SWAP BIDEN FOR HILLARY RUMOUR STARTED HERE AT THE BIG FEED HITS THE MAINSTREAM PRESS

Maybe I didn't start it, but maybe I did. I know I was posting this hypothesis as early as 16 days ago:

See here.

And here.

And now, from Fox News:

It’s almost certainly just a case of the telephone game gone high-tech, but there’s an Internet rumor surging through inboxes and discussion boards that Joe Biden will drop out as Barack Obama’s running mate after his Oct. 2 debate with Sarah Palin — and that he’ll be replaced by Hillary Clinton on the Democratic presidential ticket.

The story line goes as follows: John McCain’s selection of Palin has generated so much interest in the Republican ticket that Obama needs to make a radical move to regain momentum. So in the days after the vice presidential candidates debate in Missouri, Biden will bow out, citing “health problems” (Biden underwent surgery in 1988 to repair two brain aneurysms). Enter Clinton.

Furthermore, the story goes, any damage the gaffe-prone Biden does during the debate will be erased by his abrupt exit.

Snopes.com, a site devoted to picking apart online rumors and urban legends, has labeled the status of the claim “undetermined.” Several online discussion boards have been loaded up with denials.

Biden has caused a few hiccups for the Obama campaign. On Monday, he had to issue a clarification after he called one of his own campaign ads “terrible” in an interview with CBS News. He also faced a rebuke from Obama after he spoke out against the government bailout of American International Group last week before Obama was ready to take a position.

ANOTHER PROMINENT HILLARY BACKER ENDORSES McCAIN

Some Democrats are immune from the hope and change spell:

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.

The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will "campaign and help him through the election," the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.

Forester was a major donor for Clinton earning her the title as a Hillraiser for helping to raise at least $100,000 for the New York Democratic senator's failed presidential bid.

In an interview with CNN this summer, Forester did not hide her distaste for eventual Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him," she said of Obama in an interview with CNN's Joe Johns. "I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him."

Rothschild joins John Coale as another prominent Democrat donor to back McCain.

HILLARY SUPPORTERS TRASH OBAMA FOR RUNNING TO HILLARY FOR SUPPORT

This is just great...and 100% correct. From the Hillary supporter site Puma Pac:

News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work. Or send Sebelius — woo-hoo! I’m sure she can take on Palin and come out of the encounter victorious.

Or, in the words of Anglachel (”Audacity Defecit”):

“Biden is a sign of weakness because of who Obama passed over.Whether or not you would have wanted to see Hillary as VP, that choice would have been a measure of his confidence in working with a more senior politician with her own dedicated power base. There is no corollary for McCain to choose from on the Republican side because there is no one of that stature in his party. I mean, can you think of anyone? To have selected Hillary would have fallen somewhere on the “no guts, no glory” scale between JFK offering the post to LBJ (grudgingly, wanting a rejection, knowing it was the key to victory) and Bill asking Al (unafraid of the competition, respectful of Al’s greater national statute, gambling on a powerful adminstrative team). Biden has mocked Obama in public, there is no synergy in the pairing, there is not enough contrast to produce creative counter balance, and Biden stands as repudiation of all the message of change.”

OR, BARACK — IF, AS HAS BEEN THE CASE SINCE JANUARY WHEN YOU FIRST DECIDED TO SIT BACK AND ALLOW THE SEXIST ONSLAUGHT FROM YOUR CRONIES IN THE MAINSTREAM AND NEW MEDIA DO YOUR DIRTY WORK FOR YOU, YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON “LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE” POLITICAL THINKERS LIKE THE GEMS AT THE DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND TO PUT THIS KIND OF STUFF OUT THERE FOR YOUR BENEFIT. (h/t to Taggles for finding this scum)

VOICES FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE: WHAT DID SHE GET FOR $20 MILLION?

The Big Feed is proud to present this article from the esteemed Robert Stacy McCain who writes for the blog, THE OTHER MCCAIN.

Reprinted with full permission.

What did She get for $20 million?

Hillary should demand a refund:

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. . .

As of a month ago, most of that debt was reportedly owed to the firm of former Clinton top strategist Mark Penn:

A source who has had close connections with Penn got word to me that he believes the Clinton campaign is $10 million in debt to Penn, Schoen & Berland, which is owned by Burson-Marsteller. The campaign's March report to the Federal Election Commission recorded indebtedness to the company of nearly $2.5 million (with its expenses for the month listed at $3.1 million).
My sources suggest that Clinton's full indebtedness may be revealed only gradually. This money link helps explain why Penn is still around even though organized labor demanded his scalp last summer and he is blamed inside the campaign for failing to perceive the public's demand for "change."
Just how much money Clinton owes Penn could cause major difficulties. If not repaid
promptly, would it constitute an illegal financial contribution? Because the British WPP owns Burson-Marsteller, would that debt constitute an illegal foreign contribution?

This is one of my pet peeves about political professionals in both parties. The top operatives get rich running campaigns, and they get paid whether the candidates win or lose. There is a built-in bias for operatives to respond to every problem in the campaign by saying, "The solution is to give me more money." The pollsters always want more money for polling, the media strategists want more money for ads, etc.

What results is a high "burn rate" -- spending campaign funds as fast, or faster, than they come in. These contributions often come from true-believer types, in response to "urgent" appeals to the effect of, "Help us save America!"

Those donors are getting ripped off, if that money goes mainly to line the pockets of some bigshot operative. And how can a candidates, in good conscience, ask students and housewives to work as unpaid volunteers while, at the same time, the campaign is pouring out millions in fat fees to expensive consultants? The consultants, strategists, and pollsters get paid, win or lose.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There are McMansions in Virginia horse country -- and yachts on the Chesapeake Bay -- that were paid for with consulting contracts on losing campaigns.