“If we were under the Republican system, which is more like the Electoral College, she’d have a 300-delegate lead here,” Bill Clinton told The Washington Post today. “I mean, Sen. McCain is already the nominee because they chose a system to produce that result, and we don’t have a nominee here, because the Democrats chose a system that prevents that result.”

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (12) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

This e-mail went out from the Clinton camp, under Bill Clinton’s name, today:

Here’s the most important thing you need to know about this race: it’s neck-and-neck.

Only 130 delegates separate Hillary from Senator Obama — and that’s not counting Florida and Michigan. The difference in popular vote is less than 1 percent, and millions of voters have yet to make their voices heard. This election should be about their choice.

But now we’re hearing people - elected officials, party members, and Obama campaign surrogates - call for Hillary to pull out.

With the race this close, it sure doesn’t make sense to me that she’d leave now — does it make sense to you?

Thoughts?

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (59) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

The most intriguing part of the new Wall Street Journal interview with President Jimmy Carter is perhaps not that he called Barack Obama “extraordinary,” as CNN is currently highlighting, but that Carter didn’t pull a full Teddy Kennedy and throw an endorsement behind the junior Senator. It is well-known (in Washington circles, at least) that the Clintons have not always been the greatest fans of Carter, nor he of them. In fact, controversial politicking by Carter while president may have played a primary factor in one of Bill Clinton’s few political losses in his Arkansas home state decades ago.

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comment | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

A Big Head DC spy at a campaign victory event for Barack Obama in Columbia, South Carolina tells us that the crowd “wildly booed” Bill Clinton when the former president’s image, beamed from an event in Missouri, was shown on a screen there. The boos were so loud that our spy couldn’t hear Clinton’s speech.

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (7) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

“I think historically young people have not voted in the Iowa caucus because they are from other states,” Bill Clinton tells MTV News. “This time we had a lot of students who did come back and I think, frankly, thousands and thousands of them came back from Illinois to support Senator Obama….”

The former president has quickly figured out that the Barack Obama campaign successfully used out-of-state youth to blanket the state in strategic locations to caucus in Iowa and support Obama, which gave the illusion of a groundswell of support. However, as we’ve previously noted, most of the young people Obama recruited to caucus in Iowa would not have been eligible to vote in a general election.

Since the illusion came to fore, however, psychological politics have taken over. The media and many blogs have made it seem that Obama’s win in Iowa was the result of a greater Democratic mood change in America — against Hillary. And, in turn, the coverage, according to the latest polls from New Hampshire at least, is causing more primary voters in that state to want to support a winner. And Obama, based on his manipulative Iowa performance, has been crowned that prince by many in the press, especially, for instance, Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

“[W]e haven’t made that mistake here; we’ve reached out to young people here and I think we just have to keep trying,” Clinton said of the situation regarding Hillary in New Hampshire.

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (9) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

John Clarke Jr., editor of the snark-filled Wonkette Web site (according to its current masthead), has apparently developed some Deep Throat-like sources withing the Hillary Clinton campaign for president.

Writing for Wonkette competitor, Radar magazine, yesterday, Clarke reported that “a source close with” James Carville told him that the Democratic political guru plans to join Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Interestingly, the piece is titled “Radar Exclusive,” yet Big Head DC revealed the same information over sixteen days earlier. More interestingly, why is someone close to Hillary Clinton leaking information to a Wonkette editor? Also interesting: why is an editor on the Wonkette masthead currently freelancing for Radar when the owner of Wonkette, Nick Denton, and the owner of Radar, Maer Roshan, reportedly hate each other? Why didn’t Clarke’s regurgitated BHDC scoop appear on Wonkette instead of Radar?

We digress. Our original report on Carville follows:

Various campaign insiders are leaking to press outlets that Bill Clinton is peeved big time that campaign leaders for Hillary Clinton have allowed Barack Obama to take so many potshots at his wife without receiving a similarly negative response.

Several staff members may be fired and replaced, Big Head DC hears, with the likes of James Carville — someone who definitely knows how to play dirty politics. And a close Bill pal still.

Although Carville’s wife, Mary Matalin, is actively advising Fred Thompson’s GOP presidential campaign, Carville has rarely been involved in political campaigns as a principal adviser to a candidate since Clinton’s 1992 presidential victory.

Earlier: Does Nick Denton Know His Top Wonkette Editor Is Freelancing For Radar?

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (6) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

As National Enquirer news of a possible John Edwards love child makes it way around the world, a fun fact to know is that a key owner of the Enquirer is a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton’s key backers, Roger Altman.

Altman’s investment group, Evercore Partners, bought a controlling stake in American Media, which publishes the Enquirer, in 1999. The president of Evercore, Austin Beutner, sits on American Media’s Board of Directors.

Altman served in Bill Clinton’s administration as United States Deputy Treasury Secretary, and his name is sometimes mentioned as a possible Hillary Clinton Treasury Secretary.

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (1) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

One of the big stories this weekend was that The Des Moines Register’s endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The endorsement was a coup for Clinton, but now some GOP political insiders are telling Big Head DC that the newspaper hasn’t gone far enough to disclose its ties to the Clinton camp. The paper, they note, is owned by Gannett Company, Inc — and Donna Shalala, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, who was appointed and served under Bill Clinton throughout his presidency, sits on the Gannett board. The implication is that Shalala somehow influenced the endorsement. Evidence of that claim hasn’t turned up yet.

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comments (3) | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink

“Managing the Bill factor is even trickier,” Newsweek reports. “According to aides who declined to be named speaking about the campaign’s inner workings, the former president is a free agent within Hillary’s organization, and he knows her - and political strategy - better than anyone on her staff. It was Bill, aides say, who crafted and delivered her new slogan of the week: that Hillary was ‘an agent of change.’ Bill’s reach in the operation includes tweaking press releases, calling senior Hillary staffers and campaigning on his own in Iowa. Aides say there is no tension between him and her staff, even when their advice is displaced by his.”

................................................................................................................................................................................................
comment | digg this | reddit | facebook | del.icio.us | stumble | permalink