But when a Republican campaigns on an environmental issue, it makes news. To that effect, John McCain signaled a split with both the Bush administration and environmentalists in a major global warming speech today.

The Arizona Senator and presidential nominee declares climate change undeniable and urgent, saying that the U.S. hasn’t acted quickly enough.

George W. Bush famously refused to sign the Kyoto global warming accord. McCain pledges to return America to international negotiations.

In the new campaign ad below, which he will begin airing this week, McCain places himself between what he describes as two warring factions on climate change. He paints it not only as an environmental issue, but a national security problem.

John McCain says he would set limits on greenhouse gases and allow the sale of rights of excess emissions - known as a cap and trade system.

Under John McCain’s plan:

• By 2012, the U.S. will seek a return to 2005 emissions levels.
• By 2020, the U.S. will seek a return to 1990 emissions levels.
• This pattern will continue until we have achieved at least a reduction of sixty percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

While it’s always good when any candidate addresses environmental issues, and McCain is most likely sincere, rather than pandering, Democrats should have a field day with his environmental record.

These proposed goals - and in many cases more proactive ones - have long been endorsed by most prominent Democrats, including the two running for president now. At best, John McCain is late to the party.

And, while he will speak at a wind turbine plant in Portland, Ore., today, and says he supports clean energy alternatives, John McCain proposes widespread expansion of nuclear power to reduce carbon emissions.

Not exactly what the environmental community needs, or is looking for.

A survey last week showed her leading 66-23 percent, and today, a new Suffolk University poll has Clinton drawing support from 60 percent of likely West Virginia Democratic primary voters compared to Obama’s 24 percent.

Clinton, for someone considered a divisive figure nationally, holds a remarkably high 70 percent approval rating among West Virginia’s Democratic primary voters.

A separate poll showed the former First Lady leading the Illinois Senator by a huge margin - 27 percent - in neighboring Kentucky, which votes May 20.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to battle for the nomination.

Only half of West Virginia primary voters think Barack Obama can beat John McCain in the general election - though Gov. Joe Manchin is one of them.

One of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates, Manchin said the delegate numbers are in Obama’s favor, but the popular vote is important as well.

“I think we see what happened in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote, and where the country has gone and the feelings toward government since then. I put a lot of stock in that,” he said on CNN’s American Morning.

“If the people believe that it was over, they wouldn’t be voting maybe in the way they might vote tomorrow or in the next few campaigns,” he said.

Following Obama’s big victory in North Carolina and Clinton’s narrow win in Indiana May 6, some party leaders have suggested the Clinton campaign has reached the end, but she has vowed to stay in the race.

Neither Democrat will have enough delegates to clinch the nomination when the primary voting concludes May 3, though Barack Obama will, in all likelihood, win a majority of the pledged delegates, as well as the popular vote.

Just 28 delegates are up for grabs tomorrow in West Virginia and 51 more in Kentucky next week. Oregon, which also votes May 20, and where Obama is currently favored to win, has 52 delegates at stake.

Today, Hillary Clinton is campaigning hard in West Virginia, hoping to run up a landslide popular vote victory - her key to any outside chance at the nomination. She’ll visit Montgomery, Clear Fork, Logan and Fairmont.

Obama, meanwhile, has an event scheduled in Charleston, W.V., and is then expected to travel to Kentucky for a rally in Louisville.

In a recent interview, he and wife Elizabeth Edwards seemed disinclined to issue a formal endorsement, praising and criticizing both candidates.

A few days ago, though, while chatting with host David Schuster on MSNBC, Edwards said he would “very likely” endorse the Democrat he voted for the previous Tuesday in the North Carolina primary, which Obama won handily.

Things didn’t turn out as John Edwards hoped this primary season - but the former North Carolina Senator and V.P. nominee remains a powerful party force.

Pressed further, that’s when John Edwards may have slipped up.

“I just voted, I just voted for him on Tuesday,” he said.

Eh hem. Him? John Edwards is going to endorse Barack Obama?

Maybe he could he have said, in his Southern drawl, that he “just voted for ‘er on Tuesday.” ‘Er? ‘Em? Eh, probably not.

Schuster kept at him, asking “So it was a him or a her you voted for?”

Edwards, who has said more matter-of-factly that he believes Obama will win the nomination, then started backpedaling quickly and laughing.

So … we still don’t really know… do we? Does it even matter?

This is the first time his support from party officials and insiders - who will ultimately decide this historic presidential primary - surpassed Clinton’s.

Earlier this year, she led the superdelegate race by more than 100.

Obama’s lead in overall delegates is now estimated at 1,866-1,697.

While he will fall short of the 2,025 total delegates needed to win the nomination, Obama will likely clinch a majority of the Democratic pledged delegates if he posts an expected victory in the Oregon primary May 20.

Monday, Obama took the superdelegate lead when he picked up endorsements from Maine Rep. Tom Allen and Dolly Strazar, a Hawaii superdelegate.

“Most of the primary voters across the nation have now spoken. It is time to bring a graceful end to the primary campaign,” Allen said.

“We now need to unify the Democratic Party and focus on electing Sen. Barack Obama and a working majority in the United States Senate. That is how we can change the direction of the country,” said Allen, a candidate for U.S. Senate.

He said Obama and Clinton are both “supremely qualified to be president.” Clinton has resisted calls to drop out and says she will stay in the race despite the growing inevitability of Obama’s victory.

Strazar said in a statement that she felt it her duty to let the campaign process play out before publicly committing to a candidate.

“I am now convinced it is time to pull together behind a single candidate who has the backing of a growing number of Americans. I therefore announce my wholehearted endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama,” she said.

Or from being a complete blowhard.

Just the same, this old school, behind-the-scenes clip from Bill’s days on Inside Edition is frightening (and hilarious) even by his high (low) standards.

Apparently some poor sap was screwing up on the teleprompter. Bill O’Reilly goes through several takes, then absolutely loses his $h!t.

WARNING: Clip of ass clown may contain profanity and induce laughter.

Classic Bill O’Reilly: More hair, same temper.

If you missed “tough guy” Bill’s recent interview with Hillary Clinton, you can watch Hill rough his punk a$$ up here in parts I and II.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me … There’s a pattern emerging here.”

This followed Democratic strategist / Clinton supporter Paul Begala’s quote during Tuesday night’s coverage of the Indiana primary on CNN:

“We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans. Okay. That’s the [Michael] Dukakis coalition, which carried 10 states and gave us four years of the first George Bush. President Clinton, you know, reached across and got a whole lot of Republicans and independents to come.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the ones dividing the Democratic party, rather than uniting it, by diminishing all that Barack Obama has accomplished.

With their dismissive strategy and divisive remarks such as these, the Clintons are indeed reaching across the aisle. Right to John McCain.

Barack Obama just spent a month being labeled an elitist by Clinton and the mainstream media for his comments about “bitter” Pennsylvanians who “cling” to guns, religion and antipathy towards others.

Not his finest moment.

Yet it’s hard to imagine the firestorm he would ignite if he were to reverse this Clinton argument and said that Democrats couldn’t win with a coalition of working class white people?

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright furor would seem tame by comparison.

Amazingly, and somewhat ironically, Obama stunned the political world and got where he is in this election because he’s not the typical “black” candidate, while the Clintons are the ones embracing stereotypes.

When Bill Clinton wrote off Obama’s win in South Carolina by likening him to Jesse Jackson - unlike other candidates who won the state but not the nomination, like, say, John Edwards! - he effectively marginalized black Americans.

If the Democratic party is to unite and defeat John McCain this November, these politics of division must end. And despite Obama’s “bitter” slip-up, the main culprits in perpetuating this damaging cycle are his formidable rivals.

The most recent was the first President Bush’s daughter, Dorothy - Jenna’s aunt - who tied the knot in 1992. This wedding was a bit different.

Away from the spotlight, the Jenna Bush-Henry Hager wedding reflected their penchant for privacy and preference for the casual over grandiose.

The down-home setting was a lakeside ceremony at President Bush’s secluded 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Jenna Bush just couldn’t see herself getting married at the White House surrounded by antique furniture and oil portraits of presidents.

In Crawford, the corn is thigh-high, roads are named Cattle Drive and the Texas flag is painted on the rooftops of barns.

“This is a joyous occasion for our family,” George W. Bush said Saturday morning.

“It’s also a special time for Laura who this Mother’s Day weekend will watch a young woman we raised together walk down the aisle.”

Jenna’s twin sister, Barbara, was maid of honor and 14 other women were in her “house party.” The best man was Henry Hager’s brother.

More than 200 family and close friends converged on the family’s ranch for the nuptials of Henry Hager and Jenna Bush.

The president and the bride picked “You Are So Beautiful” for their father-daughter dance, according to band leader Tyrone Smith of Nashville.

Smith and his 10-piece party band, the Tyrone Smith Revue, were asked to do “Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes” by Taj Mahal for the newlyweds’ first dance.

Smith, who witnessed the ceremony, said later that Henry Hager was dressed in a dark blue suit with powder-blue tie and Jenna Bush wore a “very simple and elegant” white dress and no veil.

The makeshift Barack Obama campaign office is across from the courthouse and next to a thrift shop. A hand-drawn sign covers a torn awning over its door, indicating that the storefront probably used to be a restaurant.

While Obama is ahead nationally in delegates and the popular vote, and more than a few pundits have said the Democratic race is game over, Sen. Hillary Clinton has an enormous lead in West Virginia polls thus far.

Read on for USA Today’s coverage of Obama’s uphill climb …

This year, the wife of Sen. John McCain has been back by his side as he seeks the White House for a second time, but even more of a presence.

So ever-present is Cindy McCain that we swear we saw her on reality TV recently… though it turned out to be someone else.

Follow the jump to find out who…

Pumkin! Of Flavor of Love fame!

“Did you mean: Pumpkin” asks Google Image Search? No, Pumkin it is. Who needs the second P. She may be a bit younger, but tell us this morally questionable reality fame-seeker doesn’t have a Cindy resemblance …

Above: Flavor of Love girl Pumkin. Above that: John McCain’s wife, Cindy.

Eh, maybe not. But you can’t blame us for trying. Check out our gallery of Cindy McCain photos for more shots of the wife of the GOP nominee.

YES by harrytruman

All signs point to Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination. No longer a question of if, it’s just a matter of when. Yet there are many reasons Hillary Rodham Clinton should - and likely will - stay in the race.

First, seeing this historic race to its end will give Democrats in more than 50 elections the chance to vote in meaningful primaries and caucuses.

Turnout levels across the U.S. are soaring - a boon for Democrats and a trend that should continue into November. As long as she keeps her campaign positive (a direction she has, albeit slowly, been heading), a protracted race does not necessarily hurt Obama. On the contrary, it makes him stronger.

The attacks have been heavy-handed, but ensure Obama will be ready for when the Republicans subject him to far worse. By fighting to the end, Hillary Clinton is forcing Obama to pass a vital, early test of political strength.

Finally, this isn’t like Mike Huckabee refusing to drop out.

While it may be game over in the eyes of the pundits, almost half of those voting in Democratic primaries chose Hillary, and she’s still winning states. If superdelegates want this over, they can make it so right now. They haven’t. Clinton is a giant who should set her own agenda, even regarding her own concession.

NO by woodywilson

Unlike other critics that have railed against Hillary Clinton for months, I believe she’s served her party well throughout these primaries.

By acting as an unabashed panderer - one who speaks directly to the lowest common denominator and will resort to any tactics necessary in order to achieve her supposedly rightful place in office - Clinton has set up the ideal dichotomy with Barack Obama.

She has proven that experience in Washington often only results in tired cliches, broken promises and rehashed, misguided threats.

Barack Obama, by contrast, looks like a fresh alternative, someone that actually thinks about an issue, weighs all sides of it and presents his views in a detailed, inspiring manner. Could there be a better time for a president with this sort of vision than right now?

That’s why I’d like to thank Clinton for doing her job during this primary season, for illustrating perfectly why we need someone so UNlike her in office, and then I’d like to show her the door. It’s time to go.

Hillary and her cronies can close down every bar in the country arguing over whether or not her victories in a handful of big states prove that she’s a more viable candidate in the general election than Obama.

It makes for a decent debate. But it’s got nothing to do with the law or the process by which America selects a president.

Hillary Clinton cannot catch Barack Obama in delegates.

She cannot catch him in the popular vote.

The only remaining option is for Hillary to essentially say to superdelegates: “I’m Hillary Clinton. How can I not be your candidate?”

If roles were reversed, Hillary Clinton’s people wouldn’t just be calling for Barack Obama to drop out - they’d be calling for an apology that he even dragged the process out for this long.

We don’t need the latter from Hillary. But we do need her to step aside in order to put Obama on full display against John McCain.

Let’s put it in language Clinton will understand:

It’s time for more pandering, Hillary. This time, though, do it to the entire Democratic party and drop out.