Joining the Team

"You don't count the caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Maine, and Washington.

"In reality, Obama leads by over half a million votes, for whatever that's worth (not much). But don't worry, the Clinton argument is so asinine, it has gotten little traction among super delegates."

At Red State, Pejman Yousefzadeh sees a double standard in the coverage of Obama's recent losses:

"After John McCain clinched the Republican nomination, the press and Democrats tracked with glee primaries and caucuses where he beat Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul by a mere 50 points or so. Surely--the reasoning went--if John McCain, the Republican nominee was not collecting nearly all of the vote after having secured the nomination, then one could supposedly deduce that the Republican party was not united behind McCain and he will be doomed in the general election fight as a consequence.

"Assume that thinking is correct for a moment. What then does it say about the likely Democratic nominee that he is getting blown out at this late stage by 35 points in the late primaries?"

Speaking of McCain, who sought the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, how much longer can he stand by a pastor who, the Huffington Post reports, said Hitler was a "hunter" sent by God to have Jews reestablish the state of Israel? There's audio. Will the media give him the Jeremiah Wright treatment?

At Crooks and Liars, Steve Benen salutes Mark McKinnon--sort of--for quitting Team McCain:

"Now he's leaving the playing field to watch from the sidelines, because he just likes Obama that much. To get a sense of his perspective, consider that McKinnon told NPR last year, 'I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama. I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.'

"I guess McCain deciding to stay positive and not attack Obama wasn't an option.

"I have to say, this is just not normal. I can't think of a comparable example of a major candidate's key advisor stepping down because he or she liked the other party's candidate so much. I suppose this leads to two questions:

"1. Why would McCain hire a media advisor who was prepared to quit if Obama became the Democratic nominee?

"2. Why would McKinnon go to work for McCain if he were prepared to quit if Obama became the Democratic nominee?

"I suspect the answer to both is the same: they assumed Clinton would get the nod and this wouldn't be an issue.

"I guess kudos to McKinnon are in order."

We're all conditioned to believe that nobody in politics does anything for principle, ever.