According to "recent polls" mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Barack Obama trails Hillary Clinton in New York City "by as few as four points." Andrew Sullivan—who, to be fair, hates Hillary—quotes a reader who argues, convincingly, that if New York's primary is going to be a close one, it will be because of the borough divide. The Clintons are still beloved by the mainstream black leaders of Harlem and the rich people everywhere else in Manhattan. In Brooklyn, though, home of well-off white youths and a couple million minorities, Obama's support seems strong. We live in Bed-Stuy. Brownstones, bodegas, and the neighborhood's only veterinarian all sport Obama signs; Hillary's presence is non-existent. The rest of the state, though, will pose bit of a problem for the senator from Illinois. Because it's basically the deep fucking South up there, have you been? [Andrew Sullivan]
Photo Credit: threecee

Hillary Clinton bought an entire hour of The Hallmark Channel for a "town hall event" the night before Super Tuesday. If she's really after the Jean Teasdale vote she should just appear on QVC. I'm sure they'll give her an hour for free! As it is, Hill will just upset everyone looking forward to Monday night's 7th Heaven repeat. [AdAge]

Though Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Florida primary, Barack Obama is still riding high after receiving perhaps the most endorsement of this campaign season. No, it's not the Kennedy imprimatur. It's the endorsement of street art dude Shepard Fairey, the guy who did those Andre the Giant Obey stencils. Recently, Fairey released a "limited edition" Barack Obama poster in which the starry eyed tricolor Senator is gazing into the distance whilst the word Progress is written across his chest and he appears to wear a lapel that is a mashup of the always mutable Obama logo and Andre the Giant. In the spirit of fairness, we've done a similar poster for Hillary Clinton which you can see and download after the jump.

Google has banned all personal attacks from political ads running on its ad network. "'Crime rates are up under Police Commissioner Gordon 'is okay, but 'Police Commissioner Gordon had an affair' is not,' writes Peter Greenberger on the Google Public Policy blog. Which of course means if Google had its way with the rest of the world, you'd never have heard of John McCain's black baby, Hillary Clinton's cookies or Barack Obama's drug dealing. Boring!

The New Republic polled the people who really matter for their endorsements in the ongoing primary battle. Yes, finally, we shall get to hear the thoughts of two noted media recluses: famous lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Vanity Fair editor/Canadian Graydon Carter! Dershowitz endorses Hillary Clinton, because Barack Obama is a Muslim. Graydon Carter endorses Barack Obama because Hillary Clinton is not sufficiently yar. [The Star]

Parodies of Tom Cruise's babbling Scientology video are coming so fast we're approaching the Tom Cruise Video Singularity. Everyone's seen the brief Craig Ferguson parody and the Stephen Colbert joke, but comedian Eugene Mirman did a good long parody, as have several other pros and amateurs. There's one particularly creepy mashup comparing the language of Tom's rant to Hillary Clinton's nearly-tearful video from New Hampshire. Here's EVERY PARODY VIDEO [with new ones added!].

Death threats get dished out online routinely, and few take them seriously — the Kathy Sierra row of last spring being the notable exception. But Dave Winer, the blog pioneer, may have chosen the wrong target over the weekend. In a Twitter sent while watching Hillary Clinton on TV, he wrote "Kill Hill Kill Hill." Webheads accustomed to Winer's dyspeptic logorrhea may dismiss such talk as the ranting of an addled mind. But the Secret Service, which protects Clinton as both the spouse of a former president and a presidential candidate herself, may view it with more jaundiced eyes. If agents pay Winer a visit, will he Twitter about that, too?

In a desperate bid to strip dangerous "bloggers" of their growing influence, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced this weekend a devious plan to legitimize internet scribblers by employing them in government agencies, thus ensuring that no one will ever take them semi-seriously again. In the attached clip, Hillary suggests the radical new blogger policy as a convenient means of avoiding a question about HOW THE CIA KILLED JOHN KENNEDY. [HuffPo]

Congratulations to the Hamptons Independent for publishing the single most offensive newspaper column ever. In "satirizing" the Obama/Clinton feud, the offending column manage to insult and degrade women, blacks, and every literate person on Earth in equal measure. Oh, it was written by the editor. Under the pseudonym "YoMama Bin Barack." That doesn't even make sense. Anyway—black people speak pidgin english, and many of them are in jail. "White women" enjoy being "bitch slapped." Too bad Bloomberg's not in the race, the only thing the column's really missing is blood libel. [Plum]

CNN has apparently banned some of its most recognizable analysts from its campaign coverage. James Carville and Paul Begala—CNN's top Democratic analysts, both of whom achieved political fame in Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, and both of whom support Hillary—were suspended from commenting on the presidential race sometime in December. And no one noticed!

As we speculated yesterday, the New York Times has thrown its weight behind Hill "The Rill Dill" Clinton, endorsing the former first lady to be the Democratic presidential candidate. To wit: "The Times’s editorial board strongly recommends that they select Hillary Clinton as their nominee for the 2008 presidential election," and a little later, they gush, "We are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience." And it's true, Hillary does have nicer breadth than Obama. But the editorial board is letting Barry down easy peasy.

'New York Times' to Endorse Hillary Clinton for President [Radar]

Roger Stone got his start with the vindictive criminals of Nixon's CREEP. He also got involved in some nonsense with Elliot Spitzer last year that made no sense to anyone. It involved a tattoo of Richard Nixon's face. Anyhoo, he's forming some sort of anti-Clinton campaign built around the attached image and an organization called "Citizens United Not Timid." "It's not War and Peace," Stone explains to The Weekly Standard. "The truth is, we sat around for hours trying to come up with words for BITCH and just couldn't do it." [Daily Intelligencer]

The Columbia Journal Review kinda hates everything on the cable news networks, but we have to hand it to them—today's MSNBC interview with author Ben Shapiro does reach a new and impressive low. Shapiro wrote a book called Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House. This sounds like a man whose expertise on the political process should be celebrated on a national cable network! Contessa Brewer sat down with Ben and reinforced every single unfair negative stereotype about the vacuity of campaign coverage in something like two minutes. BREWER: "The only woman running in this case, Hillary Clinton, I was watching the debate the other night, looking at her beautiful skin, wondering if she's had any work done because I know that Botox and chemical peels and laser work and a little nip-tuck can make a world of difference." Ben, for those keeping score at home, doesn't think injecting botulism toxin into her forehead to temporarily hide signs of emotion and age would necessarily be such a bad idea for the 60-year-old senator. BREWER: "Ben, I think you're too young to know about Botox. I love the Botox. Next, we have an update on some reported UFO sightings..." [CJR]

Senator Clinton polls higher than Senator Obama in Santa Clara County, 43 percent to 27 percent, a Clinton campaign staffer told the Wall Street Journal. But we know what really counts in Silicon Valley: money. And when it comes to raising cash, Barack Obama's winning over the tech crowd. He raised about $500,000 just last weekend at a breakfast in Atherton. Wondering who was there? Here's a list of known Silicon Valley supporters for each candidate.

Before Hillary Clinton showed us that she really does wear her heart on her sleeve (and it's a ladylike sleeve!) she backed out of a Vogue photo shoot because she was afraid of looking too feminine. Editor Anna Wintour was irked. But the Democratic candidate is featured in a February issue of Harper's Bazaar, along with six of the other running candidates. She is not, despite earlier reports, wearing a miniskirt and heels. After the jump, see the pictures of Clinton in all her high couture glory.

Anna Wintour's editor's letter in the February Vogue is all about how America's Margaret Thatcher refused to be involved in their upcoming power issue. Per Radar: "Imagine my amazement ... when I learned that Hillary Clinton, our only female presidential hopeful, had decided to steer clear of our pages at this point in her campaign for fear of looking too feminine." Yes, associating with Anna Wintour is a time-honored method of appearing feminine. In retaliation, Anna has dedicated the entire issue to Hillary. "We would love to see her wear a demure coat in delicious plum by Carolina Herrera to memorial services on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day." You sure would, Anna. You and Matt Drudge. [Radar]

Google, like most other search engines, tries to guess what users are searching for even as the users type their queries. These guesses are partly based on prior user searches, so they can be telling look into the popular conscience. Here, for a query begun "who," Google offers "who is barack obama." Hmm. What do the Google searchers wonder about Hillary?

MSNBC's website is linking Hillary Clinton's name to her campaign website, which takes readers directly to a donation page. Odd behavior, and, as far as we know, unprecedented for other candidates or other online news sources. But Hillary's an odd candidate for favoritism from the network that gives us cheek-pinchin' Chris Matthews. We'd say it might be how they got the Meet the Press sitdown but the easiest way to get Hillary on your Sunday morning show is to have a Sunday morning show. [MediaBloodhound]

Hey, suddenly the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is about race! The Clintons said a couple iffy things about Barry Obama and Martin Luther King, and then—more importantly—spent the weekend denying and apologizing. Bill (whose "first black president" title was bestowed on him by author Toni Morrison) called Al Sharpton! Now Obama, whom the media sorta treated as post-racial, is "the black candidate." Daniel Radosh rightly wonders if this wasn't perhaps deviously intentional (linking Obama to Al Sharpton is a pretty easy way to boost his national negatives). At the least it was an accidental opportunity the Clintons brilliantly seized upon. Aren't we all excited to have them back? We can't wait for Mike Bloomberg to enter the race so Hillary can announce that despite the great work of all those Jews, it was the gentiles who beat the Nazis. Then Bill can apologize to Jackie Mason. [NYT, Radosh]