Which came first, the chicken …

… or the egg?

We read in the Washington Post:

When a reporter pointed to the dearth of well-heeled, GOP-aligned independent groups emerging, Obama responded by asserting that they could “pop up pretty quickly and have enormous influence,” adding: “And we’ve already seen them — and there was an ad run in South Dakota . . . where it took a speech that I had made, extolling faith, and made it seem as if I had said that America was a Muslim nation.”

Could this be the South Dakota ad that frigthened Barack Obama into ditching public financing?

Spotted at Famous DC:

This is all the evidence you need — even if it is nearly 30 years old.

Not to be confused with this shot, of course.

The hits on Barack Obama keep on coming.

Et tu, Washington Post?  You bet.

Two doozies from today’s paper.

One in the news section:

“John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs,” Obama said in his message to supporters yesterday. “And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.”

To date, no conservative 527 groups have materialized.

And the other, the editorial:

Politicians do what politicians need to do. But they ought to spare us the self-congratulatory back-patting while they’re doing it.

Don’t worry ’bout a thing, Barack Obama — you’re surrounded by greatness.

Michelle Obama? Nope. Madeleine Albright.

What an amazing transformation.

From the dour wax museum photo that was this image that came out of Hillary Clinton’s January 4 Iowa loss …

… to this soaring vision of bold foreign policy vision and ultimate gravitas yesterday…

There’s that change you can believe in, again.

UPDATE: A reader, probably not Harold Ickes, suggests this slogan instead for the Iowa picture

At first we were surprised that Al Gore endorsed so early in the contest.  It’s only June, and he’s already made his mind to support Barack Obama.

Then we realized why he made the courageous act to rush out his announcement: it’s because he’s got killer material, but it’s quite topical.

From Gore’s endorsement speech last night:

If you care about food safety, if you like a T on your BLT, you know that elections matter.

Hilarious.  Bush to blame for salmonella.  If only Gore had some funny way to blame Bush for the Iowa floods.  Sure beats kissing a pig at the Iowa state fair.

Or kissing a pet, as evidenced by this Gore line also from last night:

After the last eight years, even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter.

Hilarious again.  No, you wouldn’t wanted to sit on jokes with a shelf line so short.

Go get ‘im Al — maybe there’s still more Supreme Court jokes in you.

Loyal readers of Extreme Mortman should not be surprised by today’s announcement of the Obama campaign hiring of former Clinton campaign manager and Hillary loyalist Patty Solis Doyle.

Indeed, Extreme Mortman told you of Solis Doyle’s conversion months ago on an exclusive videotape, here:

Notice all the other Clintonites on the videotape too.  Now that’s change you can believe in.

We learn this about Virginia Senator Jim Webb:

Webb fired up the crowd this morning at the Democratic convention in Hampton asking thousands of activists to support Mark R. Warner for U.S. Senate and Sen. Barack Obama for president this fall.

“People really want to see the right kind of new direction,'’ he said.

Webb, who came out to the stage while Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared in the background, spoke about getting people involved in the Democratic party.

“We’re not backing down,'’ he said. “We’re not going away.”

Tom Petty’s been getting a vigorous workout this campaign season.

Who was the last candidate to feature the ageless rocker so prominently in campaign rallies?

Hillary Clinton.  Certainly you remember Hillary’s endless use of the song during her campaign.

Thank goodness Hillary didn’t inspire Webb to associate instead with “American Girl.”

Meantime, Senator-in-waiting Mark Warner told this to the crowd:

“Today’s the day I want to make it clear what I am focused on.  The only job I am running for this year is United States Senate.”

Now there’s a declaration of interest in the vice presidency if we’ve ever heard one.  Here’s betting Barack Obama could get Warner to back down down from that position, real quick-like.