The article also lays out nicely why Hillary Clinton’s “skills” and her campaign are so lacking. Despite her, her husband, and surrounding team having just about all the credentials and contacts anyone could dream of, they have almost succeeded in snatching defeat from a certain victory.

The Rolling Stone piece also mentions Barack Obama’s semi-autobiographical book, Dreams from My Father, which I just ordered from Amazon.com.

There are strong, and I believe valid, reasons why the U.S. should and should not have gone into Iraq, but frankly that doesn’t matter now – all that matters is what comes next. Whoever becomes the next President will have to deal with a struggling economy, a tense global situation, escalating arms and space races, out of control government spending, and much more. I think the U.S. will be served well by either John McCain or Barack Obama.

It was a great day for her, and with a very strong win in Ohio, it seems likely she will win the next big prize, Pennsylvania, especially since governor Rendell has endorsed here.

What does this mean? It means the race will likely go on all the way to the convention and the dismissed Florida and Michigan results coming back into play with legal fighting, major political spinning, constant poll watching, and dirty tricks.  Ah, the good old days of the Clintons.

Was I the only one who raised an eyebrow that Bill Clinton wasn’t on stage last night after Hillary gave her speech?  Chelsea was though.

What do you think?

Hillary Clinton (and Bill) are certainly not about to go down without a fight, but she’s looking increasingly like a flailing wrestler pinned to the floor. She’s being outspent, outperformed, and outclassed. You’ve got to hand it to Barack Obama and his team – they’ve done an amazing job. It’s not over yet, but if Hillary Clinton doesn’t win the Democrat nomination, I think it’s safe to say she blew it in many ways. Let’s go through some.

1. Massively overconfident. With a former President for a husband who had and has high approval ratings (despite scandals), with tons of money when they started, with huge leads in all polls, and with little apparent competition in sight, how could she lose?
2. Letting Bill Clinton play the attack dog. After her surprise loss in Iowa (of all places!), she ‘unleashed’ Bill. Problem is, when you unleash a pit bull it doesn’t always bite or fight in the way you expect. Well he went wild alright, and his angry comments, picking on audience people and the media, all made him look not only Presidential, but just a rank amateur. Maybe he’s just been out of the arena too long or maybe he didn’t have enough ‘handlers’, but I think he is a HUGE reason she may lose. I think voters began to think… oh yeah, that’s the other side of the Clintons.
3. Dirty tricks. First it was Barack’s use of drugs decades ago. Then it was (ugh) race (thanks Bill). Then it was some taudry barely reported scandal about Barack having gay sex in 1999. And now we get the picture of Barack in Kenyan garb put out by the Clinton attack team to make people think he’s Muslim and ’scary’ and not ‘one of us’. These are despicable and may have worked in the past, but many of the old operatives don’t get the fact that the internet, bloggers (hey yeah), youtube, and the massive interest by the public in this race have changed the game forever.
4. Mismanagement. They thought they could deliver a knock-out blow on Super Duper Tuesday (Feb 5) and spent like mad, but it didn’t work. This left Hillary in a world of hurt.
5. And finally, I lost most of my respect for her when she DIDN’T dump Bill after the Monica Lewinsky saga. She might have stuck around until he left office. Maybe even used him to became a Senator. But to STILL be with him? WHY? It can only be because she believed he was very useful in her quest for the White House Part II.

A little part of me feels bad for Hillary if she doesn’t get the nomination, because she’s dreamed and schemed of this, and has worked tirelessly for this. But the much bigger part of me is ready to sing “Ding Dong The Wicked Witch Is Dead!” Have you watched her early speeches? The definition of vacuous, pandering, and insulting. She believes she’s smarter than everyone else, including Bill. She walks around, head stuck up, in her bumble bee yellow and black outfits (hello advisors? WHAT are you thinking?) pontificating about how great it’s going to be.

If she loses, my faith in the American public will be re-enforced. She deserves to lose.