What has to be the single most bizarre political ad of this election cycle just surfaced and is virally making itself from computer to computer. It’s an endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy by Jack Nicholson (who in fact endorsed Clinton awhile back). It’s a compilation ofclips from his movies stitched together with pitches for Clinton. The video, alterately described as “bizarre” and “creepy” by a variety of blogs, was created by director Rob Reiner, a Democratic big shot in Hollywood, the Guardian reported today.

The paper continues: “The usually press-shy actor has admitted that the Clinton campaign made a direct request for help and insists that Hillary is the right candidate for the White House. “She’s been there,” Nicholson told MTV News. “The only thing I can say is it’s obvious one person is more experienced.”

Take a look for yourself.

Perhaps inevitably, within a matter of hours, a parody was put up, presumably by Obama supporters.

Tonight could be the last time Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton debate.

The debate on MSNBC, which begins at 8 p.m. (CST), is the last one scheduled before next Tuesday’s primaries, which have the potential to knock Clinton out of the race.

NBC’s Brian Williams will moderate the event at Cleveland State University, and Tim Russert will join in the questioning.

If you don’t have cable, you can watch the debate on msnbc.com.

As Wisconsin’s primary next Tuesday approaches, most of the action has taken place on the Democratic side (Mike Huckabee, trailing far behind John McCain in the polls, barnstormed the state for three days, hoping to fire up his base of conservatives and evangelicals). Barack Obama has been working the state nearly non-stop since Tuesday and Hillary Clinton arrives Saturday, planning to stump the state until primary day.

The intensity of the Democratic battle has shown up on Wisconsinites’ TV screens. Clinton, widely perceived as having lost momentum to Obama, has been itching to debate him and threw up an ad this week in which an announcer sneers that Obama would “prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions.”

Oh, yeah? countered Obama’s camp, coming up with an ad that accuses Clinton of “phony charges and false attacks.”

Perhaps predictably, it didn’t take long for some anonymous wiseguy to come up with a parody of Clinton’s ad.

Stay tuned.

Sen. Barack Obama rode a wave of support in Minnesota’s college towns to his victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Minnesota’s Super Tuesday caucuses.

In Stearns and Winona counties, home to universities, Obama trounced Clinton, the Associated Press reported. The same went for urban counties that are home to the University of Minnesota and liberal arts colleges, including the Macalester College neighborhood in St. Paul.

But results were Obama-heavy all around the state.

By midnight the Illinois senator claimed 69 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 30 percent in the seven-county metro area. The central part of the state had Obama ahead 58 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent. In the northeast it was Obama at 62 percent to Clinton’s 36 percent. In the northwest it was Obama 61-37 percent. In southern Minnesota Obama was leading 62 to 36 percent.

Caucus goers said they were drawn to Obama’s message and character.

“I think his ideals fit a majority of America, and I think he’ll be a very strong leader,” Drew Glesne said at Macalester College in St. Paul. “He has great morals, great character, and I have high hopes for him.”

“What I saw tonight lifts my spirit and takes me back to when I first got turned on by politics,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minneapolis, told an Obama celebration in Minneapolis tonight.

Tonight’s turnout is likely to eclipse previous records for both parties.

DFL Chairman Brian Melendez said turnout in his party may have topped six figures, well above the 75,000-80,000 turnout of 1968 and 1972. Republican Party chairman Ron Carey said the party’s turnout would be close to the record 58,000 Republicans in 1988.

But the night’s heavy turnout helps to highlight a problem, Mayor R.T. Rybak said.

“Having this many people is a good problem, but it’s still a problem,” he said. “It’s unfair to say that in this one-and-a-half hour period everybody should go, even if you’re working or are a student.”

He suggested having a primary election or caucusing on a weekend.

–Staff and Associated Press reports

Thousands of Minnesota caucus goers, many of them first-timers, endured long lines to get into caucus sites to cast their presidential preference votes. And that was after many of them faced frustrating delays simply finding a place to park.

William Jackson and Jackie Breher spent most of their evening sitting in traffic trying to get into his Democratic caucus in Inver Grove Heights. He voted for Barack Obama, but by the time the retired couple from Mendota Heights made it across town to the Republican caucus here, it was too late for Breher to vote for her candidate, Mitt Romney.

“I think it was a disaster,” Breher said. “We left the house at 6 tonight.”

“We both become independents,” Jackson joked.

The DFL and Republican parties both said they would extend the time allowed for voting beyond the 8 p.m. cutoff so anyone in line could vote, and that was true for Breher. After she pleaded her case to caucus convener Larry Sachi, he accepted her ballot.

Sachi said turnout at Friendly Hills Middle School was twice as heavy as in previous caucus years.

Officials in both parties said records would or could fall. DFL Chairman Brian Melendez said turnout in his party may have topped six figures, well above the 75,000-80,000 turnout of 1968 and 1972.

“We’re not just going to break the prior record, we’re going to smash the prior record,” Melendez said.

Republican Party chairman Ron Carey said the party’s turnout would be close to the record 58,000 Republicans in 1988.

“It bodes well for our ability to wage an effective ground war against the Democrats” in the fall, Carey said.

–Associated Press

At the Barack Obama victory party in downtown Minneapolis tonight, Rep. Keith Ellison passed the microphone from precinct captain to precinct captain so that each could read their precinct totals.

In each case Obama crushed Sen. Hillary Clinton.

When TV news broadcasts declared the victor in Minnesota the crowd began cheering: “Yes we can!” And later: “Si se puede.”

–Jenna Ross

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minneapolis, was at the Barack Obama celebration in downtown Minneapolis tonight.

Ellison said he went to caucuses in Hopkins, St. Louis Park and north Minneapolis, where he saw “an explosion of democracy.”

He said he asked people in each room if they were caucusing for the first time. And in each case half the people in the room raised their hand.”If we can take this energy and harness it, we can address global warming, we can live in harmony with the planet, we can end the military policy in Iraq and we can make the economy more fair. What I saw tonight lifts my spirit and takes me back to when I first got turned on by politics.”
–Jenna Ross

Mayor R.T. Rybak said he attended several precinct caucuses in Minneapolis. At the last caucus in one of the precincts, only 40 people attended; tonight 360 attended, he said.

“This feels like the Iowa caucuses where they planned for a dinner party and got a kegger.”

About 280 of that precinct’s caucus goers went for Barack Obama, he said.

“Obama is bringing a lot of moderates to the Democratic party,” said Rybak, who is involved with the Obama campaign. Rybak said tonight’s high turnout should trigger a call to rethink the caucus system.

“Having this many people is a good problem, but it’s still a problem,” Rybak said. “It’s unfair to say that in this one-and-a-half hour period everybody should go, even if you’re working or are a student.”

He suggested having a primary election or caucusing on a weekend.
–Jenna Ross

For what it’s worth: at DFL precinct 10 in Duluth, where most of the caucus participants are college students, 266 votes went to Obama and 47 to Clinton. Former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Mike Gravel each got 1 vote.

Here’s a point that might have been missed amid all the Super Tuesday hoopla in Minnesota: The presidential race wasn’t the only draw for caucusgoers.

The caucuses were also the first test of strength among Democratic candidates vying for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination. Al Franken, Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer hoped their supporters would turn out and take the first step toward being delegates to the late-spring state party convention.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, seeking re-election for the first time, is a shoo-in for the Republican nomination.

–Associated Press