Did it surprise anyone that Clinton took Pennsylvania? I’m willing to wager that the Obama camp wasn’t shocked she won the popular vote in that state either. The fact that the Obama camp hasn’t gotten it’s feathers ruffled by the defeat is what’s particularly bothersome.

Most of us knew Clinton would take Pennsylvania. Sometimes demographics don’t lie. She had a lock on the state’s voters long before the ballets were cast; older, white, and female. It was just a matter of determining the margin of victory.

What’s got me irked then?

Money.

Flush with cash, Obama reported spending $11.2 million on television in the state, more than any place else. That compared with $4.8 million for Clinton.

Wow. Obama sure spent a lot of cash on a state that was destined to sway towards Clinton. Not to mention, before the Penn. primary, it was statistically unlikely Clinton will win enough delegates to receive the Democratic nomination.

And from what I can determine, the vast amount of spending Obama put into this states primary could only mean one thing:

Obama has long since past the point of his race with Clinton as being just business. Now, it’s personal. It’s so personal that he’s willing to spend nearly 25% of his on hand cash on a state that was favoring Clinton from day one.

Now, who was saying something about Obama and Clinton becoming running mates? They better be put up in two White Houses then.

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Hillary took a 10 point lead over Obama in Pennsylvania last night, showing Obama still has trouble connecting with the middle class- especially in a place where the Clintons have strong roots and connections to local politicians.

But it’s not enough for Hillary to overcome the lead in votes that Obama has nationwide, and unless something impossibly catastrophic should happen to Obama in the near future, there’s virtually no chance that she will ever be able to make up that difference.

So with the race continuing on further still, and each Democratic Candidate throwing knockout style punches at each other with neither going down for the count, it will get only uglier still until something or someone puts a stop to it.

With the super-delegates still waiting in the wings to make their final decisions, will they side with Hillary who just refuses to die and who plays largely to the usual Dem base, or will they side with Obama and all the unusual votes he carries with him- hoping the base will fall in place behind any candidate come November- so long as it’s not a Republican?

And speaking of Republicans, what is John McCain up to while the Dems go tooth and claw?

…McCain, who compared the struggles of Youngstown to his own back-from-the-dead campaign, insisted that in the end workers would be better off through retraining and education programs in technology he has promised them as president.

“I can’t tell you that these jobs are ever going to come back to this magnificent part of the country,” Mr. McCain told another questioner, Sam Carbon, a student at Youngstown State, who asked Mr. McCain about how he planned to save American jobs. “But I will commit to giving these workers a second chance. They need it, they deserve it. I know that’s small comfort to you, but I can’t look you in the eye and tell you those steel mills are coming back.”

Mr. McCain, who was on the second day of a weeklong tour to the country’s “forgotten places” while his two Democratic competitors battled for the nomination in Pennsylvania, sought to strike an empathetic note in the midst of his sober message.

“I’ve been left recently in the unfamiliar position of facing no opposition within my own party,” Mr. McCain said in remarks before he took questions at the public forum, which was held at the university. “And as you might recall, it was a different story last year, when I could claim the unqualified support of Cindy and my mother — and my mom was starting to keep her options open.” (Cindy is Mr. McCain’s wife.)

“Back then,” Mr. McCain continued, “there were some very impressive front-runners, there was a very formidable second tier of contenders, and then there was me.”

Despite being written off as “a hopeless cause,” Mr. McCain said, “a person learns along the way that if you hold on, if you don’t quit no matter what the odds, sometimes life will surprise you. Sometimes you get a second chance, and opportunity turns back your way. And when it does, we are stronger and readier because of all that we had to overcome.”

Mr. McCain added: “I bring up all this today, my friends, because the men and women of Youngstown know what it feels like to be counted out. You’ve been written off a few times yourselves, in the competition of the market. You know how it feels to hear that good things are happening in the American economy — they’re just not happening to you.”

Afterward, Mr. Carbon, a Republican, said that Mr. McCain’s answer had partly satisfied him, and that he would vote for him in November. He said he understood that manufacturing jobs would not return, but “I was looking for more about his views on tariffs and taxes on imported things.”

McCain’s vote for, and continued support of NAFTA, which is a program many in places like Youngstown hold responsible for the loss of American working class jobs in the first place, left many bitter, and some believe was a cause for him losing primaries to Mitt Romney who spoke out for change of NAFTA in areas that had been hit hard by the loss of factory jobs. But with talk of re-education and replacement jobs for those workers, he may win some of those folks back.

Of course… education is not exactly something America is excelling at, at this very moment- something no Candidate is really talking about.

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And it’s no surprise, they wind up looking quite foolish.
Last night on WWE’s wrestling program Raw, the candidates had been invited, and accepted the offer, to appear on the show and address the audience as part of WWE’s “Smackdown your vote” campaign, and in a last ditch bid for a few more votes in the candidate’s media blitz the night before the biggest of the remaining primary elections.

I don’t think there’s much I can say that showing the clips themselves won’t say better.

And then to make it all the more ridiculous- WWE went ahead and scheduled a match between “Hillary Clinton” w/ “Bill” and “Barack Obama”.

Admittedly… the Bill impersonator was pretty funny.

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Plain and simple, Michael Moore is standing by Obama. On his website, he posted a letter explaining why:

I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there’s a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word “Democratic” next to the candidate’s name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name under the Big “D” is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Right, so in general, many of us are just looking for anyone but a Republican in office next year.

But why Obama, Mr. Moore?

…over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I’ve watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name “Farrakhan” out of nowhere, well that’s when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the “F” word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama’s pastor does — AND the “church bulletin” once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

So… Clinton’s pulling out some dirty cards that show her as the evil hag she is… and?

There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong on this or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

Moore is identifying the momentum that’s swelling around Obama… a momentum that’s unifying a country… not polarizing. Apparently, a vote4 for Obama is a vote for something larger than one person. Recognizing the unification surrounding Obama is the most important point of his letter and why we should care.

Take a peak at the complete letter here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

erm… Make that Capital Hill.  Well, in a roundabout way.  They’re starting in California.

On Monday Vets of OIF, OEF, and other U.S. wars will be heading to federal court after filing a lawsuit that states they have not been receiving proper medical care since they’re deployments.

The lawsuit before a judge in U.S. District Court for Northern California claims the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was unable to deal with the growing number of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, cases emerging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Unless systemic and drastic measures are instituted immediately, the costs to these veterans, their families, and our nation will be incalculable, including broken families, a new generation of unemployed and homeless veterans, increases in drug abuse and alcoholism, and crushing burdens on the health care delivery system and other social services in our communities,” the suit said.

Some of those in the suit say they have suffered from PTSD for many years, even before the most recent wars highlighted the fate of many Americans who served in difficult combat abroad.

Those saying the VA failed them include Barbara Bachmeier, 54, who reports she was sexually harassed and raped in South Korea in the 1980s while working in military intelligence for the U.S. Army, and then received insufficient care.

“I was having all these various flashbacks and nightmares,” the Alaska resident said in an interview. “But the VA does not want to pay disability payments unless they really have to.”

“Their attitude is not what can we do to help you,” she said, explaining she once considered suicide. “It was very difficult to navigate the VA system.”

In proceedings that could last through May 1, the court will hear testimony not from former service members such as Bachmeier, but from administrators and officials involved in the system.

“He (the judge) can’t actually make decisions about individual issues and while having a veteran talking about their individual experiences is emblematic of the problem, it’s not particularly useful for the judge because he needs to hear about systemic problems,” said Kasey Corbit, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.

How this will play out in court remains to be seen- but if nothing else it will shine an even bigger spotlight on a very real, long term, continuing problem that is plaguing troops today.

We’ll continue our coverage on this case as it happens until it’s conclusion- for better or worse.

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