After waging one of the most violent Presidential primary campaigns in the history of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton is not only NOT ready concede --even though Obama is 10 delegates away from the "magic" 2,118.

Since it'll be a day in hell before she and her faithful husban let go their choke-hold on the Democratic Party, the Clintonistas are now using every media outlet they can find to spin the Hillary as the "best" option for the vice-presidency.

The lastest skidmark on print comes right from our little city paper, The New York Observer (and apologies to Azi, whom I love and respect) :

Very exciting news, brought to you by CNN's Political Ticker.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president:

Acting on behalf of its more than 1.4 million members, the AFT executive council on Wednesday endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, citing her proven ability to advance our nation's key priorities, and her bold plans for a stronger America.

"Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to health care, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America's place in the world," said AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "Hillary Clinton is that leader."

Chris Bowers at Open Left calls it, "the biggest endorsement of the campaign for me so far." Here's a longer quote:

March is an insane month for the amount of political events you can go to. The proof is in the amount of political heavy hitters DL21C was able to wrangle during that month : Jon Kerry, Wesley Clark, John Tester, John Edwards, Bill Richardson. It is also an insane month for the amount of technology and media conferences you can get invited to, the most important (at least for me) being SXSW --but there's eTech and IDPI as well.

I missed almost all the events involving presidential candidates because of the amount of conferences I was involved in during the month of March. Once I was done with my last one, ARC's national conference on "Facing Race", I was free to enjoy a candidate or two by the end of the month. I wasn't able to make it to the John Edwards event (I was having some fun at a party with Nancy Pelosi).

So 3/26 was Bill Richardson's lucky number.

I already posted the footage of Bill Richardson and Barack Obama's responses. Here is the one I had missed so far.

Here is the second Democracy for America film clip on the Democratic Primary candidates. As with Barack Obama's clip, I present it without comment:

Democracy for America is interviewing each of the Presidential candidates. Let me present to you Barack Obama's response to DFA:

Four years ago, the campaign for the Democratic nomination ended, for all practical purposes, after the New Hampshire primary. This time, there is reason to believe that, despite the huge amount of money being poured in to the campaigns, the same thing will happen -- or at least something similar.

Suppose someone other than Hillary or Obama (like Edwards, for instance) wins the Iowa caucus. That person gets a huge new infusion of money leading up to the New Hampshire primary, and if he or she wins that primary, the money gets even bigger.

On the other side, the money starts drying up for the other candidates, just as it did in 2004. By the time "Mega-Tuesday" rolls around, the extra money, and the television ads it buys, will make the difference.

The NY Times today says that Edwards is still leading in many Iowa polls. He finished second there in 2004, and has been working full-time to organize and get his message out there.

So let California, New York, and a host of other states move their primaries up -- I don't think it will make a difference. The race may still be officially open on February 5, but the fat lady will already have sung.

Via TAP, Capitol Confidential reports that Shelly Silver will introduce today a bill that would move New York's presidential primary date up by one month, to Feb. 5:

According to a press release just handed out by a Silver spokesman, the speaker will introduce a bill to change the primary date to put New York “in a more strategically effective position to help select the best presidential candidates for the state and the nation.”

(Read: U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani).

CC notes that the bill is almost certain to pass the legislature, only to present Gov. Spitzer with a bit of a dilemma, as the governor himself hasn't been so enthusiastic about the idea. And here again we see an illustration of the Spitzer/Clinton tension:

Spitzer’s reluctance to support moving up the primary, coupled with his recent refusal to endorse Clinton, as a number of other high-profile Democrats have, can’t be sitting well in Hillaryland.

Back at TAP, lipris calls it "an awful idea." I'm inclined to agree, as the theory holds that bunched-up early primaries will benefit the big-name, big-money candidates at the expense of lesser-known gems who could be discovered over the course of a more drawn-out campaign. Of course, that may be a bit fanciful - is it really possible for a non-big-time candidate to win the nod anymore anyway?

Incidently, the Politicker had a fascinating post a few weeks ago about one possible consequence of the move toward early primaries: the return of the smoke-filled room.

Sexism and racism are getting talked about quite a bit on our companion site Culture Kitchen. And they are getting A LOT of readers. Though my favorite discussion of race on the site right now isn't getting much attention. But I do recommend Margaret's diary down memory lane.

To me, any discussion of race or gender has to start from the realization that America was FOUNDED with racism and sexism included in its foundation. Too often excuses are made that ignore this: things like "slavery wasn't so bad," or "the Civil War wasn't about slavery," or "that is all in the past, things are equal now."

As long as people ask questions like "are we ready for a woman president" or "are we ready for a [fill in your favorite ethnic, religious or racial minority] president" we still have a long way to go. I like to point out that if we are still asking if we are ready for a woman president this long after Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, etc. have ALREADY had women presidents/prime ministers, we should be embarrassed.

About 10 years ago I was living in a great place in the Hollywood Hills. We had a dinner guest one night who identified himself as a "libertarian." Now I have known some pretty smart and well meaning libertarians. But this guy was basically a fool who used libertarianism as a way of blaming society for his own shortcomings.