BILL MOYERS: Welcome to THE JOURNAL. Earlier this week on the CBS Evening News Katie Couric asked the presidential candidates what one book (other than the bible) they would take to the white house with them if they win. Here are their answers:

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: WEALTH OF NATIONS by Adam Smith because we may be entering some pretty shaky economic times.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Doris Kearns Goodwin's book TEAM OF RIVALS. It was a biography of Lincoln, and he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices.

MIKE HUCKABEE: There's a great book by Francis Schaeffer that had a real influence on me, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? And it talks about the dignity and worth of each individual.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I would certainly bring a--my copy of the Constitution because there apparently was not a copy in the Bush White House the best I can determine. So I would bring THE FEDERALIST PAPERS.

MITT ROMNEY: JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough. A truly great leader who made a difference for America, and his example is one I'd want to follow.

Frank (Ugh) Luntz on Maher show last night

A little about Luntz in case you don't know him (lucky you)

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Luntz earned his stripes by helping set the stage for the Republican Revolution of 1994 by co-authoring Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America." Over the past dozen years, he helped keep the national debate over global warming in a holding pattern by counseling GOP candidates "to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue."

    Bill Moyers revealed on "Now" that Luntz's early advice to the Bush administration on any Iraq war messaging included this: "No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11."

    Frank is the supreme reality reframer who took the estate tax and turned it into the "death tax," turned school vouchers into "opportunity scholarships," and turned drilling for oil in a wildlife preserve into "responsible energy exploration."

    Samantha Bee of the Comedy Channel's "The Daily Show" once noted that Luntz had "made a brilliant career of spraying perfume on dog turds."

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So tonight, Luntz was beside himself, salivating over Barack Obama. The next JFK... Yet another neoconical republican who was nearly dancing in his chair with giddiness telling us that Barack is it... The next president.

Every day there's a new one... Almost like some memo went out. Some new talking point...

Forgive my cynicism.... but I've earned it. I am one of those icky older people still using up space and oxygen who really should be dismissed and cast away to make room for the new. For the Change.

These are the same dudes who have been lying to us all for the longest time now, about everything. Working against everything we hold dear. And now they have leaped on to our side? It makes one cynical. And I have this memory of those other 90's- the ones that didn't suck. And I have not yet seen the hateful, evil, racist Bill or Hillary Clinton, the ones I keep hearing about. So when I see an entire gang of right wing talkers- lining up one right after the other- to extoll euphoric about a democratic candidate for president... Well, more flags than there are at the UN spring up in my brain with little alarm bells attached to them. My BS radar kicks into gear and I have a really hard time, no - I have an impossible time- buying that all these rightists are suddenly truly itching to see a Barack Obama presidency.

Wonder who it will be tomorrow? Has Kristol jumped on the love train yet? This is getting eerie.
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And here is the YouTube of Luntz on Maher tonight. Remember-- this is the Republican's Language Framer Deluxe. The clip is kind of long, but here are some of the more relevant snips from it: (between 02:45 and 05:00)

LUNTZ:
Barack Obama has engaged independents-- (to the crowd)
How many of you want Obama as the next president?

(Audience: predictable woooos and hooooos)

LUNTZ:
This guy really is the real deal-- I feel like he's channeling Bobby Kennedy.

LUNTZ:
I think the public is post-partisan, they've had enough of republicans and democrats.... they want someone to do the nation's business - to not be focused on lobbyists and special interest groups- {...} --- to say to Washington...Go to Hell!

(Audience: predictable rousing clap clap claps, Luntz then instinctively dives in for the kill)

LUNTZ:
And Obama has done that on the democrat side!

LUNTZ:
If it's Obama / McCain ...it's almost like Dwight Eisenhower vs John Kennedy.

(and then he drops the real gem:)

LUNTZ
Hillary Clinton can be defeated by Republicans.
If Barack Obama gets the nomination... I dont know how to beat him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vk2UhFWCXY

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON

Well, and that's part of the problem with the analogy back to John Kennedy from Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy. Because the Presidency was tragically cut short before John Kennedy had been able to get enacted most of his legislative agenda. And as a result, you don't have many specific accomplishments that you can turn to. And you have Bay of Pigs, an admitted mistake. And you have a campaign that was predicated in 1960 on a missile gap that didn't exist...
It is because on both sides, they move back and they select the pieces that they want you to remember. And they feature those pieces. And to some extent, people who haven't lived through those times, and a large part of the electorate hasn't lived through those times, are now being invited to see a part of the past without seeing in its full historical context. At a certain point, we're substantially misrepresenting the historical whole.

"If Clinton is the nominee, 15 percent of Democrats say they'd rather vote for McCain; if Obama's the nominee, 20 percent say they'd go to McCain. A key factor is the extent to which those intraparty tempers cool after the Democratic race is decided."

that would defeat Obama big time....

"Look the only people for Hillary Clinton are the Democratic establishment and white women... it would be crazy for the Democratic party to follow the establishment that's led them to defeat year after year... White Women are a problem - but, you know... we all live with that..." - Bill Kristol, Fox "News" Sunday

yeah white women are such a problem....that makes me so mad!!!!!

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground and I won't back down

[Chorus:]
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby there ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down
No, I won't back down

(Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)

Oklahoma City, OK -Wilma Mankiller, the first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe, announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton today. Chief Mankiller will serve as a National Campaign Co-Chair for the Clinton campaign.

To which I said, "Your strategy is to vote for a candidate in hopes that he'll die?"

And he said, "Yeah."

for a non-mandate $4400.00
for a mandate      2700.00

So not even close as far as I am concerned about affordability....

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

In one recent study, women said they vote to protect their interest.  Wereas men said they vote because they enjoy politics.

They brought up a historical reference, that I of all people should remember:  

Obama is not the first to use this approach. But history shows it can end in disaster. In 1972, the candidacy of Senator George McGovern caught fire among young and educated Democrats united in their opposition to the Vietnam War. To the surprise of the party establishment, the soft-spoken, dovish McGovern began running away with primary victories in such liberal states as Wisconsin. Because of the youthful exuberance of his following -- much like Obama's today -- the press began calling the McGovern juggernaut "the children's crusade." As one who was there, I remember how closely it felt like an extension of the civil rights movement.

In the end, the children won, marginalizing the adults (the party regulars) and giving McGovern the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. But in the general election, McGovern failed disastrously, losing 49 of 50 states to Richard M. Nixon. The movement that could gain control of the Democratic Party, always tilting left during the primary season, was fatally out of touch with the rest of America when it came to a head-to-head battle with the Republicans. It is a lesson that Bill Clinton never forgot during his more centrist campaign in 1992.