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JOHN RILEY

May 17, 2008

We'll do one more post on this Bush-McCain-Obama battle over Israel/Iraq/Iran/Hamas appeasement because it's one of the first extended exchanges of the campaign, and it sets down some markers.

John McCain responds to Barack Obama's remarks in two parts. The first is an e-mail (see full text at newsday.com/spincycle) that begins, "It was remarkable to see Obama's hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn't even mentioned."

You can watch Obama in the item (newsday.com/spincycle). It doesn't even get close to the zone of a "hysterical diatribe."

It ends with the assertion that the "American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe." That seems to be the point of the exercise - like every Republican for time immemorial, McCain plans to paint the Democrat as weak.

The second release is a response to a video of an interview of McCain in 2006, in which he said the U.S. would have to "deal with" Hamas after it won Palestinian elections. The McCain campaign has put out a competing video (newsday.com/spincycle) of other interviews he did indicating that Hamas would have to renounce its commitment to the extinction of Israel before we can "do business" with them.

Two interpretations: McCain was speaking in shorthand when he didn't mention pre-conditions in the first interview, or he was recognizing that the U.S. would have to "deal with" them in some fashion in any event.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is trying to kick-start a grassroots campaign to force the Democratic National Committee to change its rules and count Michigan and Florida.

It's featured on the campaign's home page, with a link to an e-mail form that users can use to send a message to the party: "Send a message to the DNC telling them to count the votes and seat Florida and Michigan's delegates."

They say, again and again, that the people who bothered to come out and vote can't be ignored, and deserve to have their voices heard.

So what about the people who didn't vote? Of 4.1 million registered Democrats in Florida, for instance, only 1.7 million voted. The rest of them - 2.4 million - were told the election didn't count. Presumably, that influenced a bunch of them to not vote.

Clinton is still running. But she's been totally downgraded the last couple of days by the Obama vs. Bush/McCain story line. Two other bad signs:

A write-up from First Read about her appearances yesterday in South Dakota suggests that the campaign stops are beginning to seem a little pro forma - while allowing that rural South Dakota may just be the kind of place where mellow is the right mood.

Second, The Associated Press talks to a lot of members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, where Hillary needs a favorable ruling on Michigan and Florida to have any chance. The verdict: Ain't gonna happen.