Astroturfing is being taken to new heights by the McCain Campaign. In a memo leaked to Wikileaks, the strategy of using displeasure in the Clinton camp over her losing is being exploited on the web.

Primarily, the focus will be on internet communities that are pro-Clinton. It's safre to assume places like HillaryIs44, HillaryClintonForums, and possibly even MyDD are being targeted for these activities.

I would further note that the exploitation will probably take two forms, both those who pose as Clinton supporters and those who pose as Obama supporters who push the stereotype the McCain campaign is trying to implant in the minds of Hillary supporters when it comes to their perceptioons about Obama and his supporters.

Join me after the jump for the text of the memo...

From the AP:

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 27, 11:36 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to restore delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully seat the two states at the convention as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to a party analysis.

Party rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, Democratic National Committee lawyers wrote in a 38-page memo.

The memo was sent late Tuesday to the 30 members of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, which plans to meet Saturday to consider the fate of convention delegates from the two states. The party is considering plans to restore at least some of the delegates to make sure the two important general election battlegrounds will be included at the nominating convention in August.

The analysis lays out merits on all sides of the argument of how many delegates should be seated and how they should be divided. And it underscores a prickly problem — if the Rules and Bylaws Committee decides to restore any of the states' delegates, there is not a simple way to divide them between Clinton and Barack Obama.

Analysis after the flip...

Yep, that could be the ticket against McCain and the Democrats would still win in a huge victory so long as the platform included the economy, linked the Iraq war to the faltering economy, and pounded those two factors all the way to election day.

The Republicans are in complete disarray, they have nothing to offer to the American people, and they have a huge albatross tied around their collective necks called "Bush/Cheney".

Childers proved that point last night.

And everybody who ran for president in the Democratic primaries, at the very least, suspected that point.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Friday, May 09, 2008

Rasmussen Reports has been tracking the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination daily for nineteen months... since November 2006. For the last few months, the most remarkable feature of the race has been its consistency and stability. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both running historic campaigns and both have captured the votes and hearts of distinct and important constituencies within the Democratic Party. Obama has won Primaries in states where the demographics favor his campaign and Clinton has won in the states that favor her campaign.

However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.

Per TPMElection Central, Hillary has said NO!

So what's the solution Hillary demands?

SEAT MICHIGAN AS-IS!

Yes folks, we have officially entered the looking glass. Hillary Clinton demands Soviet style election outcomes and demands them now.

Is there any longer any doubt she's setting herself up for a 2012 run?

Link

DURHAM, N.C. — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign yesterday tried to redefine the delegate math for securing the Democratic presidential nomination, signaling its willingness to wage a divisive battle with front-runner Sen. Barack Obama through the summer.

Mr. Obama, meanwhile, questioned Mrs. Clinton's trustworthiness heading into today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

Top Clinton aides said the nominee must win based on a tally that includes delegates from Florida and Michigan, which held January primaries that were disqualified by party rules. The campaign's "Delegate Hub" Web site identifies 2,208 as the total delegates needed to be nominated, or 183 more than the threshold of 2,025 set by the Democratic National Committee's rules.

"That's what we believe is the standard for deciding this — who has the majority of the total delegates including Michigan and Florida to decide the nomination," said Clinton strategist Geoff Garin.

Link to Washington Times Story

So I did some research to see what the makeup of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, and I was shocked at what I discovered.

First of all are the two co-chairs. They are seemingly good news:

Alexis Herman    Washington D.C.
James Roosevelt Jr.    Massachusetts

Neither of these two super delegates have declared for either candidate.

Not so with the other 28 members of the committee...

I'm a guy who has been addicted to cable news and the 24 hour news cycle since the day CNN went on the air in 1980. I've watched at a minimum, 1 hour of cable news every day for the past quarter century. Most days it's about three hours or more.

The past two weeks, my consumption of cable news has dropped dramatically. Last night, I only occasionally flipped to MSRNC for updates on what was happening.

As of today, I'm not watching any news, cable or otherwise, until I look for some updates on May 3, then May 6, then May 20.

Clinton Attempting to Throw PA Primary
Claims: I Can Beat Obama With Big States Tied Behind My Back

Pittsburgh: Today, it was revealed that Hillary Clinton is attempting to "throw" the Pennsylvania primary. In a conference call today, Howard Wolfson was quoted saying, "look, Hillary has won all the big states so far. She just thinks that to make things interesting for the rest of the race, she needs to do everything she can to lose Pennsylvania. Everything she's doing is just to keep public interest in this primary."

These statements come in the wake of revelations that her claims of coming under sniper fire in Bosnia were not true, as well as revelations that she was involved in the promotion of NAFTA legislation during the Clinton adminsitration as revealed in her first lady schedules that were recently released.

So many people talk about "the math". They talk about how Obama's 167 pledged delegate lead is insurmountable and how Hillary Clinton needs 64% of all remaining pledged delegates in order to catch Obama.

This is all just silly. What's even sillier is the really nebulous "math" where people have the nerve to point out that 64% of the pledged delegates really translates into wins by 30-40% of the popular vote in most of the contests! What the heck is with this "apportionment" nonsense! We need to throw out these anti-democratic "apportionment" lies right now.

This all just sickens me. The "math" means absolutely nothing in all of this.

The Huckster takes Iowa and is the odds on favorite for South Carolina.

McCain takes New Hampshire and runs a disappointing second in Michigan.

And now Willard has won in Michigan throwing this into a three way race

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr., for his hit political move of CHOOSING NOT TO RUN

Yes, based upon all indications, CHOOSING NOT TO RUN was without a doubt the brightest move any presidential would be could have made during 2007.

We know there will be some wry anger that the other nominees did not win and we will examine their entries after the break...

I have been amongst the harshest of Clinton critics over the past several days, there is no doubt and I freely admit it.

As of right now, I'm going back to square one. I am giving the Clinton team the benefit of the doubt on the race flap. I'm doing this because of two words, intention and perception.

Join me after the flip for an analysis of these words and why I'm willing to give the Clinton Campaign the benefit of the doubt.

In 2004, John Kerry's greatest strength was the fact that he was a war hero. That strength was turned into a weakness by a tactic now known as swiftboating.

But swifboating is not a new tactic. McCain's strength in 2000 was his compassion as demonstrated by his adoption of a child. Karl Rove used that strength against him in the 2000 South Carolina primary race through lies and manipulation.

Max Cleland's greatest strength was his patriotism, and that was turned on its head by advertisements in such a twisted way that Saxby Chambliss was able to make enough Georgians actually believe he was not patriotic to win a Senate race.

We've seen the swiftboating of Barack Obama begin in this primary race.

What's that you say? More BS from the Obama supporters?

Nope, just a report from The Guardian

In the words of that Clinton adviser: "If you have a social need, you're with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool."

NASHUA: In a stunning development, new evidence has come to light which calls into question the results of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary vote. Investigative bloggers have determined that space aliens are controlling the results of U.S. elections.

Fred Bradford, of Fredblog, has claimed he can demonstrate that through the use of sophisticated mind control rays, space aliens can cause voters to alter their results before casting their ballots.

"The aliens first detect the brain waves of the intended victim," Mr. Bradford explained. "Once contact is made they scan the victims memory for specifc events in order to alter their choice. Through the use of a technique I call "Cerebral Replication of Appropriate Paradigms", or CRAP for short, the aliens call up memories to affect the choice made by their victim by injecting a predisposition to vote in a specific way."

And Bradford is convinced these CRAP hack attacks have been going on for a long time.

"Really, how else do you explain Calvin Coolidge?"

A black man and a white woman are running neck and neck in the primaries and I see the comparisons and contrasts between inequalities of race and sex in America today within the primary cycle. And these issues of inequalities go far beyond simply race and sex into religion and sexual preference.

In the end, there can be only a single symbolic victory, either the symbolic victory against racism or the single victory against sexism.

It's time to stuff the symbolism.

This is acontrast of two issues that really are intimately linked under the overriding issue of inequality, and both issues have ramifications to other issues such as poverty, health care, and immigration.

That's why the message of "change" doesn't resonate as sincere, because change requires innovation and whomsoever is really the "change candidate" must articluate how innovation will be used to fundamentally alter the way the governmetn works.

There's more than two elephants in this living room.

There's a herd.

Let's ennumerate some after the flip.

Yes, you saw that right. The standard for a Clinton win is lower than for the other candidates. This is because of the Super Delegate rule enacted in 1984 to insure the party leaderhip plays an important role in choosing the candidate.

This is the final firewall for Hillary Clinton, and the campaign aims to take it all the way to the convention. They will not give up. They intend to win, no matter what.

Join me after the flip for an analysis