Empty threat

Occasionally on my way home from work I tune into WRKO's Michelle McPhee, partly because I like her outrage on behalf of perceived wrongdoing and partly to learn how the moderate right wing is thinking. McPhee's rhetoric is far from the hate mongers (Jay Severin and Michael Savage for instance) who share time slots on the channel, so she is usually bearable to listen to. But other times, she can be willfully blind to all the evidence against her point, and clearly just trying to press her agenda for making John McCain the next president. Sometimes it seems she shills as hard for McCain as other radio hosts shill for a show's sponsored vinyl-siding vendor or window replacement company.

Tonight she dredged up the ghost of Jeremiah Wright, yet again. McPhee's attempt to keep the ex-pastor in Obama's ex-church relevant felt as fresh and newsworthy as last week's potato salad. But I suppose he makes good radio with his years-old over-the-top sermons. And I expect her and other McCain supporters to bring him up again and again as the November election nears. He's a perfect villain for voters who treat any criticism of this country as blasphemy or treason. (And also those who choose their candidate based on a lapel pin.) But what's Wright got to do with Obama now?

Obama left the church. It's over. And by November that Jeremiah Wright potato salad is going to be well past its expiration date. The more the Republicans try to bring back the ghost of Rev. Wright, the more accountable they will have to be for the skeletons in McCain's closet.

Quid pro quo... or tit for tat

Slate's John Dickerson brings up an interesting question: How did Barack Obama win the support of former candidate Bill Richardson?

Dickerson suggests the two pols might have worked out a deal, where Obama gets the endorsement, while Richardson gets picked as the vice presidential nominee or wins a cabinet role if Obama is elected.

It's not hard to imagine Richardson as Obama's running mate.

The current governor of New Mexico's long resume would add experience to the Democratic ticket, and his Mexican heritage would help bring the Latino vote into the fold.

But, I think there may be other factors at play.

Maybe the governor felt miffed by Hillary Clinton's suggestion that Obama would make a fine vice presidential candidate, on her ticket.

After all, this winter, Clinton was making similar (and maybe more realistic back then) invitations to Richardson.

Of course, most people saw Clinton's suggestion that Obama take the VP slot as a ploy, rather than a genuine invitation.

But maybe Richardson felt passed over by the former front-runner, and wanted to let her know she can't have it both ways.

Or maybe after Clinton used the hypothetical VP pick to undermine Obama, the New Mexico governor looked back at her hints this December with a new set of glasses.

When compliments become condescending, the formerly flattered might feel miffed.

And this wonderfully written piece in the New York Times shows just how pissed the Clintons were about the endorsement - and that Richardson knew perfectly well how the former first lady would see it.

Ferraro flap

Whether by chance or design, Barack Obama and his supporters have been lured into attacking former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.

That is a mistake, because on the face of it, there is not a real argument you can pick with Ferraro's original comment.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color), he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." - Ferraro as quoted in the Daily Breeze

It is a ridiculous argument to make, either for or against it.

Obama is neither of the two, and nothing Ferraro says is ever going to change that.

Obama could have turned ignored it or spun it around into something positive, but he, and more importantly his supporters, took the bait, and Ferraro started reeling in.

Because of the back and forth between the two campaigns, it Ferraro's comments may have sounded like another over-the-top insult, like "monster" or Kenneth Starr.

But they weren't.

And by responding to it as though it were an overt attack, the Obama camp starts to sound paranoid about his ethnicity.

Sure, Ferraro's comments are dismissive of Obama's candidacy, but they are rooted in a Bizarro world, so they are meaningless and without substance, a glimmer of nothing.

Responding to the comments just gives them more validity, and - worse for Obama - more play in the news.

Plus, now Ferraro has gone out on a limb claiming any criticism of Obama's campaign is considered racist, which is bound to be supported by the public's response to this skirmish.

Ferraro knew what she was doing: Make a seemingly harmless comment about Obama's race in the middle of a food fight between the two campaigns.

The only way for Obama to avoid race baiting is to not bite the worm.

The ugly worm of race-baiting

This week, Barack Obama responded to anonymous rumors that could only be described as libelous because they appeal to an anti-Muslim bias, that has run rampant in this country.

I don't know which is sadder, that false allegations about a candidate's religion could turn voters away from him, or that a national newspaper would give validity to those rumors in a front-page story.

These rumors have reportedly circulated by e-mail since at least October.

Because these false allegations rely on religious bias in order to have a negative effect on the Illinois senator, they reflect badly on the country as a whole.

In somewhat related news, the MSNBC panel said they were taken aback by the way race was injected into the South Carolina race by former President Bill Clinton.

MSNBC played a clip where Clinton took a question about his questionable tactics and turned it around to talk about how another black presidential candidate had won South Carolina more than 20 years ago.

Two soft spots for Obama campaign

Second choice votes were key to Barack Obama's victory in the Iowa primary, as the Chicago Sun Times noted, so Hillary Clinton's win over him in New Hampshire should not have been surprising. While the Iowa results showed that Obama has a smart and organized group of people working for him, it was not the conclusive win it was made out to be.

Now that Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd have dropped out of the race, Obama has a chance to once again claim those candidates' second-choice votes. But while rumors circulated (denied here) about Richardson sending second-choice votes to Obama, it remains an open question who Richardson or Dodd supporters will now move toward.

I think the Richardson folks will probably go to Clinton's camp, because both those candidates touted their experience in government.

Now, if John Edwards drops out, his supporters would probably split between Obama and Dennis Kucinich. Edwards has given Clinton such a hard time during the debates that it seems unlikely many of them could continue to hold a candle for Clinton.

But it seems even less conceivable that Edwards would drop out before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, when a more conclusive victor will probably emerge.

After the Democratic party does choose I winner, I think Richardson has the best chance at being picked as a running mate, but more on that later.

It isn't easy being Dean

Watching some live C-Span coverage just now, I heard Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, do a riff on something Barack Obama said last night after winning in Iowa.

I'm not sure if Dean intentionally mimicked Obama, but the result was pretty funny.

My approximation of what Obama said in his victory speech:

"There are no red states and there are no blue states, these are the United States."

And here's what I heard Dean just say:

"There are no red states, there are no blue states, there is America; purple states."

New Year's Predic -- Holy Shit!

I had started writing some New Year's predictions when I saw the latest Des Moines Register poll, putting Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton by 7 percentage points, 32 to 25. John Edwards has caught up to the New York senator too.

So I had to throw out my prediction that Clinton wins the nomination and chooses Bill Richardson as running mate. Now it's all up in the air.

If Obama wins it, he will have pulled off something akin to the Red Sox come from behind victory over the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

The Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series that year.

Watch, if Obama starts winning in Iowa and New Hampshire, he will build up a lot of momentum.

The poll also showed Mike Huckabee in the lead with 32 percent of the vote. Huckabee will probably win the Iowa caucuses, but who knows what might happen in New Hampshire, where John McCain and Mitt Romney are more viable candidates.

Oprah for Obama

The New York Times today reported Oprah Winfrey's appearance for Barack Obama, Sunday, drew more than 29,000 people, "one of the largest (crowds) seen before even a general election."

It was Boston Phoenix columnis Steven Stark, however, who first reported - to my knowledge - Oprah's pending endorsement and the significance it might have for Obama's candidacy.