Actually, not only Bob Dole. I guess John McCain is also more like Bill Clinton than we realized. He can’t raise money, but remarkably he can still raise something else. Anyway, so much for all those people defending Cindy McCain and her not being a trophy wife.

For more on Vicki Iseman, head on over to today’s New York Times article.

Laverne & Shirley? Really? Politics definitely won’t be cool again under Hillary. I think it’s safe to make that assumption after seeing her latest shitpile homemade supporter video. Enjoy…

Ben Dueholm of the Private Intellectual doing his best Mark Penn impersonation. Brilliant!

To: Interested Parties
From: Mark Penn
Re: Obama’s 75% Ceiling

While we heartily congratulate Senator Obama’s campaign on their Wisconsin victory, the final results must be less than heartening to the Obama campaign.

1) Obama has a ceiling of 75% of Democratic primary support. Barack Obama has consistently won primaries and caucuses with only 75% or less of the vote. In addition to effectively disenfranchising the at least 25% of the Democratic electorate that is not voting for him, the Obama camp cannot be happy that their candidate hasn’t reached 90% of the vote in any contest since the U.S. Virgin Islands on February 9…

It gets even better…

This is for both Chris Matthews and the Anti-Obama crowd that seems to be hanging out here at BTTF. This ain’t the Peach Pit! If you are going to roll with the phony argument about Barack Obama’s lack of experience, then either Google him and do some actual research or find a new place to kick it. Big hat tip to hilzoy and the Daily Dish:

Obama does have substantive legislative achievements. I have written more about them here. A few highlights, all of which became law:

* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate’s point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called “the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet.” I’m also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens’ Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.

* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)

* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc.

There are also a lot of good bills he worked on that did not make it, including the compromise immigration bill and a proposal to create an independent Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission, and some that are on the Senate calendar now, like a bill to criminalize various deceptive election tactics, like deceptive robocalls, providing misleading information about where to vote or what conditions you have to meet to be eligible to vote, etc.

There’s a lot more. Honestly, there is. I wrote a summary here (and an earlier one here), and provided lists (1, 2, 3) of all the bills and amendments sponsored or co-sponsored by Clinton and Obama in the 109th and 110th Congresses, just so it would be as easy as possible for people to see for themselves. (Fun fact about each side’s legislative records: during the 109th and 110th Congresses (which is to say, the time that both Obama and Clinton have been in the Senate), only one sponsored a substantive bill that became law. Guess who it was? Hint: the bill concerns the ongoing conflict in the Congo.) Which brings me to my larger point:

I did this because I had heard one too many people like Chris Matthews talking about Obama’s alleged lack of substance, and I thought: I know that’s not true, since I have read about Obama’s work on non-proliferation, avian flu, and a few other issues. And if people are saying he lacks substance, then surely I, as a citizen, should try to find out whether I just hallucinated all this interesting legislation, or whether this talking point was, in fact, completely wrong. So I sat down with Google and Thomas and tried to find out.

Looks like the Clinton camp, John McCain and all the neoconservative nutjobs out there need to find a new plan of attack.

Since it is looking more and more like Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee (don’t worry — we won’t stop our fight against the Clintons until they are done), I wanted to toss the idea of a Barack Obama-Bill Richardson ticket out there. Bill Richardson has a girth of experience, and would help Obama foriegn policy-wise and with Latinos in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas.

Yes, I understand that it is a Black-Hispanic pairing, but I think that they both transcend race. I also think that our country has moved past color when it comes to politics in most parts of the country. Both men were born here and are great Americans who have dedicated their lives to serving this country. I honestly think that they will not only be the right ticket for the country during these desperate times, but also for the rest of the world.

What does everyone else think about an Obama-Richardson ticket?

(hat tip: Barack and Bill)

Since I just finished watching the NBA All-Star game, I’ll use a basketball analogy here. This speech is Barack Obama rejecting the Clintons’ “just words” argument shot into the third row. Get that weak shit outta here!