If you want to feel moderately depressed and stay that way for the next two or three days, check out Moviefone’s Best Movie Bets of 2008 list. 33 films are listed, but with the exception of Drillbit Taylor, The Pineapple Express, Wanted, Leatherheads, Hellboy II, Bond 22, The Dark Knight, Uncle Festus and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and possibly He’s Just Not That Into You, the odds seem reasonable that 24 will be punishers.

Mike Huckabee playing bass on Leno last night; talking about weight loss, the yanking of the Romney attack ad, etc.

And Hillary Clinton‘s visit to Late night with David Letterman. Dancing WGA picket girls, “Oh, well…all good things come to an end,” Letterman’s Old Man and the Sea beard (“I know what you’re thinkin’…Dave looks like a cattle-drive cook…two months and I’m finally out of rehab”), etc. Superb bad-credit advertisement at the end.

A friend of a friend of a guy who knows somebody who overheard somebody talking in the Pacific Palisades Gelson’s the other night says the following about JJ Abrams‘ Cloverfield: (1) Forget the metaphorical Hollywood Elsewhere don’t-show-the-monster angle. The monster will definitely be seen, I’m told, at roughly the 25-minute mark. (2) The origin of the film “has nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 or a terrorist metaphor.” (Of course not!) The origin of Cloverfield, I’m told, was Abrams being in a toy store with his son and looking at all the Godzilla toys and thought to himself, ‘Hmmm…why can’t I do one of these…?’ A little brainstorming and voila, Cloverfield was born. (I actually made the Gelson’s part up. This actually comes from a homie of one of the Cloverfield higher-ups.)

Obama’s final Iowa spot. Now is the time, Judah. Today is the day.