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That New York Times endorsement

On January 25, the New York Times endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. At the time, the 1,100-word editorial stood out for both its tepidness and early appearance, coming near the front-end of the primary season. The piece ran in the paper the Friday before Super Tuesday, instead of in the Times's symbolically-important Sunday edition. ...

... According to Times sources, the paper almost didn't back Clinton. The divisions within the Gray Lady's editorial board mirrored the deep divide that has split Democrats in this tightly contested campaign. The 20-member board had initially leaned toward Obama, Times sources say. But in January, after the board had debated the endorsement in two separate sessions, Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. decided to favor Clinton. ...Gabriel Sherman in the New Republic

The rock star and the Rockefeller

Arguably, the man who knows more about the present threats to the United States than any other Democrats -- he is the chairman of senate intelligence committee and gets to see all the top secret / codeword stuff -- Sen. Jay. Rockefeller -- endorses Sen. Barack Obama.

That news from Marc Ambinder had us gulping at first, but he makes a good point.  Whatever you may think of Jay Rockefeller's apparent defense of the telecoms, he is in a position to know a lot more about our most tenacious enemies than, say, Senators McCain and Clinton.  Ambinder quotes from Rockefeller's statement:

What matters most in the Oval Office is sound judgment and decisive action. It’s about getting it right on crucial national security questions the first time – and every time.

The indisputable fact is Barack Obama was right about Iraq when many of us were wrong. It was a tough call and the single greatest national security question, and mistake, of our time. Today, we remain a country at war, and countless mistakes over the last six and a half years have made us less safe. The stakes have never been higher, and that is why we must take a stand.

Judgment.  Not a word which rises to the surface in connection with Obama's opponent.

While we're in Marc Ambinder's neighborhood, let's take a look at the why's and wherefore's of a most  interesting guess-list for Obama's vice president.   

It's Friday-the-29th. Stocks have taken some eye-gouging, strikes to the groin.

Stocks were sharply lower on Wall Street on Friday after a painful dose of weak economic data reignited fears that a recession may be imminent. A new round of woes in the financial industry also contributed to the sell-off. ...

... “All-out recession fears is what it is,” said James Paulsen, a strategist at Wells Capital Management, about Friday’s market woes.

Treasury yields plummeted as investors flocked to the relative safety of government bonds. The dollar, already at a record low, continued to fall against the euro, and crude oil futures ticked up. ... New York Times ...

And in what's treated as a separate issue in the Times (but may not be), this news:

CBS is bringing mixed martial arts, the bone-crunching combat sport popularly known as "cage fighting," to prime-time television this spring, the U.S. network said on Thursday.

Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.

Now she's really, really mad

We Texans had a hard time with the phones at the beginning of this week.  Hillary Clinton's robocalls came in with regularity, repetitively, in a statewide effort to take over the post-primary Democratic caucuses. 

You can't blame them for being worried:  the Obama wave is strong, very big.  But their tactics evidently didn't work.  Apparently there were enough protests from Democratic voters troubled about being strong-armed to stop the calls about 48 hours ago.

Now the Clinton campaign is on the rampage again, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton threatened to sue over the party's complicated delegate selection process.

In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats' effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers.

It's fair to say that if things were going Clinton's way in Texas, she'd surely rejoice at the arcane Texas system which encourages such up-close-and-personal participation in the election process.  What her campaign seems willing to do, over and over again, is to question the procedures when her side seems to be losing.  In this case, the Obama campaign seems willing to use the law to stand its ground.

Democratic sources said both campaigns have made it clear that they might consider legal options over the complicated delegate selection process, which includes both a popular vote and evening caucuses. But the sources made it clear that the Clinton campaign in particular had warned of an impending lawsuit.

"Both campaigns have made it clear that they would go there if they had to, but I think the imminent threat is coming from one campaign," said one top Democratic official, referring to the Clinton campaign. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another Democratic official who was privy to the discussions confirmed Clinton representatives made veiled threats in a telephone call this week.

"Officials from Sen. Clinton's campaign at several times throughout the call raised the specter of 'challenging the process,' " the official said.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said Clinton's political director, Guy Cecil, had forcefully raised the possibility of a courtroom battle.

But Adrienne Elrod, Clinton's top Texas spokeswoman, said campaign and party officials had merely discussed election night procedures and that the campaign was merely seeking a written agreement in advance.

Presumably they mean to fight only if they lose. The Clintons haven't met a rule they'd be willing to honor -- Florida, Michigan, and now perhaps Texas -- if it stands in their way.  Nice folks.  Out-Roving Rove on Karl's home ground.

Adding to fuel to the fire is this news about a phenomenon we've seen here in our heavily Republican, rural county:

As many as a tenth of the Texans voting in the Democratic contests could be Republicans, and overwhelmingly they favor Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, the polls show.

“I ran for Republican precinct chair. I went to the Republican state convention,” said one of them, Donald Rau of Austin, who has already voted in early balloting. “In this election, I voted for Barack Obama.”

Quick move to protect whistleblower

The Senate has moved to prevent the Marine Corps from retaliating against a whistleblower.

Two senators on Thursday warned Marine Corps Commandant James Conway not to retaliate against a civilian adviser whose internal study criticized delays by the military branch in procuring new armored vehicles.

Franz Gayl criticized the Marines in a Jan. 22 report for delaying the purchase of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles despite urgent requests from troops in the field. That report, first disclosed Feb. 15, said Conway was misled by Marine bureaucrats into providing "misleading" information about whether and when troops in Iraq made urgent requests for MRAPs in a letter to two senators last year.

In a letter obtained by USA TODAY, Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told Conway that he seemed focused on whether Gayl overstepped his authority rather than protecting him from retribution.

"Your statement today that the Marines Corps is investigating whether Mr. Gayl 'has done something other than what his leadership and his bosses have instructed him to do' clearly implies that the Marine Corps may be proceeding inappropriately to punish Mr. Gayl for his actions," the senators wrote.

Clinton's fund-raising comeback

Clinton attributed the jump in donations to a core of passionate supporters who sent money when they saw her campaign struggling. Aides said online contributions, which accounted for $30 million of the total, soared after Clinton revealed in late January that she had lent the campaign $5 million to keep her bid afloat.

"Contributions are another way of judging" how much support a candidate has, Clinton said between campaign stops in Ohio yesterday. "When people found out we didn't have the resources to compete, and I did put my own money in, it just set off a chain reaction across the country."

That's a $35 million total for February.  It will be interesting to see Obama's February total.  The Chicago Tribune puts it at around $50 million.

It's not just the money.  It's the turnout.  The early voting in Texas is   "smashing all records."  The Austin American-Statesman pants as it tries to keep up with the numbers.

Today is final day of early voting  

Today is your last chance to beat the inevitable crowds on Election Day and vote early.  

But don't think the polling stations won't be bustling today. Across the state and in Travis County, early voting numbers have shattered records as Texas shapes up to be a major player in Tuesday's presidential primaries. According to data released Wednesday:

In Travis County, 76,102 people voted early, four times as many people as voted early at the same time in 2004.  

In Williamson County, 19,466 people voted early, three times as many at the same time four years ago.