Saturday Afternoon at the Obituary Page

 A couple of obituaries to note:

Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, known best for his 1977 hit, "Margaritaville," which was played to death then and forever, has died at the age of 76.  According to the Daily Mail, Buffett had been battling cancer for several years.  First he reportedly had skin cancer, and then it ended up being lymphoma.

Billboard obit:

Born James William Buffett on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, MS, and raised in Mobile, Alabama, the singer was one of three children born to James Delaney Buffett Jr. and Mary Loraine (Peets), who both worked for the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding company. He grew up listening to his grandfather steamship captain J.D. Buffett’s tales of high seas adventure, to whom he paid homage in “Son of a Son of a Sailor.” The latter features the memorable, salt-caked lines, “I’m just a son of a son, son of a son/ Son of a son of a sailor/ The sea’s in my veins, my tradition remains/ I’m just glad I don’t live in a trailer.”

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Former New Mexico governor and one-time presidential candidate Bill Richardson, 75, has died.  He died in his sleep at his summer  home in Massachusetts.  He was governor from 2003 to 2011.  In 2008, he ran for president.  I got to meet him a couple of times, with one of those times appearing at the same event as little-known then and forever little-known Joe Biden.  This was a picture I got of Governor Richardson when I was there at the University of Nevada, Reno:

I got him to autograph a brochure for me.  In fact, I have autographs of all of the Democratic Party and most of the GOP candidates that year with the exception of Mike Gravel.  I have to say that with Biden's autograph, I purchased it later on for about $50 on eBay.  The rest I received in person including November candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

Enough of that.  From a Richardson obituary from CNN, and I apologize for the paragraph break being screwed up:

He was first elected to the US House in 1983, representing New Mexico’s Third District. Richardson later served as US ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of energy before being elected governor of New Mexico in 2002. He served two terms before leaving office in 2011.

After an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2008, Richardson launched the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a non profit promoting international peace, in 2011.

Richardson and his namesake center had privately worked on behalf of families of hostages and detainees abroad. He traveled to Moscow last year and held meetings with Russian leadership to discuss the release of basketball star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan.

Local Campaign Notes

Several luminaries will be campaigning for Obama this week.

I missed Governor Janet Napolitano; I didn't even know she was in town. I will have to take a pass on Tom Daschle, although I have met him before. Depending on where John Tester is, I may go and see him.

It's a bummer when one does not have a car.

More Campaign Follies.

I really like this blog, and I think I have it linked on my links blog (I didn't, but I added it to the links blog). This is an excellent, if optimistic, analysis of how the Audacity of Hype would fare in the general election if insanity prevails in the Democratic Party.

Actually I am much more confident Obama, once he is torn to pieces by the McCain-loving media whores and the 527s, won't win a single state. Not even Bill Richardson as a running mate could help him. Remember, the vetting has barely begun on Obama.

Besides, as I have said before, if you're tied with McCain in MASSACHUSETTS of all places, six months before the general election, it really IS all over.

I still don't think Obama is going to get the nomination, though.

Campaign Follies.

It's pretty clear to anything thinking individual Barack Obama's campaign is a lost cause whether he admits it or not, but the trouble is his campaign has done major damage to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in the process.
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Don't expect Obama to give a major speech about his connections to Rezko.

He already lied about it in the South Carolina debate back in January.
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It seems Bill Richardson didn't think much of Obama's chances of winning the November elections not too long ago.

Chris Matthews talked about the subject today with Mrs. Alan Greenspan and Newsweek's resident shithead Howard Fineman:



And there's more.
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John Edwards says no to a VP slot and refuses to endorse either Democratic candidate.
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Bill Richardson

made a fool of himself on April Fool's Day by trying to justify his backstabbing of the Clintons.

He should have remained neutral in the race.

Carville and others say that I owe President Clinton's wife my endorsement because he gave me two jobs. Would someone who worked for Carville then owe his wife, Mary Matalin, similar loyalty in her professional pursuits? Do the people now attacking me recall that I ran for president, albeit unsuccessfully, against Sen. Clinton? Was that also an act of disloyalty?

And while I was truly torn for weeks about this decision, and seriously contemplated endorsing Sen. Clinton, I never told anyone, including President Clinton, that I would do so. Those who say I did are misinformed or worse.

As for Mr. Carville's assertions that I did not return President Clinton's calls: I was on vacation in Antigua with my wife for a week and did not receive notice of any calls from the president. I, of course, called Sen. Clinton prior to my endorsement of Sen. Obama. It was a difficult and heated discussion, the details of which I will not share here.

I do not believe that the truth will keep Carville and others from attacking me. I can only say that we need to move on from the politics of personal insult and attacks. That era, personified by Carville and his ilk, has passed and I believe we must end the rancor and partisanship that has mired Washington in gridlock. In my view, Sen. Obama represents our best hope of replacing division with unity. That is why, out of loyalty to my country, I endorse him for president.

The only thing missing is the "April Fool!" tag.

Bill Clinton wasn't the least bit happy Richardson stabbed his wife in the back.

Bill's wife, not Bill's:

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

Actually Clinton is right.

Carville Continues to

stand by the "Judas" remark regarding Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama. After all, Richardson served in two positions in the Clinton presidency:

I Probably

should note Obamamann's (as some people are now calling him) interview with Governor Bill Richardson, who today made a sillier mistake than his growing a mustache and beard:

Campaign Notes.

Condi says she's sorry for snooping into Barack's passport file.

So much for Keith Olbermann trying to trash the Clintons over this.
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Bill Richardson SHOULD apologize for being such a fool.
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Campaign Notes.

With "friends" like Bill Richardson and Dick Durbin, who in the hell needs enemies?

Now if you figure in Florida and Michigan, Clinton is AHEAD in delegates, yet these fools want her to drop out.

Never mind Obama has no chance of being elected president.
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Joseph Wilson has almost as high an opinion of Obama as I do.

The "national security" issue would destroy him if he got the nomination.

Heaven Forbid

any Richardson supporters would back John Edwards.

Campaign Notes.

The war of attrition continues as Bill Richardson has dropped out of the Democratic presidential race.

Or is he?

John Edwards will continue come hell or high water.
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Meanwhile, the Audacity of Hype tries to bullshit his way out of Bill Clinton's criticisms of his inconsistencies on Iraq.
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Romney tries to retool his campaign.
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Campaign Notes.

The NYT finally gets around to profiling Bill Richardson.

Richardson is a longshot, but he is so qualified and so marvelous in person it's sad he hasn't gotten traction.

Nevada Caucus.

Bill Richardson has decided to move 10 people from his staff from Nevada to Iowa in order to boost his chances there.

Campaign Notes.

Barack Obama gave an interview with the local paper yesterday when he was in Reno.

More about his visit is here.

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Bill Richardson must be optimistic about his chances in Nevada because he has opened a fourth office in the state, this one in Elko.
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More Campaign Notes.

I have decided not to shell out the $85 to attend the annual Virginia Demmler Dinner fundraiser for the local Democratic Party. Featured speakers include former ambassador Joseph Wilson and former senator Tom Daschle.

However, I am going to go down to the Obama headquarters earlier in the day and get to meet Daschle, who endorsed Obama some time ago.
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Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana has endorsed Clinton for president. (Evan Vucci / AP)
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The Nation's John Nichols seems to think Bill Richardson is starting to click.

Unlike the rest of the second-tier candidates, Richardson has an office here in Reno just a few blocks from my place. Obama's office is down the road on Wells Avenue and within walking distance from my place.
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Governor Bill Richardson

gives another reason why people should vote for him when he calls for NCLB to be scrapped.

I gave some money to Biden and Dodd the other day. I am still waiting for Edwards' retraction of his stupid health care comments.

I Totally

agree with Biden about all of the other candidates except Richardson wussing out on today's forum.

All of the candidates say they are concerned about education, but too few of them want to talk about the issue in a forum format.

After Bill Richardson gave his remarks, he met with some supporters. He signed an autograph for me.

What was funny was somebody who wanted his autograph had a "Biden" rally sign, and Richardson asked him if he wanted him to sign "Joe's sign." A Richardson volunteer then got some cards with the governor's picture on it, and he passed those around. That's what Richardson autographed for me.

After Biden gave his presentation, Governor Richardson spoke. He called for ditching the awful No Child Left Behind law.

I was at the Brookings Institution/University of Nevada, Reno Issues Forum, featuring Democratic presidential candidates Senator Joseph Biden and Governor Bill Richardson. The focus was on education and opportunity.

I missed the first hour or so of the forum, and when I entered the Silver and Blue Room at Lawlor Events Center, Biden was talking. He must have started at about 2:00, and I didn't arrive there until 2:15 or so. He also answered questions from the audience.