Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died today at the age of 53 after a second fight with cancer:

Snow, who had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurrence of the disease, left his White House job September 14, 2007, and joined CNN in April as a conservative commentator. […]

In 2007, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten had told senior White House staffers that unless they could commit to staying until Bush leaves office in January 2009, they should leave by Labor Day 2007, so Snow resigned.

In parting comments to reporters at his final White House news conference, Snow said, “I feel great.”

He also called the job “the most fun I’ve ever had.”

Snow said he was leaving the White House position to make more money for his family. His White House salary was $168,000, and he said he had taken out a loan so he could take the job. Snow said he was leaving because the loan money ran out.

As conservative a guy as anyone I’ve ever seen, Snow had a genuineness to him that shown through, even as he repeated the Bush Administration version of the world at press conferences and even as he reported for Fox News Channel.

Its a quality rare in the political world.

Snow always seemed to bring a sense of humor to even the most serious things and he seemed to be liked by most people, regardless of their political persuasion.

I remember watching his press conferences and being entertained by his oratory prowess. While I knew not to believe what he was parroting from the White House, I couldn’t help but appreciate the give-and-take process with the press corp and I couldn’t help but notice his commitment to doing his job to the best of his ability.

Plus, he generally came across as a happy and likeable guy.

Tony Snow was really a lesson in loving what you do. And doing it with a smile. And if you suddenly don’t love it, doing something else that you will love doing.

He was a breath of fresh air in the ordinarily bland and musty political landscape and he will be missed.

Brave New Films just released a new ad in their The Real McCain series, focused on John McCain’s ties to Big Oil:

How a presidential candidate won’t require Big Oil companies to pursue alternative energy plans is beyond me.

You’d think that with the national gas average at $4.07 now, highest than its ever been before, the signal would go out to presidential candidates that something needs to be done. (And I don’t just mean temporarily closing the Strategic Oil Reserve, President Bush!)

The United States needs long-term goals, including alternative energy plans, to be able to combat our energy crisis.

MoveOn.org released this ad (complete with retro TV theme song music!) comparing John McCain with President Bush:

There point is obvious — that many of Sen. McCain’s policies closely follow those of the Bush Administration. MoveOn accomplished that with a little bit of humor.

Too bad the video wasn’t put together better. Showing video of McCain and Bush acting silly and including only one clip of each of them saying the same thing can easily be picked apart by Republicans. There were many other instances of both of them speaking from the same mouth that could have been included.

Maybe the ad isn’t so much an argument for their similarities as it is a way to get people to check out the Bush-McCain Challenge, a quiz where you try to tell the difference between the two Republican politicians.

Barack Obama narrowed Hillary Clinton’s superdelegate lead, which was previously 200-something, to just 1, virtually locking him into the Democratic nomination. Too bad no one’s told Hillary yet:

Obama closed to within one superdelegate of Clinton, picking up the support of four party leaders after a flurry of new endorsements over the past two days. Clinton, meanwhile, picked up the votes of two superdelegates but lost one to Obama.

That brings Clinton’s superdelegate total to 273 and Obama’s to 272. At the beginning of the year, Clinton led the superdelegate race by more than 100. […]

Obama holds a commanding lead in the number of pledged delegates awarded from primaries and caucuses: 1,592 to Clinton’s 1,424.

Its been an interesting nomination process that has been drawn out way too long. But enough is enough. Its time to take on McCain and take back the White House.

Saturday Night Live had it right in their opening sketch featuring Amy Pohler as Hillary Clinton. Clinton is holding on when no other candidate would have. She’s a sore loser and her time is over. Drop out, Hillary, drop out!

Maybe you heard Sen. John McCain laughing and singing “Bomb Iran” as a cover of a Beach Boys song several months ago.

Or maybe you heard his “maybe 100 years” quote on the campaign trail in reference to a question about staying in Iraq open-endedly.

Well, either way, you haven’t seen this — let’s call it a musical tribute by McCain — brought to you by Brave New Films:

Now that’s a hit! Can’t wait for him to lose in November… Does he really think he can win by campaigning on extending the Iraq War? Geez.

Barack Obama overtook Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead with three more wins (now eight in a row) and John McCain got his momentum back after winning the Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland primaries:

Obama’s wins in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia primaries propelled him past Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for delegates. […]

Obama had led in pledged delegates, but Clinton had held the lead when superdelegates were factored in.

The Illinois senator has now won eight consecutive contests.

Despite regaining the delegate lead, the race on the Democratic side is far from over and may actually come down to a decision by the close to 800 superdelegates at the convention in August.

In the Republican primaries, John McCain rebounded after three losses last week to win against Mike Huckabee:

Huckabee continued to reemphasize his vow to stay in the race until a candidate reaches the required number of delegates to become the nominee.

This article was originally posted at ElectionSquad.com.