Wisconsin

After suffering her ninth and tenth consecutive losses in a row last night, it’s understandable that Hillary Clinton this morning called for an alternate reality.

“Let’s get real,” she said in a Hunter College auditorium that seemed to be packed mostly with the middle-aged women who make up her base. “Let’s get real about this election. Let’s get real about our future.”

With the must-win contests in Texas and Ohio looming, Clinton’s task of exorcising Democratic voters of their enchantment with Barack Obama seems more difficult by the day. This morning, she continued to try to turn Obama’s eloquence against him by suggesting, once again, that he is all fancy talk and no action.  read more »

Hillary Clinton is now down to her last out.

Faced with an opportunity in Wisconsin to halt her devastating post-Super Tuesday skid and to head into the critical March 4 primaries with newfound confidence and momentum, the former First Lady came up short tonight. Very short.

Barack Obama’s decisive victory in Wisconsin—where just six percent of the population is black—was enabled by narrow but significant pluralities among groups of voters that, earlier in the primary process, had been loyal to Clinton: women, lower-income and less educated voters, union members, and registered Democrats.  read more »

Here's what's at stake for the Democrats in Wisconsin:

Hillary Clinton

This is the last chance Clinton will have to avoid heading into March 4 on a 10-contest losing streak. Certainly, she is vastly better-positioned here than in any of the states she's lost since Super Tuesday. Most polls show her trailing Barack Obama, but only by a few points—a sign that the base that has fortified her for most of this campaign (working-class voters) has not jumped ship in large numbers.  read more »

The last time Hillary Clinton's campaign seemed to be on the brink of collapse she pulled out an improbable win in New Hampshire.

Now, five weeks later, the vultures are back. She's lost eight straight contests since Super Tuesday and most pundits have penciled her in for two more next Tuesday, in Wisconsin and Hawaii. And her grip on Ohio and Texas (in particular) may be slipping, and if she can't win those states on March 4, then the end will be at hand.  read more »

New Hampshire native Alan Natkiel, 31, will open Georgia's East Side Barbecue at 192 Orchard Street in mid-May. Mr. Natkiel signed the lease on the Lower East Side space a few days ago, according to Misrahi Realty.

Georgia's East Side Barbecue will serve "classic Southern food like barbecue, hamburgers and hot dogs," according to Mr. Natkiel. "I've spent a fair amount of time down South," he told The Real Estate. "People in New York are not aware of real barbecue. New York's idea of barbecue is the same as Wisconsin's idea of New York pizza."

Mr. Natkiel is no stranger to the restaurant business, having managed Lodge and The General Store in Williamsburg. As the sole proprietor of Georgia's, however, he's going to need to sell a lot of hush puppies to stay afloat in the high-rent nabe. The 600-square-foot Orchard space, which used to be Cafe Trotsky, has a monthly rent of $5,500.

- Mark Wellborn

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I experienced a little frisson of excitement this morning when a quick crawl through the Federal Election Commission website turned up a presidential fund-raising committee for one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Was this the smoking gun? The proof that reporters have been looking for?

As I suspected -- and an FEC spokesperson confirmed -- it was, in fact, the work of some overzealous "Draft Hillary" types who had gone ahead and registered the committee. The committee has not raised any money. But it got me wondering which other possible-potential-theoretical presidential contenders have inspired (or is it "inspired"?) drafters to go out and register them for presidential bids -- and which ones have not.

So herewith a list of the lucky proto-candidates with presidential committees (and apparently draft teams) and those without...

The Presidential Committee'd: * Virginia Senator George Allen * Wisconsin senator and favorite insurgent-Democrat-son Russ Feingold * Ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani * Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice * Former Virginia Governor and chosen Anti-Hillary Democratic contender Mark Warner The Presidential Committee-less: * Indiana Senator Evan Bayh * Delaware Senator and 1988 presidential contender Joseph Biden * Kansas Senator Sam Brownback * Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist * Almost-President Al Gore * Arizona Senator and 2000 presidential hopeful John McCain * New York Governor George Pataki * New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson * Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney * Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack -- Lizzy Ratner

With Shooting Star, Tom Wicker found an apt title for this absorbing and highly readable account of  read more »

Riverhead, Long Island is looking to expand—shopping centers, businesses and esplanades—and is considering three proposals from private investors for apparently public use. Currently however, the land belongs to someone. And the town is taking careful steps to avoid using eminent domain to claim it.

Yesterday, The Real Estate pointed at a New York Daily News editorial that discussed the modern uses of eminent domain for the construction of offices and factories, rather than roads and schools, stretching the justification of “public use.”

Now, Wisconsin is looking to reinforce the rights of property owners in light of the Supreme Court’s decision this past summer in the eminent domain case of Kelo vs. City of New London. The state bill on the table prohibits the condemnation of property that isn’t blighted if the land will just be handed off to another private party. The Kelo case determined that local governments could seize private homes and businesses for other private economic development projects—perhaps ones that would be more lucrative.

Wisconsin's governor is expected to sign the bill. Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama has already enacted a similar law and Tenessee is talking too.

While others tip-toe around the term, in New York, eminent domain is used to justify proposals like Atlantic Yards and Columbia University’s expansion into Manhattanville, according to the Daily News, vis-à-vis the Empire State Development Corporation—an unelected body that isn’t really accountable to the public as much as it is to its government employers. Steve Anderson, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, told the Times Union that New York is “one of the biggest abusers" of the claim.

The Daily News writer points to City Council for an answer, while others suggest a public referendum. Perhaps Riverhead’s developers can get away without calling on eminent domain because the majority of the land is held by a single owner, but as New York continues to grow, will anyone address the Kelo question?

Inman News New York Daily News The New York Times Times Union - Riva Froymovich

[Apologies: Observer.com went down, again, this afternoon. I'm told this has something to do with Wisconsin, though I'm inclined to connect it to the lamented departure of The Politicker's only tech-savvy contributor, Jess Bruder.]

Along with the prospect of a State Senate race in Harlem and of a contest to replace Paterson as Minority Leader, the question isn't so much why Eliot picked Paterson as why Paterson gave up the propsect of being Senate Majority Leader -- the second-most-powerful pol in the State -- for the prospect of becoming Lieutenant Governor, not the second, or third, or fourth, or fifteenth, most powerful person in the state.

One line of speculation: Paterson's eyes are on a future statewide run. For the other kind of Senate.

Also, Paterson's father, Basil, is a partner at Meyer, Suozzi, English, and Klein. And yes, the Suozzi is Joseph, father of Tom.  read more »

But that shouldn't be cause for workplace tension. After all, as a reader reminds me, Basil has already endorsed for Lieutenant Governor. He's backing Leecia Eve.

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