by James Oliphant

LOGAN, W. Va-- Little Logan got the full Hillary Monday.

Speaking to a crowd of close to 1,000 people in this mountainous West Virginia coal town, Clinton delivered a kitchen sink of a speech, conflating all of the various themes she has employed during this extended Democratic presidential competition.

Was there the newest incarnation, Hillary Clinton Mellencamp, the small-town populist who never stops fighting?

Check, complete with soundtrack ("Small Town," "Check It Out," "Our Country"). She talked tough about oil producers and the high price of gas, saying "When I'm president, you aren't gonna see me holdin' hands with the Saudis, you're gonna see me holdin' them accountable.")

by Rick Pearson

LOUISVILLE -- "It's been awhile since I've been to Louisville," Sen. Barack Obama said Monday night in his opening remarks to several thousand people at a rally at the Kentucky International Convention center.

Indeed, it was only days after Obama announced his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Ill., in February 2007, that the Illinois Democrat traveled to Louisville for two of his first official campaign fundraising events that also drew thousands of people.

"It has been 15 months since I first announced that I was running for the presidency of the United States of America and that's a long time in politics," Obama told the crowd. "There are now babies who were born and are walking and talking."

Projecting himself as the presumed nominee, Obama told the audience that was "proud of the campaign that we've run." At the same time, he acknowledged "there's been times where we lost a sense of what this campaign was about" before he said the message was turned back into a positive one.

by James Oliphant

CHARLESTON, W.Va.-Here's an interesting passage from the speech Barack Obama gave today on helping America's veterans.

Some of the most inspiring are those you meet at places like Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They're young men and women who may have lost a limb or even their ability to take care of themselves, but they will never lose the pride they feel for their country. They're not interested in self-pity, but yearn to move forward with their lives. And it's this classically American optimism that makes you realize the quality of person we have serving in the United States Armed Forces.

This, after all, is what led them to wear the uniform in the first place - their unwavering belief in the idea of America. The idea that no matter where you come from, or what you look like, or who your parents are, this is the place where anything is possible; where anyone can make it; where we look out for each other, and take care of each other; where we rise and fall as one nation - as one people.

This earned him his most sustained applause of the address, culminating in a standing ovation. And it makes one wonder that when Obama was talking about "no matter where you come from, or what you look like, or who your parents are, this is a place where anything is possible" whether he was including himself in that lot, with a shot at those who have questioned whether a man of his diverse heritage can be considered a true patriot.

by Frank James

You know all those military recruiting ads you've been seeing during nationally televised sports events, like the one with the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon which, through the miracle of digital editing, appears to be going though its paces on Hoover Dam, by the Golden Gate Bridge and atop a giant desert butte? (It's one of my favorites. Sends patriotic chills up my spine.)

Apparently, such ads are doing the trick in terms of recruiting young men and women into the armed forces in more than sufficient numbers.

Once again, Defense Department officials reported that they outdid themselves in April in terms of recruiting.

This is from an American Forces Press Service story:

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2008 - All military services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for April, with the Marine Corps recruiting 142 percent of its goal, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said here today.

In the re-enlistment arena, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps met or exceeded their active-duty retention objectives. "The Air Force still faces challenges, but they still seem able to meet their year-end strength goals," Whitman said.

by Don Frederick

As 11-year-old Dalton Hatfield set about selling his earthly possessions, his parents thought he was doing his part to help pay for a family vacation.

Instead, he was doing his part to help his favored presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. And on Friday, the young fellow made news when he presented a stunned Bill Clinton with a check for $440.

The former president, according an Associated Press story on the occasion, "seemed to nearly come to tears" as he accepted the donation at a fire station in Williamson, W.Va. (one of the many off-the-beaten-path locales where he has been rallying support for his wife).

The Hillary Clinton campaign, understandably, was so taken with the boy's gesture that today it posted the AP story on its website. Every little bit helps, after all, when it comes to erasing the $20-million debt that the campaign acknowledged on Sunday.

Killjoys that we are, we checked federal regulations just to make sure everything was on the up-and-up with Hatfield's contribution. And we are relieved to report ...

that it passes muster.

Andrew Zajac

One more sign congressional Republicans may be in for a rough ride this election season: Democrats are fielding strong candidates in GOP breadbasket districts, like the western Miami-Dade county redoubt of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Diaz-Balart cruised to victory in 2006 with nearly 59 percent of the vote, but he faces an energetic and savvy challenger in Democratic operative Joe Garcia, who is wasting no time in zinging the GOP incumbent as obsessed with Castro at the expense of bread-and-butter economic issues.

In the not-too-distant past, no Castro obsession was too strong for the rabidly anti-Fidel exile community in south Florida. But the 1960s-era generation of exiles is aging and their children and grandchildren don't always take the same rock-hard line toward Cuba.

Garcia himself has the street cred to call out Diaz-Balart on Cuba because he is a former director of the ardently anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation.

Click here for a taste of what Garcia's throwing at the Diaz-Balart -- and at his brother, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who occupies a neighboring seat and holds similar Cuban policy views.

Updated with Kulongoski, Clinton spokesmen quotes.

by Jim Tankersley

PORTLAND, Ore. - John McCain got an unexpected boost in his bid to woo independent and Democratic voters here this afternoon: a shared stage with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Kulongoski is a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. So local reporters were stunned to see him turn up at wind-power firm Vestas near Portland International Airport along with McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The event, a major speech on global warming, was designed to pitch McCain's environmental views to moderate western voters.

The governor didn't mention McCain in his brief remarks. Instead, he introduced Jens Soby, the president of Vestas, and promoted Oregon's attempts to be "the renewable (energy) capital of America."

Soby introduced McCain, who did not miss the chance to thank Kulongoski and use his presence to push a second independent-wooing pitch: his ability to work across party lines.

McCain lauded Kulongoski - a former Marine who attends every funeral for an Oregon serviceman or woman killed in Iraq - for his military service. He called him "a great governor" whose leadership had lured Vestas to Oregon.

"As president of the United States," McCain said, "I will sit down with Gov. Ted Kulongoski and all of the governors of this country, whether they are Democrat or Republican, and work for the betterment of the nation."

Update, 7:06 p.m.: Kulongoski's spokesman, Anna Richter Taylor,, said Vestas' president asked the governor to attend - at a time when the company is weighing where to locate a new research and development center. "Today was not about presidential politics for the governor," she said. "It was about a company that's very important to Oregon and an issue that's very important to our state and this nation."

A Clinton campaign spokesman, Isaac Baker, said the senator is "proud to have Gov. Kulongoski's strong support. He knows Hillary has the most aggressive plan to combat global warming and move America toward energy independence."

by James Oliphant

CHARLESTON, W. Va--In his only scheduled appearance in West Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama Monday kept his remarks focused on a single theme: helping America's veterans.

Speaking to about 1,000 people at the Charleston Civic Center and flanked by some of his military advisers, Obama said the country had fallen short in making sure veterans of the armed forces had adequate health care and specifically called for increased resources for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The single-issue speech was yet another sign that Obama has cast his gaze forward, delivering a message tailored for the general election. There was only passing mention of the pocketbook issues that Sen. Hillary Clinton has been pounding during her extended tour of the state.

Obama only referenced Clinton once, acknowledging the she would likely gain "many more" votes in Tuesday's primary here, but from there segued into a call for party unity.

by John Riley

Chuck Schumer, at a Crain's Breakfast in New York City, sounds a note of optimism about the viability of an Obama/Clinton ticket:

"At first I thought it wasn't but I do think it could be."

About voters: "They're worried, and they want somebody to come in and say I can help a little bit you with healthcare, and paying for college, and all these things, and a Democratic candidate is more likely to do it. Hillary and Barack have both run very strong and great races, and I think they'd be a strong ticket together."

It's possible that's what he really thinks. But a lot of things -- the difficulty of selling the first black and the first woman in the same year; the lack of national security credentials; the idea that Hillary would spend eight years with less power than she had as First Lady or Senator; the fundamental disagreement on health care; the risks of Bill floating on the outskirts of a ticket and an administration -- counsel against the idea.

So what else could Schumer be up to?

Maybe the idea that a little flattery, and the ability to turn down the v-p slot, is part of what it'll take to ease Clinton out of the race....

John Riley writes the Spin Cycle blog for Newsday

by Frank James

Here's some news that may help the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama get through what's expected to be a difficult couple of primaries tomorrow and next Tuesday in West Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. Gallup says he's pulling ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton in its national polling for the first time in three weeks.

Among Democratic voters, Obama has a seven-point lead, 50 percent versus 43 percent, in its polling over Clinton, Gallup said. Here's a snippet.

Although Obama did not achieve an immediate bounce in national Democratic support after last week's primary elections in Indiana and North Carolina, it could be that the subsequent political punditry, proclaiming the Clinton campaign is effectively over, is affecting voters.

Not good for Clinton, certainly. But there was still a nugget of good news for Clinton which was bad news for Sen. John McCain, the all but official Republican nominee.

by Bay Fang

The first U.S. military aid flight landed in Burma's capital city of Yangon on Monday, but a US official cited "massive concern" about supplies getting to the approximately 1.5 million people waiting for help in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta.

The director of U.S. foreign disaster assistance, Ky Luu, said the US plans to track the emergency supplies - water, mosquito nets and blankets - it flew in on a C-130 cargo plane, but appealed to the military government to allow disaster experts into the country.

Myanmar's ruling junta has given permission for just two more C-130 flights, but Luu said the US was prepared to give much more. It has thus far refused to grant visas to foreign aid workers waiting in Bangkok.

Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, who accompanied the supplies, told a news conference at an airbase in Thailand before taking off, "We're limited only by the permission from the authorities in Burma."

by Frank James

In case you missed Saturday Night Live's latest (and we hope not the last) skit featuring "Sen. Hillary Clinton," here it is. SNL cast member Amy Poehler, as Clinton, gives three reasons why she should be the Democratic nominee. I won't spoil the jokes by giving them away.

Andrew Zajac

Faced with a scandal-soiled attorney general who won't go away, the Ohio Democratic Party is trying a 'if you can't beat Marc Dann, erase him' strategy.

Click here to get to the ODP web site. Then click on 'elected officials'.

Whoa. Where's Marc Dann?

There's a statement on the front page of the web site from top Democrats asking Dann to step down, but his bio listing is gone.

Here's some background on why Ohio Dems are so eager to see Dann disappear.

The Democrats attempted erasure recalls those old Kremlin group photos in which a commissar or field marshal who'd fallen from favor was airbrushed out of the pic.

Except in those cases, the pariah really was gone, to the gulag, the grave or, if he was lucky, to a gilded confinement at his dacha.

Dann's still around, vowing to ride out the heat from both parties. But it's hard to imagine an end game that works out favorably for him. One factor in his intransigence may be lack of another job. Word is that Dann has been calling around to various Ohio politicos looking for a place to land.

Sen. Barack Obama looks over notes while waiting for his introduction during a May 10, 2008 rally in Bend, Oregon. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

by Jim Tankersley

BEND, Ore. - Central Oregon doesn't see many presidential candidates, particularly Democrats, which perhaps explains why a rocking high school crowd this weekend let Barack Obama get away with a cardinal sin around these parts: Expressing a desire to move in.

Twenty years ago, Bend was a sleepy little cowboy town that doubled as a jumping-off point for some of America's best skiing (Mt. Bachelor), rafting (the Deschutes River) and backpacking (the Cascade Range). Then the yuppies discovered it and realized they could live a short drive away from all those things. Some came from Portland three hours north, some from California. Most brought money, which fueled a huge wave of building and sent housing prices soaring. The newcomers and some city annexations served to quadruple the town's population over two decades.

And so, when the Obama campaign and the national press descended on Bend this weekend and marveled at the crisp air, the sagebrush smells and the snow-capped mountain views, the general, only half-joking response from the local press was, yes, it's a great place. But you'd hate living here. Please, please don't move here.

Obama took multiple opportunites to admire his surroundings. "You guys have some pretty real estate out here," he said at the beginning of his speech at Summit High School, a fairly new building that serves a side of town that barely existed in the mid-1990s. "I'd like to stick around. Who's going to teach me fishing?"

The crowd cheered its approval. Somewhere, we're sure, some native Central Oregonians grumbled.

Hillary Clinton hasn't hit Central Oregon yet, but if she comes back before the state's May 20 voting deadline, we suggest a new slogan: Vote for me. I'll keep you a secret.

Former Rep. Bob Barr at a news conference to announce his presidential candidacy, May 12, 2008 in Washington, DC. Also pictured (L-R) are political advisor Russ Verney, Barr's wife Jeri, and Barr's son Derek. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

by Frank James

Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman made it official today. He's running for the White House, aiming for the Libertarian Party's nomination.

Barr, a former federal prosecutor, is probably best remembered as one of the leaders of the Republican House's impeachment efforts against the President Bill Clinton for committing perjury during a grand jury investigation of the president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

The former Georgia congressman has written off his old party, however. He's been a critic of the Bush Administration over what he has seen as violations of constitutionally protected civil liberties as it pursues the war of terror.

As a believer in small-government, he has rebuked the present administration for the growth of the government on its watch, as well as the expanding deficit-spending and borrowing from abroad to finance the government's expenditures.

What's more, he has been very upset by Bush's Iraq invasion which he views as an example of the dangers that can result from an overly large, aggressive federal government.

At his Washington press conference this morning, he offered his candidacy because he won't be the "status quo" candidate or the "lesser of two evils." He senses Americans want someone "who will stand up to the forces here in Washington, somebody who is not a part of that fraternity that has given us the crop of current candidates. Somebody who will stand up as precious few presidents have to the powers in Washington who want more, more, more and say no."

by Christi Parsons

This isn't the ad that won a recent MoveOn.org Political Action contest, as determined by a panel that included Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, John Legend and Naomi Wolf.

The winner, which the progressive group will air in presidential battleground states, features a veteran and lifelong Republican talking about why he's voting for Barack Obama.

But the panel did see fit to name this piece -- suggesting that Obama fever is passed on by, well, human contact -- the funniest entry.

By Don Frederick

Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.

But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in St. Paul at the beginning of September.

Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated a month ago in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.

Don Frederick writes the Top of the Ticket blog for the LA Times