Hillary Clinton Swings Wildly at Obama - Saturday Night Live Provides Comic Relief and Obama Girl

It was predictable. When candidates get desperate, they make mountains out of molehills. They take huge offense at their opponents. They try to make federal cases out of any criticism they receive.

Hillary Clinton is down to her last two primaries. Not only does she need to win in Texas and Ohio, she needs to win by very big margins to catch up to Obama.

She spoke well in the debate on Tuesday, but so did Obama. The result was no stop in his surging popularity.

This is about, what? Obama's mailings say Clinton would require everyone to purchase health insurance? That's true, strictly speaking. And although it is also true that Clinton's plans would provide tax subsidies for people who can not afford to purchase this insurance, this does not erase Obama's point that everyone is nonetheless required to be part of this system, in contrast to his health plan.

Does making that point make Obama guilty of using Karl Rove-like tactics? Does it justify Hillary saying "shame on you, Barack Obama"?

I think, sadly, it shows how desperate Hillary Clinton is for votes. She'll need more than Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, nodding his head yes like a puppet behind her, to win in Ohio and Texas.

She ends her unfortunate tirade saying "meet me in Ohio" to Barack Obama. I hope she reconsiders her tactics in the next two days, and doesn't leave the stage with this manufactured anger as the parting image Americans will have of her 2008 campaign...

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Meanwhile, on a lighter note, did you catch the opening skit on Saturday Night Live last night? Another "replay" of Tuesday's debate between Obama and Clinton, with good satire of not only the candidates but the CNN moderators, including a question from the real Obama Girl - Amber Lee Ettinger - in the audience. Ben Relles, producer of the Obama Girl videos, has long said that he conceived of the videos as SNL skits, YouTube style. Now Obama Girl has literally come to Saturday Night Live - which is the fantasy and which the reality?

What's true is Barack Obama's on his way to being elected President. And, in some small but significant way, at the very beginning of this process last year, Ben Relles and Amber Lee Ettinger had something to do with this, by bringing Obama to the appealing attention of the YouTube generation.