Morning Links: Free Sarah Palin!

Looks like David Kernell dodged his first bullet when he wasn't indicted by a federal grand jury over accusations that he accessed Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. But he's not in the clear yet.

And neither is Palin, if CNN's Campbell Brown has anything to do about it. Brown called McCain out last night for Palin's insulation from reporters. Brown tells McCain's campaign to free Palin from the "chauvinistic chains you're binding her with." I saw Brown's manifesto while at dinner, and even with the TV muted I could tell she was hacked off.

Also:

The daily poll roundup has Obama ahead nationally, but the battleground states are still predictably close.

Joe Biden maybe kinda sorta mixes up Depression-era presidents.

Hey look, another "new Ole Miss" story! I won't say I told you so ... but I told you so.

(Photo credit: Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press)

Morning Links: Chris Rock fact-checks Clinton

Barack Obama did win the Democratic nomination, as Chris Rock reminds us.

President Clinton showed up on Letterman last night and talked at length about the economy and the race, seeming curiously bipartisan and mentioning his wife more than a few times. Unfortunately, CBS decided to put up the most uninteresting part of the show, but it was perfect Clinton: reassuring the people, even saying that he thought now is "a great time to be president" ... in the midst of war and a failing economy.

Then Chris Rock came out and reminded Clinton -- who had already left the stage -- that his wife actually lost the Democratic primary, "and is it me, or he didn't want to say the name Barack Obama?" And he was more or less right. Watch below!



"She lost to a black guy nobody knew. She didn't lose to The Power," Rock said. And Letterman looked kinda uncomfortable and pleased with himself at the same time.

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In the ongoing Palin e-mail saga, it appears David Kernell really didn't know what he was getting himself into when he accessed the Republican vice presidential candidate's personal e-mail. His lawyer describes Kernell as a "decent and intelligent young man," and his father, state Rep. Mike Kernell, is described as a straight-laced politician.

He "is your quintessential Boy Scout," said state Rep. John DeBerry, another Democrat. "If Mike had known anything about this, he would have had a fit on his son."

Something tells me that by now, he has had a fit and then some.

Also:

Unsurprisingly, Obama's candidacy has heightened election interest among African-Americans, and has reminded us all about racism.

The NYTimes compares McCain's "scrappy" debate style with Obama's "tendency to overintellectualize."

(Photo credit: Phil Sandlin/Associated Press)

Kids today! Tenn. Rep. says son is Palin e-mail hacker

From colleague Theo Emery:

State Rep. Mike Kernell confirmed Thursday that his son, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, is at the center of heated Internet discussion into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, confirmed that it is his 20-year-old son, David, who is being widely named on Internet blogs and chatrooms in connection with an unfolding story about Palin's hacked e-mail accounts.

Read the full story here.

Earlier: When e-mail becomes we-mail