Three "Must Reads" From Al Giordano

This, actually, is a rewrite of something I put together yesterday morning.

The rewrite necessary after Hillary's magnificent, tremendous, gigantic gaffe.

When I awoke on Friday AM, the blogosphere was tsunami-flooded with stories and posts about "Hillary as VP" and "Camps Talking" (you can look Here, Here and Here for a sampling).

I read a bevy of these, the regular big-and-small blogs, the MSM articles and not a one referenced the scoop that Al Giordano had published - on Thursday;

“The Nightmare Ticket Is Dead”

The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said “no.” Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on his own criteria and vetting process.

So now, when the Clinton surrogates continue to advocate that Obama choose Senator Clinton as veep, everybody will know: It’s Bill, and not Hill, stoking the fire. When New York political insider Mark Green’s Air America sent an email blast this morning to its entire mailing list featuring the milquetoast, boring and Arbitron-ratings neglected Thom Hartmann’s plea - “Obama: Ask Hillary First” (and this Air America subscriber summarily unsubscribed from that list this morning upon receiving that piece of corporate-paid advertising), everybody knows: the ventriloquist behind these Muppets is Bill Clinton.

A lot of people took a lot of sips from the Clinton Kool-Aid, pushing and hawking this "dream ticket"

Not Al, as you can see.

Now, it is my speculation, that, even before the Hillary foot-in-mouth RFK gaffe, it was the absolute longest of possibilities that Barack Obama would select Hillary as his running mate.

Really, we're talking here the "If Barack and Hillary were the only two people left on earth, he would still pause and think very hard and long on it" kind of chances.

I have to imagine, if Hillary's name was on some kind of list in the Obama camp, long or short, there's a line running through it this morning, and, after the next print-out of it, the name "Hillary" will not even appear on it.

And the news gets grimmer for Camp Clinton.

“The Cardoza 40″: Exodus of Clinton Delegates Begins"

The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it’s time to unite around Obama, and that they will be coming out, one or two at a time, and announcing their switch between now and the convention if Senator Clinton doesn’t do the same.

Ouch!

There's a breach in the dike and, on top of not winning new delegates, she's losing the one's she already had!

Finally, for a breakdown of the Superdelegates, check out Al's "Undeclared Superdelegates: The Gang of 165 (+ 32 in Limbo)"

All of the Cardoza 40 should, now, just come over to Obama, en masse.

There's no need for subtlety, no need to position it.

It's over.