Open Season on Hillary

Ah -- a Hillary supporter taking a stand! "I've had it with media trying to kick Hillary Clinton out of this race," says Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine. "It is not over. And Barack Obama has not won, not by a long shot.

"Obama, just like Clinton, will depend on the super delegates to get the nomination. Obama, just like Clinton, stands virtually no chance of getting to the convention the winner from elected delegates."

Big Tent Democrat blames both sides for hurting the cause:

"Too many in the Obama campaign, Obama supporters and Obama supporting blogs believe that their demonization of Hillary Clinton has had no ill effects on Barack Obama's image among the half of the Democratic Party that supports Hillary Clinton. They are wrong. At this point, without the active and sincere support by Hillary Clinton of his potential presidential run against John McCain, Obama has no chance in November. And vice versa of course."

One poll has Obama up by 15 in North Carolina.

The Goreacle to the rescue? "I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I'm slouching toward, well, a theory: if this race continues to slide downhill, the answer to the Democratic Party's dilemma may turn out to be Al Gore," says Time's Joe Klein. He envisions a Gore-Obama ticket if Barack falters. I find it impossible to imagine that the party would flout the wishes of the millions who voted for both candidates.

More Bloomberg speculation? I thought we were done with that:

"It was only hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg finally made it clear that he was not running for president that his chief political guru, Kevin Sheekey, suggested that he would be the perfect running mate for Senator Barack Obama," says the New York Times.

"So Mr. Bloomberg's highly orchestrated introduction of Mr. Obama at a speech at the Cooper Union on Thursday quickly resuscitated speculation that the billionaire mayor might end up in the White House after all. But despite a few jokes and a stiff embrace, the men seemed nothing like two peas in the same political pod, destined to share a ticket."

Bloomberg says no one's going to ask him to be vice president. So we're back where we started: He says no and the press says yes.

Seems like McCain is a pretty well-known figure -- look at how many times he's been on "Meet the Press"! -- but still:

"John McCain became a public figure as a Vietnam prisoner of war. He has been in Congress for a quarter-century and ran a well-covered presidential race in 2000. He has co-authored five books," says USA Today.