What is it about this election that has everyone talking about assassination? I don’t know about you, but I haven’t the faintest idea of what it could be. But for whatever reason, people keep on bringing it up! Good ol’ Mike Huckabee made a joke about gun-toting NRA members shooting down Barack Obama. He later apologized.

Friday, Hillary Clinton referenced the June 1968 assassination of Bobby Kennedy as a reason why she should stay in the race. “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June,” she told the editorial board of South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.” Some people thought she was suggesting that she needs to stay in the race just in case somebody gets assassinated before it’s over.

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Just hours ago (yay Internets!) Bible-thumping quitter Mike Huckabee addressed the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Kentucky, where he offered up this bon mot when a crash offstage interrupted his speech:

That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.

Ha! Get it? People want to kill Barack Obama because of his liberal gun policies. And some people want to kill him because he’s a powerful black man. Isn’t that hilarious?

THIS HAS GOTTA HURT There surely won’t be much news about this today — Clinton and Obama are the big stories — but McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, didn’t do so hot in North Carolina. What, you ask, does “not so hot” mean when the only other GOPer he’s competing against is Ron Paul? Well, a whopping 27 percent of North Carolina Republican voters chose to avoid actually voiting for McCain. In addition to the 8 percent that voted for Paul, twelve percent voted for Huckabee, who is not in the race, and four* percent chose “no preference.”

*Not sure about the remaining 3 percent.

Mike Huckabee was on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough this morning, and had some surprising (for his ilk) things to say about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama’s speech yesterday.

And one other thing I think we’ve gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say “That’s a terrible statement!”…I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told “you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus…” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

But should blacks have a chip on their shoulder when their state is still waving the Confederate flag? Maybe Mike can get back to me on that one. Huckabee also said that politicians shouldn’t be held responsible for everything people around them say and that pastors (he’s one, remember) often get carried away during sermons and say things they don’t necessarily mean. He obviously has a political motive to make those two statements, especially if John McCain is looking to him to fill that V.P. spot. I don’t, however, see a political reason for him to talk about cutting black people some slack, something I don’t ever recall a Repub saying. Must be that Christian understanding.

It doesn’t extend to gays, in case you were wondering.

They said she had to do it to stay in the race, and Hillary Clinton, after winning Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island last night, did it. So she’s staying in. And Democrats should prepare for this battle to go all the way to the convention, which is an extremely tiring prospect for me. You? I didn’t even stay up to watch the returns last night — a definite sign that my enthusiasm for the constant grind of the election is waning. Plus, now that Mike Huckabee has finally dropped out of the race and John McCain is basically the nominee, he will begin campaigning for president, while Hill and Barry are still grappling for the nomination. Not a good look, analysts say.

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• Tyra Banks goes hard (in a Tyra Banks Show way) on Mike Huckabee for his opinions about gays. [MG]

• Oops. Someone with the same government name as Kool Herc is suing Jay-Z for slave reparations. Glad we got that cleared up. [AHH]

• Barack Obama is Chris Dodd’s man. [HP]

• Unless I’m trying to stay up all night, I try to avoid coffee after 5:30 pm, anyway. Close away, Starbucks! [CNN]

• A California congresswoman has proposed the “Donda West Law,” which would require patients to get medical clearance before undergoing plastic surgery. [PE]

A quick look at the candidates on a few key issues — for those of you who don’t live in a Super Tuesday state or for those of you who do, but won’t decide who gets your vote until you’re waiting in line at the polls.

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Mike Huckabee on South Carolina’s penchant for the Confederate flag (which, incidentally, is not South Carolina’s flag):

“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” Huckabee said at a Myrtle Beach campaign event. “In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole, that’s what we’d do.”

One member of a “broad coalition of black conservatives” fighting tooth and nail to keep Mike Huckabee in the race:

“Inside-the-beltway Republicans have lost touch with the increasing
seriousness with which heartland conservatives relate to the traditional
values agenda,” states Star Parker, a nationally syndicated columnist and
conservative activist. “More and more folks are feeling personally
assaulted by the meaninglessness that is gripping our culture and believe
that Mike Huckabee is the only republican candidate that embodies the moral
clarity of the GOP ideals. The groundswell generating support for
Huckabee’s candidacy understand that moral and economic health go hand in
hand and should not be underestimated.”

• The ink on the Knicks’ check to Anucha Browne Sanders is barely dry, and two black female security guards are already suing Madison Square Garden for discrimination. [NYT]

• People don’t really want to listen to another album from DMX, particularly a gospel album. [BS]

• The NAACP in South Carolina is renewing its efforts to have the Confederate flag removed from the statehouse grounds. This seems to be a losing battle. [CO]

• BET gets in on the presidential race. [PR]

• Mike Huckabee sure knows how to pick his aides. [AP]

Damn those Hillary Clinton staffers and their unauthorized emails and statements. They might be impressively diverse, but they definitely need some media training. Hillary Clinton personally apologized to Barack Obama today for some statements Bill Shaheen, who co-chairs her campaign in N.H., made about Obama’s past drug use.

“The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight … and one of the things they’re certainly going to jump on is his drug use,” Shaheen said. “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.”

Shaheen, husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, apologized for his comments and said in a statement late Wednesday “they were not authorized by the campaign in any way.”

Obama said he did not think it was Shaheen’s intent to plant such a rumor. The candidate said he is not worried the remarks may damage his campaign “since it’s not true.”

“I don’t think the American people are concerned about what I did when I was a teenager. They’re concerned about what I’m going to do as a presidential candidate,” he said.

I, for one, will be happy when Hillary vs. Barack takes a Christmas break. Meanwhile, I’m loving what Mike Huckabee is doing over in the other race. Democrats heart Huckabee!

• Mike Huckabee for the Republican presidential nomination! I might just donate money to his primary campaign. [CNN]

• Whatever happened to stripping to pay your way through college? At least it’s legal. [CI]

• Bow Wow’s away for a few days with an appendix infection and all hell breaks loose for Omarion. [Bossip]

• I hereby decree that Paris Hilton’s name will only grace the pages of Stereohyped when she does something like rescue an Oompa Loompa. [MG]