The Dish

The Clintons gave their own campaign $5 million last month. Since the polls closed on February 5, according to the Obama campaign, donors have contributed $5.2 million to the Obama campaign. Staggering. The page for donations is here.

Palestinian boys play along the mangled border fence between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, on February 6, 2008 in the divided town of Rafah. By Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty.

From Thomas Merton:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Now, the questions will start and investigative reporters have a job to do. A reader writes:

Whatever you think about candidates’ self-funding, this has always been done with funds generated in a  business career (Romney), or through marriage/inheritance. The Clintons’ case is so different — their wealth is derived in large part from those seeking access and proximity to power, and they know that whatever the outcome of this race, she will still be a Senator and he will still be an ex-President, so the sale can go on.

It is not comparable to the Romney situation, and it’s kinda sleazy, and certainly unprecedented.

Kinda sleazy? The Clintons?

A helpful corrective to excessive Obama-fandom.

"The Washington Post reports that 44 persons died yesterday in storms that swept throughout the South, mostly in the states of Tennessee and Arkansas just hours after those states finished voting for Mike Huckabee to be the Republican candidate for President… If I was a Christian, I’d think twice before pressing that little button for Mike in the future primaries." – Peter Nuhn.

This is kinda important: it’s not a primary:

126 of the 193 delegates will be chosen at the district level, but differently than in other states where they’ve been allocated based on Congressional district: they’ll be chosen based on totals in 31 state senate districts by caucuses in more than 18,000 precincts. The remaining 67 pledged delegates will be chosen by statewide primary vote.

So the Texas primary gives only a delegate catch of 67 delegates, less than, say, Minnesota.

On the same date, in the evening, precinct caucuses will be held across the state and to participate one has to have voted in the primary earlier in the day. That is where the big prize of 126 delegates will be chosen.

That scenario favors a campaign that spends the resources and has the volunteers to wage a ground game on 18,000 fronts.

Advantage Obama?

A reader writes:

Maybe he met someone?! My partner and I met at an Exodus-type "ex-gay" group in 1995. As you might expect, we were asked to leave. In hindsight, it ended up being a wonderful experience for us!

An interesting bit of nanny-statism from Mississippi. Of course, fat, unhealthy smokers save us all money in the long run.

"We are very frustrated because we have a Supreme Court that seems determined to say that the wealthier have more right to free speech than the rest of us. For example, they say you couldn’t stop me from spending all the money I’ve saved over the last five years on Hillary’s campaign if I wanted to, even though it would clearly violate the spirit of campaign finance reform," – Bill Clinton, December 24, 2007.