an Obama presidency. He said:

“I just don’t want to work against an Obama candidacy. [Having him as president] would send a great message to the country and the world.”

But that’s not all. A friend of McCain’s, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, had some choice words in response to McCain and Obama’s manufactured foreign policy arguments about Iran and Palestine. This, from CNN.com:

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel … said Tuesday he is “very upset” with some of the things the party’s presumptive presidential nominee has been saying as he campaigns for the White House.

“We know from past campaigns that presidential candidates will say many things,” Hagel reportedly said. “But once they have the responsibility to govern the country and lead the world, that difference between what they said and what responsibilities they have to fulfill are vastly different.”

Like I said, very strange.

Why is everyone treating Obama with kid gloves again? After months of hard-edged fighting with Hillary Clinton, we’re back to that point in time where people seem to think that attacking Obama will only hurt their public perception. And hey, maybe they’re right. But it almost makes me miss the days of Karl Rove.

Okay, maybe it doesn’t.

We’re almost to the point where we can stop suggesting that white people and women will refuse to vote for Barack Obama. A new Gallup Poll not only has Obama opening up a 16 point lead over Clinton nationally, but she no longer has a majority of support among women, whites who didn’t go to college, and Hispanics.

It looks as though the Democratic party is starting to come together behind their presumptive nominee. Now, we can start the general election proper, which should be more interesting than it otherwise would’ve been, since both Obama and McCain have a strong appeal to independents and party moderates.

And what about CNN.com? Have they toned down their anti-Obama bias? A little bit. But you tell me if you’ve ever seen them link directly to Essence Magazine, an African American culture mag, other than today, when they’re linking to a feature about what John McCain will do to help African Americans?

I’m not saying it’s wrong for this Essence article to exist, and I’m certainly not implying that John McCain won’t do anything for African Americans. All I’m saying is, CNN has never linked to Essence before.

I’ve noticed that CNN’s political coverage this year has been heavily, indefensibly, shamelessly biased toward Hillary Clinton. That’s to be expected — after all, two of her top political advisers, James Carville and Paul Begala, are former CNN employees, and continued their “political coverage” for the network even while they were Hillary employees, until the network got complaints and had to boot them.

But I’ve been keeping tabs on CNN more closely in the past two weeks, since Barack Obama has all but locked up his place as the Democratic nominee, even by Carville’s own admission. One would think that they’d probably give a little less publicity to Senator Clinton, since she’s nearly out of the presidential picture, right?

Wrong. Let’s look at a rundown of just the last forty “blogs” on their faux-news gossip column “The Political Ticker” — and I assure you that it has been no different for the past two weeks. Here’s a graph breaking them into how favorably they reflect on a candidate (some overlap):

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