Shirley Temple celebrated her 80th birthday this week. In other news, Shirley Temple is apparently still alive.

Speaking of 'Still Alive', Hillary Clinton is apparently still in the hunt for the Democratic nomination for President.

Has anyone seriously considered the ramifications to the Democratic party if she ends up getting the nomination at this point? You want to talk about bitter? Remember when all of a sudden, there were no more Whigs? I'm not saying that there won't be a two party system in this country, but there's no guarantee that the Democratic party will be one.

And the idea that only African Americans and Young people will be distraught is crazy. He has the majority of votes and delegates! The majority of Democratic voters would be angry!

Much has been made of Obama's recent comments. Here are his comments with the bolded areas that caused the most controversy:

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

My two thoughts about the comments:

1. A personal message from myself to the American people: Stop acting like you are five years old. Grow up. Create a reasoned argument rather than feeling something and creating a reason for it.

2. Thoughts about the specific comments:
A. Bitter: Bitter means resentful or cynical. So Obama is describing people as resentful or cynical. I'M RESENTFUL AND CYNICAL.
I'M BITTER!

That's right! I'm bitter. You can't follow the news on a daily basis and not feel cynical. Does the government work? NO! And apparently 81% of people agree with me.

B1. Cling to guns. The phrase 'From my cold dead hand' comes to mind.

B2. Cling to religion. People turn to religion in times of trouble, right? This couldn't be considered a cling? Someone will have to explain that one to me.

"Welcome to the desert of the real."
-Morpheus from The Matrix

I picture Morpheus showing a dazed Hillary Clinton the way the world really is and it being very frightening for her. But enough of talking about this person in the same article i discuss actual presidential candidates. There's much more important things to talk about. Namely, Obama v McCain.

I think it would be a BIG mistake for Obama to not take public funding. Let's get one thing straight: Obama is going to win the presidency. There is no way the people of this country elect a 72 year old man who seems to be showing more and more senior moments lately. Sure, we'll elect some moron who we want to have a game of catch with because we collectively have some major father issues. I don't think we collectively have any grand daddy issues to work through, so let's just get that notion out of our heads. And to the chagrin of William Kristol, there isn't some huge great American thought process that is going on and that will weigh McCain's age against his ability to be a great leader. We Americans don't think things through that far. In fact, i would go so far as to say that we decide who we want to vote for, then we try to rationalize (that is, not sound stupid when we discuss publicly) our choices. This is usually done for us by aligning ourselves into the designations the media has assigned to us (see security moms). But I digress.

There will be great temptation for Obama to do things because he can even though objectively he shouldn't. Case in point with not accepting public financing. Just because he COULD raise more money does not mean that he should. And he shouldn't have the ends justify the means. He has to get money out of politics, not make an exception for himself because he can.

It was announced today that Barack Obama selected Chuck Hagel, the Senior Republican Senator from Nebraska and vocal critic of the Iraq war, as his Vice Presidential running mate.

What is really unusual about this is the fact that this is the first cross platform ticket since Lincoln/Johnson in 1864!