Clinton “open” to VP nod. No shit.

I didn’t even need to be told this. Of course Hillary’s going to be “open” to the idea of being Obama’s running mate. Is there anyone, honestly, who thought she would turn it down?

On a conference call with other New York lawmakers, Clinton, a New York senator, said she was willing to become Obama’s vice presidential nominee if it would help Democrats win the White House, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak for Clinton.

Clinton’s remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who said she believed the best way for Obama to win key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.

“I am open to it,” Clinton replied, if it would help the party’s prospects in November.

Hillary Clinton has spent pretty much her entire Senate career under the banner of “I could be president!” The woman does not, not not not, want to walk away from her presidential campaign and be forced to return to relative obscurity as just another senator as so many other failed presidential candidates have. She has felt herself to be “special” or “above” all the rest, transcendent as a woman who can take it all, so obviously she’ll do whatever she can to stick to the presidential ticket. Whatever keeps her close to that golden ring, she’ll do.

It would be suicide for Obama to pick her, and fortunately I think he knows it.

It’s over. Obama wins.

I suppose it’s official now. Obama’s sweeping the latest primaries and has come out and laid claim to the Democratic nomination. Hillary hasn’t “officially” conceded yet, but it’s all but put in writing at this point.

Before a crowd of cheering thousands, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, taking a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket without conceding her own defeat.

“America, this is our moment,” the 46-year-old senator and one-time community organizer said in his first appearance as the Democratic nominee-in-waiting. “This is our time. Our turn to turn the page on the policies of the past.”

Obama’s victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a first-term Senate opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

Obama is not the best candidate we’ve ever fielded. He’s not the best politician, he doesn’t have the best policies, and I’m not going to call him some reincarnation of Lincoln and Kennedy like so many are eager to.

What I will say, however, is that Obama is a change. Hillary Clinton represents the same “lie, cheat, and steal your way to victory” that soured so many on politics this past eight years. The country needs this change in politics, if not in policy.

Backlash against wax figure of Hitler

Try and read this one without ending up with the expression in that image to the left. Go on. I dare you.

So there’s a Berlin branch of Madame Tussaud’s famous wax museums, and the plan was to include one of Adolph Hitler. Fair enough, he’s a central figure of German history, neglecting to include him would be crazy. Hold on. As it turns out, there are calls to exclude said figure because it would attract Neo-Nazis.

Opponents of the Hitler waxwork say the man who led Germany into World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe’s Jews should not be shown in the same style as popstars, statesmen and famous soccer players.

“It’s tasteless,” said Johannes Tuchel, from the Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand, a memorial for opponents of the Nazi regime. “A waxworks museum is meant to entertain and to amuse. It’s not appropriate to have a Hitler figure there.”

This is a case of “don’t show it because it’s mildly inflammatory” syndrome. Yes, Hitler is a bad man, but you know what? There’s no reason to suggest that simply showing a wax figure of him is “tasteless”. He’s a huge part of German history. In fact it’s hard to claim there is a single man that is a bigger aspect of the country’s past, one person who is more indelibly tied to the nation.

People really need to stop being so sensitive.

Obama wins?

At least according to the AP. Read up here, more to come later.