The Dish

Introducing the once-only Newton virus. Someone will blame me for posting this.

Some silence and prevarication from several major Muslim states.

A phrase becomes an entire blog.

Kos has it:

Of the other five defendants, three have donated to the Clintons or to Clinton supporters, three have donated mostly to Republicans, and at least two have donated to Obama’s political opponents. None have donated to Obama. 

More here.

Thomas Barnett picks up on a meme that is still out there among the neocons:

Yes, there is plenty of anti-Americanism in the Middle East, and especially anti-Bush sentiment. But here’s the deal, there’s no pre-Bush thinking left there. Everyone’s been forced to move on in some sense.

That’s Bush’s real legacy and its huge. I didn’t say positive or negative, but huge. Anything that big will be debated forever.

Basically: borrow around a trilllion from the Chinese to give Iran a new client state next door, occupy it for the next thirty years, and still keep oil at $106 a gallon barrel. Yes: lots to debate.

Ms Jill Blumberg chases those Hillary blues away:

Hat tip: Tighten Up Report.

Ezra Klein on the "unity ticket":

…an Obama-Clinton ticket makes no sense. She is not the only Democratic politician with a connection to working class white voters. Moreover, she steps on his central narratives of unity and transformation. I think he probably has to pick a woman — or at least would be wise to pick a woman — but Clinton does him harm without doing him much good. And does he really think he can control an operation as brash and overbearing as hers? Will Mark Penn really defer to David Axelrod? Will Bill Clinton?

The whole idea is pretty silly, when you think about it for more than a couple of minutes.

Craig Crawford on delegate counting:

It is understandable, but not excusable, that the news media is trying to fit the unprecedented chaos of the Democratic presidential race into the world as we have known it for many elections. That is what we do — cram unknowable things into little boxes that everyone can play with…

Still, we think “the math” will make all the confusion disappear. Sorry, but no matter how many graphics generators, telestrators or calculators we deploy, this is politics. It is not algebra class. And in this campaign, it looks like the only count that matters will be the first ballot at the Democratic national convention.

Karl Rove on the race ahead:

Remember: It has only been eight weeks since Iowans voted in the first contest of the season, though it seems like a geological age has passed. There are now seven weeks until Pennsylvania, nine weeks until North Carolina and Indiana, and 10 weeks until West Virginia. Imagine how many twists and turns are possible.

A reader writes:

Raising money to make the Clintons go away reminds me of this line, classic Bob Dylan:

"And here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice."