Hillary Clinton will win the West Virginia primary on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, perhaps rivaling her campaign-best 43-point pasting of Barack Obama in Arkansas’ February 5 primary.

The state is mostly populated by voters who have formed the backbone of her large and loyal coalition this primary season, and contains scant few of those who have made up Obama’s. Moreover, Obama, in a bow to the inevitable and an effort to downplay its significance, has not exactly gone all-out this past week to narrow Clinton’s wide lead.  read more »

I am the proud owner of a nephew who is 15 years old, 6 feet 2, and 85 pounds after a week in a typhoon. I’ve seen veggie burgers with more meat on them. Great kid, too, and a huge Manchester United fan – he recently did some school exam after one hour’s sleep, having trekked with his dad the night before to Barcelona and back to watch United in a European game. (Don’t tell his teacher). But despite the fact I like him a lot, and share his obsession with all things Man U, being just 15 he’s badly in need of a history lesson, so Sam Dempsey of Tamworth, England?  read more »

As literally handfuls of Americans were no doubt aware, the climax to the just-concluded Premier League season in England was one of the closest in years. Chelsea and Manchester United went into the last match of the season level on points, the only thing separating them being goal difference. United won.

Happily, these same two teams also meet in the final of the Champions League in Moscow on Wednesday, May 21, providing an opportunity for Chelsea to laugh last by winning Europe’s biggest prize.  read more »

At a press conference earlier today, Michael Bloomberg pushed back against Chuck Schumer’s suggestion that building Moynihan Station should take precedence over developing the West Side rail yards.
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Contributions made to Spitzer 2010 are being refunded.

A reader just passed along an email from Allyson Giard, the main fund-raiser behind the former governor’s re-election committee.

Giard wrote:

We intend to re-distribute the campaign's remaining funds on a
pro-rata basis to contributors who make an official request for a refund, either by email or letter. To expedite this process, we have set a deadline of June 15; in order to be honored, a refund request must be received by the campaign office by close of business on that date. After June 15, we will determine the rate at which we are able
to issue contribution refunds and will begin issuing checks. (We will not be able to honor any requests received after June 15.)

Here's the full email:

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On a day that the  read more »

Here’s something to keep in mind as the fate of Vito Fossella unfolds:
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There were no surprises at 30 Rock today as NBC announced the new host of Late Night when current host Conan O'Brien decamps to 11:30 PM sometime in 2009. As far back as February 2007, Bill Carter, The New York Times' veteran TV reporter and de facto historian of late night, had been reporting that Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon would be tapped to host the show. As reporters and film crews assembled on the 67th floor to take their lucite seats in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows dramatically framing a rainy, overcast day, Fallon's name was openly bandied about.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg pushed back against a pet initiative of Senator Schumer's today, saying the city “would never agree” to the Port Authority taking over the troubled Moynihan Station project.

Since March, Senator Schumer has been an outspoken proponent of moving the project under the purview of the Port Authority, saying the bi-state agency has the experience and the capability to complete the long-stalled project. Governor Paterson has supported the idea and said the move is likely, though some legislators are against it.

This morning Mr. Schumer tried to push the idea further, saying at a Crain’s New York breakfast that the state’s development agency, which currently has authority over the project, “is not capable of being a major development agency here.”

Shortly after, responding to questions from reporters, Mayor Bloomberg said, effectively, thanks but no thanks.  read more »

Last month, Mark Leibovich wrote an extensive and somewhat unflattering profile of MSNBC anchor and political guru Chris Matthews for the cover of the New York Times Magazine.

How did Mr. Matthews feel about the piece?

According to freshly unearthed and highly anecdotal evidence: not so well!  read more »