To his Hoosier State audience, Steele recalled predicting on Fox News, just before Sen. John McCain announced his vice presidential nominee, that McCain would choose “one of two Ps: Pawlenty or Palin.” When pressed on Fox, Steele forecasted a Palin pick.

“Now I wasn’t sure,” said Steele, adding (with evident relish), “but I sure was hoping.”

Steele made his remarks to the Vanderburgh County (Ind.) Right To Life Annual Banquet last week, where both he and Palin were invited speakers.

In his own remarks (video), Steele took what may have been in part a shot at Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (a Democrat), who oversaw the statewide hand recount that resulted in a 225-vote margin of victory for Democrat Al Franken over Republican Norm Coleman:

To Todd [Rokita, a Republican], the secretary of state: Hold down the fort, bro. You know they’re coming. That’s how they’re attacking the cause, is through the secretary of state’s office, throughout the country.

As in Palin’s speech (see video here), the bulk of Steele’s comments addressed the topic around which the event host is organized, with assertions such as “Embryonic stem cell research is just plain wrong” and “We have never had a Congress and a president so hostile to the rights of the unborn.”

Here’s a video clip of Steele’s introduction of Palin on April 16, with a transcript below:

Hello. He’s baaack. (laughter) I have the — This is going to be fun for me. I have the distinct honor of introducing your next speaker. And it is a very particular pleasure because I remember sitting, like many people were, waiting and watching and wondering.

wondering who the presidential nominee would be.

And I was on Fox that evening, the night before the big announcement. And the team I was doing the internet shot asked me, “Lt. Governor, who do you think it’s going to be?” And I said, “Well, I’ve narrowed it down to two people. It’s one of two Ps: Pawlenty or Palin.” And they said, “Really? Why?” You know, because they had all these other names. And they said, “Who do you think it’s going to be?” And I said, “I think it’s going to be Palin.”

Now I wasn’t sure — but I sure was hoping. (Applause)

And the reason had become very clear for me about eight months prior, when I had the privilege of going to her state to speak at their convention and to watch her and to spend time with her. And I had the privilege before that, as part of a cruise that I was on for some political activists (see New Yorker story here), to again see Sarah and watch Sarah do her thing. And I remember thinking to myself, as I began to understand what she had accomplished and was accomplishing as the governor of Alaska, that no one wanted to mess with this woman — that she was about her business because she believed in the honor of public service and she believed in the value of commitment to the people who entrusted her with leadership.

And so on that Saturday when she was announced as the vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party, I was one proud Republican. I was one very happy Republican.

And like so many in this room, I watched this party light up. I watched activists — Democrat, Republican and independent — tune in and pay attention and listen. And I watched her take the world stage by storm.

She’s just begun to write the chapters for this country and its history book and its future. And so I’m honored to present to you the storm that is the honorable governor of the great state of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Palin’s travel to Indiana for the speech raised hackles in her home state — the same day, her attorney general nominee failed to gain confirmation, a historic first at the Alaska Legislature — which she acknowledged in her remarks:

They condemn anything that I do, but especially traveling outside the state to speak in another state at a function like this. Which is ironic, because these are the same critics who would love to see me outside the state forever, permanently, you know, outside the governor’s office anyway. But they had heartburn about me leaving.

Pawlenty’s own frequent travels raised eyebrows during the last legislative session and last summer when his pursuit of the vice presidential nomination was in high gear. Now Pawlenty’s political future still seems strong but remains uncertain in its specifics: Will he run for a third term as governor in 2010, seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, or both?

Pawlenty’s possibly dimming presidential hopes remain somewhat less publicly apparent than Palin’s, and his travel schedule — still heavy even during another contentious legislative session and a horrendous budget situation — hasn’t drawn much recent fire. (The Minnesota governor was in Los Angeles over the weekend for an education conference.)

But Pawlenty will have a chance to raise his national profile by saying something quotable (as he did last year) at the state fishing season opener on May 8.

Refreshingly, the “Parks and Recreation” Web site appears to have absolutely no information about the TV show, except for a page devoted to Poehler’s character, City of Pawnee Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Leslie Knope. So here’s a trailer for “Parks and Recreation,” which is coming soon to a city near you via network TV, whether your local government needs parody or already provides its own.

TV trivia: The fictional city of Pawnee, Ind., has an official seal that bears a slight resemblance to Minnesota’s state seal.

Lost amid the news accounts and watchdog reports: some of the lesser line items that suggest their own story lines. Here are a few, after the jump.

Among the host committee’s expenses:

$112.36 to TLF Country Florist, South Bend, Ind. The date on this item: on Feb. 14, 2008. While the RNC played Valentine’s Day mischief with Barack and Hillary, was someone’s honey made happy at RNC expense?

$20,000 to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for a “permit for media party.” Looks like there was a Republican big-tent windfall after all.

$50,000 to John Zweifel of Orlando, Fla., for “attraction exhibit expense.” Zweifel brought a 60-foot-by-20-foot scale model of the White House to the CivicFestevent in Minneapolis. Also listed: dozens of $2,500 fee refunds to exhibitors at the CivicFest flop.

Among the host committee’s smallest receipts:

$100 from well-heeled Republican donor (and two-time candidate in statewide elections in Minnesota himself) Wheelock Whitney of Maple Grove, Minn., George H. W. Bush’s chum from their prep days at Andover Academy. It’s an oddly meager donation to a $58 million convention fund for a man who’s given $50,000 to Republicans since 2002. Would he care that he covered the better part of someone’s Valentine’s flowers in South Bend, Ill.?

Editor’s note: The plates are shifting under both Democratic presidential campaigns today, making this potentially the most pivotal news cycle since very early in the race. So we’ve opened this item to filter some of the more interesting and consequential stories breaking today. We’ll be updating regularly through the afternoon; if you spot something notable we haven’t posted, send us an email.

Last updated 6:40 pm

Hillary is 404

Obama hits new highs and Clinton new lows in the Iowa Electronic Markets, as our sister publication the Iowa Independent and MSNBC report.

That meeting between Hillary and the superdelegates? It’s happening this afternoon, as Marc Ambinder documents in a post that errs on the side of brevity.

The Hill is reporting that Dianne Feinstein, one of the staunchest Hillary backers in the US Senate, is asking the Clinton camp to explain its thinking about staying in the race.

The DC gay paper the Washington Blade, which previously endorsed HRC, has unendorsed her.

Another superdelegate announces for Obama: Jennifer McClellan of Virginia, who previously supported Clinton.

Jeanne Cummings of Politico notes the ominous silence of Howard Wolfson regarding online fundraising by the Clinton campaign on this morning’s press call.

Donklephant has a running list of superdelegates won by Obama and Clinton since the Pennsylvania primary on 4/22.

Wonkette has spotted a sign of the times on Craigslist: an ad for free Clinton campaign materials.

The NYT’s The Caucus blog names three new Obama superdels: Jerry Meek, chair of the North Carolina Dems; Jeanette Council, also of NC; and Inola Henry of California.

The AP is reporting as of a few minutes ago that Obama has picked up four new superdelegates today–yet apart from George McGovern, they aren’t named as yet in the dispatch.

The National Review on HRC’s newest superdelegate, NC Rep. Heath Shuler.

Continued: Click “Read More”MSNBC’s First Read makes the case that last night’s results removed much of the strategic importance of how the delegate fight over Michigan and Florida is resolved.

Jackie Calmes of the Wall Street Journal writes that the race is likely to drag on for the remainder of May and get resolved by superdels (and a fight over Florida/Michigan.)

USA Today’s On Politics blog reviews the accuracy of the late polls in Indiana and NC, and says DNC math puts Obama 185 delegates from the nomination with 217 pledged delegates ahead and 270 superdels uncommitted.

Taegen Goddard, writing at CQ’s Political Insider blog, has tips for Obama on easing Clinton from the race.

Campaign call audio: Clinton’s Geoff Garin says Indiana “was obviously a close outcome, but an outcome about which we feel very, very good.” He calls it the first time Hillary ever came from behind in polls to win a primary.

Hillary has lent another $6.4 million of her own money to her campaign, Howard Wolfson disclosed today.

George McGovern is the first prominent Hillary backer to publicly urge her to drop out.

Joe Sudbay of Americablog has an unsubstantiated report that Wesley Clark phoned Clinton last night about dropping out. Clark’s spokesperson denies such a call took place.

The stampede of media away from the campaign is official.

Barack Obama in North Carolina (10:38)

Hillary Clinton in Indiana, part I (9:35)

Part II is below the jump.

Continued: Click “Read More”Hillary Clinton in Indiana, part II (8:23)

You could learn everything you needed to know about the suddenly transformed circumstances of the Clinton campaign from the face of Bill as he grimaced and fidgeted at Hillary’s side during her post-primary speech in Indianapolis last night. Cheeks flushed, eyes fixed and glazed at times as they stared wistfully into infinity, it was a mug that said the game is up. By the numbers, Hillary has had no chance to reach the convention with a delegate lead for a long time now. She only wanted a plausible pretext for staying in the race on the off chance that some catastrophe would befall Obama. And that required a continued show of momentum to underwrite her insistence that Obama is damaged goods and can only decline further from here.

Instead Obama followed his worst month of media floggings with one of his best primary showings, and this morning it seems all the air has gone out of Hillary in one great whoosh. This was a shock to the cable newsies watching it unfold, but not necessarily to the Clintons. Around 7 o’clock, Chris Matthews was asking Harold Ford whether Hillary had “the soul of a vice-president” as though it was the remotest possibility in the world. By midnight, network political consigliere Tim Russert had been authorized by an unnamed Clinton family capo to let the world know that yes, Hillary would be interested in the vice-presidency. Who besides  Russert could have believed otherwise? Hillary is not the type to stand on pride and personal animosity by sulking around the US Senate when she could be a botulin-tainted Christmas fruitcake away from the Oval Office.

Whether Obama wants to be the first president with a special Secret Service detail to protect him from his number two is the real question. The money stops now for Hillary, and in all likelihood that alone drives her from the race in the not-distant future. If she’s serious about angling for VP, you’ll see her putting away the slingshot and winding down with unity rhetoric of a sort that would have seemed unthinkable a week ago. Obama is unlikely to be moved by any public demonstration of good behavior, but he’ll have a harder time deciding if he can afford to let her out of his sight once she’s publicly vanquished. 

By CNN’s count, Obama has a 1745 – 1602 lead in delegates entering tonight’s primaries. By MinMon’s count, there are 111 shopping days left before the Denver convention.

Hillary Clinton: “What’s Happened?” (:30)

Barack Obama: “Hometown” (:30)