AND IT'S NOT JUST DAVID GEFFEN WHO REALIZES OBAMA WOULD MAKE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN YOU-KNOW-WHO

Tom Daschle and David Geffen aren't the only ones bravely risking the ire of the Clinton Machine-- Geffen, a smart cookie, was already savaged on CNN's Situation Room by that reprehensible Clinton hack married to that Republican lady who works for Cheney-- this week by endorsing Obama. Although Daschle, who I would have pegged as a sure fire Clinton sycophant, hit the nail on the head by pointing out Obama's "great capacity to unify our country and inspire a new generation of young Americans, just as I was inspired by the Kennedys and Martin Luther King," it was a non-politician's endorsement that I was most excited about.

Ex-Republican and ex-NBA star Charles Barkley has been talking about-- or encouraging others to talk about-- him running for Governor of Alabama in 2010. He used to say he would run as a Republican. But last July he told the world, in disgust, that he had had it with the Republican Party. "I was a Republican until they lost their minds."

So yesterday Barkley announced he's supporting Obama, although he thinks it's kind of quixotic because he doubts America is ready for an African American-- or a woman, for that matter-- president. "I am going with Sen. Barack Obama. I like him a lot. I respect him. I really think he'd make a fantastic president." I like that. It's been making me ill seeing Clinton buying off a bunch of African-American politicos in South Carolina. Barkley, who also likes Clinton and Edwards, is doing the right thing.

I was happy to hear Obama going on yesterday, not about Hillary and her Geffen problems but about repealing Bush's tax cuts for multimillionaires. He told a crowd at a Des Moines Town Hall meeting that repealing Bush's tax cuts would be a large step toward restoring funding and assistance to weakened programs. "April 15 when I write that check, I say 'Golly, that's a lot of money,' but what I also know is there's no such thing as a free lunch, and one of those things politics is dishonest about is pretending there's a free lunch."

Tomorrow Obama speaks at UT, Austin and so many people requested tickets that they had to move the whole shebang outdoors-- and that was even before Daschle told them he was inspirational.