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The race for the democratic nominee -- in other words, our candidate -- is over.

That's Thought No. 1. Thought No. 2 is so obvious it's almost embarrassing to have to say outloud: Hillary is not the enemy. In fact, she's one of us, she's one of the people who are going to help us take back this country.

Apparently the Republicans are worried about losing yet another congressional seat to the Dems and are wondering what it all means:

I hope these special elections are a wake-up call," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), the leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

I hope these special elections are a wake-up call too! I hope (and expect) the Republicans to conclude that they've wandered too far from their bedrock rightwing principles and that they need to get back to the party of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. [h/t BooMan]

On the bad side, the primary race continues. On the good side, it's John McCain who'll be at the other end of this no matter how long it takes.

Courtesy of MoveOn.org:

ABC let voters down with last night's abysmal debate. Bad debates aren't just painful to watch—they actually hurt the country. Tell the media "enough distractions - ask about issues that affect people's lives".

Watch the video and sign the petition...

Dr. Pamella Gronemeyer and Downstate Democrats For Change are hosting a free health care forum on April 12 at the Gateway Convention center from 10AM to 1PM. It is entitled Here Today, Gone Tomorrow -The Healthcare Crisis in America.

Naturally when the Wall Street Journal calls this a 'Lost Decade', they're referring to the stock market:

Over the past 200 years, the stock market's steady upward march occasionally has been disrupted for long stretches, most recently during the Great Depression and the inflation-plagued 1970s. The current market turmoil suggests that we may be in another lost decade.

But there's no reason why we should limit ourselves to just that. A whole slew of things have either been put on hold or knocked back a few steps: global warming, peace in the Middle East, universal health care, etc.

We've lost ground in so many areas. That's the true 'Bush Legacy'. It'll take us a decade just to get back to where we were.

Yet more public bandwidth sold to the Telephone Monopoly:

All told, Verizon and AT&T amassed 84 percent of total winning bids....

"Appalling," Democrat Jonathan Adelstein called the results.

"Here we had an enormous opportunity to open the airwaves to a new generation that reflects the diversity of America, and instead we just made a bad situation worse. This gives whole new meaning to 'white spaces' in the spectrum." [Ars Technica]

George Bush declaring victory in Iraq at the National Assembly of Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville:

"I strongly believe the surge is working, and so do the Iraqis."

“And as a return on our success -- in other words, as we get more successful, troops are able to come home.... They're coming home because we're successful."

Great! So where's the timetable for withdrawal?

Grim economic picture painted by columnist Jane Bryant Quinn on Friday's edition of Newshour:

Clearly, we're in a recession. We're going to have job problems. We've got difficulties with the mortgages....

Foreclosures are at record rates. People look around and they see foreclosed homes on their blocks and they see nothing but trouble ahead.

So far, I would say it's been mostly jaw-boning to try to deal with the most significant financial crisis we've had since the 1930s....