So says TPM. Indeed, Obama, not Clinton, is now the front runner.

What an unusual campaign so far. Both presumed frontrunners, Guliani and Clinton, lost their lead. Guliani had the spectacular crash-and-burn while Clinton is now wobbling badly.

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Reasons: Increased demand for water and climate change. If it does go dry, then Hoover Dam stops producing power and L.A. and Vegas will have severe water shortages.

“We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us,” said Barnett in a statement. “Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest.

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He say it’s “risky.” You bet. Organizing and building a major march takes months. His success up until now has been net-driven, inspired by geeks who know how to build buzz in cyberspace and has raised a startling $25 million. But that’s not at all the same skill set needed to organize a real world protest. And I say that as someone who has helped organize a multitude of protests, some of which drew hundreds of thousands.

If Ron Paul supporters do a march on DC and get a piddly turnout, that will be the end of Ron Paul as a force in the election. Paul wants to make a statement with the march and to use it as a way to rally supporters for the long term, since they’re getting demoralized. This smacks as being a desperation move for a crumbling campaign.

For any kind of effect, they’ll need at least 100,000 people. Anything less will be ignored or mocked, and seen as just another hoo-hum demo in a city where protests happen constantly. To make a real impact, they will need 500,000 and that’s not going to happen. Especially since it takes a minimum four months to build a major national demo, assuming the organizers are seasoned and skilled, something Paul’s supporters probably are not.

You Tube video by Ron Paul about the march. Here’s another tip, put the major point first and not after twelve minutes of meandering. Some of his supporters get the Net, but he sure doesn’t.

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Reader Tony Greenstein comments on our previous post about the current anti-Semitic and Holocaust denier stance of IndyMedia UK.

(This is an abbreviated version. His entire comment is here, and includes relevant links)

Yes, after months of battling to get the Indymedia collective to bar holocaust deniers and anti-Semites from posting articles, we have a situation now, after their meeting at the weekend, whereby anti-Semites are welcome and their opponents are banned!

The fools and fellow-travelers with racism and anti-Semitism on UK IM are unable to tell the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Some of them think they are doing Palestinians a favour by publishing this sort of garbage.

There is nothing the Zionists love better than to demonstrate that supporters of the Palestinians are anti-Semitic. Indymedia UK has now done all it could to prove them right.

Sigh.

Tony also has a long post about this on Socialist Unity.

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Not to worry, T-Mobile customers will be able to access wi-fi at Starbucks at no additional cost.

This makes AT&T the 800 lb. gorilla of wi-fi, as they already have McDonalds. Happily, they will be making wi-fi both easier and cheaper.

Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can get two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verse Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service.

Customers will be able to purchase tiered WiFi access. For a two-hour period, customers will pay just $3.99 per session. Monthly membership will also be available for $19.99 per month, and will include access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots in 89 countries around the world.

We are finally seeing lower prices and greater availability come to wi-fi even if it is a bit scary how omnipresent AT&T has become. Our cable modem and cell phone are already AT&T, our wi-fi may become that too (especially if we qualify for the free service!)

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Three of the world’s biggest banks have drafted the framework for assessing carbon risks in the financing of coal-fired power plant projects.

Clearly, they don’t want to fund a coal project then have it blow up in their faces some years down the line due to increased carbon emission regulation. While they’re doing it to protect themselves, such a stance would have been unthinkable just a year or two ago. It also signals a major warning for big coal. The investment banks are no longer particularly interested in funding coal. And they get it about renewables.

Under the principles, financial institutions will encourage energy efficiency for potential clients, as well as cost-effective renewable energy projects. The principles also call for banks to promote carbon capture and storage technologies.

This also means investment banks are now interested in funding renewables. Good. May they forget the CDOs and SIVs that benefited few and created nothing except pain and instead invest in something that benefits everyone.

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(photo from Wikipedia)

At the heart Obama’s campaign was the decision to be great at retail. At the heart of the Clinton campaign as the call to be great at corporate.

Her heart was never really in retail or the web. She is more comfortable in the cozy world of elites.

So now, as in all natural systems, the differences are widening. Small differences in the [Fibonacci] curve widen exponentially over time.

Thus, Clinton’s decision to base her campaign on elites and the backroom have put her trajectory way off the mark. What was originally billed as a slam-dunk nomination by She Who Is Inevitable has morphed into anything but that, given Obama’s take-it-to-the-people campaign and expert use of the web. By contrast, the Clinton campaign has been uninspired and by-the-numbers.

A warning to all who think that the backroom is still the key to power.

As mentioned before, I’m still not convinced Obama is anything genuinely new. But his campaign style and ability to motivate across all the normal boundaries most certainly is.

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