DID AL SHARPTON SAY SOMETHING?

From a Times Picayune piece on Landrieu's victory:

The mood inside Sen. Mary Landrieu's re-election campaign headquarters was glum by midafternoon Saturday. Checks of key precincts showed turnout among African-American voters wasn't nearly what the Democratic incumbent needed.

The monthlong national Republican blitz for challenger Suzanne Haik Terrell appeared to be working.

Then the Landrieu team made two critical on-the-fly tactical decisions. About 1 p.m., Kenner native and former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile set up a conference call with Landrieu; state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge; and former President Bill Clinton. In blunt terms, according to a member of the Landrieu campaign, Clinton told Fields, a onetime Landrieu nemesis, to step up his get-out-the-vote machinery in African-American neighborhoods and to do it fast.

About 4 p.m., the campaign also shifted the focus of its turnout efforts to eastern New Orleans and Gentilly, aides said. Landrieu raced to the area to canvass the heavily African-American precincts with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin; U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans; and a platoon of volunteers. They worked the streets until the polls closed at 8 p.m.

So much for Al Sharpton blaming the Dems' midterm meltdown on Clinton. The big-haired one was probably thinking more about his presidential aspirations than anything else.

This means that Clinton helped more after 4pm than Bush helped for an entire month! Big Dog's still got it! This, coupled with victories for Immanuel and Richardson (not to mention his chief of staff almost taking the senate seat occupied by a senator who threatened to shoot Clinton if he ever came across the state line), should be enough to shut people up about the non-existent "Clinton fatigue".