The Rolling Stone Gathers Moss

The following stories, from CNN and the Scotsman, suggest that the endgame may be coming for HRC. I hate this, BUT she has made this bed and now must lie in it as the cabin goes over the cliff.

Hillary could have followed Obama's lead and insisted on a high road in the campaign. She has enough good ideas and track record that such a straight arrow strategy, aside from simply being ethical, would distinguish her from her husband and his Republican tormentors, Instead, apparently gleefully, she "threw the kitchen sink at Obama."

That said the Bill Clinton issue IS a very real one. The Presidential spouse cannot conduct a separate foreign policy. Bill has stated that of she is elected he will NOT step down from his Foundation. That should be unacceptable.

The problem is not merely one of disagreement. Bill is paid to be a LOBBYIST. Inevitably this creates a conflict of interest that is massive. He can not even escape it if he stops accepting speaking fees because his Foundation solicits funds for its projects under his guidance. For example a friend of Bill's gave the Foundation several million dollars following a meeting of Bill with the Dictator who lobbied for Bill's support in a UN matter.

Read on ....

It's Obama, stupid: Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid

On the slide: Hillary Clinton at a committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Political oblivion beckons if she fails to win big in Pennsylvania. Photograph: Getty

By Chris Stephen

in New York

DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.

Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.

Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats.

"They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."

April 11, 2008

Clinton laughs off Colombia questions

Posted: 10:00 AM ET

Watch Clinton laugh off a question on Colombia.

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.

Asked by CNN if those earnings represented a conflict of interest given that she has dipped into her family's pocketbook to pay campaign bills, Clinton threw up her hands and laughed loudly for several seconds.

"How many angels dance on the head of the pin?," she responded, continuing to giggle. "I have really, uh, nothing to … I mean, how do you answer that?"

The New York senator explained there are different sides to the argument over trade, and re-emphasized her own opposition to the trade deal, assailing the Colombian government's "outrageous" record of "targeting labor leaders."

"I am against the Colombia free trade deal," she said. "It doesn't matter who talks to me. It doesn't matter any circumstances. I have been against it. I am against it. I will be against it absent the kind of changes in behavior that I have been calling for from the Colombian government."

Earlier in the press conference, describing her husband's advocacy for the trade deal, Clinton said: "Everyone is free to express their opinion."

From: CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
Filed under: Hillary Clinton • Pennsylvania