memeorandum: DISPATCHES FROM AHIP. (Ezra Klein/American Prospect)

2:25 PM ET, March 5, 2008

Top Items:

Clinton Says Her Campaign Has ‘Turned a Corner’ — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing her to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems unlikely to end any time soon.

WCBS-TV:

Clinton Hints At Sharing Ticket With Obama — NEW YORK (CBS) ― Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hinted at the possibility of a Democratic “dream ticket” with Sen. Barack Obama. — Speaking on “The Early Show” on CBS, Clinton said “that may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket.”

Discussion: Donklephant, Taylor Marsh, Wake up America, michellemalkin.com, culturekitchen, Macsmind, Connecting.the.Dots, Vox Popoli and Chronicle of the Conspiracy

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Obama: ‘Premature’ to talk joint ticket — Speaking to reporters on his plane before leaving San Antonio for Chicago, Sen. Barack Obama hinted at taking a tougher line against Clinton in the coming weeks, telling reporters that she must back up her experience argument with details, my colleague Carrie Budoff Brown reports.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Carpetbagger Report, Political Machine, The Debatable Land, The Page and Hot Air

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Clinton sees ticket with Obama — The morning after reviving her candidacy with two big primary wins, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) hinted Wednesday that she and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) may wind up as ticket mates. — “That may, you know, be where this is headed …

Discussion: TownHall Blog, Preemptive Karma, Wake up America, Wonkette, PunditGuy and Below The Beltway

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Clinton's lesson: Attacking Obama works — A few weeks ago, though it feels like months, exhausted campaign staffers and reporters amused themselves with gallows humor about the Pennsylvania Scenario — a wildly improbable convergence of circumstances that would extend a race that was supposed …

Discussion: FP Passport, Spin Cycle, The Page, Associated Press, The Democratic Daily and TPM Election Central

Washington Post:
OBAMA: In the Weeks to Come, A Costly Battle on Two Fronts

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Opinionator, Below The Beltway and NO QUARTER

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
When you get hit with a kitchen sink, it hurts

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Left in the West, JammieWearingFool, The Politico and The Reaction

John Dickerson / Slate:
She Lives! — CLINTON HAS COME BACK, BUT HAS SHE COME BACK FAR ENOUGH?

Discussion: MSNBC, Back Talk and Washington Wire

The New Republic:
Exit Polls Reveal Obama's Weaknesses

Discussion: American Prospect, HorseRaceBlog, Associated Press, CBS News, Brendan Nyhan, Democratic Strategist, Reuters, Weekly Standard and MyDD

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
It's all about the Glass Jaw Update: AOL Hot Seat poll added!

Discussion: Washington Post and The Nose On Your Face

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

CHILL OUT....The hot topic of conversation right now is the proposition that a long, drawn-out Democratic primary runs the risk of destroying the party and putting John McCain in the White House. So for the good of the country, Hillary should withdraw. — Now, this might be true.

Discussion: The New Republic, Lawyers, Guns and Money, democracyarsenal.org and Brendan Nyhan

Matthew Yglesias:
Party Destruction — Does the prospect of a long …

Discussion: The New Republic and The Carpetbagger Report

Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
The Day After: Who Can Run Best Against McCain And The GOP

Discussion: Blogometer, The Left Coaster, Northman's Fury, Redstate and Hold Fast

Mark Halperin / Time:

Clinton Wins Big, But Math is Troubling — Hillary Clinton's popular vote victories in Texas and Ohio fundamentally change the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in at least one important way: she's still in the race for the nomination. Clinton's long, arduous campaign might …

Discussion: The Politico, Guardian Unlimited, Donklephant, Scared Monkeys and PoliGazette

Chris Bowers / Open Left:
Post-Election Thoughts — Latest results before bed:

Discussion: Eschaton, Ben Smith's Blogs, Corrente and The Huffington Post

Kos / Daily Kos:
Delegates — So I was going to go to bed, but I'm sort of wired.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, The Daily Dish, AMERICAblog, Booman Tribune, Texans For Obama, Cogitamus, Crooks and Liars, Ohio Daily Blog and Burnt Orange Report

Ed OKeefe / Political Radar: Clinton Wins, Obama's Still Ahead; What's Next?

David Weigel / Reason Magazine:

It's Rush Wot Won It — In the days running up to these last primaries, Rush Limbaugh told his national audience of conservatives to vote in the Democratic race. … It turned into a pretty hot meme in Texas, and on Monday, while Rush was out, guest host Mark Davis scored an interview with Bill Clinton.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Daily Dish, The Impolitic, Wake up America and Houston Chronicle

Tom Bevan / Real Clear Politics:

Was It Rush? — I've been doing a number of radio interview this morning and the question keeps popping up: did Rush Limbaugh put Hillary over the top in Texas? Some quick, back-of-the-envelope math based on the exits shows: — Republicans represented 9% of the electorate in Texas.

Discussion: The Radio Equalizer, Hot Air, alicublog, Washington Post, Don Surber and Below The Beltway

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

FINAL THOUGHTS — The big headlines tonight are now in focus. Hillary takes three of four primaries, and the two big states. Yet the delegate spread didn't budge. The possibilities seem to range from a high-single digit pick up for Hillary to the possibility of a net pick up for Obama.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, OxBlog, Angry Bear, Outside The Beltway, Brilliant at Breakfast, Althouse, Liberal Fascism and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Paths To Victory — Josh Marshall on what Obama needs to do now:

Discussion: Spin Cycle

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Here's A First Look At Third-Party Group's Ad Against McCain — We've just obtained a copy of the new ad that the 501c4 issue-advocacy group Campaign to Defend America is running against John McCain in Ohio and Pennsylvania. — It says that McCain offers more of the “McSame as Bush,” …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, Think Progress, Gateway Pundit, Cliff Schecter and Hold Fast

Mark Silva / The Swamp: McCain ‘McSame’ as Bush, Democrats say in ad

Gateway Pundit:

CAPTURED FARC COMPUTERS NAME BARACK OBAMA (Updated) — Captured FARC computers name Obama — Dead terrorist Raul Reyes had information that FARC was meeting “gringos” about Obama. — The computers captured this past weekend by Colombian soldiers at the campsite of FARC #2 Raul Reyes contained loads …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Atlas Shrugs, The Campaign Spot and Counterterrorism Blog

Chicago Sun Times:

Sen. Obama, time to call us about Rezko: (312) 321-2417 — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of political influence peddler Tony Rezko. This would be the time — before a single witness takes the stand — for Barack Obama to finally share every detail of his relationship with Rezko.

Discussion: Hot Air, Macsmind, Below The Beltway and NO QUARTER

Martin Fletcher / Times of London:
Q&A: Barack Obama and Tony Rezko

Discussion: Pundita, Fausta's blog, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, PoliGazette and TigerHawk

James Fallows:

More on Clinton, Obama, and the OODA loop — Updated, below: — About two weeks ago I mentioned Chuck Spinney's analysis of the Clinton-Obama race, from the perspective of “Fourth Generation Warfare” and the famous John Boyd “OODA Loop.” (Details on those concepts in the original post.)

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report and No More Mister Nice Blog

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:

Sentiment on Iraq Is Changing — WASHINGTON — The perception that the U.S. troop surge in Iraq has succeeded is changing some public views of the war, potentially blunting Democrats' political edge on the issue. — Americans continue to judge the nearly five-year-old U.S. invasion of Iraq as a mistake …

Discussion: Early Warning, Sister Toldjah and Dean's World

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

DISPATCHES FROM AHIP. — As I mentioned earlier, I'm at the American Health Insurance Plan's National Policy Conference today. You know it's an industry conference because it's at the Ritz Carlton, rather than Brookings, and because the water is in tinted blue bottles, rather than clear pitchers.

Discussion: Washington Monthly