Because you can't spell "Unity" without a big "Unit"

The indisputable lead story of the day - hell, maybe the month - was the Obama-Clinton lovefest in New Hampshire earlier today. It will certainly go down as the best stagecraft of this entire campaign. Thus far. Those Obama folks are on frickin' fire. McCain's campaign just ordered in pizza because, man, it's gonna be a long night. But, where credit is absolutely due, Hillary was unbelievably good today. She erased 16 months of vitriol in a half-hour of prideful asskissing. And Barack followed right up with his casual brilliance in returning said asskissing. So here's my theory, not that it's gonna surprise most people. There's absolutely no way she'll be picked as his running mate. Sure, every baby-faced pundit is ready to start dropping fake old school rap about "chemistry" and "the crowd's reaction" and maybe even "lack of sexual awkwardness". But what I read from the whole show boils down to one thing - Hillary's out. She's got bigger issues to address and she knows it. Like an $11.4M overdraft in her joint account. And her off-the-reservation Hubbie who's conveniently in Europe while this whole Unity deal goes down. And the prospects of by not being the most magnanimous loser since Al Gore she'll get sent back to the Senate without the slightest chance of leapfrogging the 28 other Senators in her Party that have more seniority. No, Hillary's out. With class. Kudos to her for the fiesty, brainy, humanish way she did it. That chick's got a huge brass pair.

Hope your own inappropriate sexist postings are especially long and hard-hitting today. Rock on.

And Fred Thompson will stop a staged armed-robbery with his trusty .45 and blow the smoke off the barrel as a tear wells up in his eye.

Boy, was I wrong. Hillary apparently nailed it with women voters by showing her human side. Unlike almost every single living American spouting off yesterday about what was bound to happen in New Hampshire, I'll actually apologize. I'll never be wrong again. Promise. We should all expect the next rush to judgment will come from the same punditocracy describing Obama's demise. I should take a break from commenting and just read a few books about other things and/or begin prepping brats for this weekend's NFL Playoff game between the Packers and Seahawks. But, well...I'll just pop off briefly to keep the chops up. Barack Obama will raise cash in the next four weeks like a junkie Trump. Hillary Clinton will get back on the inevitability train, taking the occasional heart-to-heart Sanka break. John Edwards will labor on and still no one will notice. Bill Richardson will pour three fingers of single-malt and light a phattie. Dennis Kucinich will keep the Viggo Mortensen vote, lose those few thousand hippie-veggie-oil biodiesel votes. My Republic Party picks for New Hampshire were pretty close, so I'll stand pat - John McCain faces many laps worth of hurdles but pulls it out. Mitt Romney will flop all over the place like a wounded marlin. Mike Huckabee will add the surviving cast of "Hee Haw" to his celebrity cavalcade. Ron Paul will soon be riding the bus with Mike Gravel. Duncan Hunter will still be in the closet. And we'll hear about it until this fascinating election actually ain't so much anymore.

Hope your endorsements all come from the exotic dancer unions today. Rock on.

Message to the messengers: "Message matters"

This is the 1,100th post over the 3-year history of and the Family Buick. I started out wanting to feature our soon-to-arrive daughter, Maya, after past half-starts with political shtick (including Try the Kool Aid while working for Howard Dean's campaign in '04). But for those that check in occasionally, you know all too well that herein I veer into the realm of political shtick more often than not. Today's a big day for people cut from similar cloth. New Hampshire is burning white hot. Results will come in a handful of hours. The turnout appears to be huge. But I want to get out front (again) with a few resonant moments from the last 24 hours and what I entirely believe they will mean in the days and weeks ahead.

1) Hillary's tearful moment yesterday was human. Every voter in the room was surely touched. But this was her "Howard Dean in Iowa" moment. She will be mercilessly taken to ludicrous task by the merciless crowd. Fair? No. Damaging? Undeniably so.
2) Bill Clinton is an institution. However, he's gone fully off the reservation in the last handful of events. When he called Obama's campaign a "fairy tale" he just coined his latest "that depends on what the definition of 'is' is" moment.

Hang onto your hats - tonite's going to be a hoot. Hope your own change is jangling today. Rock on.

Wanna bet?

It's go time. Everyone in the political universe and their central-casting retarded cousin and/or loving wife is currently in New Hampshire, prepped and over-caffeinated before tomorrow's Primary. So I'm going to offer a hopefully tasty rhetorical biscotti to munch on while considering anyone else's at-least-as-plausible prediction. With a challenge. I'll bet all comers One Canadian Dollar to offer up their own full breakdown. The closest by points (over or under) to each individual pick, then totalled for a final score wins the Loonie. I accept PayPal. Or general kudos. Game on.

The Democrat Party
Barack Obama - 46%
Hillary Clinton - 29%
John Edwards - 16%
Bill Richardson - 7%
Dennis Kucinich - 2%

The Republic Party
John McCain - 36%
Mitt Romney - 28%
Ron Paul - 18%
Rudy Guiliani - 9%
Mike Huckabee - 7%
Random morons - 2%

You can tell what I'm feeling. Hope y'all have the popcorn ready for tomorrow's feature. Rock on.