As 11-year-old Dalton Hatfield set about selling his earthly possessions, his parents thought he was doing his part to help pay for a family vacation.

Instead, he was doing his part to help his favored presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. And on Friday, the young fellow made news when he presented a stunned Bill Clinton with a check for $440.

The former president, according an Associated Press story on the occasion, "seemed to nearly come to tears" as he accepted the donation at a fire station in Williamson, W.Va. (one of the many off-the-beaten-path locales where he has been rallying support for his wife).

The Hillary Clinton campaign, understandably, was so taken with the boy's gesture that today it posted the AP story on its website. Every little bit helps, after all, when it comes to erasing the $20-million debt that the campaign acknowledged on Sunday.

Killjoys that we are, we checked federal regulations just to make sure everything was on the up-and-up with Hatfield's contribution. And we are relieved to report ...

that it passes muster.

The key, according to the law, is that the "decision to contribute is made knowingly and voluntarily by the Minor" and that the "funds, goods, or services contributed are owned or controlled by the Minor."

Hatfield generated his money, he told the AP, by peddling his video games (talk about commitment!), bicycle and anything else "I could make money with.''

It's just as well he didn't cast his lot with Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race; otherwise, his initiative might have been squelched. The Times' resident expert on campaign finances, reporter Dan Morain, reminded us that on its fundraising pitches, Obama's campaign says it will not take money from federally registered lobbyists, political action committees and those under the age of 16.

We could be hearing more from Hatfield, who's from the Appalachian town of McAndrews, Ky. (close to the border with West Virginia). He says that after becoming a lawyer, "I want to be governor or a senator, then president."

As thrilled as the Clinton camp is by the lad's generosity, there is one possible downside to it. Given the history of the region he hails from, we came only assume an onslaught of McCoy money is headed Obama's way.

Don Frederick writes the Top of the Ticket blog at the LA Times

One more sign congressional Republicans may be in for a rough ride this election season: Democrats are fielding strong candidates in GOP breadbasket districts, like the western Miami-Dade county redoubt of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Diaz-Balart cruised to victory in 2006 with nearly 59 percent of the vote, but he faces an energetic and savvy challenger in Democratic operative Joe Garcia, who is wasting no time in zinging the GOP incumbent as obsessed with Castro at the expense of bread-and-butter economic issues.

In the not-too-distant past, no Castro obsession was too strong for the rabidly anti-Fidel exile community in south Florida. But the 1960s-era generation of exiles is aging and their children and grandchildren don't always take the same rock-hard line toward Cuba.

Garcia himself has the street cred to call out Diaz-Balart on Cuba because he is a former director of the ardently anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation.

Click here for a taste of what Garcia's throwing at the Diaz-Balart -- and at his brother, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who occupies a neighboring seat and holds similar Cuban policy views.

PORTLAND, Ore. - John McCain got an unexpected boost in his bid to woo independent and Democratic voters here this afternoon: a shared stage with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Kulongoski is a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. So local reporters were stunned to see him turn up at wind-power firm Vestas near Portland International Airport along with McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The event, a major speech on global warming, was designed to pitch McCain's environmental views to moderate western voters.

The governor didn't mention McCain in his brief remarks. Instead, he introduced Jens Soby, the president of Vestas, and promoted Oregon's attempts to be "the renewable (energy) capital of America."

Soby introduced McCain, who did not miss the chance to thank Kulongoski and use his presence to push a second independent-wooing pitch: his ability to work across party lines.

McCain lauded Kulongoski - a former Marine who attends every funeral for an Oregon serviceman or woman killed in Iraq - for his military service. He called him "a great governor" whose leadership had lured Vestas to Oregon.

"As president of the United States," McCain said, "I will sit down with Gov. Ted Kulongoski and all of the governors of this country, whether they are Democrat or Republican, and work for the betterment of the nation."

We're waiting to hear the Clinton camp's reaction. (Both she and Obama, incidentally, panned McCain's global warming speech.)

CHARLESTON, W. Va--In his only scheduled appearance in West Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama Monday kept his remarks focused on a single theme: helping America's veterans.

Speaking to about 1,000 people at the Charleston CIvic Center and flanked by some of his military advisers, Obama said the country had fallen short in making sure veterans of the armed forces had adequate health care and specifically called for increased resources for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The single-issue speech was yet another sign that Obama has cast his gaze forward, delivering a message tailored for the general election. There was only passing mention of the pocketbook issues that Sen. Hillary Clinton has been pounding during her extended tour of the state.

Obama only referenced Clinton once, acknowledging the she would likely gain "many more" votes in Tuesday's primary here, but from there segued into a call for party unity.

Chuck Schumer, at a Crain's Breakfast in New York City, sounds a note of optimism about the viability of an Obama/Clinton ticket:

"At first I thought it wasn't but I do think it could be."

About voters: "They're worried, and they want somebody to come in and say I can help a little bit you with healthcare, and paying for college, and all these things, and a Democratic candidate is more likely to do it. Hillary and Barack have both run very strong and great races, and I think they'd be a strong ticket together."

It's possible that's what he really thinks. But a lot of things -- the difficulty of selling the first black and the first woman in the same year; the lack of national security credentials; the idea that Hillary would spend eight years with less power than she had as First Lady or Senator; the fundamental disagreement on health care; the risks of Bill floating on the outskirts of a ticket and an administration -- counsel against the idea.

So what else could Schumer be up to?

Maybe the idea that a little flattery, and the ability to turn down the v-p slot, is part of what it'll take to ease Clinton out of the race....

John Riley writes the Spin Cycle blog for Newsday

by Frank James

Here's some news that may help the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama get through what's expected to be a difficult couple of primaries tomorrow and next Tuesday in West Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. Gallup says he's pulling ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton in its national polling for the first time in three weeks.

Among Democratic voters, Obama has a seven-point lead, 50 percent versus 43 percent, in its polling over Clinton, Gallup said. Here's a snippet.

Although Obama did not achieve an immediate bounce in national Democratic support after last week's primary elections in Indiana and North Carolina, it could be that the subsequent political punditry, proclaiming the Clinton campaign is effectively over, is affecting voters.

Not good for Clinton, certainly. But there was still a nugget of good news for Clinton which was bad news for Sen. John McCain, the all but official Republican nominee.

The first U.S. military aid flight landed in Burma's capital city of Yangon on Monday, but a US official cited "massive concern" about supplies getting to the approximately 1.5 million people waiting for help in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta.

The director of U.S. foreign disaster assistance, Ky Luu, said the US plans to track the emergency supplies - water, mosquito nets and blankets - it flew in on a C-130 cargo plane, but appealed to the military government to allow disaster experts into the country.

Myanmar's ruling junta has given permission for just two more C-130 flights, but Luu said the US was prepared to give much more. It has thus far refused to grant visas to foreign aid workers waiting in Bangkok.

Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, who accompanied the supplies, told a news conference at an airbase in Thailand before taking off, "We're limited only by the permission from the authorities in Burma."

In case you missed Saturday Night Live's latest (and we hope not the last) skit featuring "Sen. Hillary Clinton," here it is. SNL cast member Amy Poehler, as Clinton, gives three reasons why she should be the Democratic nominee. I won't spoil the jokes by giving them away.

Faced with a scandal-soiled attorney general who won't go away, the Ohio Democratic Party is trying a 'if you can't beat Marc Dann, erase him' strategy.

Click here to get to the ODP web site. Then click on 'elected officials'.

Whoa. Where's Marc Dann?

There's a statement on the front page of the web site from top Democrats asking Dann to step down, but his bio listing is gone.

Here's some background on why Ohio Dems are so eager to see Dann disappear.

The Democrats attempted erasure recalls those old Kremlin group photos in which a commissar or field marshal who'd fallen from favor was airbrushed out of the pic.

Except in those cases, the pariah really was gone, to the gulag, the grave or, if he was lucky, to a gilded confinement at his dacha.

Dann's still around, vowing to ride out the heat from both parties. But it's hard to imagine an end game that works out favorably for him. One factor in his intransigence may be lack of another job. Word is that Dann has been calling around to various Ohio politicos looking for a place to land.

by Jim Tankersley

BEND, Ore. - Central Oregon doesn't see many presidential candidates, particularly Democrats, which perhaps explains why a rocking high school crowd this weekend let Barack Obama get away with a cardinal sin around these parts: Expressing a desire to move in.

Twenty years ago, Bend was a sleepy little cowboy town that doubled as a jumping-off point for some of America's best skiing (Mt. Bachelor), rafting (the Deschutes River) and backpacking (the Cascade Range). Then the yuppies discovered it and realized they could live a short drive away from all those things. Some came from Portland three hours north, some from California. Most brought money, which fueled a huge wave of building and sent housing prices soaring. The newcomers and some city annexations served to quadruple the town's population over two decades.

And so, when the Obama campaign and the national press descended on Bend this weekend and marveled at the crisp air, the sagebrush smells and the snow-capped mountain views, the general, only half-joking response from the local press was, yes, it's a great place. But you'd hate living here. Please, please don't move here.

Obama took multiple opportunites to admire his surroundings. "You guys have some pretty real estate out here," he said at the beginning of his speech at Summit High School, a fairly new building that serves a side of town that barely existed in the mid-1990s. "I'd like to stick around. Who's going to teach me fishing?"

The crowd cheered its approval. Somewhere, we're sure, some native Central Oregonians grumbled.

Hillary Clinton hasn't hit Central Oregon yet, but if she comes back before the state's May 20 voting deadline, we suggest a new slogan: Vote for me. I'll keep you a secret.

by Frank James

Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman made it official today. He's running for the White House, aiming for the Liberterian Party's nomination.

Barr, a former federal prosecutor, is probably best remembered as one of the leaders of the Republican House's impeachment efforts against the President Bill Clinton for committing perjury during a grand jury investigation of the president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

The former Georgia congressman has written off his old party, however. He's been a critic of the Bush Administration over what he has seen as violations of constitutionally protected civil liberties as it pursues the war of terror.

As a believer in small-government, he has rebuked the present administration for the growth of the government on its watch, as well as the expanding deficit-spending and borrowing from abroad to finance the government's expenditures.

What's more, he has been very upset by Bush's Iraq invasion which he views as an example of the dangers that can result from an overly large, aggressive federal government.

At his Washington press conference this morning, he offered his candidacy because he won't be the "status quo" candidate or the "lesser of two evils." He senses Americans want someone "who will stand up to the forces here in Washington, somebody who is not a part of that fraternity that has given us the crop of current candidates. Somebody who will stand up as precious few presidents have to the powers in Washington who want more, more, more and say no."

by Christi Parsons

This isn't the ad that won a recent MoveOn.org Political Action contest, as determined by a panel that included Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, John Legend and Naomi Wolf.

The winner, which the progressive group will air in presidential battleground states, features a veteran and lifelong Republican talking about why he's voting for Barack Obama.

But the panel did see fit to name this piece -- suggesting that Obama fever is passed on by, well, human contact -- the funniest entry.

Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.

But in the meantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in St. Paul at the beginning of September.

Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated a month ago in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.

Don Frederick writes the Top of the Ticket blog for the LA Times

by Christi Parsons

BECKLEY, W. Va.-- Coal--or "King Coal," as they like to call it here--is the historic and modern lifeblood of the economy in West Virginia, the latest stage in the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

Thus the statistics that populate any discussion about energy policy in this venue start with this one: Half the country's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants.

Elsewhere, Democrats are more focused on the effect of coal on climate change. Any suggestion of increasing coal's role in the national energy mix is a sure invitation for an intraparty argument.

But the full-on debate over how to reconcile those contending interests isn't taking place on this otherwise likely stage, thanks to the political play going into the state's Tuesday primary. While Hillary Clinton is heavily favored to win West Virginia, party leaders are trying to decide how much that matters -- and whether they should even wait for the results in this and other remaining primary states in light of Barack Obama's lead in pledged delegates, superdelegates and the popular vote.

Another reason is that the Democrats aren't really that far apart on the issue. Read more in today's Chicago Tribune.

New polls out today suggest Obama is in for a rough couple of weeks in West Virginia and Kentucky, which he'll have to weather by shaping perceptions in the media that the race is over.

In West Virginia, which votes tomorrow, he trails Clinton 60-24 in a Suffolk University poll. That's 36 points. Poll director David Paleologos: "Barack Obama may have to write off West Virginia come November." A plurality of Democrats there still think Hillary will be the next president.

Obama is visiting the state today and will be introduced at a Charleston rally by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, but ... good luck. The state is stacked against him demographically, and will put an exclamation point on Clinton's argument that he can't get white blue-collar votes.

Then, ">another new poll shows that he trails Clinton 58-31 in Kentucky, which votes next Tuesday. Little wonder why he's been campaigning since Friday in Oregon, which he hopes to win on the same day he loses Kentucky. If Oregon pushes him into a majority of pledged (elected) delegates, he will hope for a superdelegate surge that will give him the nomination and relegate Kentucky to the back pages.

Still, a couple of blowout losses on the eve of winning the nomination will be a sobering reminder of how much work Obama has to do.

John Riley writes the Spin Cycle blog for Newsday