Easy Rider vs. Taxi Driver

Move over, Chuck Norris, the real stars are ready for their closeups.

Jack Nicholson got up early yesterday to appear on an LA morning TV show with Hillary Clinton and declare, ""Mrs. Clinton has been involved in issues, everything from health care, which we know and prison reform and helping the military, speaking for women and speaking for Americans."

Sen. Clinton was on the show with him. "I'm thrilled," she said.

On the other coast, Robert Di Niro showed up at a rally in East Rutherford, NJ to say, "I've never made a speech like this at a political event before. So what am I doing here? I'm here because finally one person has inspired me. One person has given me hope. One person has made me believe that we can make a change."

He gave Barack Obama a hug and left.

Obama was thrilled, too, "Some of you know I now have Secret Service protection," he told the crowd. "Those guys never smile; they are always cool. But I noticed when Di Niro walks in, they're all like elbowing each other, 'Hey!' They were excited. Who wouldn't be excited?"

Now we're all thrilled and excited, but who is Clint Eastwood backing?

The Only Numbers That Count

Behind the rise and fall of the polls and the trickle of primary and caucus results is the reality of who will pick next President of the United States.

At the Democratic Convention in late August, there will be over 850 super-delegates--governors, members of Congress and the Democratic National Committee, present and former Senate and House leaders as well as former presidents and vice presidents (Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale get a vote).

Even before Super Tuesday, more than one-third of the 2025 delegates needed to nominate have been chosen and are quietly lining up behind Hillary Clinton (at the latest estimate, 181), Barack Obama (80), John Edwards (29) and Denis Kucinich (2, including himself). More than half, 479, are uncommitted. You can see the list here.

Those behind Hillary Clinton include a considerable number of women and DNC members as well as New York and New Jersey Governors Eliot Spitzer and Jon Corzine. Obama has Sens. Pat Leahy, Tim Johnson, John Kerry, Claire McCaskill, Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson. John Edwards' list includes nine members of Congress and the DNC from North Carolina.

The new rules put in place after the 1972 convention were intended to take the choice out of the hands of party machines and kingmakers, but even so, picking the nominees is not a pure (large or small "d") Democratic process.

Then again, we have today's example of power to the people in Nevada. where as Gail Collins notes in her New York Times column, "the number of people in the state who have ever attended a caucus before is probably smaller than the number of people in the state who make their living as Elvis impersonators."

On to Super Tuesday...

Joe Biden's Last Hurrah

An accumulation of small signs suggest a strong third or fourth place finish in Iowa for Joe Biden to keep his candidacy alive. If not, it's over.

County leaders and mayors are endorsing him, and, perhaps sobered by the death of Benazir Bhutto, crowds are coming out to hear what he has to say about Pakistan and other worrisome parts of the world as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Barack does a room, Hillary does a room, I do the same room and I win,” Biden told Roger Simon this week. “I have absolute confidence in that. The question is: Do I get in enough rooms?”

In debates, the Senator's 34 years of experience get "Joe is right" responses from most of the other candidates. His confidence and command on TV are presidential, but the polls have him stuck in single digits.

Iowans, known for surprises in their caucus results, will have to give Biden more than that to keep him viable. If they don't, there will be one less voice of sanity on the campaign trail.