Well none of us could sleep tonight until we knew who Chris Dodd was lining up behind. So glad he took such responsibility seriously and relieved us of the angst and mystery we were all so worried about...

And now according to RealClearPolitics average of the recent polls, Obama has edged into the lead in Texas...

The long and short of it is this... her number in Ohio is not moving. Obama is gaining rapidly. He's jumped five points in two weeks and is now just skirting the margin of error in the new Rasmussen poll (the most accurate pollster out there right now.)

48% to 43% presently - after he wipes the floor with her in Texas look or that to change dramatically...

I agree with Novak. What suicide artist will take the responsibility to inform the Clintons that they have been relegated to the ash-heap of partisan influence? Quite the legacy huh?

Vince Foster his brother may not have been - but did he have to stab him?

If you didn't see ONCE then you were like the majority of movie goers in America this year. The only reason I originally saw it was that it was featured on a NYC to LA flight that I took around Thanksgiving. It was shot in 17 days, for $100,000 on basically two handy-cams.

It is a charming movie, and a touching story about two musical souls that find each other.

I had no idea that it was up for best song, and with all the nominees last night from the Disney spectacle ENCHANTED I doubted it would win... but it carried the night, and the two musicians with the funny names gave two of the most gratifying thank you speeches in Oscar history...

Absolutely AWESOME!

For the second time this week Martha McCallum's LIVE DESK producers have come calling. I'm scheduled to be with the gang today from 1:20-1:48pm on FoxNews Channel.

Hope you can join us. We will be discussing the NYTimes implied allegations of sexual misconduct concerning Senator McCain and Michelle Obama's back track, and whatever else they decide to throw in.

So 1pm today. FNC. Be there...

Oh and if someone can send me the digital file following - I'd be deeply grateful!

“Questions of honor are raised as much by appearances as by reality in politics,” wrote John McCain in his book Worth Fighting For. “And because they incite public distrust they need to be addressed no less directly than we would address evidence of expressly illegal corruption.”

It was for reasons of appearances - not facts - that McCain aides in 1999 were reported as having attempted to distance the Senator from an attractive lobbyist that was half his age.

From what the New York Times and Washington Post are both reporting today in terms of substance it appears to me that the biggest threat the blonde haired, Vicki Iseman presented was the appearance of hypocrisy in McCain's push for ethics standards.

For the NYTimes to intimate more than that - without hard evidence - is appalling but not surprising given the Times' political bias and bent.

If it WAS completely out of the norm for Senator McCain to write such "highly unusual" letters to the FCC as chairman of the committee that had oversight then the case could be made I suppose that he was mysteriously motivated for action on the matter regarding Paxon Communications, but the fact that the letters don't seem to ask for a resolution one way or the other seems to indicate that McCain is telling the truth when it comes to the substance of the charges.

One last word... McCain better steel himself. He has had the free-est of free rides these last eight years. He was the media's darling as long as he was opposing the "evil" President Bush. But that ship has sailed, that affair over, and he had best be ready for every skeleton in his closet, every vote and action he has taken, and every moment of his private life to be revealed.

Because the NYTimes and others will see to it that they are...

Suddenly struck with the need to express patriotism two days ago Michelle Obama confessed that for the first time in her adult lifetime (an interesting time frame that she limited it to don't you think), she was proud of America.

Yesterday she attempted to clarify speaking to WJAR-TV:

What I was clearly talking about was that I'm proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process," she said. "For the first time in my lifetime, I'm seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven't seen and really trying to figure this out — and that's the source of pride that I was talking about," she added.

The problem for Michelle is that she is both right AND wrong.

Yes she was expressing pride in how people were engaging in the political process. But if that's all she was speaking about then she was lying when she said on Monday that it was unrelated to the Presidential campaign and the political process of picking our next President.

But I believe she also exhausted. The campaign has run long, and in a moment of weakness as a progressive liberal she actually...

told...

the truth!

She was speaking from the heart - the clip is clear in how that is portrayed. And so she was being honest when she said that for the first time she was proud. Because - she either couldn't remember, or possibly did not feel pride - when the NYPD and FDNY went up the stairs in the Twin Towers as everyone else was leaving. Being so hostile towards our troops and the mission they are on to protect and secure our future liberty - it is very possible she felt not one ounce of pride in the performance our military troops have turned in - in the Global War on Terror.

Perhaps because of her hate for republicans she felt nothing when the Berlin wall fell, and Communism was defeated.

Maybe she feels nothing at all about the rate of home ownership of Blacks over the last eight years to present day (the all time highest rate of African American families actually owning their own home in the history of the nation.)

Maybe none of the progress made before she stepped on that stage did mean anything to her... so in telling the truth, speaking from the heart, she let us all in on a little peek of what she really thinks.

From the standpoint of running a campaign - of course she misspoke. But from being just who she is - she sounded quite authentic to me.

Proving that some parents should have their children taken away from them even into their teens, the trainwreck that is Lindsay Lohan's mother spoke out today on her feelings about Lindsay's fully nude photo shoot that is in this month's New York magazine:

"It was very tastefully done... I looked at it as art, and as Lindsay doing a character. So I don't look at them like it's Playboy; she was being a character. So if you look at it that way, you can look at it as a mother. Trust me, I wouldn't have sent my 14-year-old to the set [if the shoot was in bad taste]. And obviously Lindsay wouldn't do anything with her sister there, that was risqu... Lindsay really saw it as a gift back to someone. Lindsay did 250 crunches before because she was nervous since she had never done anything like that before."

Nothing really grates on my nerves more than for men to talk, huff, pout and stamper like little girls. And the opening men's night on American Idol has to be one of the most disappointing openers in the seven years the hit has been on Prime Time television.

Danny and Colton (pictured above) did Elvis tunes (*ahemmmm) and both acted like girls before they sang and after the judges began to give them feedback.

There were several other guys that did complete panzy performances so basically all night long we were waiting for some sort of man - to come out and sing, sound, speak, and look like -  A MAN!

This added to the aspect that was revealed last week that at least four of the top 24 of this year's class have already been in the record industry and rejected - leaves all of us wondering if the "best class ever" that the show's producers keep putting into the buzz mill have any teeth to them.

I think Danny and Colton will probably be gone fairly early in the competition - they are wearing their girlness a little too proudly like a chip on their shoulder and that will grow to annoy just about everybody. Girls will find them too catty. Guys will not relate to them at all. And normal parents who want their boys to grow up to be men will probably just fast forward the DVR through their portions...

On a positive from tonight's performances - the final act:  Michael Johns nearly redeemed the night. Unfortunately he was having to overcome 11 of the most forgettable acts - including several queens that American Idol has put on stage!

Vote Michael Up tonight 866.IDOLS.12!

Hope and Change, Change and Hope, night of Hope, night of Change - are you inspired?

Sure compared to the pasty white blandness that is all things Clinton Inc. it sounds like a revival meeting in a tent at the edge of town under the summer moon.

Or at least so say the voters of Wisconsin - among nearly every category of voter. Obama won:

Blacks
Men
Women (51-49)
All age groups under 65
All education levels
All regions of the state -- urban, suburban and rural
Voters without college degrees (50-48)
Democrats (50-49)
Whites (53-46)
White men (59-38)
Voters who decided in the last week (58-42)

Won or tied voters of all income levels
Tied among white women
Tied among union members
Tied among union households

The bad night will likely continue - because as these results are being reported - Hawaiian caucuses will be getting under way. Hawaii is Obama's birth state.

The Lovely Bride had just this Christmas gotten me the new HD technology. Ah well... at least it makes our old regular DVD's look great until we can afford the Blu Ray...

Drats!

From today's Washington Times:

Mr. Geldof is an Irish rock and roll singer and longtime social activist who has helped, along with U2 rocker Bono, raise awareness about need in Africa. His most well known achievement is organizing the Live Aid concert in 1985, which raised money for debt relief for poor African countries.

But Mr. Geldof has remained closely engaged with African affairs since then, and he spoke off the cuff to reporters today who were waiting for a press conference with Mr. Bush and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement.

Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof, "has done more than any other president so far."

"This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion."

"What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.