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Samantha Power was resigned from the Obama campaign after publicly calling Clinton a “monster.” This seems a bit much since she had also offered an apology, but obviously the Obama people aren’t letting this story gain legs. It’s a pity though - Power is deeply impressive, one of those people on his team whose presence really made him an attractive candidate. It’s stunning that Obama’s two most publicly famous policy advisers - Power and economic powerhouse Austan Goolsbee - have incited negative coverage through unintentional mal mots, and that the Clinton campaign has been willing to aggressivley target them. But then, when you’re trying to paint someone as lacking in substance, it’s understandable that you would want to dissociate him from two broadly respected public intellectuals. I’m sure she’ll continue on in an unofficial capacity, and I have little doubt that she’ll end up in the State Department at some level upon his election.

Who will he pick?  Dunno, obviously.  He needs to back up his national security bona fides, which would seem to discount Sebelius, though I wouldn’t quite say she;s out of the running.  Lee Hamilton will probably continue on as a senior foreign policy adviser and could be in the running for D.O.D.  He’s just too old to be vice president.  Clark is too much in the Clinton’s corner and I doubt he’ll be on the short list.  If Obama could get Chuck Hagel to keep mum on social and welfare issues, it’s a promising pick, and one that I’d be enthusiastic about.  But the likeliest, to my mind? Biden, Biden, Biden.  He has creds, not youth but certainly vigor, vast congressional experience, and will be a good attack dog if needed.  We’ll see.

McCain’s vastly underreported finance shennanigans — he used the promise of public funds as collateral to secure a bank loan during the dark days of his campaign and now wants to opt out of public financing - also has a vastly underreported sub-story.  The FEC is unable to rule on the matter since they can’t achieve a quorum, the result of longstanding disputes between Bush and Congress.  Bush keeps nominating GOP partisans and the Senate keeps holding them up.  Thus there seems no authoritative ruling on McCain’s transgression.  I’m very surprised indeed that it hasn’t been widely reported that one of Bush’s nominees to the FEC is in fact unconfirmed due to a hold placed by - who? - Senator Obama.

Can anybody name a previous election in America where two Senators used their Congressional powers in their battle for the Presidency?  I’m not suggesting Obama’s hold is aimed at McCain - it clearly predates him and it would be hypocritical to remove it based on the shifted political terrain.  Still, it will be exciting to see how the powers of a Senate seat come to play in their wrangling.

This TNR piece on Obama’s policy advisers is a must-read. While his politics and record are what brought me around to supporting him, it’s the people he surrounds himself with that sealed the deal. What makes the Obama phenomenon seem far more than superficial - and seem, in fact, something of unusual substance - is the consistency that carries through from the rhetoric, to the temperament, to the politics, to the policy. The man’s certainly flawed, but there’s a principled, pragmatic thread that seems to knit through the entire operation: an unusual plus.

Cuba’s been on my mind lately.  And not only because, had I opted to go there instead of Cali for my vacation last week (went so far as to pick the flights), I would have had an interesting seat to witness Castro’s supposed abdication.  Raul may be the “elected” successor, and certainly a lot of operational power is on shifting ground, but for the time being at least it looks like not much will change.  Still, as has been widely noted, the Cuba apologists are using this as an opportunity to talk about the upsides of Castro.  The only upside I can discern — and the very one I was prepared to take advantage of — is the sort of agnostalgic quality that tropical Latin American culture takes on when all of the automobiles are forty years old [see: Before Night Falls].  The other things great about Cuba are not, to my mind, anything to do with Castro or with communism.

Anyway, the whole “upsides” of Castro thing took me back to college, when I was less certain on the issue.  I had a sociology class, which in retrospect was a comically stereotypical instance of a lefty professor “teaching” as legitimate theory what was merely his personal opinion.  I can recall him showing a video refuting the “myth” that Castro was a bad guy, which included lots of scenes of young Cuban children talking about how happy they were to live in Cuba, how cool Castro was, how the world didn’t understand how great their lives actually were. (Apparenly the various quality of life indices have not yet seen this video).  I was pretty dubious of the pro-Castro talk, but since our prof was actually pretty spot-on with his criticism of Diego Garcia, I was happy to entertain the possibilities.

I was also, at the time, working in our University’s costume shop, and sat next to a woman in her sixties who had fled Cuba when Castro confiscated her family lands.  She presented a notably different take from the kids in the video, and while I might have given her testimony much greater credibility, she was consumed with a deep-set, ideological, emotional anger about the whole thing, and that tends to bring a person’s objectivity into question.  Of course, her take made more sense to me once, some years later, I started looking into some of the figures - for example, the number of people that Che Guevara executed without a trial, and the number of dissidents and homosexuals imprisoned, beaten and killed over the decades.

What’s nice is that, in all likelihood, within a decade or two we’ll be looking at a very diferent Cuba, one that’s on the whole less repressive, and these debates will be behind us.  It may be via slow attrition, but in the scheme of things, Castro didn’t win.

Watching the CCN Democratic debate tonight, it seems clear to me that Hilary Clinton has essentially ceded te nomination.  Polls are showing that Texas and Oho will be close, that Obama will perhaps even win one.  That will effectively end her candidacy and she knows it.  Tonight was something of a valedictory lap.  Why do I say as much?  Because on the question of whether Obama is qualified to be commander in chief, she did not attack.  This is probably her last best line of attack if she’s to seriously contest the campaign, and she did not take it.  And her last comment of the evening, about how the crises in her won life pale in comparison to the hardships that many Americans face daily, had a wistful ring to it.  She reached aross and shook his hand.  She will not admit it until March 4, but she has more or less come to terms with where this thing is going.  It was somewhat graceful of her, and suggests she might go down civilly, and unexpected and classy thing to do.

The FISA overhaul is dismaying.  Big booos to the Senate for acquiescing.  And if you ask me, Senate liberals were played for complete - and I mean complete - fools in focusing on defeating an “immunity” clause that would forbid prosecution of ‘phone companies that collaborated with the Bush White House directly follownig 9/11.  Cheers to Obama for taking time off the campaign trail to vote against the immunity clause, but still, that amendment was a silly distraction: Feingold and Dodd have never looked like such lightweights.  Sure, they were 100% right on the issue, but they focused on a minor matter - immunity - thinking they could at least win there, and as a result diverted resources, let the whole thing slip through, and did not win even one skirmish. 

I’m no fan of immunity, but all said and done it’s fairly understandable that some of the ‘phone companies would acquiesce in the direct aftermath of the attacks.  I’m not so concerned about them having made a questionable decision in the middle of a crisis.  I am, quite frankly, very concerned, in practice and as precedent, by the idea that the government can now listen in anytime I call my friends overseas, and without the usual warrant procedure.  Dear reader, as yourself: when did you last place a call overseas?  Would you like to in the future?  How do you feel about knowing the government might be listening in?

One of Obama’s major strengths is his post-partisan, above-the-fray appeal.  Even in the midst of the vicious, prolonged battled with the Clintons he has somehow managed to keep that image intact.  He will need it in the general.

Here’s what must happen, starting today: the DNC and 527s must begin a non-ferocious but pointed, on-message and prolonged attack on McCain, with a rerun of his best moments: admitting he doesn’t know much about economics, “Bomb bomb bom, bomb bomb Iran,” “war for a hundred years” and so forth.  They must, on the one hand, use real examples to counter his maverick image for moderates and independents, and on the other hand, point out his lack of orthodoxy to his base.  They must drown media outlets in images of him hugging President Bush.

This is the only way to turn the drawn out Democratic race into a positive: go aggressive - but not unfair - on the GOP nominee now, targetting his strengths.  When Obama wins (I put the odds at 60-40 as of this writing) he can take the helm of the party, and unequivocally put a stop to the attacks.  His image as a fair-fighter is bolstered.  The tone of the campaign turns to substance.