As noted yesterday on the sites news section, Gov. Tom Vilsack who was running for president but then dropped out was expected to throw his support to Senator Hillary Clinton today. Sure enough my inbox contained an e-mail from Vilsack (via the Clinton Campaign) entitled ‘Why Hillary is My Choice’. It reads:

I’m not someone to play coy about my intentions. When I make a decision, I go all in and follow through. Hillary Clinton has the same determination, and it is something I have always admired.

When I first ran for governor of Iowa in 1998, many people didn’t give me much of a chance. But not Hillary. She told me she’d do everything she could do to help, and she followed through. She stood by my side, and Iowa is better for it. She helped ignite the spark that changed Iowa from a red state to a blue state.

By standing with Hillary now we’ll help show that we are strong enough to win back the White House — and America will be stronger and better for it.

Please join me and Christie and help Hillary make a strong showing before the March 31 deadline:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/march31

Christie and I plan on spending the next 10 months helping Hillary win the Iowa caucuses and the other states necessary to win the Democratic nomination — and after that, the White House in 2008.

I am proud to do it because of all the candidates running, she has the best ideas, the most energy, and the values and vision to lead our country in the right direction after eight long years of George W. Bush.

She’s going to put an end to the war in Iraq. She’s going to make sure every American has access to affordable health care. She’s going to make us energy secure. And I know she’ll put children and families first — she has fought for them for decades.

Today, Christie and I made a contribution to Hillary’s campaign, and we did it for two reasons. First, we believe in her campaign. And second, the critical March 31 FEC deadline is just five days away.

We must show the magnitude of the grassroots support for this campaign in the next five days. I hope you’ll join us and make a contribution at this critical time:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/march31

I just returned from my first real vacation in nine years, and I am ready to get back to work — because we don’t have time to wait.

This country wants real change.

That’s why I announced I’m endorsing Hillary today, and that’s why Christie and I are going to travel around our state and the country, introducing Hillary to our friends and talking to everyone we meet about why Hillary is the right choice for Iowa and America.

We’re going to give this campaign everything we’ve got. Please join us and make your contribution before the March 31 deadline:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/march31

I’m excited about joining this campaign. Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
Tom Vilsack

Was McCain’s revelation that he may not reach his fundraising goals an elaborate deception to lower expectations? That was one of two theories I had and discussed with Schill when I first heard about it. Now the theory is being raised over at HotLine. The buzz is that the $30 Million figure being thrown around for the Romney campaign is way to high (they might be happy with $20 million) and as such by having McCain lower expectations for his numbers, which might max out at $30 million, will seem like a much higher accomplishment.

We won’t know until April who is raising what but I will say that if McCain is throwing out fake numbers to lower expectations it wouldn’t say much for the ‘Straight Talk’ aspect of the ‘Straight Talk Express’. It would make that bus simply ‘The Express’ which I must admit is still a good name.

- Make sure to check out John & Elizabeth Edwards tonight on your local CBS affiliate (scheduled for 7:00pm but is often delayed for sports) on ‘60 Minutes

- Senator Hillary Clinton will appear tomorrow morning at 7am to answer questions in a town hall meeting on Good Morning America.

- Don Imus In The Morning radio program which is also broadcast in video on MSNBC.

Writer Richard Reeves column this week looks at the decision by many large states to move their primaries to February 2nd in the context of the 1972 election and the decision by the Democratic Party at that time to tear itself apart.

The campaign blames a late start and a light list of fundraising events but it also might be a sign of things as the McCain camp is not downplaying the fact that opponent Gov. Mitt Romney may have raised more.

According to a report by Garrett M. Graff in the Washingtonian (item #3) a Monday fundraiser in Philadelphia for the Senator that was supposed to bring in $500,000 “was scaled back by 60 percent to a $200,000 event.”

Well the Internet has been atwitter the last few days over a video posted to YouTube that melds Apples famous 1984 Superbowl ad with the image of Hillary Clinton. The message is Hillary = Big Brother, Barack Obama = tightly clad woman with hammer ready to destroy a television set…. or so my understanding goes.

For me the WORST part of this parody was the nine hundred articles & blog posts written about it. Which is why I stayed away. Every one of these things had the same message. “The Internet is Changing politics” which is something I have heard since 1996 and doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But anyway, this video was a great visual representation of how the Internet is indeed changing politics AND in true Internet style it was a whopping example of copyright infringement.

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John Edwards made an announcement today that his wife Elizabeth has cancer but vowed to fight on for the Democratic nomination. The announcement was made with Elizabeth by his side in North Carolina.

After the 2004 campaign the Edwards campaign disclosed the fact that Elizabeth, wife to candidate John, was diagnosed with cancer. Elizabeth had a routine examination on Monday that appears to have needed a follow-up examination on Wednesday. John cancelled an event on Wednesday to be with her though he did attend a campaign BBQ that night.

It is uncertain what the announcement will be today or how it will effect the campaign. It could well be that everything is fine and things will return to status quo. I am sure plenty of speculation will abound though.

Former House Speaker and rumored ‘08 candidate Newt Gingrich has said candidates personal lives should not be an issue in the election. Of course Mr. Gingrich recently revealed that he had an ongoing extra marital affair during his time as speaker and so his position isn’t much of a surprise.

There is an interesting article in BusinessWeek about Ethanol subsidies and a movement against them. Oddly enough this movement is comprised of individuals who are often cited as benefactors of moving our nation toward an Ethanol based energy economy. This includes the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn, Environmentalists, hog-farmers, solar-power idealists, the National Chicken Council, the National Turkey Federation, the National Pork Producers’ Council, the conservative CATO Institute and others.

Farmers claim the movement is raising the price of corn which is a vital component to feeding livestock. President Bush has been touting ethanol as an energy production alternative and ‘08 candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both support expanding subsidies while John McCain is re-evaluating his position and moving more in favor of them. Both Clinton and McCain are moving away from their earlier positions of not supporting such subsidies.