Andanh.com

He insists he's not seeking the job, he tells a Huffington Poster.

UPDATE: In a lengthy interview in Seattle, The Huckster says he'd have won the Republican nomination if Republicans played by the same rules that Democrats play by.

If you do an analysis of the election, if we had played by the rules of the Democrats, I would have won, and if the Democrats have played by the rules of the Republicans, Hillary would have won this long ago.

If you look at the process, and I'm not bitter about and it's nothing that I'm complaining about. It is what it is. But the Republicans had a front-loaded system with winner-take-all states, and the front-load was largely states that were states that are not Republican states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California. They were winner-take-all states, but they were big states and delegate-rich. Those were the states John McCain plays very well in. I've won the states in the South. I won Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and Arkansas...

But those were all proportionate states. So I won them, but I didn't get all the delegates. But if you had taken that whole system and reversed it, it would have been a very different outcome.

If you're homeless, NLR Mayor Pat Hays has no use for you. Thus, he has thrown up all kinds of procedural problems to a Christian ministry that would like to provide day services to street people in his fair city.

But if you're driving an RV, the rules be damned. Commodore Hays wants YOU and will move heaven and earth to build a stopping place for you on the scenic Arkansas River, in view of his scrap navy.

See Argenta News (with links to the new Dogtown Wire news website) for the latest.

This one is much easier with the print version and an easy chair, but Claude B. suggests a homework assignment for Arkansas Blog readers: George Packer's recent article in The New Yorker suggesting that the Republican Era, thanks to a shortage of ideas, may be over.

We can dream, can't we? Anyway, says Claude:

I've lived too long to take seriously the pronouncements of death for either political party (post-Goldwater, post-Nixon, post-Carter, post-Mondale, post-Dukakis, ad infinitum).

Contrast and discuss.

Paul Krugman offers some ideas: (The "trumped-up scandal" is the uproar over her RFK reference.)

So what should Mr. Obama and his supporters do?

Most immediately, they should realize that the continuing demonization of Mrs. Clinton serves nobody except Mr. McCain. One more trumped-up scandal won’t persuade the millions of voters who stuck with Mrs. Clinton despite incessant attacks on her character that she really was evil all along. But it might incline a few more of them to stay home in November.

Nor should Obama supporters dismiss Mrs. Clinton’s strength as a purely Appalachian phenomenon, with the implication that Clinton voters are just a bunch of hicks.

So what comes next?

Mrs. Clinton needs to do her part: she needs to be careful not to act as a spoiler during what’s left of the primary, she needs to bow out gracefully if, as seems almost certain, Mr. Obama receives the nod, and she needs to campaign strongly for the nominee once the convention is over. She has said she’ll do that, and there’s no reason to believe that she doesn’t mean it.

But mainly it’s up to Mr. Obama to deliver the unity he has always promised — starting with his own party.

By the way, lest you doubt that the Obama campaign helped blow up this fake "gaffe" -- just as it got away with playing the race card by claiming the Clintons were playing it -- check a couple of sources routinely unfriendly to Clinton: the NY Times account and that from Talking Points Memo, which is thoroughly committed to Obama.

Over the weekend, the Obama campaign circulated a transcript of Keith Olbermann's steroidally outraged special comment from Friday, in which he blasted Hillary as "heartless" and claimed that the RFK remarks signaled that Hillary's motives are "not merely troubling, but frightening."

But both Obama himself and Axelrod have said that they don't believe that she meant the worst by her comments; Obama suggested they had been merely "careless."

Asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether the campaign was trying to keep the controversy bubbling by pushing Olbermann's Hillary-As-Lady-Macbeth interpretation, Axelrod answered:

"As far as we're concerned, this issue is done. It was an unfortunate statement, as we said, as she's acknowledged. She has apologized. The apology, you know, is accepted. Let's move forward."

Generally, when a campaign circulates an opinion piece in this fashion, it's a quasi-endorsement of the positions contained therein. On the other hand, it's pretty standard political practice for campaigns in such situations to take a public high-road position while simultaneously encouraging reporters sotto voce to believe the worst of their opponent.

Any Pope County readers have a clue why a guy went postal and shot up an outdoor wedding near Russellville Saturday?

Fireworks and ZZ Top and no rain.

^{-- Photos by Brian Chilson}

Stephens Media dips into the idea of putting state employees on four 10-hour workdays to cushion the cost of driving to work. The point is: Four-day work weeks are fine for some jobs in some agencies -- high prices or no high gas prices. Work shouldn't be upended solely on account of the gasoline bill. There are options, like moving closer to work, ride-sharing, etc. Quoting Kay Durnett, executive director of the State Employees Association:

Steele's proposal is "certainly worth looking into," Durnett said, but she said any statewide plan would have to be strictly voluntary and highly flexible. Each employee would need to be able to work out a schedule with his or her supervisor, she said, noting that not all employees are able to work nontraditional schedules.

"It's not something that you just jump into and say, gee, gas went up so why don't we do four-ten?" she said.

Your turn.

Tradiitional observances will be held in Little Rock on Monday, Memorial Day, but the locations have been changed to the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery.

Details on the jump.

Did you know that the U.S. is nearly alone in the world in electing most of its judges? The NY Times compares the U.S. with the world today in an article built anecdotally around a dishonest, race-baiting and successful campaign for Wisconsin Supreme Court by a Republican with little experience but plenty of political connections.

Appointment systems are not without politics. But I prefer them to elections.

Thanks to Mark for a link to KAIT-TV's film of the controlled demolition of the twin towers dormitories at Arkansas State.

(For those who don't get the headline, you'll just have to Google it.)

And, of course, it's already on YouTube.

UPDATE: On the jump, a reminiscence from a former dorm resident.