Today marks one week until VOTR Day, and there’s a lot going on.

Former Presidential candidate Chris Dodd–who garnered a lot of progressive goodwill by standing up during the FISA debate–has endorsed Barack Obama:

[W]hile both of our Party’s remaining candidates are extremely talented and would make excellent commanders-in-chief, I am throwing my support to the candidate who I believe will open the most eyes to our shared Democratic vision.

I’m deeply proud to be the first 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to endorse Barack Obama. He is ready to be President. And I am ready to support him - to work with him and for him and help elect him our 44th President.

Put simply, I believe Barack Obama is uniquely qualified to help us face this housing crisis, create good jobs, strengthen America’s families in this 21st century global economy, unite the world against terrorism and end the war in Iraq - and perhaps most importantly, call the American people to shared service and sacrifice. In this campaign, he has drawn millions of voters into politics for the first time in their lives and shown us that we are united by so much more than that which divides us.

That is why I believe the time has come for Democrats to come together as a Party and focus on winning the general election. The stakes are too high not to.

Like John Kerry’s endorsement, Dodd’s brings a lot to the table–namely, a list of donors and their contact information.

Yesterday, a number of polls showed Obama leading in Texas; today, SurveyUSA continues that trend:

Barack Obama: 49 (45)
Hillary Clinton: 45 (50)

Pollster shows Obama leading in Texas for the first time; while Clinton still leads in Ohio, her margin of victory has been cut to 9%–down from 10% yesterday and nearly 12% over the weekend.

In response, Clinton is launching what is becoming known as her ‘kitchen sink’ offensive–basically, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Sen. Obama. Apparently, she’s taking the advice of adviser Mark Penn and going as negative as possible against Obama.

Frankly, I don’t think it’ll work. First, polls show Obama with the support of most Democrats nationwide. He has high favorability ratings, even among people who aren’t his Obama supporters. All of this makes it harder for negative attacks to stick, and more likely that they’ll backfire.

Second, by going negative Clinton plays into the hands of her critics–she makes herself appear desperate, calculating, and willing to say anything to win, all traits that turn voters off. What’s most damning is that her campaign hasn’t learned from their mistakes–they’ve gone negative before and it cost them dearly, but that doesn’t stop them from going negative again. New Hampshire should have taught Clinton that she can overcome a deficit in the polls by being personable, by acting down to Earth and showing off her softer, more sympathetic side. Why stick with a strategy that has already failed?

I think this is going to be the last hurrah for Hillary Clinton. Their throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks offensive is probably going to backlash–badly–and they’re probably going to lose on VOTR Day. Out of every option the Clinton camp had , they picked the worst one–one that will to sour the voters even more to Sen. Clinton. It’s a shame, and the frustration in her campaign is palpable.

On the Republican side, John McCain has gotten caught up in a catch-22 with the FEC. He wants to opt out of the public financing system, even though he’s benefited from it–he got $5.8 million, ballot access, and a personal loan to his campaign (he used public financing as collateral).

Unfortunately for him, McCain can’t tell the FEC he’s withdrawing–he has to ask, and the FEC has to approve. Right now, the FEC can’t do anything because–ironically–the Roadblock Republicans are holding up the confirmation process for more FEC members, denying them a quorum.

And while he McCain waits in limbo, his campaign is approaching a crisis–the public financing system limits his campaign expenditures to $54 million until his party’s convention this summer. The FEC shows that his campaign has $53 million putting McCain in a precarious position. Either he suspend his campaign until the convention/until the FEC makes a decision–neither of which would happen for several months–or he knowingly violates the legal spending limit, which could land his campaign in court even if the FEC eventually releases him from public financing.

In addition to his FEC problem, McCain also has a corruption problem. Rep. Rick Renzi was one of McCain’s Arizona co-chairs, and he just got slapped with a 35-count indictment. And even though Renzi–smartly–won’t run for re-election, he also won’t resign his seat until January, 2009:

Contrary to the desires of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) released a statement late Monday vowing not to resign his House seat. “I will not resign and take on the cloak of guilt because I am innocent,” Renzi said. He was indicted last week on 35 counts of extortion, money laundering and conspiracy relating to his efforts to get the federal government to buy land from his business partner.

Having a corrupt McCain ally stay in Congress and fight corruption charges doesn’t bode well for the GOP or the McCain campaign.

Finally, this video shows George W. Bush hitting McCain over his ties to lobbyists back in 2000–and when George Bush thinks you’re too corrupt to be President, that’s saying a lot.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton has this to say about Ohio:

“I’ve just been in Ohio — looks like she’s going to win Ohio,” he predicted. “She’s winning there. It looks good.”

Let’s not put the cart before the horse, here. A week ago, the polls in OH were showing Clinton with a double-digit lead over Obama. Now, they show her leading by only 6% or so; at the rate Obama is building momentum, there’s a good chance he’ll end up close to–if not ahead of–Hillary by March 4th.

And in response to Clinton’s flagging poll numbers, her campaign has come up with a new strategy–blaming the media.

I agree that the media hasn’t always been exactly fair to Hillary Clinton, but this is just a cop out. The Clinton campaign has lots of problems–poor messaging, overreliance on advisers, fundraising issues, lack of message discipline, no post-Super Tuesday plan, infighting, etc. All of these have been exacerbated by the media’s poor treatment of her, but they weren’t been caused by it–in fact, months ago Hillary was dominating the polls despite the media’s issues with her.

Even if the media played a large role in making Clinton unpopular, so what? This isn’t an argument that’s going to win votes–if the media hates Clinton now, then they’re going to keep hating her well into the general election, making it even harder for her to get elected.

Finally tonight, DNC Chair Howard Dean predicts that the nominee will most likely be chosen before the Democratic convention in Denver:

“It could,” Dean responded, “because I think you’re already seeing movement among the superdelegates, the unpledged delegates and there will be more pledged delegates assigned as we go through this next round of primaries.”

Dean ended with this prediction: “I think the odds are much better than 50-50 that the nominee will be decided before we ever get to Denver.”