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- The Michigan Primary is tomorrow, and while Hillary Clinton will face off only against a formidable candidate known as "undeclared" (the same guy beat Jimmy Carter in Iowa in 1976) the Republicans are all on the ballot. Mitt Romney is mobilizing all of his bamboozlement reserves in a last ditch effort to reinvigorate his flagging candidacy. Romney pretty much promised everyone in Michigan their very own captive terrorist (helpful for household chores) and, when asked how exactly he would accomplish this, flipped out. Maybe he needs to up the Prozac dosage...
- If Romney wins, it'll be in some small part due to Democrats who are agreement with this message. I do like my Republicans rich, desperate, and lashing out like a drunken frat boy.
- Pro-life protesters in Florida, meanwhile, seem determined to kick the crutches out from under the already-ailing Giuliani candidacy, tear off its bandages, and rub its wounds with salt. Who'd have thought I'd ever be grateful to people waving posters of aborted fetuses?
- Mike Huckabee doesn't want to hurt anyone, he just wants to make Fred Thompson more regular (his bowels anyway). You know a candidate isn't being taken seriously when his opponent's biggest criticism is that he isn't getting enough dietary fiber.
- Huckabee is being taken seriously, to the extent that he's the target of anonymous emails claiming he hates Catholics. I'm sure he's thrilled.
- John McCain may be regular (I don't really want to know), but he does seem to have a small problem with, um, fraud. It seems he promised not to divulge the personal information of donors to third parties, but then turned around and used his email list as collateral for a loan. Now that's a Maverick!
- On the Democratic side the race card hasn't just been played, it's been put in the middle of the table, laminated, and bedazzled. First up, odious conservative shill and Clinton supporter Bob Johnson took a shot at Barack Obama's drug use that was about as thinly veiled as Britney Spears, and then issued a denial that's notable for it's anger, incoherence and total contempt for our intelligence. My favorite part was when he tried to dispel impressions of racial bias... by comparing Obama to Sidney Poitier in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Steve Benen rounds up other oft-cited examples of alleged race-baiting and grades them from one to five Hortons. Ben Smith has another roundup , as does Josh Marshall. The Huffington Post has Obama's response. If I had to bet, I'd say this will help Obama as much as the sexist nonsense around Clinton's crying helped her. Noam Scheiber disagrees.
- In case all of this wasn't enough to erase the good will that won Clinton the New Hampshire primary, there's also a controversy over her campaign's attempts to muddy Obama's antiwar cred. David Corn surveys the evidence and comes down pretty hard on HRC's claims. Also see Matt Ygelsias.
- This isn't an attack, but if I were a Clinton staffer, I wouldn't brag to Ryan Lizza that she will win Nevada because Latinos historically don't like black people. That just can't be a helpful thing to say.
- It's not all bad news for Clinton though; she's been endorsed by America! Unfortunately for Clinton, that's not the nation of 300+ million people, but America Ferrara, the TV actress better known as Ugly Betty.
- Washington Post grand-high pundit man Chris Cillizza posts a chiding letter from Stuart Rothenberg about the exaggerated importance placed on endorsements. It's this kind of thing that makes Cillizza a good source -- he's very willing to question his assumptions.
- Think campaign coverage is messed up? So do I, but I'm not as good at explaining why as Chris Hayes, which is why it's a good thing that he's on NPR's excellent On The Media, not me.
--Sam Boyd
