During a campaign event Beaverton, OR Senator Barack Obama stated he had been to fifty seven states with one to go. It seemed for a moment like he was making a joke, but then he plowed through stating he wanted to go to Alaska and Hawaii but his staff wouldn’t justify it, which seemed to be the joke like.

Anyway, what may have just been a small gaffee or an odd joke has turned into an attack line for Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard who questions Obama’s intentions as a potential expansionist.

Press release from Suffolk University showing the latest polling from W. Virginia. It shows a potential 36-point lead for Clinton in the upcoming primary and bad news for Senator Obama in the general election campaign. Here is the release:

Voters Say Clinton’s Persistence Will Not Hurt the Democratic Party

BOSTON, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Although Barack Obama is the
likely Democratic nominee, West Virginia Democratic voters are marching to
a different drummer, as Hillary Clinton leads Obama by 36 points among
likely Democratic voters, according to a poll released today by Suffolk
University.

Sixty percent of voters polled preferred Clinton to Obama (24 percent).
John Edwards, whose name remains on all West Virginia ballots, polled 4
percent, while 2 percent had no preference; 8 percent were undecided; and 2
percent refused a response.

Respondents said Clinton should stay in the primary fight and that she
is not hurting the Democratic Party by staying in the race. Sixty-seven
percent of likely Democratic voters said Clinton should stay in the race,
regardless of what happens on Tuesday, and 24 percent said she should get
out. Seventy-two percent said she is not hurting the Democratic Party by
running in the remaining primaries, while 20 percent said she is doing the
party harm.

Obama’s favorability (44 percent favorable — 41 percent unfavorable)
was relatively low, compared to Clinton (70 percent favorable — 21 percent
unfavorable).

West Virginia has voted Democratic in eight of the last 12 general
elections, dating back to 1960, but these findings could indicate
difficulties for Obama in 2008.

“Barack Obama may have to write off West Virginia come November,” said
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research
Center. “In 2000, Al Gore won seventy-two percent of West Virginia
Democratic Primary voters and lost the state’s general election to George
Bush by six percent; in 2004, John Kerry won sixty-nine percent of West
Virginia Democratic Primary voters and lost the state’s general election to
George Bush by thirteen percent. If Barack Obama can’t even garner thirty
percent of West Virginia Democratic Primary voters, what does that say
about the West Virginia general election?”

West Virginia Democratic voters’ party loyalty also is fragile. Asked
what they would do if their first choice for the Democratic nomination
lost, 40 percent of respondents said they would still vote for the
Democratic nominee; 23 percent said they would jump parties and vote for
Republican John McCain; 6 percent would vote for independent candidate
Ralph Nader; 30 percent were undecided; while 2 percent refused a response.

West Virginia Democratic voters appeared to be in denial about the
delegate projections. Asked who would be the next president, regardless of
whom they personally supported, 31 percent said Clinton; 27 percent, Obama;
26 percent, McCain; and 11 percent were undecided.

In other Suffolk University findings, 51 percent of those surveyed said
that Obama could beat McCain in the general election, while 29 percent said
he could not, and 20 percent were undecided.

The Suffolk University bellwether of Mason County, which was a
sister-test to the statewide survey, also showed a commanding Clinton lead
of 65 percent, with Obama at 16 percent; Edwards, 3 percent; no preference,
2 percent; 10 percent undecided, and 5 percent refused a response. The
Mason County, West Virginia, Primary returns have been in the correct order
and within 5 percent of the actual statewide Primary results from both
parties in years where an incumbent U.S. president has not been on the
ballot.

The Suffolk University poll was conducted May 10 and May 11, 2008. The
margin of error on the statewide survey of 600 is +/- 4.00 percent at a 95
percent level of confidence. All respondents from the statewide survey were
likely voters in the May 13 West Virginia Democratic Presidential Primary.
Marginals and 110 pages of cross-tabulation data will be posted on the
Suffolk University Web site — http://www.suffolk.edu/ — on May 12.

The Suffolk University election predictor bellwether ID sister-test
(400 contacts) was made May 10. There was an equal probability of
contacting and interviewing registered voters of all party affiliations,
provided that they identified themselves as likely to take a Democratic
ballot on Tuesday. For more information, contact David Paleologos at
781-290-9310.

Suffolk University, located on Boston’s historic Beacon Hill, with
campuses in Madrid and Dakar, Senegal, (Africa) is a comprehensive global
institution distinguished by its teaching and the intellectual
contributions of its faculty. Suffolk offers a wide range of undergraduate
and graduate programs in more than 70 areas of study. Its mission is to
provide quality education at a reasonable cost for students of all ages and
backgrounds, with strong emphasis on diversity. Suffolk University has a
combined enrollment of more than 9,300 full-time and part-time students at
its Law School, College of Arts and Sciences, and Sawyer Business School.

Patrick Ruffini noted on twitter that this release might well explain why Clinton is staying in the race. What better “he cannot win come November” argument could there be?

All of the candidates are talking about energy and ways to reduce the nations dependence on foreign oil and polluting technologies. While the discussion, especially among Democrats, has surrounded on energy production in wind, solar and other alternative energy, including clean coal, the Wall Street Journal has some interesting tidbits from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. They found that the taxpayers are spending $16.6 Billion a year in “direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like. That’s double in real dollars from eight years earlier.”

Where is that money going?

An even better way to tell the story is by how much taxpayer money is dispensed per unit of energy, so the costs are standardized. For electricity generation, the EIA concludes that solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and “clean coal” $29.81. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.

The wind and solar lobbies are currently moaning that they don’t get their fair share of the subsidy pie. They also argue that subsidies per unit of energy are always higher at an early stage of development, before innovation makes large-scale production possible. But wind and solar have been on the subsidy take for years, and they still account for less than 1% of total net electricity generation. Would it make any difference if the federal subsidy for wind were $50 per megawatt hour, or even $100? Almost certainly not without a technological breakthrough.

By contrast, nuclear power provides 20% of U.S. base electricity production, yet it is subsidized about 15 times less than wind.

The LA Times is reporting that Ron Paul followers may be planning an embarrassing RNC Convention revolt this September.

Conservative icon and former House member Bob Barr has announced he will run as a libertarian in the 2008 race, directly challenging McCain for conservative votes.

Barr was one of the leaders of the Clinton impeachment and his conservative credentials, unlike McCain, are unquestionable. The national Libertarian nominating convention will be held on May 22nd.

NBC News has just announced that Senator Barack Obama has overtaken Hillary Clinton in their superdelegate count. Obama has 267, Clinton 265 and a half (remember delegates abroad is where they get the half). Was just announced on MSNBC.

Previously ABC News had announced a lead based on their count.

The Obama campaign lists the Senator’s clean coal accomplishments in an ad running throughout Kentucky. ( See the ad in real video).

Obama has been talking about clean coal for awhile as the above video from November 2007 shows.

Update: Terry McAuliffe told Meet the Press yesterday that Clinton would be willing to lend her campaign more money. Does anyone else remember a time when McAuliffe was heralded for his fund raising and money management skills with the DNC? So, what happened?

From the Washington Post:

Clinton aides continued to insist that she will remain in the race even while confirming that she is $20 million in debt. “The voters are going to decide this,” senior adviser Howard Wolfson said on “Fox News Sunday,” acknowledging the $20 million figure. “There is no reason for her not to continue this process.” Wolfson said he has seen “no evidence of her interest” in pursuing the second-place spot on the Democratic ticket, contrary to rumors that she is staying in the race to leverage a bid for the vice presidential nomination.

For those wondering why Clinton is still in the race, there is your answer.

Earlier in the week Arianna Huffington claimed that at a 2001 party Sen. John McCain told her he did not vote for George Bush in the election. McCain heavily disputed the account but now actors Bradley Whitford & Richard Schiff have given their accounts of the exchange which they claimed to have witnessed.

The actors say when asked if he voted for the President McCain put a finger up in front of his lips and mouthed “No way.” This is a slightly different account from Huffington’s who said McCain was vocal about his vote.

Regardless of a Clinton, McCain or Obama win Al Gore tells Bloomberg “I won’t accept a cabinet post regardless of which of the three candidates wins the presidency” adding he is looking to bring about change “in other ways.”