I don't care right now who you plan to vote for next November. My primary concern is that, after Tuesday, you strive to - as completely as possible - ignore the election until around Halloween, because we have so many much more important things to work on as citizens of this country, not the least of them being the creation of a credible system of hand-counted paper ballots and other election reforms. But my secondary concern is for the Democratic primaries. It's important that you take part and cast your vote for Barack Obama. Come November, you can vote for McCain or Paul, Nader or McKinney, or your pet llama, or for the Democratic nominee. But it should be a high priority for all of us to ensure that the Democratic nominee is not Hillary Clinton.

Commentators are talking, and rightly so, about how young voters are flocking to Barack Obama. Their overwhelming support gave Obama his Iowa margin, kept him just a few points behind in New Hampshire and Nevada, and contributed to his massive South Carolina victory. Young voters haven't always turned out historically, but they're responding to Obama's message, and together with his equally massive support from African Americans and strong appeal to independents, their passionate enthusiasm could help him expand the Democratic base enough not only to win in November, but to win decisively.

Obama also offers the chance to make this new generation part of an enduring Democratic coalition--because once young voters support a particular party a few times in a row, they're likely to gravitate toward that party for the rest of their lives.

I gave John Edwards more money than I've given to any candidate in my life, and I'm glad I did. He raised critical issues about America's economic divides, and got them on the Democratic agenda. He was the first major candidate to stake out strong comprehensive platforms on global warming and health care. He hammered away on the Iraq war, even using scarce campaign resources to run ads during recent key Senate votes. He'd have made a powerful nominee—and president.

I've been going through my mourning for a while for his campaign not getting more traction, so his withdrawal announcement didn't shock me. But sad as I am about his departure, I feel good about being able to switch my support to Barack Obama, and will do all I can to help him win.

Hillary Is blaming the Iraqis. I flip on the debate and that's the first thing I have to hear. Sheesh.

Then she says they'll stop Bush's abuses by... passing more legislation. Sheesh.

Now she's explaining that she voted to let Bush go to war because she trusted him not to. Sheesh.

Now CNN is pushing Obama to admit that Petraeus is making progress in Iraq, and Obama is buying it. But then he says that's setting the bar way too low. (APPLAUSE- Hey, there's an audience!)

Now he's saying he was smart enough to oppose it from the start (up until he voted to throw some half a trillion dollars into it). He says Clinton would have a very hard time debating the Republicans because she voted for the thing. (APPLAUSE!)

Wolf BSer asked Clinton yet again to admit that her vote was a "mistake." She's now rambling on about nothing and avoiding the question. The audience has gone back to sleep. Now she's saying she would have kept our focus on killing Afghanis.

My god, will she ever shut up? It's been about 20 minutes.

Now Wolf BSer is calling her naive. (APPLAUSE, and BOOS.)

Manassas, Virginia - Richard A. Viguerie, issued the following statement regarding President Bush’s policy announced in the State of the Union address regarding earmarks in appropriations bills:

Instead of killing the earmarks in last year’s huge omnibus appropriations bill, President Bush will leave in place all of the 11,735 earmarks, totaling $16.9 billion.

And instead of saying that he would veto any bill containing earmarks, Bush said he would veto legislation that did not reduce the earmarks by 50 percent.

Whoop-de-doo.

President Reagan vetoed the Highway Bill in 1987 because it contained 121 earmarks. But President Bush has given the go-ahead to 5,867 earmarks--half the current number. Obviously, the Republican team in the White House and Congress has abandoned all pretense of governing as fiscal conservatives.

President Bush came into office sounding like a conservative Republican. He is leaving sounding like a liberal Democrat. Bush seems disinterested in the future of the GOP, as it drifts without leadership and is in danger of imploding.