The California Supreme Court’s historic ruling on gay marriage has already turned into the hottest news item. And, natural, the reactions are coming in. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger kept his promise and vowed to let by-gones be gay bygones: “I respect the Court’s decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.”

PFLAG’s proud as pie, of course, but mama Molleen Matsumura had an especially touching - and press friendly! - response, “California has embraced our children and affirmed our families… My husband and I are proud to now live in a state where our daughter’s union will be equal to our own.” So cute!

But, there are some people raining on the parade, so to speak…
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Virginian Representative Tom Davis, who previously fought against gay rights, had some choice - and rude - words about Barack Obama in a recent memo: “Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack [sic] Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.” Tar baby, of course, is an archaic racial epithet. [Politico]

The rumors were true: former candidate John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama this evening, speaking of the Senator’s “bold leadership.” The speech, staged in Michigan, effectively rained on Hillary Clinton’s West Virginia parade.

Speaking of raining, the Clinton campaign had to apologize to a West Virginia voter today after a campaign caller, who had thought the person picked up, inadvertently left a fairly offensive message. Hi. Hello? This is crazy. This person hung up. Maybe they think it’s a bill collector. I bet it is. West Virginians are poor. Ouch.

We’re in the home stretch of primary season, but that doesn’t mean all’s well in the Democratic party. Aside from Hillary Clinton’s commendable tenacity, and the din of her vocal, though dwindling supporters, there’s a new tussle a brewing: the delegate selection tussle.

Many state parties have shown resistance to the Democratic National Committee’s Shay Amendment, a measure that set so-called “gay goals.” These numeric marks were set to help each state or territory include gay people in their overall delegate camp. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out quite as planned. And, if you haven’t read part one, you’d better catch up.
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Barack Obama will get a “big endorsement” this evening, and six campaign officials have ignored Time journalist Marc Ambinder’s question: “Is John Edwards endorsing Barack Obama today?” This has tongues wagging, of course. [The Page]

As Barack Obama gets closer and closer to locking up the Democratic nomination, the hootin’ and hollerin’ about him being a buh-lack Muzzlin is gaining volume.

The t-shirt at right is for sale in a bar in Cobb County, Georgia; in Indiana, one Obama campaigner was told by a citizen: “Hang that darkie from a tree!“; and it is widely accepted that part of the reason Obama was defeated by such a huge margin in yesterday’s West Virgina primary is because of the color of his skin.

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Alright, pretend to be surprised… Hillary Clinton won the West Virginia primary!

The New York Senator basically swept the contest, taking about 67% of the largely white, working class state. Rival Barack Obama, the man many believe will win the Democratic presidential nomination, only received 26% of the electoral backing.
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With only six primaries left - and Barack Obama’s resounding lead over rival Hillary Clinton - many people have basically declared the delegate selection over. That, however, would be premature.

While the majority of the states and overseas regions’ delegate numbers have been determined, most of them must still decide which individuals will head to Denver this August. have ruled which candidate gets how many delegates, most of them still must decide who will head to Denver this August. And, like so many things in this election, there’s loads of drama surrounding the process. Infighting, allegations, personal homophobia and potentially impotent DNC “gay delegate goals” may derail the whole process.

Editor Andrew Belonsky offers part one of an extensive two-part analysis, after the jump…
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From The Editor: I heard something interesting while in Philadelphia this weekend. A gay man mentioned that he and many of his friends - all of whom support Hillary Clinton - plan on voting for John McCain if Barack Obama gets the Democratic nomination. Like so many others, these voters don’t think Obama has the experience necessary to run the country. So, readers, this has me wondering: are there any other men or women out there who plan to back McCain’s campaign if Clinton loses the nomination? And, if so, why?

The presumptive political nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, are already mapping out their national strategies. And, according to people close to McCain, he and his peers are going to pull some old tricks: “Republicans will seek to portray Mr. Obama as out of touch with many voters on issues like abortion and gay rights.” [NY Times]

Politicians are human. Humans are animals. And, as we all know, animals like to have a bit of fun, even when the human is Barack Obama campaigning across the country.

That helps explain why the Democratic presidential candidate recently played a carefree game of Taboo with press and staff aboard his campaign plane. For those of you who don’t know, Taboo involves picking a card, which will contain a term or saying and the player must get their teammates to guess it. They cannot, however, use certain prohibited words. It’s great fun.

Anyway, as mentioned, Obama recently played and helped produce this humorous anecdote: When [Obama assistant Reggie] Love described the Gap as “where … Continued…

“For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton’s support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate. Sen. Obama, D-Ill., picked up two superdelegates this morning giving him a new metric to tout in addition to his current commanding leads in pledged delegates, popular votes, states won, and money raised.” [ABC News]

Senator Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to rival Barack Obama today pleading with him to count Michigan and Florida. Because, you know, she needs a bit of a boost to win this thing. An unfriendly excerpt: “Your commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated.” Really, Hillary? [HuffPo]

The writing’s on the wall for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. And Time magazine!

The editors don’t want to be presumptuous in naming Barack Obama the nominee, so they’ve included an asterisk, which you probably can’t notice in this particular image.

The small note reads “Really, we’re pretty sure this time…”

One almost feels bad for Hillary Clinton right now.

Scads of strategists, pundits and pals, like former Governor George McGovern, are asking her to step aside; newspapers, blogs and magazines have basically called Barack Obama the nominee; and, basically, everyone’s on her back.

While some of us would like such action, we’re pretty sure Clinton’s not so pleased. Nor are her die-hard supporters. But there may be some major incentives for her to leave…
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