There's a note of thanks for all you HamNation viewers at the end of this video, but I can't say thank you enough to everyone for watching and helping make HamNation a success.

The song in this video is an original written and performed by my very talented brother, Jon (although he did let me pitch in on the lyrics just a bit). And, I realized late last night I forgot to include the All-Star Townhall Interns (and Kevin Glass) in the credits. They were my clappers, and they did a great job. Sorry for the oversight, guys!

A million thanks, also, to Katie Favazza and Allah Pundit, without whose help and encouragement this video product would have perished long ago. Hope you enjoy! Click to watch:

Michelle Obama will guest-host 'The View' on June 18. Ahhh, the genius of the Obama campaign-- putting a mean-spirited woman with a tendency toward politically stupid utterances on a national stage with a group of women whose sole purpose is to utter mean-spirited, politically stupid things.

She will help interview guests and "banter" with co-hosts. I can't wait.

Good thing Clinton's just suspending the campaign.

Fox & Friends is reporting that Terry McAuliffe said Hillary would likely "congratulate" Obama if he meets the delegate threshold of 2,118.

Hillary, meanwhile, is ready to "do whatever it takes" to get a Dem in office in November.

"She will do whatever it takes to bring the party together to win and whatever is asked of her to make sure the Republicans are defeated."

That message has been conveyed to the Obama campaign via informal channels, according to Obama insiders who said the message is a signal that she would be willing to serve as his vice president.

Obama has picked up six superdelegates since Saturday to Hillary's two. If Hillary wants to find the path to the nomination, it lies this way: She'd have to pick up more than 80 percent of pledged delegates in tonight's contests and 90 percent of superdelegates after that fact. Good luck!

Off message again:

Bill Clinton acknowledged Monday that today may be his last campaigning for his wife.

"I want to say also, that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former president said at a town hall at the Milbank Visitor Center.

Clinton was talking about how his entire family was campaigning in South Dakota, and that he believed Hillary might surprise people in the primary Tuesday.

Or, is he actually on message? Feeling like a denouement at this point.

This is President Bush doing what President Bush does in a way most presidents don't-- congratulating an Air Force Academy grad:


Meanwhile, the back-stabby swan song of the mediocre press secretary continues unabated.

Karl Rove compared him to a left-wing blogger. Ouch!

I'm on O'Reilly tonight talking politics with Bill and Juan Williams. We're discussing Bill Clinton's further whining about Hillary's treatment.

Hillary is running on the fiction in South Dakota that she'll return us to "fiscal responsibility." She's got a new TV ad up on the subject:



She's also running a radio ad that takes aim at the pundits for calling on her to get out of the race:

"In Washington, some people say the presidential primary in South Dakota doesn't much matter. That your voice doesn't really count," the announcer says in the spot. "But you know what? Tuesday, we can show 'em. We can pick a president. After all, just because South Dakota comes last in the primaries doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be heard loud and clear. And we can pick the candidate who'll stand up for us. Hillary Clinton."

Show 'em, Hill!

Obama, on the other hand, is using noted South Dakotan loser of historic proportions, Tom Daschle, to shore up rural support in the state:

Hey, everyone. I hate to break news on a Friday afternoon (I'm becoming such a politician!), but such is what the timing required.

I'm leaving the great, great folks at Townhall.com and Salem after almost three years for a job at The Washington Examiner, as online editor of the soon-to-launch dcexaminer.com. From an Examiner press release:

As online editor of dcexaminer.com, Ham will be responsible for overall management of the site’s news and editorial content and staff, as well as working with Examiner and outside resources on creative development of new features and functionality. She will work from the Examiner’s downtown Washington, D.C. newsroom and will start June 10.

“We are especially excited and proud to have Mary Katharine Ham join The Washington Examiner because she among the most respected young stars of online journalism and is also well-known to cable television and talk radio audiences through her regular appearances on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ on Fox News,” said Vivienne Sosnowski, editorial director of Clarity Media, which publishes The Washington Examiner, The Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Examiner, as well as the Examiner.com web site.

“Her hiring demonstrates again our commitment to building a great news and information company that excels in three channels, including newspapers, online and video,” Sosnowski said.

It was not an easy decision to make. I have appreciated the personal guidance and opportunities offered me by the company and its many gifted, conservative leaders, like Chuck DeFeo, Jon Garthwaite, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Mike Gallagher,  and many, many others who grace the pages and air waves of this powerhouse one-stop-shop for today's conservatives.

It’s been both a professional pleasure and a much-appreciated challenge to work in an environment where I was allowed to be myself and produce any number of oddball web videos and other products.

I'm not outta here just yet, so I'll be around for the next couple of weeks delivering said oddball web videos (which I've been delinquent on lately), and you may see me haunting the place and the new magazine from time to time in the future. Looking forward to hanging out with you for the rest of my time here, and hopefully seeing you when you come visit me at my new place, too! I'm excited to take on another challenge in New Media using the tools and experience Townhall's innovators have given me.

Thanks, as always, for watching and reading. The Townhall audience has always been nothing but kind to me and I have appreciated it every step of the way.

Sadly, because of the curse of the Commies who have controlled the beautiful island nation of Cuba since the 1950s, it is not the beautiful, carefree, sun-kissed paradise it should be. Cuban native Jon Secada had to move to Florida to be inspired to write the beautiful, carefree, sun-kissed pop of the early '90s. Here's hoping some day, with continued pushing from free nations, political and economic freedom in Cuba will be as ubiquitous as the sunshine.

President Bush talked today about Raul Castro's so-called reforms upon taking over from Fidel:

A few months ago, when Fidel handed over many of his titles to his brother Raul, the Cuban regime announced a series of so-called "reforms." For example, Cubans are now allowed to purchase mobile phones and DVD players and computers. And they've been told that they will be able to purchase toasters and other basic appliances in 2010.

If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful. Now that the Cuban people can be trusted with mobile phones, they should also be trusted to speak freely in public. (Applause.) Now that the Cuban people are allowed to purchase DVD players, they should also be allowed to watch movies and documentaries produced by Cuban artists who are free to express themselves. (Applause.) Now that the Cuban people have open access to computers, they should also have open access to the Internet. (Applause.) And now that the Cuban people will be allowed to have toasters in two years, they should stop needing to worry about whether they will have bread today. (Applause.)

There is another problem with the regime's recent announcements: It is the height of hypocrisy to claim credit for permitting Cubans to own products that virtually none of them can afford. For the regime's actions to have any impact, they must be accompanied by major economic reforms that open up Cuba's inefficient state-run markets, to give families real choices about what they buy, and institute a free enterprise system that allows ordinary people to benefit from their talents and their hard work. Only when Cubans have an economy that makes prosperity possible will these announcements lead to any real improvements in their daily lives.

No word yet on whether noted egotist Barack Obama has interpreted any of these remarks as an attack on him, but McCain went ahead and attacked him explicitly for good measure:

Just a few years ago, Senator Obama had a very clear view on Cuba. When asked in a questionnaire about his policy toward Cuba, he answered: “I believe that normalization of relations with Cuba would help the oppressed and poverty-stricken Cuban people while setting the stage for a more democratic government once Castro inevitably leaves the scene.” Now Senator Obama has shifted positions and says he only favors easing the embargo, not lifting it. He also wants to sit down unconditionally for a presidential meeting with Raul Castro. These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba’s dictators – there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in US policy. I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime.

The Obama campaign responded inadequately:

The Obama campaign quickly sent out a response from Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, both supporters with foreign policy experience, who argued the country needed a change from a Bush administration approach that had for much of the past seven years frowned upon dialogue with certain adversaries, though it has more recently shown signs of shifting.

“John McCain needs to explain why continuing to do exactly what George Bush has done will somehow produce a different result,” Mr. Dodd said.

The director of the U.S. Cuba Democracy Pact is proud to be a hard-liner on this day:

Garrison concluded: "With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost." It is inarguable that after Fidel Castro took control of Cuba, his tyranny trampled the fundamental human rights of the people of Cuba. Today the Cuban people do not have the benefit of free press that Garrison and Douglass placed at the service of the abolitionist cause. Neither do the Cuban people have the ability to somewhat gather as America's Founding Fathers did to debate the form of government and rally popular support for independence. Yet Cubans share the same goal and desire for freedom and political rights.

Americans of all origins should find it fair and easy to conclude that not only are Cuban Americans uncompromising "hard-liners" on the issues of freedom and full emancipation of Cuba but also that there is no reason to back away from that hard line. It is, after all, a most American tradition.

The State Department invites us to stand in solidarity with those who are political prisoners in Cuba:

For that dialogue to be meaningful, he (Thomas Shannon of the State Department) said, "the fear factor really has to be removed from Cuban political discourse, and that one of the most dramatic ways to begin this process would be by freeing political prisoners and for the Cuban regime to make clear that it has enough confidence in itself and enough confidence in the Cuban people that it can begin a dialogue without using the secret police and the security services as a moderator of political discourse."

With that in mind, said Shannon, Cuba Solidarity Day aims "to call for the freedom of political prisoners, to call for full compliance with human rights accords that Cuba has signed," with the most recent accord being U.N. covenants on political and civil rights.

She says it's her party and she'll fight if she wants to-- even unto the convention.