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Bob Dole Blasts McClellan and His Book

Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole has sent a blistering e-mail to Scott McClellan attacking the former White House spokesman as a "miserable creature" who betrayed his former boss by writing a book.

In a message obtained and authenticated by Politico, Dole wrote on Thursday:

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues.

"No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

In his book "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan has written that President Bush misled the country about Iraq and called the White House atmosphere "insular, secretive and combative."

Recalling his years in the House and Senate representing Kansas, Dole wrote:

"In my nearly 36 years of public service I've known of a few like you. No doubt you will 'clean up' as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm…

“Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good setup for a second book deal in a few years."

Dole told McClellan that he won't read his book and added: “If all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high profile job.

"That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively. You’re a hot ticket now but don’t you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"

Texas High Court Says Sect Kids Should Go Back

SAN ANTONIO -- In a crushing blow to the state's massive seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents.

The high court affirmed a decision by an appellate court last week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.

"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.

The high court let stand the appellate court's order that Texas District Judge Barbara Walther return the children from foster care to their parents. It's not clear how soon that may happen, but the appellate court ordered her to do it within a reasonable time period.

The ruling shatters one of the largest child-custody cases in U.S. history. State officials said the removals were necessary to end a cycle of sexual abuse at the ranch in which teenage girls were forced to marry and have sex with older men, but parents denied any abuse and said they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

The case before the court technically only applies to 124 children of the 38 mothers who filed a complaint that prompted the ruling, but it significantly affects nearly all the children since they were removed under identical circumstances.

The ranch is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which teaches that polygamy brings glorification in heaven. It is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Texas officials claimed at one point that there were 31 teenage girls at the ranch who were pregnant or had been pregnant, but later conceded that about half of those mothers, if not more, were adults. One was 27.

Under Texas law, children can be taken from their parents if there's a danger to their physical safety, an urgent need for protection and if officials made a reasonable effort to keep the children in their homes. The high court agreed with the appellate court that the seizures fell short of that standard.

McClellan's Book Sour Grapes

In a shocking turnabout, the press secretary most known for defending President Bush on Iraq, Katrina and a host of other controversial issues produced a memoir damning of his old boss on nearly every level — from too much secrecy to a less-than-honest selling of the war to a lack of personal candor and an unwillingness to admit mistakes.

In the first major insider account of the Bush White House, one-time spokesman Scott McClellan calls the operation "insular, secretive and combative" and says it veered irretrievably off course as a result.

The White House responded angrily Wednesday to McClellan's confessional memoir, calling it self-serving sour grapes.

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," said current White House press secretary Dana Perino, a former deputy to McClellan. "We are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew."

McClellan was the White House press secretary from May 2003 to April 2006, the second of four so far in Bush's presidency.

He reveals that he was pushed to leave earlier than he had planned, and he displays some bitterness about that as well as about being sometimes kept out of the loop on key decision-making sessions.

He excludes himself from major involvement in some of what he calls the administration's biggest blunders, for instance the decision to go to war and the initial campaign to sell that decision to the American people. But he doesn't spare himself entirely, saying, "I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be.

He includes criticism for the reporters whose questions he fielded. The news media, he says, were "complicit enablers" for focusing more on "covering the march to war instead of the necessity of war."

And McClellan issues this disclaimer about Bush: "I do not believe he or his White House deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people."

But most everything else he writes comes awfully close to making just this assertion, all the more stunning coming from someone who had been one of the longest-serving of the band of loyalists to come to Washington with Bush from Texas.

The heart of the book concerns Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, a determination McClellan says the president had made by early 2002 — at least a full year before the invasion — if not even earlier.

"He signed off on a strategy for selling the war that was less than candid and honest," McClellan writes in "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

The book, which had been scheduled for release on Monday, was being sold by bookstores on Wednesday after the publisher moved up its release.

McClellan says Bush's main reason for war always was "an ambitious and idealistic post-9/11 vision of transforming the Middle East through the spread of freedom." But Bush and his advisers made "a marketing choice" to downplay this rationale in favor of one focused on increasingly trumped-up portrayals of the threat posed by the weapons of mass destruction.

During the "political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people," Bush and his team tried to make the "WMD threat and the Iraqi connection to terrorism appear just a little more certain, a little less questionable than they were." Something else was downplayed as well, McClellan says: any discussion of "the possible unpleasant consequences of war — casualties, economic effects, geopolitical risks, diplomatic repercussions."

In Bush's second term, as news from Iraq grew worse, McClellan says the president was "insulated from the reality of events on the ground and consequently began falling into the trap of believing his own spin."

All of this was a "serious strategic blunder" that sent Bush's presidency "terribly off course."

"The Iraq war was not necessary," McClellan concludes.

McClellan draws a portrait of Bush as possessing "personal charm, wit and enormous political skill." He says Bush's administration early on possessed "seeds of greatness."

But McClellan ticks off a long list of Bush's weaknesses: someone with a penchant for self-deception if it "suits his needs at the moment," "an instinctive leader more than an intellectual leader" who has a lack of interest in delving deeply into policy options, a man with a lack of self-confidence that makes him unable to acknowledge when he's been wrong.

McClellan also writes extensively about what he says is the Bush White House's excessive focus on "the permanent campaign."

"The Bush team imitated some of the worst qualities of the Clinton White House and even took them to new depths," he writes.

McClellan is most scathing on the topic of the administration's embrace of secrecy.

"The Bush administration lacked real accountability in large part because Bush himself did not embrace openness or government in the sunshine," he writes.

Three top Bush advisers come in for particularly harsh criticism.

McClellan calls Vice President Dick Cheney "the magic man" who "always seemed to get his way" and sometimes "simply could not contain his deep-seated certitude, even arrogance, to the detriment of the president."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser earlier in Bush's presidency, "was more interested in figuring out where the president stood and just carrying out his wishes while expending only cursory effort on helping him understand all the considerations and potential consequences" of war. Rice "was somehow able to keep her hands clean, even when the problems related to matters under her direct purview," McClellan says, but he predicts that "history will likely judge her harshly."

And former Bush political guru Karl Rove "always struck me as the kind of person who would be willing, in the heat of battle, to push the envelope to the limit of what is permissible ethically or legally."

The White House was severely damaged by blunders beyond the war, McClellan says.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, for instance, the administration went on autopilot "rather than seizing the initiative and getting in front of what was happening on the ground."

And Bush's drive to remake the Social Security program after his 2004 re-election failed in large part because the White House focused almost exclusively on "selling our sketchily designed plan" instead of doing behind-the-scenes work with lawmakers.

McClellan explains his dramatic shift from defender to critic as a difficult act of personal contrition, a way, to learn from his mistakes, be true to his Christian faith and become a better person. He says he started the book to explain his role in the CIA leak case, in which some of his own words turned out to be what he called "badly misguided," though sincere at the time.

McClellan says Bush loyalists will no doubt continue to think the administration's decisions have been correct and its unpopularity undeserved. "I've become genuinely convinced otherwise," he says.

Indeed, former Bush aides joined current White House aides in expressing disbelief and disappointment at McClellan's account.

"Not once did Scott approach me — privately or publicly — to discuss any misgivings he had about the war in Iraq or the manner in which the White House made the case for war," McClellan's predecessor as press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said.

Said Fran Townsend, former head of the White House-based counterterrorism office and now a CNN commentator: "This now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."

Perino described Bush as "surprised" by the book but said the president wouldn't have anything to say about it. "He has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers," she said.

Obama Mistaken on Name of Nazi Death Camp

The Barack Obama campaign said Tuesday the candidate mistakenly referred to the wrong Nazi death camp when relating the story of a great uncle who helped liberate the camps in World War II.

The Democratic presidential candidate said the story is accurate except that the camp was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz.

"Senator Obama's family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II _ especially the fact that his great uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically."

Aides said Tuesday that his grandmother's brother, Charlie Payne, helped liberate a Buchenwald sub-camp in April 1945 as part of the 89th Infantry Division.

In a meeting Monday with veterans, Obama discussed the importance of improving treatment for soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress. To illustrate his point, he talked about his own family.

"I had an uncle who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps. The story in our family was that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months," Obama said. "Now, obviously something had really affected him, but at that time there just weren't the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain."

Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet forces as they marched across Poland in January 1945. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says Americans liberated several death camps in Germany, including Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen.

"On April 4, 1945, the 89th overran Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Ohrdruf was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in Germany," according to the museum. "A week later, on April 12, Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley visited Ohrdruf to see, firsthand, evidence of Nazi atrocities against concentration camp prisoners."

Obama's mistaken mention of the camp on Monday quickly generated Internet chatter, ranging from puzzlement to outrage. The Republican Party demanded an explanation.

"It was Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz, so unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there's no way Obama's statement yesterday can be true," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Jimmy Carter Reveals Israel’s Nukes

In a move that a top Israeli called not “responsible,” former President Jimmy Carter said Israel has an arsenal of 150 nuclear weapons.

Israel has always refused to confirm or deny that it possesses nuclear weapons, and U.S. officials have generally avoided the issue, although most estimates have put the number of Israeli nukes at between 100 and 200.

During a appearance at a literary festival in Britain on Sunday, Carter discussed Iran and cited Israel’s nuclear weapons — and those of the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — in arguing that Iran would find it difficult to build, in secret, many weapons and the missiles to deliver them, the Times of London reported.

It was unclear whether Carter, in citing the Israeli arsenal, was drawing on U.S. intelligence he would have been able to access while in the White House.

Israel’s former military intelligence chief, retired Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, warned that Carter’s remarks could encourage Iran to accelerate its development of nuclear weapons, Fox News reported.

Carter “is not the first and he won’t be the last to talk about this,” Farkash said in an interview with Israel Radio.

“He saw fit to say things which I think weren’t that responsible.

“He was a president a long time ago, and these kinds of things could do damage, but on the other hand, it could enhance the deterrent.”

Carter was widely criticized for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria in April, and for laying a wreath of red roses at the grave of Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

Remembering the Dead

By: Phil Brennan

When I was a kid we called it Decoration Day, so named because it was the custom on May 30 to decorate the graves of Union Army soldiers. Some of those veterans were still alive in the 1930s and I can remember seeing these old men in their Grand Army of the Republic uniforms sitting in the back of open limousines duriing Decoration Day parades.

The Civil War had been over for 55 or 60 years, but the memory was still fresh in the minds of many. My maternal grandmother, for example, remembered sitting on the front porch when a neighbor boy ran across the lawn shouting the shocking news: "Lincoln’s been shot!"

Her father, Patrick Carlin, was so badly wounded at Bull Run that he never fully recovered from the saber wound in his shoulder. He spent his final years in the veterans hospital in Taugus, Maine, and died in 1875.

He was a home builder and had built one of the first houses on historic Brooklyn Heights, where George Washington had evacuated his defeated troops in the Revolutionary War, saving them to fight another eight years.

When the war started, he enlisted in what became the famous Irish Brigade. He had the material to build a house piled up in his back yard and fully expected to finish it as soon as he got back from what he thought would be a quick victory.

He told my great-grandmother when he left that he’d be back as soon as the army went down to Richmond and put an end to secession – a misjudgment shared by many of those who went off to a war they had no idea would last four terrible years and cost 600,000 lives – both Blue and Gray.

These were the men whose graves we decorated on May 30. Today we honor the memory of those Americans who fought and died in all our wars.

Many of the men who fought in that war had fathers and grandfathers who had served in the nation’s first great war – an eight-year-long conflict where raw, untrained, ill-equipped Colonial soldiers took on the mightiest army on the face of the earth, suffering defeat after defeat and enduring the most incredible hardships. They suffered for most of a decade and, to the astonishment of the world, emerged victorious.

Nowadays, these courageous men are scorned. Their commander, the Father of our Country, is derided as nothing but a slave owner and an aristocrat – one of those dead white Europeans who just happened to create a new nation, as Lincoln put it, "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," a nation unlike any other in the history of mankind. A nation whose people, the founders believed, were capable of self-government – a completely radical idea in the 18th century.

The debt we owe these men is beyond calculation. All that we have become since 1783 and all that we are today is due to their sacrifices and their faith that men deserved to be free and that that idea was worth dying for.

Four score years later, the nation tore itself apart in one of the most horrendous conflicts the world has ever seen, where brother fought brother in a bloody fratricidal war. We honor not only those who fell wearing blue, but also those who died wearing Confederate gray.

In the North, some towns lost an entire generation of young men, more than once in a single battle. It wasn’t all that long ago that names like Cold Harbor and the Wilderness made people’s blood run cold.

In 1918, Americans once again went off to war, this time in Europe. Few recall the horror of that conflict, forgetting that 136,516 Americans lost their lives during World War I, with another 4,452 missing in action.

Those of us who once wore Marine green recall with pride the men the Germans called Devil Dogs. We honor men like Gunnery Sgt. Dan Daley, who stood on a parapet above the trenches urging his Marines forward into a deadly no-man’s-land, shouting, "Cmon, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" – a cry that typified the attitude of America’s fighting men at their best.

In World War II, 405,399 Americans lost their lives and another 78,976 were missing in action. The storied courage of America’s fighting men shone forth at the Battle of the Bulge, where our soldiers were surrounded, short of equipment and arms, without winter clothing and shivering in subzero weather, yet refused to budge an inch against the best the German Wehrmacht could throw at them.

It was seen at Tarawa and Iwo Jima, where thousands of Marines died fighting to take ground inch by bloody inch. Among them was Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, who won the Medal of Honor for heroism on Guadalcanal for holding off hundreds of attacking Japanese with his machine gun, allowing his fellow outnumbered Marines to escape the onslaught.

On Feb. 19, 1945, after he volunteered to return to combat even though he was exempt from further front-line duty, he was killed by a Japanese artillery shell on Iwo Jima. Hours earlier, under heavy enemy fire, he had single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse, earning him a posthumous Navy Cross.

Many call the Korean War the forgotten war, but the men who served in that bitter conflict will never forget the horrors of the frozen retreat from the Changjin Reservoir, where 20,000 beleaguered troops of the First Marine and U.S. Army Seventh Infantry divisions fought their way south for 80 miles constantly under attack by Chinese forces in late 1950.

Far from allied lines, cut off from land supply and suffering terribly from bitter cold, these divisions constantly faced annihilation by overwhelmingly superior numbers of Chinese. By the time they reached the evacuation port of Hungnam, they had suffered over 5,000 combat casualties and many thousands more from frostbite and illness.

In the Vietnam War some 58,000 Americans died fighting a war they were not allowed to win. Year after year, American soldiers, sailors and Marines endured some of the worst fighting ever experienced by U.S. armed forces, often against an unseen but deadly enemy.

They never wavered, fought with great courage and endurance, and were rewarded for their bravery by being scorned and even spat upon when they came home. As Michael Reagan once wrote, the next time you see a Vietnam veteran, go up to him and say "Thank You."

Americans died in Panama, on Grenada, during the first Gulf War, in Afghanistan and, most recently, in Iraq. Even today, our men are being shot at and killed.

That’s what Memorial Day is all about, and we must never forget it. We owe all of those who have died wearing the uniforms of the armed forces of the United States a debt we can only begin to repay by honoring them today and every day.

That’s the least we can do.

Semper Fi.

Leaders Told Battle to Stem Global Warming Slowing

KOBE, Japan -- The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming, the U.N. climate chief warned on Saturday, urging environmental ministers from wealthy nations to revive the effort by setting clear targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

The ministers gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day meeting as evidence mounted that rising world temperatures have been taking a toll on the earth at a faster rate than previously forecast.

The officials from the Group of Eight countries, joined by representatives from other countries including China and other organizations, were to lay the foundations for the upcoming G8 summit in northern Japan in July.

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told the Associated Press on the sidelines that he was concerned about stalling momentum behind international talks to forge a global warming pact by December 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Its first phase ends in 2012.

"Much of the enthusiasm and ambition that we saw in Bali with the launch of negotiations doesn't seem to be present," he said, referring to a meeting on the Indonesian resort island in December, when some 190 countries decided on a timetable for talks on the new climate pact.

De Boer cited a recently announced U.S. climate plan that would allow an increase in emissions, Canada's indication that it will not meet its obligations under the Kyoto agreement, and European industry's skepticism about the EU goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

To rejuvenate the talks, G8 countries _ the United States, Japan, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada _ need to decide on midterm targets for reducing carbon emissions by 2020, make a clearer commitment to helping poorer nations deal with climate change, and form a dialogue with top developing countries such as China to run parallel with the U.N.-led talks, he said.

"Certainly my expectation is that ... the G8 leaders will now really take things to the next level, and I think need to take it to the next level, with December 2009 being just around the corner," de Boer said.

On Saturday the ministers heard from environmentalists and business leaders before moving behind closed doors.

Environmentalists urged quick action to stem the effects of the rise in world temperatures, which scientists say threaten to drive species to extinction, worsen floods and droughts, and thwart economic development.

The rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, increasing crop damage and other effects show the multiplying effects or higher temperatures, said Bill Hare, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Summer sea ice in the Arctic, for instance, shrank to a record low last year to nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000.

Hare warned that rising oil prices could speed that even further. Light, sweet crude for July delivery settled at $132.19 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The increase encourages the use of cheaper coal _ a much dirtier fuel.

"The recent developments in the energy sector, particularly high oil prices and coal intensive development ... are pointing toward the risk of higher emissions," Hare told the ministers.

The initial meetings on Saturday illustrated the continuing divisions among nations over how to attack climate change.

The U.N. process has moved slowly, with nations clashing over how ambitious the world should be in stemming the rising in world temperatures, how reduction targets should be set, and how much rapidly developing nations such as China should be called on to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases.

Hilary Benn, British environmental chief, argued that the world had no choice but to act against climate change now that scientists have shown that the earth can only absorb a limited amount of greenhouse gases before temperatures rise too high.

"The fundamental problem we have is a political one," he said. "How do we divide up between all the nations of the earth in a fair manner the ability to emit that limited quantity of emissions so that we avoid dangerous climate change?"

Hillary Taps Robert Kennedy Shooting as Reason for Ongoing Campaign

By: Kenneth Williams

Hillary Clinton made a disturbing comment to the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D. today by using the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy as an example of what can happen in any presidential campaign.

She said, regarding why she is ignoring calls for her to exit the Democratic nomination race: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

The Huffington Post reports further that Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, while introducing Mrs. Clinton at a campaign stop in Dover, N.H. in January, also mentioned a Kennedy assassination, saying, "Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who" passed civil rights legislation.

Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman said at the time: "We were not aware that this person was going to make those comments and disapprove of them completely. They were totally inappropriate."

Obama’s campaign responded this way to Senator Clinton's remark from today: "Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

The Politico points out that Obama "received Secret Service protection one year ago this month, the earliest ever in presidential history, after reports of threats."

The Clinton campaign is responding to the controversy by stating that Hillary was merely bringing up her husband and RFK as historical references, trying to show that nomination contests have gone this late into the year before. The campaign claims she was not speaking of Kennedy's death per se, but merely mentioning that RFK was still fighting for the Democratic nomination in June, as she is. "Any reading into it beyond that is inaccurate," the campaign said.

Hillary herself went on camera later and apologized if her reference to "that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever."

"I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York, and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family," she said.

Progress in Iraq Means Probable Troop Reductions

WASHINGTON -- Gen. David Petraeus said that by September he could recommend further troop reductions in Iraq if security continues to improve.

The fall assessment of the politically unpopular war would put the Iraq debate front-and-center in this year's presidential elections, and possibly influence Iraqi provincial elections expected this November.

Petraeus has previously been reluctant to say when his next assessment of troop levels would be. In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, the four-star Army general said conditions on the ground will still determine whether more troops can come home.

But, he noted, ''My sense is that I will be able to make a recommendation at that time for some further reductions.

''I don't want to imply that that means'' a particular brigade or major combat formation, he added. ''But I do believe there will be certain assets that, as we are already looking at the picture right now, we'll be able to recommend can be either redeployed or not deployed to the theater in the fall,'' he said.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, responded: ''That's good news to most of us.''

On a less-optimistic note, Petraeus said it is unlikely that Iraqi security forces will take the lead in all provinces this year, as was recently predicted by the Defense Department. Petraeus said events in the past month and a half _ alluding to a spike in violence in Basra _ have pushed that goal to 2009.

Petraeus also said that provincial elections are likely to be delayed by one month this fall, taking place in November instead of October.

Petraeus has spent nearly four years in Iraq, most recently as commander of U.S. troops there. He would replace Navy Adm. William Fallon as the senior commander of troops in the Middle East, which includes Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who served as Petraeus' deputy for 15 months, is slated to replace Petraeus as the senior military officer in Iraq.

If confirmed, Petraeus said one of his first trips would be to Pakistan, where terrorists are operating along the Afghan border.

''I think that the key need is to asses whether the overall concept that is guiding (operations) on the Pakistani side in particular, or course, is adequate or not,'' he said.

Levin, D-Mich., a staunch war opponent, indicated he supports the promotion of the two generals. Their confirmation would enable unprecedented continuity of leadership in Iraq by officers whose knowledge of the war effort is unparalleled, he said.

''Regardless of one's view of the wisdom of the policy that took us to Iraq in the first place and has kept us there over five years, we owe Gen. Petraeus and Gen. Odierno a debt of gratitude for the commitment, determination and strength that they brought to their areas of responsibility,'' Levin said.

''And regardless how long the administration may choose to remain engaged in the strife in that country, our troops are better off with the leadership these two distinguished soldiers provide,'' he added.

President Bush made a pitch for Petraeus' confirmation from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he was speaking to 17,000 paratroopers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. He said Petraeus has done ''a brilliant job'' in Iraq and was ''my first and only choice'' to lead Central Command.

''The United States Senate must give him a fair hearing and they must confirm him as quickly as possible,'' Bush said.

The president said he looked forward to hearing what his generals recommend about troop levels later this year, and didn't tip his hand as to what he prefers to hear. ''My message to our commanders is you will have all the troops, you will have all the resources you need to win in Iraq,'' Bush said.

Petraeus also said in his testimony on Thursday that the existence of secret nuclear facilities in Syria is troubling.

The U.S. must convince Syria that sparking a nuclear arms race in the region, harboring terrorists and trying to undermine stability in Lebanon are not in its own interest, he said. He added that he hopes the peace talks between Syria and Israel mark a positive step.

Syria denies it has the suspected nuclear facilities.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Congratulations to David Cook from “American Idol.” He got aan amazing 50 million votes. He got so many votes, Hillary offered him the VP spot.

You know the difference between “American Idol” and the Democratic primary? They count the votes from Florida and Michigan.

Oil company executives met with Congress yesterday. Oil executives talking to politicians. I believe they set a record for the most number of lies ever told in one room.

American Airlines is charging a $15 fee for checking your first bag. They’re calling it a service fee. Yeah — I believe the service is called extortion.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Things Overheard in Line to See the New Indiana Jones Movie

10. "Indy's so old in this one, his whip needs Cialis"

9. "185 million dollar budget — there better be some damn monkeys"

8. "Dude, why the hell are you dressed as Spock?"

7. "I can't wait for the next one in 2027"

6. "Is this the movie about those four women who go slutting around New York City?"

5. "If Indiana Jones wants to defeat evil, he should go after the oil companies — zing!"

4. "Yes, Harrison, you're eligible for the senior citizen discount"

3. No number 3 — writer waiting in line to see new Indiana Jones movie

2. "If I want to see an old guy running around, I'll go to a McCain rally"

1. "Shouldn't you be at the White House, Mr. President?"

David Letterman

Big holiday weekend coming up. Here in New York City on Memorial Day weekend, everybody leaves the city. It’s the one time the city is great, and there’s nobody here to enjoy it.

In fact, Gen. Grant headed for his tomb in the Hamptons.

American Airlines is now charging $15 for each first checked bag. And I said, “Hey — anything to slow down that ticket line is OK by me.”

Fifteen dollars for each checked bag. And I’m guessing we get to charge them for each canceled flight?

Conan O'Brien

This week, Barack Obama was endorsed by 90-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd. Byrd said, “Obama will make a great president, and if he doesn’t, I won’t be around anyway.”

The city of Canton, Ohio wants to impose jail sentences on homeowners who don’t mow their lawns. Residents say this is unfair because watching grass grow is the most exciting thing to do in Canton, Ohio.

It’s been revealed that Charlie Sheen pays his ex-wife Denise Richards $52,000 a month in child support. Sheen says, “I've never paid that much money to a woman who didn't have a pimp."

Craig Ferguson

I got a hair cut today. A little snow on the roof now . . .

“American Idol” last night . . . I never miss it. It’s nice to see a contest that actually has a winner — I’m talking to you, Democrats.

Happy birthday to unstable supermodel Naomi Campbell. If you want to buy her a gift, don’t buy her anything that’s going to hurt if she throws it at you.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

David Cook won "American Idol" last night. It was a very tough night for 12-year-old David Archeleta.

Now that celebrity dancing and karaoke singing are over, it’s time to catch up on other news. Did you know there’s a black guy and a lady running for president?

Jessica Alba surprised everyone and married her longtime boyfriend this week. He did a funny thing — instead of saying, “I do,” he said, “Duhhh.”

Obama's Outreach to U.S. Foes Is Questionable

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's willingness to meet Iranian, Cuban and other hostile leaders who would not get face time from John McCain stands as a distinctive element of his foreign policy.

Distinctive, yes, but clearly defined? Not quite.

Obama gets cheers at his rallies when he declares there is nothing to fear, and potentially much to gain, from talking to enemies as well as friends.

But U.S. diplomacy is not that simple and neither is his position.

This week, Obama qualified his past statements that he would meet the Iranian leadership directly and without precondition by saying he did not necessarily mean Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hardline, anti-American president.

Nor is it certain lately at what point he, as president, would speak personally with some of the dictators he says should be engaged.

This, despite months of assertions that his willingness to sit down with foes sets him apart from Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and now McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, who challenges Obama on that point.

THE OLD SPIN:

In a Democratic presidential debate last summer, Obama was asked if he'd meet the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea without precondition and during his first year in office.

"I would," Obama said.

Since then he has frequently reiterated his belief that no preconditions should be set.

"When you say preconditions, what you're really saying is, 'I'm not going to talk to you until you agree to do exactly what I want you to do,'" Obama said. "Well, that's not how negotiations take place."

Challenged by Clinton in multiple debates, Obama allowed that while he would not set preconditions, he would have "preparations" and would not rush to see certain leaders right away.

The precise difference between preconditions and preparations has not been spelled out. What's clear is that low-level talks would precede any summit, as happens now.

Clinton called him naive. She said she would not risk the prestige of the presidency by negotiating directly with countries such as Iran until they had agreed to change their ways.

Obama called that a case of old Washington thinking.

The new thinking, however, appears not to have been thought all the way through.

THE NEW SPIN:

Obama objected on CNN this week to "this obsession with Ahmadinejad" and explained guardedly: "I would be willing to meet with Iranian leaders if we had done sufficient preparations for that meeting.

"Whether Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now, we don't even know how much power he is going to have a year from now," Obama added. "He is not the most powerful person in Iran."

He said he would expect "to meet with those people who can actually make decisions" in Iran on its nuclear program, its aid to terrorists and destabilization in Iraq.

He did not explain how he would get around Iran's president to other people of influence.

Similarly, prominent Obama supporters have jumped into the debate to say he has believed all along that one does not go blindly into negotiations with dictators.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, for one, is drawing distinctions between Iran and Cuba.

A veteran of semiofficial negotiations with dictators, he said Obama should be open to meeting Cuban President Raul Castro, but "I think you don't talk to Ahmadinejad. You talk to some of the moderate clerics."

Obama's campaign is carefully picking its words on Cuba as the Illinois senator campaigns in Florida this week, mindful of the opposition by many exiles to too much liberalization of U.S. policy.

The matter of what constitutes a precondition for negotiations with Castro is one sticky point.

Susan Rice, Obama's foreign policy adviser, outlined what resembled preconditions Wednesday when she talked on MSNBC about what Cuba must do for an Obama administration to deal fully with that state.

Obama favors relaxing restrictions on family travel and remittances between the island and the U.S.

But Rice identified "concrete progress" toward true elections, the freeing of political prisoners and a free press as a requirement to "initiate a process through engagement."

That did not sound like an invitation to sit down and talk any time soon.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Democrats had their primaries in Oregon and Kentucky. You know what that means? Nothing. When’s it going to be over? It’s like a bad NBC show that’s still on the air.

Actually it’s a big victory for Hillary. She won big in Kentucky. Of course, now she can move on to the Belmont Stakes.

While she was in Louisville, they showed her on the news in the mall trying on different pairs of reading glasses. Apparently she can’t read the writing on the wall.

Starbucks announced they’re going to do away with their topless mermaid logo. For what they charge for a cup of coffee, it should be served by a topless mermaid.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Excuses of the Naked Pilot

10. “I was just helping her with her bags.”

9. “You don’t say no to Barbara Walters.”

8. “Well Harrisburg is the City of Love.”

7. “Come on — Amtrak engineers run round naked in the woods all the time.”

6. “Uh . . . a bear stole my pants?”

5. “I always get aroused after browsing through the Skymall catalog.”

4. “So we can’t fly drunk or have sex — what is this, Russia?”

3. “No number 3 — writer still playing 'Grand Theft Auto 4' on XBox — will try very hard to have jokes tomorrow.”

2. “Airline lost my clothes.”

1. “I thought it was a layover.”

David Letterman

How about that presidential campaign? Hillary Clinton still in the race, winning delegates, though she has no chance of winning. That’s like the losing team in the World Series, continuing to show up at the stadium.

She’s in debt; her campaign is $21 million in debt. Now, when she gets that 3 a.m. phone call? It’s from a loan shark.

She just keeps showing up. She won in Kentucky, nowit’s off to Puerto Rico, then Cuba, the Falkland Islands . . .

She’s ready for her next primary in Puerto Rico. She plans on campaigning in a skimpy two-piece pantsuit.

Conan O'Brien

Tonight was the season finale of “American Idol,” and for the first time in years, America had to choose between two men. When asked about it, Ryan Seacrest said, “That’s nothing; I have to choose between two men every night.”

Yesterday while campaigning in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton stopped at a drugstore and bought a pair of reading glasses. Then she picked up a newspaper and said, “Holy crap — I gotta drop out of this thing!”

This week, Barack Obama campaigned on an Indian reservation, and the tribal chief adopted him. The Indians prefer Obama to John McCain because they still remember when McCain took their land.

Next month, one of the last Democratic primaries will be held in the state of Montana. Barack Obama was expected to win the support of Montana’s black voters, but they both moved to Idaho.

Craig Ferguson

“Dancing With the Stars” was incredible last night . . . the leg splits, the jazz hands, the cheering, the uncontrollable crying . . . and that was just me watching it.

A court today ruled that American money discriminates against blind people because they can’t tell the bills apart. I don’t think that’s true, because the one-dollar bills always smell like strippers.

The music producer Lou Perlman was sentenced today to 25 years in prison. That’s outrageous! He’s the guy who created In Sync and the Backstreet Boys. I would have given him the electric chair.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

America has a new American Idol. Hillary Clinton called the loser, David Archuleta, and told him not to give up.

Lots of people have gone on to have huge careers even though they did not win: Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Sting . . .

Bruce Springsteen didn’t win “American Idol” either.

NBC 'Deceitful' in Bush Edits

To set the record straight, the White House on Monday sent a scornful letter to NBC News President Steve Capus, accusing the network of “deceptive” editing of President Bush’s interview with correspondent Richard Engel on the issue of appeasement and Iran.

At issue were remarks Bush made in a speech he delivered to members of Israel's parliament last week.

In the interview conducted on Sunday, Engel asked the president if his comments on negotiating with terrorists were directed at Barack Obama, whose camp considered the statement an attack on him.

In the speech, Bush said, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

When asked by Engel if Bush was referring to Obama, Bush's response was: "You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has. And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously."

The White House said NBC edited out these words that Bush said between those two sentences: "People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was that we need to take the words of people seriously."

Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, said the editing of those words “is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that [Bush] agreed with [Engel's] characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it.”

In the harsh letter sent to the network, and to all members of the media that receive White House press releases, Gillespie wrote: “This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible, and I hereby request, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, that the network air the president’s responses to both initial questions in full on the two programs [‘NBC Nightly News’ and ‘Today’] that used the excerpts.”

On Monday’s “NBC Nightly News,” anchor Brian Williams mentioned the “strongly worded letter” from the White House and noted that viewers could watch the unedited interview in its entirety on MSNBC.com, and post comments to its blog.

In a statement, Capus responded by saying the reporting accurately reflects the interview.

“Editing is a part of journalism,” the statement said. “We take the collective body of information surrounding a story, distill it, and produce a report. We strive in all cases to be fair and accurate. In some instances, where appropriate, we offer interviews in their entirety — in live broadcasts, or posted on our Web site."

Gillespie wrote, "Just as the White House does not participate in the editorial process at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, or USA Today, NBC News, as part of a free press in a free society, makes its own editorial decisions."

Gillespie also used the opportunity in the letter to inquire whether NBC News still labels the infighting in the country as a “civil war,” which it began doing back in November of 2006.

“I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a civil war,” he wrote. “Is it still NBC News’ carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?”

Though letters to networks issued from White House press officials are rare, they do often address unfair or inaccurate media coverage during daily press briefings, and then distribute statements to ensure widespread coverage of their complaints.

Some critics have cited MSNBC and other media outlets for what they say is left-leaning, partisan political coverage and commentary.

“I’m sure you don’t want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the ‘news’ as reported on NBC and the ‘opinion’ as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines,” Gillespie wrote.

“I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network’s viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don’t hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.”

Labels: B

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Barack Obama spoke before 75,000 people at a rally in Oregon. That’s the equivalent of 75,000 Ralph Nader rallies.

I mentioned this yesterday. On Sunday, Hillary Clinton attended church services at a church in Bowling Green. It just so happened that the minister gave a 60 minute sermon on adultery. Here is the really embarrassing part: Right after the minister finished, Bill stood up and gave a 20 minute rebuttal.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs You're Not Going To Win

10. Judges harshly critique your performance before you sing

9. Most of the votes you received? Wrong numbers

8. When you sing, that thing on Amy Winehouse's head starts yelping

7. Producers refuse to tell you where the finale is being held

6. Even Dick Cheney thinks what you do is cruel and inhumane

5. While talking to Ryan Seacrest, you nervously yell, "No deal, Howie!"

4. Every time you hit a high note, your pants fall down

3. No number 3 -- writer playing Grand Theft Auto 4 on XBox -- promises jokes tomorrow

2. Even Hillary admits you have no chance

1. You're so desperate, you skipped Paula and slept with Randy

David Letterman

How about this spring weather in New York City? It was 58 and a chance of a shower. Just like my cabbie.

How about the campaign? Hillary is an optimist. She’s the kind of person who sees the pantsuit as half full.

Don’t discount Hillary. She has a backup plan: She’s going to marry John McCain.

Happy birthday today to Cher. If you want to get her a lovely gift, you can’t go wrong with something from Bed Bath & Botox.

Conan O'Brien

Tonight is a big night for the candidates. Hillary Clinton is expected to win in Kentucky; Barack Obama is expected to win in Oregon; and John McCain is expected to win at bingo.

Yesterday Barack Obama visited an Indian reservation and the chief adopted him and gave him the name Black Eagle. The chief also gave Hillary Clinton the name Runs Even After Losing.

The White House has announced that next month, President Bush will be making a trip through Europe. President Bush says he’s really excited to go to Europe because he’s never seen a kangaroo.

Tomorrow night, “American Idol” will announce this season’s winner. The winner gets a recording contract and the loser has to give Paula Abdul a ride home.

Craig Ferguson

It’s a big night: the Democratic primaries and “American Idol.” On the one hand, a juvenile popularity contest that nobody cares about and on the other hand “American Idol.”

Happy birthday to Cher. She turns 62 today. Her breasts of course, are only 23.

Scarlett Johansson has an album out. She has a really sexy album cover. It’s called “Fabio After Dark.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Barack Obama got the endorsement of Sen. Robert Byrd, who believe it or not, is a former Exalted Cyclops of the KKK. Not a great sign for Hillary Clinton when even former Klan members are supporting Obama.

Don’t be surprised if tomorrow he endorses Clinton . . . or Walter Mondale.

Obama is expected to clinch the majority of the delegates, but there are delegates, superdelegates, pledged delegates, Lemon-Pledge delegates . . .

And of course, the farmer and the delegates. Without those you don’t get into the White House.

Obama to Reach Delegate Milestone Tuesday

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama will reach a significant milestone Tuesday as he marches toward the Democratic nomination for president _ a majority of the pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses.

Obama will still be short of the overall number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, unless he were to suddenly receive an avalanche of endorsements from the party and elected officials known as superdelegates. But the Illinois senator's campaign is touting the delegate milestone as a big step in defeating his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"A clear majority of elected delegates will send an unmistakable message _ the people have spoken, and they are ready for change," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in a memo to supporters Monday.

"As we near victory in one contest, the next challenge is already heating up," Plouffe wrote. "President Bush and Senator McCain have begun coordinating their attacks on Barack Obama in an effort to extend their failed policies for a third term."

Obama has led in pledged delegates since he won the first caucuses in Iowa on Jan. 3. The two candidates stayed close through Super Tuesday, when Democrats voted in 22 states and American Samoa. Obama won 13 more delegates than Clinton that day _ out of nearly 1,700 at stake.

Obama built an imposing lead the following two weeks, winning 11 straight contests in states such as Louisiana, Maryland, Washington and Virginia. He led by 161 pledged delegates on Feb. 19, after victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii. The lead has been relatively unchanged ever since as the candidates spent the past three months trading victories.

Obama goes into Tuesday's contests with 1,610.5 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. He needs 17 more to reach a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates available. Clinton has 1,443.5 pledged delegates, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press.

Clinton's campaign downplayed the significance of the milestone, accusing Obama of declaring victory without reaching the required number of overall delegates.

"Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted. Declaring 'mission accomplished' does not make it so," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, said in a memo to supporters.

"While Senator Obama inaccurately declares himself the nominee, Senator Clinton will continue to work hard, campaigning for every vote in the upcoming states and making the case that she will be the best nominee to take on John McCain and be our next president," Wolfson wrote.

Obama has a total of 1,912 delegates overall, including endorsements from superdelegates. Clinton has 1,721, according to the latest AP count.

Obama is a little more than 100 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. He cannot make up that ground in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries because of the proportional way in which Democrats award delegates. The two states have a total of 103 delegates at stake Tuesday.

But winning a majority of pledged delegates could help his case with undecided superdelegates, who are free to support whomever they choose at the party's national convention in August. Obama argues that superdelegates should support the candidate who wins the most delegates in the primaries and caucuses. Otherwise, he says, they would be overturning the will of the voters.

Clinton argues that superdelegates should exercise independent judgment.

Her campaign is also trying to change the math by getting the delegates seated from the Michigan and Florida primaries. Clinton won both primaries, but the states had been stripped of their delegates for violating party rules by holding their primaries before Feb. 5.

The Democratic National Committee's rules panel is scheduled to address the issue May 31. If any of the delegates are reinstated, it would increase the number needed to clinch the nomination.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Scorcher today. It was so hot, Hillary Clinton became delusional and began claiming she can win the White House . . . no, sorry, that was the regular Hillary. It had nothing to do with the heat.

Yesterday, an estimated 75,000 people attended a Barack Obama rally on the banks of the river . . . . after the rally, Barack feed them all with just five loaves of bread and two fishes.

The oldest serving member of Congress, former Klan member Sen. Robert Byrd, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. That’s got to make Hillary feel good . . . Even the Klan guys are going, “I’m going with the black guy.”

The New York Daily News says that Barack Obama’s biggest problem now is how to get rid of Hillary Clinton “gently.” To which Bill Clinton said, “Good luck with that. Let me know how that’s going.”

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Surprises in the New Osama bin Laden Audio Tape

10. The tape begins with, "Jihad, Jihad, 1, 2, 3 . . . Jihad, Jihad, 1, 2, 3 . . ."

9. Kept promoting weekly iTunes terror podcasts

8. Went nuts on caller who said Joe Girardi's doing a good job

7. He's a little pitchy, dawg

6. It's just an infomercial for his new "Lean, Mean Goat Grillin' Machine"

5. Complains "Grey's Anatomy" has totally "jumped the shark"

4. He's interrupted three times by the blind sheik yelling, "Baba Booey!"

3. Background noise suggests he's clearly at a bowling alley

2. Announced his engagement to Star Jones

1. Even he can't believe Bush hasn't caught him

David Letterman

Gas prices . . . just crazy. Here’s what I’m doing: I’m just buying it by the glass.

Oil is $125 a barrel. But if you return the barrel . . . you get a $2 deposit back.

President Bush is back from his trip from the Mideast, and he did accomplish one thing — he found the crystal skull.

In the new bin laden tape — this is shocking — he admits he had an affair with Barbara Walters.

Conan O'Brien

In a speech this past weekend, Hillary Clinton said John McCain couldn’t be more out of touch. Then she said, “If you’ll excuse me, I’m about to win the Democratic nomination.”

Barack Obama also going after John McCain. Obama accused McCain of trying to bankrupt Social Security. Not by voting against it, but by collecting it for 80 years.

Microsoft in the news. Microsoft is aggressively trying to stop Yahoo! from striking a deal with Google. Experts are calling this the nerdiest fight since “Stargate” went up against “Battlestar Gallactica.”

Craig Ferguson

Today is officially the first day gay couples can apply for marriage licenses. Call me George Clooney.

Gay marriage is secretly a right-wing conspiracy to stop gay sex, that’s what I think.

A truck overturned in L.A. and spilled 14 tons of Oreo cookies. Authorities say it won’t be cleaned up until well after midnight . . . that’s when Kirstie Alley’s plane gets in.

McCain Makes Age Jokes

WASHINGTON -- John McCain is 71 years old, and his age has provided late-night comics with some easy punch lines. On "Saturday Night Live," he joined in.

"I ask you, what should we be looking for in our next president?" McCain said. "Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old."

The certain Republican presidential nominee appeared in a phony campaign ad in which he promised to put an end to runaway government spending, claiming he had never sought money for his home state, Arizona.

"Controlling government spending isn't just about Republicans or Democrats," he said. "It's about being able to look your children in the eye. Or in my case, my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren, the youngest of whom are nearing retirement."

"I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and, most importantly, the oldness necessary," McCain said. "The oldness it takes to protect America, to honor her, love her and tell her about what cute things the cat did."

Later, during the program's "Weekend Update" segment, McCain urged Democrats not to rush to choose between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

When McCain hosted "SNL" in 2002, he performed a medley of Barbra Streisand songs. In an interview earlier Saturday, Glamour magazine asked if he would be singing again.

"I think once is enough," McCain responded.

Clinton's Female Fans Wonder What If -- and When

NEW YORK -- Philipina Heintzman, 81, drove 80 miles across the South Dakota prairie to experience history in the making: a woman running for president, something she never dreamed as a child that she would live to see.

That event, a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally in Bath on Thursday, also marked history unraveling.

As Clinton's prospects sink in the Democratic race, Heintzman and many women like her are feeling the poignant letdown of seeing the first woman with a strong chance at the presidency fall short.

"It would hurt my feelings a lot because I think she should be No. 1, she should be president," Heintzman said of Clinton's likely loss to Barack Obama. "Give a woman a chance to do something good."

From young feminist activists to the grandmothers who embrace Clinton along the rope line at her campaign events, many women who voted in large numbers for the former first lady during the primaries have begun mourning the turn of events. They know their dream of electing a female president this year probably will not come to pass _ and wonder when it ever will.

"For us, getting a woman elected is major," said Laurine Glynn, 72, of New York City. "We've waited, fought a lot for this. I do worry that my generation won't see a female president."

"Women are feeling a lot of sadness, disappointment and some anger as they look back at what happened in this race," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

And at least part of that anger, Walsh says, is directed at the sexism that some feel seriously harmed the former first lady's candidacy _ from T-shirts bearing photos of Clinton and Obama with the slogan "Bros Before Hos" to Hillary Clinton nutcrackers sold in airports.

Women _ especially older white women _ have been at the center of Clinton's electoral base. During the primaries, she bested Obama among women overall 52-45 percent. Among women over 65, Clinton won by 61 percent to Obama's 34 percent.

Obama advisers note that he defeated Clinton among women in at least 12 states during the primary contest, in part because of overwhelming support for his candidacy among black women. Obama would be the first black president.

And among women under 30, Obama beat Clinton overall by a margin of 56-43 percent _ suggesting that they were more inspired by Obama's message of hope and political change than they were by the prospect of electing one of their own.

Paula Horwitz, 84, of Pittsburgh, said some younger women "just don't understand. They'll elect a man, and the men will keep on telling the women what to do." Horwitz displayed a Clinton sign in her front yard for the Pennsylvania primary won by the New York senator.

The generational rift became even more apparent last week, when NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy organization dominated by white female activists, endorsed Obama over Clinton _ producing an outcry among many in the women's movement who felt the group had betrayed one of its own.

Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL who supports Obama, said Clinton didn't stand for the new direction that voters _ including many women _ now crave.

"Hillary Clinton represents the status quo at best, and keeps us rooted in a place we need to move from," Michelman said. "I've watched younger women come into their adult lives from a different set of experiences, and Hillary Clinton was not the president to make the transition to the newly inspired movement that we need."

For many women, Clinton's likely fate has also brought nagging questions for the future: Has the former first lady blazed a path, making it easier for the next wave of female candidates? Or has she merely shown how difficult it will be? And who might succeed her?

"What Hillary has done _ win, lose or draw _ has permanently changed the picture," says Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, which trains women to run for office. "Next time, we're not going to have to prove that the public will vote for a woman. We won't have to prove competency. She has succeeded at that level."

Wilson pointed to several women with promising political futures who could one day seek the White House: Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas and Janet Napolitano of Arizona; Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; and Republicans like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business executive Carly Fiorina. However, none has the name recognition, fundraising network or political connections Clinton was able to draw upon from the early days of her run.

Clinton's pioneering candidacy also won't necessarily mean the next female contender is going to have an easier time of it, warns Walsh.

"It will still be rough for women to come after her," she says. "They'll have to walk that balance of being strong and tough, compassionate and soft. When you're tough, you're called shrill, and the B-word. When you mist over, they say you're weeping."

To feminist writer Linda Hirshman, Clinton's likely defeat signals a harsh reality that future female candidates will need to consider.

"It shows how fragile the loyalty and commitment of women to a female candidate is. That's a pretty scary thing," says Hirshman. "She can count on the female electorate to divide badly and not be reliable."

For their part, Obama advisers said they believe that most of Clinton's female supporters will come their way eventually and won't throw their backing to Republican John McCain. The New York senator has already pledged to work actively on behalf of the Democratic nominee.

Many Clinton supporters hold out hope that Obama might consider choosing Clinton as his running mate. And since she is still relatively young at 60, some can envision another presidential bid.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is supporting Obama, said his campaign was well aware of the disappointment Clinton's female supporters are likely to feel if she loses the race.

"I think the most important thing is that we stay focused on being incredibly respectful and admiring of who Hillary Clinton is as a person and what she represents as a leader," McCaskill said. "She's run a very strong race and deserves the passionate support she's received. I think the respect in the Obama campaign is genuine _ we don't have any problem understanding why millions support Hillary Clinton."

Florida, Michigan Cannot Save Clinton

WASHINGTON -- Sorry, Sen. Clinton. Michigan and Florida can't save your campaign.

Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries.

And even if they were, Hillary Rodham Clinton still couldn't catch up with Barack Obama's growing lead in delegates.

The Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, a 30-member panel charged with interpreting and enforcing party rules, is scheduled to meet May 31 to consider how to handle Michigan and Florida's 366 delegates.

Last year, the panel imposed the harshest punishment it could render against the two states after they scheduled primaries in January, even though they were instructed not to vote until Feb. 5 or later. Michigan and Florida lost all their delegates to the national convention, and all the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the two states, stripping them of all the influence they were trying to build by voting early.

But now there is agreement on all sides that at least some of the delegates should be restored in a gesture of party unity and respect to voters in two general election battlegrounds.

Clinton has been arguing for full reinstatement, which would boost her standing. She won both states, even though they didn't count toward the nomination and neither candidate campaigned in them. Obama even had his name pulled from Michigan's ballot.

The Associated Press interviewed a third of the panel members and several other Democrats involved in the negotiations and found widespread agreement that the states must be punished for stepping out of line. If not, the members say, other states will do the same thing in four years.

"We certainly want to be fair to both candidates, and we want to be sure that we are fair to the 48 states who abided by the rules," said Democratic National Committee Secretary Alice Germond, a panel member unaligned with either candidate. "We don't want absolute chaos for 2012.

"We want to reach out to Michigan and Florida and seat some group of delegates in some manner, at least most of us do. These are two critical states for the general (election) and the voters of those states who were not the people who caused this awful conundrum to occur deserve our attention and deserve to be a part of our process and deserve to be at the convention," she said.

Just as Democrats across the country have been divided over which candidate would make the better nominee, most of the panel members also bring personal preferences and political allegiances to the table.

Many are long-standing party officials with close ties to the Clintons. The former first lady has 13 members publicly supporting her. Eight are openly aligned with Obama. Nine others are officially undeclared.

"We have to have delegates, and they have to be delegations that reflect the opinions of those two states," said former DNC Chairman Don Fowler, a committee member supporting Clinton. "How we get there is very different because everyone sees these questions of who it helps and who it hurts. I don't think the formulation has been found that will get around the piece at this point." But he said a solution is probably possible among the diverse interests.

Because Obama is in the lead for the nomination, his camp heads into the meeting in a position of strength. It is possible the Illinois senator could clinch the nomination by the time the panel meets if he picks up the pace of superdelegate endorsements in the next two weeks.

But Obama has such a lead that he may be able to afford to be generous and give Clinton most of the delegates. That would help put the issue behind them and help him build good will in Michigan and Florida heading into the November election.

Still, some of Obama's supporters think the fairest solution is to disregard the primary votes and split the delegations evenly between the two candidates.

"It has to be a fair process for both candidates," said member Yvonne Gates, an Obama supporter from Nevada who said she wasn't sure what position she would support at the meeting. "My definition is a 50-50 split is something that is fair. It cannot be a situation where you give one candidate more votes than the other. In my opinion that wasn't an election when they didn't have a chance to get out and talk to the people of that community."

It's also possible that any vote that recognizes the Michigan and Florida results would legitimize their elections. Clinton has been arguing that she leads in the popular vote, but that's only when both states are included and it is very slim _ fewer than 5,000 votes out of 34 million cast.

Her accounting also doesn't include some caucus states that favored Obama and where the popular vote wasn't tallied. The measure of winning the nomination is not the popular vote but the delegate count, and Obama leads 1,898 to 1,718, with 2,026 needed for the nomination. Still, Clinton is trying to use the popular vote argument to win over some delegates.

So far, Obama's campaign has not been giving direction publicly or privately to panel members. The Clinton campaign's official position has been full reinstatement, but her advisers acknowledge they are considering an idea before the panel to seat the delegates with half a vote each. Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that they "certainly might" accept a compromise to seat half the delegates.

If their elections had been held according to party rules, Michigan and Florida would have allocated a total of 313 pledged delegates based on the outcome of the vote. Using the results of the January elections, Clinton would get 178 to Obama's 67, giving her a 111-vote advantage. As of Thursday, she was behind 180 delegates, so that would not catch her up even under that unlikely scenario.

The plans before the committee will be more generous to Obama. The Michigan Democratic Party has proposed giving 69 of its 128 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama, an advantage of 10 delegates for Clinton.

A proposal from Florida would halve its 185 delegates. From that, Clinton would get 52.5 and Obama 33.5, a 19-delegate advantage for Clinton.

"I think it's a reasonable solution to the problem that was created, and my hope is that we'll be able to get past this and move on," said Allan Katz, an Obama supporter who serves on the panel but won't be able to vote on any Florida solution because he is from the state.

The committee is not bound to select the proposals offered and has authority to reinstate any number of delegates and divide them in any way.

An open question is how to handle the other type of delegates each state lost _ the superdelegates who are party leaders not bound by the outcome of the vote and are free to support whatever candidate they personally choose. Michigan has 28 superdelegates, and Florida 25. A total of eight have declared for Obama, seven for Clinton and the rest are undeclared.

Germond said she hopes the meeting will begin the process of unifying the party.

"Probably what we will come up with will not make everybody or anybody completely happy, which will mean that we did a good job," she said. "It is mighty unfortunate that at this point in our nominating process we are talking about people who did not abide by the process instead of talking about (beating Republican presidential candidate) John McCain."

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

California has approved gay marriages. Finally, taking loved ones for granted won’t be just for straight people.

President Bush was in Saudi Arabia meeting with King Abdullah. He gets confused — he kept saying, “So where’s Paula Abdullah?”

Things are not looking good for Hillary. Today, she was thinking of changing her name to Gas Prices just to see her numbers go up.

It’s well over 4 bucks a gallon! To give you an idea of how expensive it is, earlier today, I saw Amy Winehouse injecting it between her toes.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs You Have A Bad Commencement Speaker

10. The entire speech is "Testing 1, 2, 3...testing"

9. He's wearing a cap, but no gown — boing!

8. Only bit of wisdom: "There's a white Ford Taurus with its lights on"

7. His introduction: "And now, the equipment manager for your Memphis Grizzlies . . ."

7. His introduction: "And now

6. The repeated references to how delicious grape jelly is

5. Halfway through the speech he chokes on his tassel

4. He leaves early to beat the traffic

3. Angrily denounces so-called "book-learnin'"

2. Thanks to the honorary degree, he's now Dr. Hasselhoff

1. It's Oprah, But it's not the Oprah

David Letterman

A man in Pennsylvania is too drunk to drive. So he gets his kid to drive him. His son is 9 years old. If you can’t do that, what’s the point of having kids, honestly?

Barbara Walters has a new book, “Audition.” In it, she says she had a lot of affairs with a lot of important people in Washington. The Washington monument? Nothing compared to Morris Yudall.

One time when she was having an affair with a senator, she was tied up in committee.

Cher has a new show at Caeser’s Palace. Last time she was there, Caeser was there.

Conan O'Brien

Earlier today, Barack Obama gave a speech in South Dakota and at the end, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Obama got the standing ovation not because of his speech, but for being the first black person in South Dakota.

Barack Obama says that President Bush refusing to meet with Iran’s president would have been like Richard Nixon refusing to meet with Mao Zedong. After hearing this President Bush said, “Look, if he’s going to make people up . . .”

Bill Clinton gave a speech at a high school in Kentucky, and he was 90 minutes late. Clinton told the students, “I’d explain why I’m late but you’re not quite old enough.”

The California Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for homosexuals to get married in California. As a result, thousands of wedding planners will finally get to plan their own wedding.

Craig Ferguson

It’s Pierce Brosnan’s birthday. It’s also Janet Jackson’s birthday. Both are very different. One is an aging diva who’s got the moves, and the other is Janet Jackson.

Michael Jackson threw her a surprise party. The surprise being that everyone there was grown up.

There’a big movie opening: "Narnia, Prince Caspian." I like fantasy movies . . . Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings . . . that Al Gore movie . . .

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Osama bin Laden has released a new video. He’s doing great — he’s ordered a new cot for the cave.

President Bush was in Saudi Arabia today to ask King Abdullah to produce more oil so our gas prices will go down. They said no, so now he’s coming home.

NASA has developed a new device that can turn an astronaut’s urine into drinking water. Is there something wrong with that?

Clinton Vote Claims Under Scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertions that she leads Barack Obama in the popular vote are a stretch, at best.

The New York senator is using such claims to shore up supporters and help justify why she's still in the Democratic presidential race despite trailing Obama in the number of convention delegates earned in primaries and caucuses.

The argument is supported only by using dubious math on two fronts: by excluding several caucus states won by Obama and by including Florida and Michigan primary results that the Democratic Party, to date, is rejecting.

THE SPIN:

"I'm very proud that as of today, I have received more votes by the people who have voted than anybody else," she said after her narrow Indiana victory and before her big win in West Virginia on Tuesday. "It's a very close race, but if you count, as I count, the 2.3 million people who voted in Michigan and Florida, then we are going to build on that."

Since then, Clinton has tempered her claim of being ahead in votes, although her aides have not.

"I think I've now been privileged to receive the votes of 17 million Americans, and that's pretty much the same as Senator Obama," she said Wednesday on CNN.

Her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, went farther Wednesday: "We are ahead in the popular vote _ I cannot stress this enough."

THE FACTS:

Obama is ahead of Clinton by just over 618,000 votes out of 32.2 million cast in states and territories where both candidates competed and where the popular vote was counted in some way.

That total excludes Florida and Michigan, which held early primaries in violation of party rules. Democratic candidates agreed in advance not to campaign in those states. In addition, Obama did not have his name on the ballot in Michigan while Clinton did.

If primary voters from those two states are included in the totals, Clinton edges ahead in the recorded popular vote. She leads Obama by fewer than 5,000 votes out of 34 million cast. That's with no votes for Obama at all in Michigan.

She is correct that she and Obama have each received some 17 million votes.

But even if results of the two renegade primaries are accepted, she still has a problem demonstrating she is the vote leader.

That's because no results go into that equation from Iowa, Nevada or Maine. There is no way to count popular votes from those states because their caucuses did not tally them.

Obama won most of the delegates in both Maine and Iowa _ the leadoff state where Clinton came third.

Although there is no vote count, it is clear that more people came out to the caucuses for Obama than for Clinton in both states. In Nevada, more people came out for Clinton. Nevada's delegate allocation, currently favoring Obama by a slight margin, still has not been settled.

Several other states also did not tally votes in caucuses. But those states also held primaries and reported totals from that round of voting.

Clinton has been pushing for the party to count the results from Florida and Michigan to bring her delegate totals closer to Obama's as he gets closer to clinching the nomination.

The matter will be taken up at the end of the month. Obama, like Clinton, is worried about alienating those two battlegrounds in the fall if the primary voters are not accommodated in some way.

Given his expanding lead with superdelegates, he is on track to win the nomination even if Florida and Michigan delegates are seated.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Hot today. People were sweating like George Bush when he heard that gay marriage is legal in California.

The Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage. You though it was hard to be a single girl before. Guys were either gay or married, now they’re gay and married.

John Edwards has officially endorsed Barack Obama. They say the endorsement will help Obama win over Hillary Democrats. Hillary Democrats are those who duck sniper fire while downing whiskey shots.

Yesterday in an interview, Hillary Clinton said that her comment about getting the support of the white people was one of the dumbest things she’s ever said. Well, that and when she turned to Bill and said, “I do.”

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs Your Teacher Is Drunk

10. Your report card is written on a damp cocktail napkin

9. Insists the Civil War was fought between Jack Daniel and Jim Beam

8. Tells class to hit the showers, but he's not a gym teacher

7. Every time the bell rings, he shouts, "Last call!"

6. Students give her an apple — she makes Apple-tinis

5. By the end of the day, he's eaten three boxes of chalk

4. He tries to skateboard over a U-haul truck

3. No number 3 — writer in jetBlue bathroom

2. Keeps getting his tongue stuck in the pencil sharpener

1. Teacher knows less about the Middle East than George W. Bush

David Letterman

Angelina Jolie is pregnant with twins. She plans to adopt both of them.

Hillary Clinton’s not dropping out. In West Virginia she won big; no delegates, but she won big, and now she goes to South America to continue the campaign . . .

Her campaign is now $21 million in debt. That’s the world’s most expensive fantasy camp.

She thinks there’s a chance. She’s counting on her stimulus check to keep her going.

Conan O'Brien

Barack Obama is in the spotlight. Last night he had to apologize for calling a reporter “Sweetie.” Meanwhile, Bill Clinton apologized for calling a reporter when her husband was home.

Last night in an interview with Katie Couric, Hillary Clinton said she would not quit no matter how bad her numbers were. Then Katie Couric said the same thing to Hillary.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict praised virgins from abstaining from sex. Reporters said it was the first time a Pope has ever appeared at a Star Trek convention.

The California Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is legal. Experts called the ruling a great victory for gay Mexicans.

Craig Ferguson

It’s Las Vegas’ birthday today. It was founded 103 years ago. What do you get a city that’s founded on lawlessness? They’ve already got drinking and gambling, and Carrot Top.

A lot of people think that Las Vegas has legalized prostitution. They do not. I found out the hard way.

It is legal in Pahrump, Nev., just 45 miles outside of Las Vegas. You take I-15 north, get off at exit 33 . . .

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The California Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage. That means after years of struggle, the California gay community can now make the biggest mistake of their lives.

This is what happens when you have a governor who you’ve seen more often shirtless than in a suit.

Outside the courthouse there was a lot of spontaneous crying and decorating.

Sad news for gay people: Another season of “America’s Top Model” has come to an end.

GOP Faces Bloodbath in Nov

On Tuesday night, Republicans lost a Republican congressional district in a special election in Mississippi.

Party insiders fear the loss may be just another sign of a coming bloodbath for congressional Republicans this November.

Democrat Travis Childers’ victory over Republican Greg Davis in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District yesterday dealt the GOP its third straight loss of a solid Republican district to insurgent Democrats in this year’s special elections.

With nearly all precincts reporting, Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Childers held a 54 percent to 46 percent lead over Southaven Mayor Davis.

The seat was vacated by Republican Roger Wicker when he was appointed to fill the Senate seat that Republican Trent Lott vacated when he retired.

Wicker had held the seat since 1994, never winning re-election with less than 63 percent of the vote, the Washington Post reported.

The district, a Republican stronghold, had backed George Bush with 59 percent of the vote in 2000 and 62 percent in 2004.

Childers’ victory hands the Democrats their second special election victory in the South in less than two weeks. On May 3, Democratic State Rep. Donald Cazayoux Jr. defeated former Republican State Legislator Woody Jenkins in a Louisiana district that had been in GOP hands for 33 years.

Richard Baker had vacated the seat when he resigned in February.

And in March, Democrat Bill Foster defeated Republican Jim Oberweis in an Illinois district that former Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert had held for nearly 21 years.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said in a statement: “After three consecutive special election defeats in districts that President Bush twice won easily, it is abundantly clear the American people have turned their back and shut the door on the special interest-driven agenda of the Republican Party. There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates.”

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole acknowledged that the GOP faces a challenge and “must undertake bold efforts to define a forward-looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for.”

Labels: G

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Hillary Clinton won big in West Virginia last night — 67 percent to 26 percent for Barack Obama. He hasn’t had numbers that low since he went bowling.

You could tell Hillary was pandering to West Virginia voters. Today she said, if elected, she would impose a heavy tax on anyone with teeth.

She gives hope to the American Dream: If you work hard, you can watch someone else become president.

More bad news for Hillary: John Edwards is backing Obama. Barack Obama promised him if he was elected, he would offer Edwards a Cabinet position as secretary of shampoo and highlighting.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Reasons Annika Sorenstam Is Retiring (Presented by Annika Sorenstam)

10. "Tired of Tiger Woods stealing my putter"

9. "Became less interested in aiming at green and more interested in aiming at spectators"

8. "I knew I needed a break when my golf bag began talking to me"

7. "I'm leaving to play Countess Scarlett Worthington on 'All My Children'"

6. "When I'm in a stressful tournament, I eat golf tees like they're peanuts"

5. "Honestly, this long presidential campaign has sucked the life out of me"

4. "Who can focus on golf when Lauren and Audrina are fighting on 'The Hills'?"

3. "I want to spend more time with Brett Favre's family"

2. "I just want a job where I can sit in a cubicle instead of being stuck on a golf course all day"

1. "The only putts I have to worry about now is my fiance"

Letterman

Never a dull moment in New York City. Hawks were attacking construction workers. Thank God, at the last minute, that thing on Donald Trump’s head swooped down and ate them.

Today President Bush is in Israel. He’s looking for knishes of mass destruction.

John McCain is in town. He was on “Regis and Kelly” this morning. He seemed a little confused. He kept calling Regis, Maury.

The day before he was in the Northwest, and he took a walk through a redwood forest. And you know what? He was the oldest thing in the forest.

Conan O'Brien

Last night, Hillary Clinton won West Virginia with nearly 70 percent of the vote. She would have gotten even more of the vote, but on the way to the polls, some of their houses got a flat tire.

After she won, she said, “It’s not over, and I will never give up.” Then she flew off on her broom and said, “And I’ll kill your little dog too.”

Yesterday on “Regis and Kelly” John McCain showed one of his baby pictures. He said the picture was on loan from the Museum of Natural History.

Craig Ferguson

It’s a great day for “Star Wars” fans. You know, those middle-aged guys who have never taken their wookie out of the box.

George Lucas, creator of “Star Wars” celebrates his birthday today. He’s produced the new “Indiana Jones” movie too. I think I speak for everybody when I say, "George, it better not have Jar-Jar Binks in it."

Ten years ago today, Frank Sinatra passed away. He had a great song called “L.A. Is My Lady.” Much better than his follow-up song, “Denver Is My Bitch.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

It’s kind of scary to be on TV these days . . . you never know when you might be eliminated.

That’s what happened on “American Idol.” Another fresh-faced, karaoke singer tossed into the sea.

The name Syesha Mercado takes its place among other notable third-place finishers, like Melinda Doolittle, Vonzell Solomon, and Hillary Clinton.

Labels: J

Maybe Obama Should Worry

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama is in hot pursuit of general election voters, hoping America won't notice he got his head handed to him in West Virginia.

The Illinois senator virtually pretended the primary didn't happen Tuesday, with no election night speech or any public appearance at all after the polls closed and gave Hillary Rodham Clinton a more than 2-1 victory even though her candidacy is likely doomed.

At Obama's Chicago headquarters, advisers said there was no reason to worry _ West Virginia was demographically suited to Clinton and won't be part of their general election plans. It's also true that Clinton's win is unlikely to slow his march toward the nomination _ Obama picked up 30 superdelegates this week, more than the 28 total pledged delegates up for grabs in West Virginia.

But maybe the Obama camp should be more worried. The voters who went against Obama Tuesday night _ white, rural, older, low-income and without college degrees _ don't just live in West Virginia. They live everywhere in the country, in places Obama needs to win.

They live in places like Macomb County, Mich., where Obama planned to start his day Wednesday by dropping by a Chrysler plant. That's a recognition that he has work to do to win over working class voters even if his campaign doesn't say it.

Obama's daylong visit to Michigan will be his first campaigning there since he signed onto a pledge nine months ago to boycott the state. He pulled his name from the ballot in the state's illegitimate primary, held too early for party rules.

That means many voters in the state are just starting to get to know Obama, said Bill Rustem, president of Michigan think tank Public Sector Consultants.

"There's a lot of excitement among young people and among African-Americans, which should serve him well," Rustem said. "There still are questions among older white people that I think he's going to have to try to appeal to them in some way, shape or form. I'm sure that's in part why he's coming to Michigan _ to begin that process."

Obama's campaign leaders say they are confident most of these Clinton voters are Democrats first and will support Obama once the primary is over. In a memo before the polls even closed, they said conclusions cannot be drawn about the general election campaign from the results of the Democratic primaries and pointed out that head-to-head polls between Obama and McCain show Obama is running as well as past Democratic candidates among white voters.

"These people are Democrats," said Democratic consultant Steve McMahon, who is not working for either candidate. "They will come home."

Clinton's advisers said she planned to use her big victory to try to persuade uncommitted superdelegates during a meeting at her home Wednesday that she would be the strongest nominee in the general election.

"It is a fact that no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," Clinton said in her victory speech. "The bottom line is this: The White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning the swing states."

The Obama campaign also said in its memo that Clinton also will likely win handily next week in Kentucky. His saving grace is that Oregon votes on the same day and is likely to give Obama a big win to balance it out. A double shellacking for Obama would have had him limping to the nomination.