With regards the second presidential debate, I thought it was the same ole same ole. I thought that there was not the kind of passion that one might really feel if one were truly concerned with the economy or with America.

I thought that the dig about the Hair Transplant, with regards to Joe Biden, was cheap, and I think that John McCain’s “folksiness” comes across as very snide and mean-spirited. I am surprised how little these two guys have true passion, conviction, or the sort of fire that might make either one of them a great president.

I feel no awe at either of their existence on the stage or at all. There are, indeed, men like this. And, when Barack Obama first landed on the stage, back during the 2004 Democratic convention, I was awed.

I am afraid these two men have been so altered and watered-down over the course of this ultra-marathon of a campaign that they’re truly afraid to convey their visions for each of their presidencies with any sort of authenticity or truth. I don’t know what to say.

I was underwhelmed. All three of these debates have been draws, two presidential and one vice-presidential — and if there have been winners at all, it surely has been the result of a TKO — technical knock out.

Nobody has even really laid a finger on the other. It is truly appalling to me to see this sort of cat and mouse so close to the elections.

Would someone just take off his glove and please challenge the other to a bona fide duel already?

I really miss Bill Clinton.

It looks like the race is still on. Senator Hillary Clinton has won Ohio and Texas primaries and is still in the race for President. Like I have always said, I respect the Clintons and would do anything to have one or more Clintons in the White House. Personally, I consider Bill Clinton to have been the best President in my lifetime. Reports via Salon, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, CNN, Fox News, and the LA Times.

The race in the Texas primary is still very tight, but MSNBC has just called it for Clinton. Right now, with 75 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton leads by slightly more than 60,000 votes.

Not all is lost for Obama, however: Because of the complex formula Texas uses to divide delegates, it’s possible for him to lose the popular count and still emerge from the state with a lead in delegates. The networks have not yet offered delegate projections.

Results from the Texas caucus, an entirely separate affair from the Texas primary, are also now streaming in. Obama is ahead in that race by more than 10 percentage points.

Update: Now CNN, too, has called the primary for Clinton.

My mother endorses Barack Obama, all of my friends endorse Barack Obama, and two Kennedys endorse Barack Obama: Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy both. On the last endorsement, you really need to read Caroline Kennedy’s op-ed piece in the Times. Here’s a choice quote — and she is speaking about Senator Barack Obama, “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.” Via the New York Times

A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY
Published: January 27, 2008

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”

Michael Bernstein popped me an IM after reading my article, The Culture of “Acting White” Anti-Intellectualism Will Kill America, with a link to Cosby, Race and Escaping The Downside, which reveals America’s dirty secret, “in America, being poor, ignorant, desperate and unable to escape your situation has absolutely nothing to do with the color of your skin. It is universal.”

I have heard so much buzz about this mashup of the famed Apple “1984″ commercial and I am disappointed, frankly. I guess it is what it is. And it doesn’t make Hillary Clinton seem evil at all. I wonder why this mashup has never been made about George W Bush?

The original Apple 1984 commercial:

Who will win the 2008 Presidential election based on the cult of personality and not based on party. Who will win out of all of these 20 presidential hopefuls?

What is the Washington Stock Exchange (WSX)? “The Washington Stock Exchange is a political stock market where you can buy and sell shares in politicians and political events in the same way that you buy shares of companies on the financial markets — except it’s totally free, way more fun and you can put your political skills on display in front of the whole world.”

Washington Stock Exchange was a lot of fun to play with. It is very simple to use and they offer you a lot of money with which to play initially. This seems to be a very important part of my happy experience. I have been playing around the Washington Stock Exchange until I invested all of my money. Of course, Washington Stock Exchange has to do with Washington politics so I am doing rather well. There is also quite a diversity of choices so that one can quickly participate right out of the box.

WSX is a prediction market for buying and selling shares in politicians and political events. Buy if you expect an outcome or sell (or sell short) if you don’t.

WSX is a very structured prediction market based on a limited number of real-world political outcomes. When outcomes are judged to be true, reward payments are payed out. WSX looks vulnerable to market gaming and market manipulation — if only because of the mad feeding frenzy that surrounds the 2008 US presidential elections. Market manipulation of any kind is forbidden on WSX and this rule is strictly enforced. The less passionate the issue the more accurate the market prediction. Polarized politics often results in trade wars.

WSX is a fantasy market that trades in a currency called W$. WSX is built on the Foresight platform by Consensus Point, Inc.

The $100 If You Can List All The Republicans Under Investigation Or Convicted In One Breath YouTube viral campaign ad is best-in-show. It is funny and snarky and serious. Too bad they only spoke to hipsters and no real Americans.

Of course, one sign of things being professionally made by an agency and not, in fact, by a friend, is a comment like this, “a friend made this great grass roots ad. Please forward with reckless abandon…” Yeah, I call bullshit on that “a friend make this.”

When Howard Mortman asked Too Conservative’s Vincent Harris, “Will blogs follow the mainstream media or will the mainstream media follow the blogs?” Harris replied, “MSM will follow the blogs. I have no doubt of this.” I agree, I agree.

Says a journalist in an actual missive, “I was talking with a retired US general the other day…”

What follows is an actual conversation from an undisclosed location between an unnamed journalist and an unnamed retired general:

“What the fuck! This war in Iraq is a special forces war,” says a retired general, “we can prosecute this whole war with a small force of special forces operatives. A big occupying army does absolutely nothing to help us move ahead. It just presents a huge fucking target, militarily and politically, and pisses off the locals. Within the context of winning the war in Iraq, there is no reason to have any non-special forces troops there.”

So the journalist asks, “Uh, why are they there then?”

“Well,” replies the retired general, “because it scares the Iranians, and because we can just storm across the border, ready to go, all pumped and primed from the experience in Iraq.”

And the journalist asks, “why do we want to invade Iran?”

“Well,” says the retired general, “partly because we, like everyone else in the world, don’t want Iran to have The Bomb. But more because we don’t want China having a nice secure oil source for their 9% growth rate. We want them to know we can choke them if they get unruly – it’s not the execution of a threat that is powerful, it’s your adversary’s knowledge that you could that is powerful.”

“And even moreso,” adds the retired general, “we want Iran to just stop even think about opening a Euro-based oil bourse. If oil started being traded in Euros, demand for the Dollar would plummet and along with that, its value, and the US would be fucked since it depends on borrowing to survive. That is the attack that would kill us – no dirty nuke or anthrax would do more than inconvenience us a bit. A Euro oil bourse would sink the US like a tourniquet to the neck.”

“Frankly,” concludes the retired general, “those two reasons – Chinese wrapping up oil contracts, and the threat of a Euro-based oil bourse were the real reasons we were in such a rush to invade Iraq. With the war, all the Chinese contracts disappeared, and the potential for a Euro oil bourse evaporated.”

I have taken the liberty of creating a Blogs the Main Stream Media Read Redux, if you will. The big question is, “Howard, what blogs do you read?”

Howard Mortman knows everyone who is anyone in Politics and “inside the beltway.” Howard is funny and fun to be with — and whip smart.

Howard Mortman writes a series on his blog, Extreme Mortman, called Blogs The Famous Media Reads. It is a must read.

The Complete List of Blogs that the Mainstream Media Reads According to Extreme Mortman

Jeff Zeleny

The Fix, Hotline On Call, PoliticsNH.com, Taegen Goddard’s Political Wire, The Note, First Read, Wake up Call, Last Call, Hotline, The Morning Grind, Slate, Wonkette, Swing State Project, Real Clear Politics, Daily Kos, My DD, Red State, Hugh Hewitt, Fishbowl DC, Gawker, Romenesko, Iowa True Blue, scheadlines.com, and Politics Extra.

Anne Schroeder

Wake Up Call, Drudge, ABC’s The Note, The Fix on WashingtonPost.com, FishbowlDC, Wonkette, Gawker, Defamer, Daily Kos, Romenesko, HuffingtonPost, “Last Call.”, Achenblog, bricksandstones.com, gossipwonk.com, and wesmirch.com.

Steve Scully

ABC’s “The Note,” MSNBC’s “First Read,” Hotline Wake-Up Call, Last Call, Drudge Report; MSNBC’s Hardball/ Blogger (Hardblogger), Craig Crawford, RealClearPolitics, the Wonkette, Dick Polman’s American Debate, FishBowl DC, Daily Kos, HuffingtonPost, My DD, Michele Malkin, Instapundit, TaylorMarsh.com, RightWingNutHouse.com, Hotline Blogometer, Rush Limbaugh’s blog, madkane.com, and Extreme Mortman.

Stephen Koff

Romenesko, Kos, Drudge, The Note, Hotline on call, Roll Call, Wonkette, Cincinnati Enquirer’s politics extra, buckeyestateblog, brewedfreshdaily,

Jean Dubail

lincoln logs, right angle blog, nixguy, red-state, buckeyestate, ohio2nd, psychobilly democrat, plunderbund, UAPA Upper Arlington, brewed fresh daily, writes like she talks, Cincinnati Enquirer political blog, Taegan Goddard’s political wire, Hotline On Call, Stu Rothenberg, Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall, Daily Kos, and Drudge.

Dick Polman

Talking Points Memo, tpmcafe.com, David Corn, Eric Alterman, Tapped, Kevin Drum, Ed Kilgore, Marshall Wittmann, Andrew Sullivan, Red State, The Corner, Power Line, Hugh Hewitt, Real Clear Politics, First Read, The Note

Chris Cillizza

The Swamp, Dick Polman’s American Debate, On Call, Openers, CQ Politics, Daily Kos, MyDD, Powerline, Fishbowl DC, Romenesko, Public Eye, “Faith In The Sound,” “The Laurin Line,” “Richmond Report,” Mystery Pollster, Achenblog Barone Blog, NBC’s First Read, ABC’s The Note, CNN’s Mornining Grind, and Wake Up

Roger Simon

Romenesko, ABC’s The Note, NBC’s First Read, The Hotline, Taegan Goddard, Hotline on Call, FishBowlDC, The Fix, The Plank, Wonkette, CJR Daily Home, Slate, Salon, GalleyCat, Lifehacker, Unbeige, DCist, Gothamist, FishbowlNY, FishBowlLA, Gawker, Defamer, TVNewser, Chicagoist, Gapers Block, Talking Points Memo, Daou Report, The Huffington Post, TV Squad, DC Radio & TV, DownAndDirty, The Daily Nightly, The Public Eye (CBS), Drudge Report, The Swamp, mediabistro, Media Life Cover Page, Gizmodo, Engadget, TrustedReviews, the Hotline’s Blogometer, Giant Pandas – National Zoo, PollingReport.com, Mystery Pollster, RealClear Politics-Polls, Political Junkie, Roger Ebert, Metacritic, Undergroundfilm.org

Walter Shapiro

“War Room,” Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, NBC’s “First Read,” ABC’s “The Note,” Kausfiles, Rich Galen’s Mullings, Romenesko, FireDogLake, MyDailyD, Daily Kos, “The Has-Been” blog at Slate, Kevin Drum’s “Political Animal,”Instapundit, RealClear Politics, Mystery Pollster, moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com, Wonkette.

John Harwood

realclearpolitics.com, bullmoose.blogger.blogspot.com,redstate, instapundit, huffingtonpost and dailykos.

I believe the 2008 presidential election is going to be between Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. I thought Dick Cheney might come down with a health condition but it might not take that. Via The Times of London

It looks like I am not wrong, “Republicans are urging President George W Bush to dump Dick Cheney as vice-president and replace him with Condoleezza Rice if he is serious about presenting a new face to the jaded American public.” Via memeorandum and the Times of London and Outside the Beltway

Via Ace of Spades HQ, Dust my Broom, Common Sense America, Barking Moonbat, Demonrats, TigerHawk, The Gossipers, Conservative Cat, Miss Jackson if You’re Nasty, The Right Perspective.

Public affairs bloggers and their respective election campaigns have been very nervous about the FEC. What say the FEC? “Broad exemptions for most political activity on the Internet.” Phew! Via Drudge Retort & Political Wire

I am not the only one who believes that Hillary Clinton will be President come 2008. Sportsbook.com gives Senator Hillary Clinton 6-1 odds, with Rudy Giuliani trailing with 10-1.

I just want to say it out loud, even though she won’t talk. Senator Clinton, stop avoiding the inevitable.