Monica Crowley

Bellwether

Forget Bill Richardson. Forget Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry. Forget Bob Casey and Amy Klobuchar. Forget all of the Superdelegates lining up behind Barack Obama.

There's a more interesting symbol of what's happening among Democrats: 50 Cent.

Fiddy gave an interview recently in which he said he started out supporting Hillary and then switched to Obama after his speech about his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Now, however, Fiddy has drifted into the "Undecided" column.

Too bad he's not a Super. Hillary would be all over him like a cheap suit.

But while we roll our eyes at why anyone would care about what 50 Cent thinks, his indecision points to a bigger trend. There are still 257 Uncommitted Supers, and when one of them makes the big announcement about whom they are backing, it gets major media play. But most of them remain on the fence, Fiddy-like.

They are held suspended in mid-air. Of course they want to see whether there will be a clear winner after June 3. They can then offer their support to the victor without actually having to take a courageous stand. In the meantime, they are also trying to squeeze as much as they can from the two candidates. Horse-trading, bribery, whatever you want to call it, lives.

But there is also genuine Hamlet-like behavior happening. On the one hand, Obama leads in pledged delegates and popular vote. On the other, Hillary has won the big states. On the other, Obama has shown great reach, especially with young voters. On the other, Hillary might end up winning the popular vote. On the other...

Fiddy's indecision isn't as atypical as it first might seem. Remarkably, the Democrats have hip-hop as bellwether. As 50 Cent goes, so goes the Superdelegates.

An Inconvenient Savior

So far this week, there have been three major mentions of former Vice President Al Gore:

1.  In Time magazine, Joe Klein wrote that the Democrats should end their civil war between Hillary and Obama by bypassing both of them in favor of Gore.  With Gore at the top of the ticket, either Hillary or (more likely) Obama could take the Number Two job, and the party could recover enough for the general election.

2.  Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney floated this very idea.  It's one thing for a writer from Time to do it.  It's another thing entirely for a member of Congress to do it. 

3.  Gore himself is on this weekend's "60 Minutes," talking about his signature issue, global climate change.  He's trying to counter new scientific work that suggests global warming has either halted or the earth is in a cooling phase or that the warming itself is not man-made.  In other words, he's defending his life's work since the mid 1990s.  The point is he's on a major media platform this weekend, in order to remind people he's still alive.  And possibly a viable choice for president?  Last December as he picked up his Nobel Prize, Gore said, "I have no plans to run."  That doesn't mean he wouldn't run if they were somebody else's plans. 

Further, he said that if he were to re-enter the political process, "it would be as a candidate for president."

While Hillary and Obama slug it out, the most inconvenient truth for both of them may be a "Draft Gore" movement.  They would be gobsmacked.  And Gore just might get the biggest prize of all, after all.

The Lady Does Not Vanish

She will not be denied.

She soldiers on, through sinking poll numbers and superdelegates peeling away.

She holds her head high as she utters bald-faced lies and undeniable untruths.

She plows through speech after speech, interview after interview, wearing the same tight smile.

She tells Fox News that she's going to fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic Convention in August.

A top former aide tells CNN that the likelihood of her dropping out is about the same as "monkeys flying out of" his bottom.

Her opponent has just returned from a Caribbean vacation, with a Kennedy-esque glow of relaxation. And although she may have the pale pastiness that comes from spending the last week in dingy greenrooms in Pittsburgh, she stands ready.

Her gun turrets have turned. They are trained on the opponent. The emplacements are ready. She is General Sherman, advancing toward Fort Sumter. Slow and steady, as she goes. The surrender will never come from her. The surrender must come from the other side. It always has, and in her mind, it's inconceivable to think it would ever come from her.

Trouble in Paradise

One of their candidates told a whopper of a lie about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia in '96, which she tried to explain by saying she "misspoke" because of "sleep deprivation."

Their other candidate chills on the beach in the Virgin Islands, cell phone glued to his ear, trying to staunch the bleeding from an association with a radical pastor.

Candidate Number One jumped on the pastor controversy two weeks too late, saying yesterday, "He wouldn't have been my pastor." Take THAT, Candidate Number Two!

Candidate Number Two is trying desperately to hold on to his leading position by going on vacation.

Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 22% of Democrats think that Candidate Number One should get out of the race. Seems like Bad News for her. Until you see that the exact same percentage wants Candidate Number Two to drop out. Time for him to order up another pina colada.

The civil war within the Democratic party has produced another unintended consequence: Gallup polling also shows that the 22 percents who want the other Democrat to drop out would vote for John McCain if their candidate doesn't get the nomination. The cherry on top? McCain's favorability rating is 67%, the highest it's been in eight years.

I hope Candidate Number One is basking in the thrust and parry of the campaign trail, and Candidate Number Two is enjoying the warm Caribbean sunshine, because there's real trouble in their respective paradises---with miles to go before they sleep.

Paging Dr. Phil

Dr. Phil needs to do an intervention with every Democrat in America.

First, Hillary Clinton lies again. The only shocker this time is that she lied about something that could obviously be proved false. Last week, she spoke about a harrowing landing in war-torn Bosnia in 1996, when she said she had to duck "sniper fire," and that the situation was so dangerous that there was no "greeting ceremony" and that they had to "run to their cars."

CBS News, who accompanied her on that trip, produced footage that showed a quite lovely day, with the First Lady and daughter Chelsea arriving in relative peace and quiet, walking calmly to shake hands with the crowd, and being greeted by fresh-faced little girls carrying flowers. Hardly the combat zone she described.

Second, the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, was charged this week with perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct while in office. If convicted on all 12 counts, he could face 15 years in jail.

Third, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, having resigned in disgrace after admitting patronizing a prostitution ring, is now facing investigation as to whether he used state offices to smear his chief political rival, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.

Fourth, the current Governor of New York, David Paterson, has admitted to using state funds to pay for motels for HIS affairs and just blamed Spitzer for the illicit overnight stays, saying Spitzer demanded he attend early-morning meetings.

Fifth, Congressman Tim Mahoney of Florida just suggested that if the Democratic race drags on, neither Hillary nor Obama may be on the ticket. Gore '08!

And finally, Obama is chilling on the beaches of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands with his wife, Michelle. Photos show the two relaxing on chaise lounges. That image sure beats the one of Bill and Hillary dancing on a St. Thomas beach several years ago, "pretending" they didn't see the cameras as they put on a display of not-at-all-phony affection.

Self-destruction, lies, and masochism: the Democrats are grand, aren't they?

Very Steep Learning Curve

Well, it took 17 years, but many Democrats are finally getting what we on the right have been saying about the Clintons all along.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson put it most succinctly this weekend, when he described the Clintonian mob tactics as "gutter." He went on: "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

Breaking news. We've been telling the Dems this since 1991.

In private, top Democrats often express their deep disdain and contempt for the Clintons. They suggest that they never liked or respected them, but they backed them because they could win. Or more specifically, because BILL could win. They held Hillary in even lower regard than Bill. But the Dems sucked it up and made excuses for the Clintons' illegal and unethical and just plain disgusting behavior because they were winners, and because they fought for Democratic policies.

Now, however, with a real, palatable alternative to the corrupt Clampetts, top Democrats are blowing off the Clintons---and the retribution isn't pretty. When a sitting U.S. Senator recently called Hillary to tell her he was backing Barack Obama, she hung up on him. And that's the mildest of her reactions to the Democratic turncoats. No wonder Richardson "dreaded" making that phone call.

At long last, it's finally dawning on many Democrats that the Clintons are the most brutal, ruthless, selfish, narcissistic duo of political assassins in modern American history. Welcome to the truth, Dems! You're 17 years behind, but we're glad to finally have you with us in Reality.

The McLaughlin Group

Please join us this weekend for a special Easter edition of The McLaughlin Group. Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.mclaughlin.com for more information.

A Good Friday

Over the past week or so, we've had to hear that the Governor of New York had sex with hookers, the new Governor of New York may have used state money to pay for a hotel for HIS affairs, the former Governor of New Jersey had swinging threesomes with his wife and another man, some State Department dweebs breached security and peeked at Barack Obama's passport file, and not to be outdone in the "victimization" derby, Hillary Clinton now claims the same thing was done to her.

Today is supposed to be a quiet day for Christians to reflect. Let us all take a moment and pray for some national sanity too.

What would Jesus do? Probably ask for the following:

Can we---as a nation---please have one day without a major political sex scandal? Can we please have one day without somebody in a position of authority breaking the law? Can we just have 24 hours without one of the presidential candidates trying to remind us that the other one is black, while she also reminds us that she's a victim? Can we please have one day without the other Democratic presidential candidate throwing his selfless grandma to the lions to save his campaign? Can we please have a day without piling on the Republican candidate for a slip of the lip? Can we please have a day without the hate-filled ravings of a Chicago preacher or doctored photographs of the candidates or everybody shrieking that they've been done wrong?

If we could have that today---just for today---it would truly be a Good Friday.

The Devil You Know

Just when we thought the shark has swum away and it was safe to go back in the water, she's baaaaccckkk!

New national polls show Hillary Clinton now pulling ahead of Barack Obama among Democrats. She still trails him in pledged delegates and in the raw popular vote. But now she has something that he does not: a stability that comes with being a known quantity.

The Clintons are Baggage Central. Newly released White House records of her schedule as First Lady show she was in the White House on many days when Bill was getting it on with Lewinsky in the next room. They still will not release their tax returns, although they promise them "around" April 15. With the Clintons, there is always a new scandal right around the corner, but it will be a predictable scandal: sex, or influence peddling, or conflicts of interest, or financial shenanigans.

Most Americans have had enough of the Clintonian drama. But in light of the revelations about Barack Obama and his longstanding relationship to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the known Clinton baggage may be more acceptable than the yet-to-be-known Obama baggage.

Sex scandals, unfortunately, are par for the course. Radical black nationalism is something else entirely. New national polls show that 73 percent of voters---including 58 percent of black voters---thought Wright's statements were racially divisive. His Chicago church is called "Unity," which also happens to be Obama's main campaign theme. (No coincidence.) But this controversy has done more to divide and upset than any other thing in this campaign.

So Democrats are now faced with a tough choice: do they go with the sleazeballs they know? Or do they go with the vague, untested Hope Guy they thought they knew?

Four Speeches, Two Presidents

All three finalists for president---and the guy who is still president, thank you very much---spoke about Iraq this week.

President Bush gave a sober but optimistic speech about the importance of the mission---the absolute need for success and the devastating consequences of failure.

Barack Obama, distracted by having to give his own big speech on his radical pastor, said that Senator McCain could not argue last year that we couldn't withdraw from Iraq because the violence was up and now argue that we can't withdraw because the violence is down. Actually, that argument is not inconsistent. When the violence was up, we needed to stay and adjust tactics and strategy in order to get the violence down. Now that it is down, we need to stay to consolidate those gains and stabilize the country for the eventual full hand-off to the Iraqis.

Hillary Clinton, distracted by a superdelegate fight and the battle to get her swindled victories in Florida and Michigan counted, spoke about withdrawal from Iraq at a more accelerated pace than what President Bush is proposing. The problem for her (and Obama) is that they have said they would consult with the Joint Chiefs on their first day in office. The Joint Chiefs HAVE recently consulted with them---and warned them against any rapid and precipitous withdrawal. Whoops!

John McCain, distracted by nothing, spoke about Iraq---WHILE IN IRAQ. He spoke to U.S. military commanders on the ground and top Iraqi leaders. He moved among and with U.S. troops, talking to regular soldiers on their routine missions. He walked the streets of Iraq. He prodded the Iraqi government to pick up the pace on political reform. His very presence was reassuring to our troops, in whom he had supreme confidence when he backed the surge.

The Commander-in-Chief still steers the ship, but the words and actions of those who wish to succeed him are telling. Obama doesn't have any idea how the real world works; Clinton knows how it works just doesn't care if it doesn't fit her ambitions. McCain is the only one who knows, who cares beyond himself, and who is living it every single day.