A test for Obama
In a conference call just now, the Clinton campaign called on Barack Obama to fire Samantha Power for calling Hillary a “monster.”
There are advisers and then there are advisers. Power is Barack Obama’s Condi Rice.
A Harvard Law grad, former foreign correspondent, and Pulitzer Prize winning author, Power left her Harvard faculty gig to go work on Obama’s Senate staff for a year. It might be a little condescending to say she schooled him on foreign policy, but that’s close to accurate. In the constellation of Obama advisers, the 37-year-old Irish-born Power has as high a profile and as close a relationship to the candidate as anyone.
All of which is to say that her intemperate comments have put her and Obama in a bind — and the Clinton campaign knows it.
This is a good test for Obama. I think he should tell the Clinton campaign to suck it and keep Power on his staff. Because if he does fire her, St. McCain and his barbecue courtiers will see it as a sign of weakness and will call on him to fire and denounce every single bloody person who makes an intemperate remark.
If Obama caves and fires Power, I don’t want him running against the GOP in the general election. I’m not a big Hillary fan by any stretch of the imagination, but if she’s shown us one thing it’s that she knows how to fight. If Obama’s got some fight in him too, now would be a good time to show it.
UPDATE: Well, she’s stepped down. Terrific. If Obama wins the nomination, we’re going to be stuck with another candidate who can’t stand up to the damn wingnut attack machine. As Atrios likes to remind us:
Not that anyone listens to me, but if the person who becomes the nominee fails to win the general election then he/she will become a reviled figure in Democratic politics.
And not to be overly pessimistic here, but St. BBQ is going to be tough to beat.
I need a drink.
If Samantha thinks Hillary is a monster what does she think of the Clenis?
This after Hillary HERSELF compared herself favorably to McMaverick and someone (was it her?) compared him to Ken Starr.
She sounds like a desperate monster to me — a party-wrecking one, at that.
I don’t want him running against the GOP either, because John McCain is an honorable and just American, who deserves nothing but our respect and all of our votes. If you don’t vote for John McCain, you’re a corporate crony and you hate America.
Oh look. A bunch of giant sacks with dollar signs on them. Just put ’em over there, boys.
I completely agree. However an apology from Power would be appropriate. Apart from that he should definitely invite her to do a tongue-stand on his perineum.
Perinuem…taint that the cutest little thing…
O_o
Not only should Obama NOT fire anyone or apologize, but he needs to take it up a notch. NEVER fucking fire anyone when the other side whins. Never apologize when the other side whines. When will they fucking get it?
Hillary knows this, and this makes her viable against the wingnut noise machine. I know Obama is trying to go for the “new politics” thing, but part of the “new politics” in my mind, is stepping up and telling your opponent to sit-and-spin every now and again. It would be “new politics” for Dems to stand up like they have a pair.
*snif* I prefer “choda”.
I think Samantha should just twitch her nose and make every word out of both Barak and Hillary’s mouths be a criticism of J. Sydney McCain, III.
That would be awesome.
Yuppers. I’m sick of Democrats caving to bullies and if Obama isn’t going to fight, f*ck him.
Shit. She’s already resigned.
Obama would probably get the most bang out of his buck by forgetting about Clinton and Obama and concentrate on the press. Feed ’em, give them free booze, joke and laugh and wink at them. Remember their names, make them feel warm and gooey and important inside.
Barbeques, bitchez!
Clinton and McCain, grrr.
Shit. She’s already resigned.
That’s actually okay. I think Jonah should be unemployed for calling liberals fascists. Hillary Clinton isn’t actually a monster, just an unfortunate choice.
Yep, read it here.
Barbeques, bitchez!
It’s almost Easter: chocolate eggs!
The direct quote is: “She is a monster, too -– that is off the record -– she is stooping to anything.”
How did this get printed in the interview if she said it off the record?
And she’s already apologized for it this morning (I hope she only apologiuzed for the “monster” part and not the “stooping” part, cuz that shit’s true). The Obama campaign needs to start hitting back harder–but not with name-calling.
The facts are on his side, but when have facts alone ever won an election?
I have a post about this on my blog: http://swimmingfreestyle.typepad.com/swimming_freestyle/2008/03/suck-it-up-hill.html
An excerpt:
Jeez, Senator Clinton, this is starting to look like pro wrestling here. Lots of drama, hammy acting and over exaggerated responses to what all observing can plainly see are pulled punches and minor blows.
Suck it up Senator. Is this what you think is “tough enough” to be President of the United States? What are you going to do if you’re elected, call for the firing of anyone who calls you a bad name?
She resigned. Lame. I’m kind of with Brad on this one, but I see what the Obama camp is thinking: live by the sword, die by the sword. They’re thinking, we’ve gonna take the high road– can’t break character this late in the game.
I don’t agree with it, but they’re not “caving” so much as making a political decision. Part of politics involves avoiding saying stupid shit, and Powers failed at that part of the game. Now the Clintons can’t play up this “monster” comment any more and it’s snuffed on Friday morning instead of playing throughout the weekend news cycle.
Booooo! Just yesterday, Clinton’s campaign accused Obama’s campaign of employing ‘Ken Starr’ tactics. In that contact, calling Clinton a monster is almost okay, if a little personal. Powers could have simply said that the Clinton campaign is suffering from PTSD, and the evidence is its calling present-day opponents by the names of former enemies. “He’s Ken Starr! She’s Newt Gingrich! OMG, Limbaugh! Flowers!!1! Drudge! Arghhhhhh!”
How hard is it not to call people names? “Hillary is a poopy-head!” “Obama is a snot nose!”
The Democratic campaign is sounding like The Corner.
Shorter left-of-center blogosphere:
It does seem that the Powers That Decide Things have decided to run Hillary vs. McCain.
Then McBush loses in the GE.
After the election Hillary goes all batshit crazy hawk, using the excuse (whenever she appears in front of critical Dem groups) that she must go overboard in aggressiveness towards Brown People because she doesn’t want to fall prey to the (lying) stereotype of “Dems being weak on security”.
Better just get some popcorn. It’s all been decided.
I’m with JK47–lame decision, but okay. Next time someone on the Clinton campaign says something this stupid about Obama, his campaign gets to say “Well, we let Powers go. What are you going to do about this?”
I don’t even think it positions Obama poorly to go up against McCain. St. Johnny is cuddling up to Bush’s positions to “unify the party”, which means all Obama has to do is compare their policies and say “Now, who wants four more years of Bush tax cuts and a Bush economy and Bush wars? Anyone? Bueller… Bueller…?”
let’s face it we don’t have anybody who won’t cave. we’re fucked.
It’s time to draft Lieberman to restore party unity.
You know, every campaign has ups and downs. This is a bit of a down for Obama and it’ll be a good test of his campaign management team to see how it’s handled. What it isn’t is the end of the world.
C’mon, folks, nut up (or, er, estrogen up for you girls) and hang tight. Obama has handled challenges pretty well in the past. See if you can prevent yourself from second guessing and then panicking over every tiny problem he hits between now and (hopefully) November.
Otherwise, you’re going to be exhausted.
But she is a monster, through and through. Shouldn’t she take pride in it, just as she encouraged Obama to take pride in his roots?
Next time someone on the Clinton campaign says something this stupid about Obama, his campaign gets to say “Well, we let Powers go. What are you going to do about this?”
And the Clinton campaign responds: “Nothing. Not our fault y’all don’t know how to play chicken.”
Condi Rice knows how to keep her mouth shut and her speech judicious.
That’s the difference between her and Obama’s two Wannabe Condis, Power and Susan Rice, each of whom has put their boss in a bad situation relative to the oppostion. Power just gave grist to the mill for all of those working women and older demographic voters who resent the young whippersnappers who’ve had everything handed to them and didn’t go through Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement. They’re in Hillary’s pocket right now, thanks to Powers’ big mouth (though she spoke the truth, ’tis best left unsaid…).
Rice all but admitted that Barack is unprepared to take the 3 AM phone call, on FOX News, of all places. Howard Wolfson is dancing a jig over that one, and our people over at McCain HQ are sending the proofs over to Karl for vetting for the fall TV season.
You just don’t do that to your Principal. Period. Not when you’re trying to get him elected. If this is the quality of advice Obama is going to get, it will get to the point that he’ll have trouble beating Ehud Olmert for mayor of Gaza City.
Two words: Jesus Wept.
Ok, come on now, look around you.
No, not at the shiny objects and stale cracker jack they offer at the news shows.
I mean the world. As it exists.
McCain CAN’T win. This election is a referendum on bush/cheney, and as such will go quite convincingly to the dems, barring some major seismic shift.
Clinton is running a scorched earth “me or no other dem” campaign because she’s mathematically eliminated and the ONLY way she can win if she can convince the supers that she is electable and Obama isn’t.
Most people know that they’re gonna vote for the dem rather than more of the same anyway, so the supers don’t stand to be stampeded. Obama is not positioning simply for the general, which he stands to win handily, but to actually govern.
And won’t that be a nice change…
mikey
I think this photo of an HRC presser nicely illustrates that Hillary is, in fact, a monster.
section9 sez: Condi Rice knows how to keep her mouth shut and her speech judicious.
Condi sez: We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
Condi Rice knows how to keep her mouth shut and her speech judicious.
“I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming,” Condoleezza Rice told reporters. “I don’t know anyone who wasn’t caught off guard by Hamas’s strong showing.”
God, I hope you’re right. mikey.
But the nutsacks in this country voted for Bush. Twice. (Maybe he didn’t officially win, but the fact that he got enough votes that he could steal the rest so effortlessly is the issue here.)
I will NOT be surprised by a McCain victory. Saddedned and depressed, yes. But we Americans are a stupid people. (Hi, Pinky.) Stubborn, arrogant, delusional, obscene, vulgar and gullible.
America didn’t lose its innocence on Sept. 11, just as it didn’t lose its innocence in Vietnam, on Dec. 7, 1941, during World War I, in the Philippines, at Gettysburg, or at the Boston Massacre.
America has never been innocent. The word they are looking for in that trite phrase is “ignorance.” And we never lose that. The average American will be determinedly clutching his cherished ignorance to his chest until the nuclear bombs are falling around him; or he is eaten by skinny polar bears driven far from their natural haunts by the melting glaciers; or he is shot to bits by an angry failing student during a visit to the local college to witness the utopia that will follow the federal ban on campus gun-free zones.
“The only way to take away my ignorance is from my cold, dead hands!”
I agree with Mikey. The economy has a lot of people scared stiff, and they’re probably thinking nostalgically of fiscal sanity and little or no war.
Settle down, folks. It’s OK that she resigned. Even better that he didn’t have to fire her, and now we can talk about something else now.
Y’all need to find your way out of the old meme. Obama was never going to win by pitching dramatic hissy fits and flailing wildly in retaliation like a Republican would. He’s going to win by convincing enough people that the old way of doing things, entrenched though it be, is actually ineffective and demeaning.
It’s fargin’ hilarious that people are saying, in the very same sentence, “I’m so sick of the Democrats just lying down! We need to change!”, and “He should act like a petulant 3 year old and tell Hillary to suck it!”. Like we haven’t had enough petulant 3 year olds running things. Sorry, acting like George Bush would isn’t change, even if it’s a Democrat doing it.
The Republicans are freaking salivating over the prospect of a Democratic challenger that tries to act like a Republican. They invented this game. Literally. They know that there is no way that a Dem is going to bluster and snort and manly-man his or her way to the White House. Jeebus, people! Don’t you guys remember Kerry in his hunting finery? Dukakis riding his tank? How’d that make you feel?
I get that some of you don’t buy the message the Obama is trying to push here, but y’all at least should try to demonstrate that you are at least capable of understanding and entertaining it…
Damn right I don’t buy it! You can’t be nice to these guys. Remember Mike Dukakis?
Can you be nice to Hillary?
It might be a little condescending to say she schooled him on foreign policy, but that’s close to accurate.
I’d demand my money back…no Al Qaeda in Iraq??? LOL!
Damn right I do. Good guy, framed by the Repubs as a pathetic technocrat loser. I also remember Gore, framed by the Repubs as the worlds most boring pathological liar. And John Kerry, framed by the repubs as a yeller-livered traitorous Frenchman.
Question is, do you honestly think that they could have escaped that frame by acting “tougher” then they did? By posturing as Rambo, but with a healthcare plan?
No fackin’ way.
If you want to see the inevitable results of how that kind of stuff would play out in the current Republican framed world, all’s you have to do is wait until the Dems cave on FISA in the house.
I think that maybe what y’all are missing is that a nontrivial percentage of Democrats, including the very leadership of the party, actually honestly believe the Republican frame. It’s Stockholm syndrome. So they play along, suffering under the big meanie bullies, waiting for the glorious final reel when they finally land that punch and break Matt Dillon’s nose. Every once in a while, they put up a token fight, but their hearts really ain’t in it. They hate the bully, but they secretly want to be the bully. It’s heartbreaking, really.
Well, in this movie, the Republicans have written the script, and the scrappy little upstart never gets near Matt’s nose. He is occasionally allowed to try, but just looks weak and pathetic.
But hey, fantasize away, little troopers! Maybe you’ll connect yet!
I’m with JK47–lame decision, but okay. Next time someone on the Clinton campaign says something this stupid about Obama, his campaign gets to say “Well, we let Powers go. What are you going to do about this?”
Exactly. Next time one of her operatives steps in it, on or off the record, let’s just see what happens.
let’s just see what happens.
DISASTER FOR DEMOCRATS!!!
{BTW, sorry if this is a double-post, server seems to have eaten my first one…}
Sure I remember Dukakis. Good guy, good governer. Was framed by the Republicans as a technocrat loser.
I also remember Gore, who was framed by the Repubs as the worlds most boring pathological liar. And Kerry, framed by the Republicans as a yellow-bellied traitorous fucking Frenchman
The question is, do you really believe that they would have escaped those frames by throwing more swagger, showing more toughness, revealing their inner asshole? Rambo, but with universal health care?
No fackin’ way.
Thing is, we shouldn’t forget that a nontrivial percentage of Democratic voters, and a sizable portion of the Goddamn Democratic leadership, actually believe the Republican frame, even as they whine about it and simultaneously deplore it. Stockholm syndrome, is what it is. They loathe the bully, but they secretly want to love the bully, to be the bully. It’s kinda sad, honestly.
Maybe, they think, we can just wait it out until the final reel, the one where we land the punch and break Matt Damon’s nose. And then, he won’t pick on us anymore! Oh, won’t it be glorious?
Except, in the real Republican-framed world, their fist never gets within a foot of Matt’s face, no matter how tough or mean they act. And they keep getting their asses handed to them, and somehow end up even squandering the sympathy vote.
If you want to see how this plays out in real life, all’s you need to do is wait until the Dems in the house complete their epic capitulation on FISA. All their preliminary bluster is just gonna make them look even weaker.
The Democratic party is, alas, irretrievably besmirched. Obama represents an opportunity to blow up the whole freaking Republican frame, which offers a plausible way out of the mess. If the Stockholm-afflicted Dems could just figure out how to align with the folks who are looking for a better way, and not just a world with better policies where we get to be the assholes, then maybe it could happen.
Or maybe our little plucky hero will finally land that punch. Go, plucky hero, go!
I think you’re wrong here. Powers fucked up. She said something stupid to a journalist, for no good reason, and it wound up in print and hurt Obama. When people do a wrong or foolish thing, they have to pay. Sticking up for people who have screwed up, just because you feel you can’t back down to the Rethugs, is *not* the same thing as standing up to the evil doers on genuine principle in a matter like illegal surveillance or torture.
Let her put some air between herself and Obama, continue to advise him informally, and she can come back in the general, or in the Obama administration. But for the moment, she has to sit in the penalty box. Remember, it’s also important not to let personal loyalty and cronyism get in the way of a cold-eyed assessment of what’s best for the campaign, administration, or the country.
The question is, do you really believe that they would have escaped those frames by throwing more swagger, showing more toughness, revealing their inner asshole? Rambo, but with universal health care?
YES. As FDR said about the wealthy plutocrats who hated them, “I welcome their hatred.” The way you beat these guys is to trash them and never stop trashing them. And after that, trash them some more. Because they really don’t care if you think they’re nice. Their job is to walk all over you, laugh at you and make you look foolish. By not attacking the Bushes forcefully, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry got cut to pieces by the right-wing attack machine.
People want to vote for someone who has confidence in themselves and what they believe. No one wants to support a wimp.
Or maybe our little plucky hero will finally land that punch. Go, plucky hero, go!
It’s not about landing a punch. It’s about sledgehammering them into submission.
That’s how the Dems beat the GOP in ’06: they stopped being nice, they openly ridiculed Bush, they laughed at the GOP over the Mark Foley affair. They got delightfully mean, and it worked.
Well, yeah, they can do that. But if they do, they step right into the meme of “Obama is an inspiring bipartisan leader, and Clinton is a shrill, vindictive political insider.” He doesn’t even have to sling any mud–Clinton Rules and the prevailing narrative will do it for him.
Well, yeah, they can do that. But if they do, they step right into the meme of “Obama is an inspiring bipartisan leader, and Clinton is a shrill, vindictive political insider.”
And people respect that.
Nothing was more pathetic to me than watching John Kerry simply beg Bush to tell the Swift Boat Vets to stop attacking him. When someone tries to bully you, you hit them right back. See what Jim Webb did to George Felix Allen: he effectively used ridicule to paint the guy as a weirdo.
By the way, I think there’s a huge difference in the tactics Obama ought to employ now, in the primaries, when it’s absolutely crucial to be able to patch things up in the end and have a unified party to run against McBush, and the tactics he ought to employ in the general. Then, absolutely: no compromise, no quarter. Make McBush eat shit. But — he just can’t treat Hillary that way.
People want to vote for someone who has confidence in themselves and what they believe. No one wants to support a wimp.
That’s why Obama’s my guy.
It’s not about landing a punch. It’s about sledgehammering them into submission.
Wait til the General.
That’s how the Dems beat the GOP in ‘06: they stopped being nice, they openly ridiculed Bush, they laughed at the GOP over the Mark Foley affair. They got delightfully mean, and it worked.
That’s not what I remember. I may have the wrong picture but I recall a lot of opportunities for meanness going by the wayside and a lot of dancing around involving bipartisanship then as well.
But isn’t getting mean in the primary what we’re mad at Clinton for doing?
That’s how the Dems beat the GOP in ‘06: they stopped being nice, they openly ridiculed Bush, they laughed at the GOP over the Mark Foley affair. They got delightfully mean, and it worked.
See, that’s not how I remember it. Maybe it’s just ’cause I live in Indiana, where for the most part the only Democratic pickups were actually more conservative than the GOP-ers that they replaced. I mean, Evan Bayh is my Senator, and Dan “Freakshow” Burton is my Congressman, fer Chrissakes. In the words of Bill Simmons, I will now light myself on fire.
Anyway, I sure don’t recall ’06 as the year that the Dems finally got tough, but rather as the year that people finally started being ashamed to be called Republican. And I think that the Obama phenomena, while not resonating equally with all Democrats, nonetheless has to be seen in part as a reflection of a desire to press that advantage.
I mean, 55 mil last month alone! Most from small donors! And I have to assume that most of them approve of Obama’s comportment thus far, and don’t see him as a wimp even as he has managed to (largely) stay above the fray so far. I don’t sense that they want him to run and hide, but nor do I think that they want him to act like Dick Cheney would.
RB- No, that nonsense only came after the election. During the campaign, the Dems were gleefully trashing Bush and the GOP establishment. It was a glorious thing to behold.
Robert- yes, but he has to show me he can respond to it. Immediately doing the Clinton campaign’s bidding and firing one of his smartest advisors makes him look weak.
I’m with Joe. What Democrats benefited from was that Republicans were appalling.
Ah, I guess I’m just more cynical than you young kids (I’m 28, you know- git off my lawn!)
At any rate, my views on the typical voter are pretty much summed up by this brilliant Mark Ames piece:
http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=10369
Cynical as hell? Yes. But I think there’s a lot to it.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that he has to work within the frame he’s established, and the more I think about it, the worse flipping the bird to Clinton would look for him.
I’m still not happy with it, because I’d like to see him flip the bird to her. But I don’t think the test was whether he would fire her–the test is whether he can make it work for him a few weeks down the road.
Heh. Yes, everything’s fucked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Endorsements_for_Joe_Lieberman_in_the_2006_Connecticut_Senate_Race
The following have endorsed Joseph Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Senate Primary.
* Former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Lieberman in Waterbury on July 24
* U.S. Senator Chris Dodd
* U.S. Senator and Minority Leader Harry Reid
* CA Senator Barbara Boxer, who campaigned for Lieberman on July 24
* DE Senator Joe Biden, HA Senator Daniel Inouye, CO Senator Ken Salazar, who campaigned for Lieberman on July 31
* NY Senator Hillary Clinton
* IL Senator Barack Obama
* IN Senator Evan Bayh
* NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg
* DE Senator Tom Carper
* CA Senator Diane Feinstein
* OR Senator Mark Pryor
* OR Senator Ron Wyden
* NE Senator Ben Nelson
He needs to run an ad portraying Shrillary as Sybil, and then focus solely on McCain from then on.
McCain, McCain, McCain, 24/7, without letup. Draws a sharp distinction between Obama, who knows who the real enemy is and is willing to take the fight to him and only him, and Shrillary, the McCain endorser who’s hellbent on destroying the Democratic party to fulfill her craven ambition.
Know your enemy. Obama does. Shrillary doesn’t.
Let’s try it this way. Obama has a unique luxury. Clinton would HAVE to run against McCain. Straight up. In the same way, McCain would HAVE to run against Clinton. Obama only has to run against bush/cheney and the last eight years. Which, by an overwhelming majority, the population has rejected. He’s WINNING. He almost certainly will be the nominee. He should spend the rest of the race acting calmly, fairly, honestly, transparently and, well, presidential. One of his staff blundered badly, and had to resign. That’s the way it works. To whatever extent her advice was valuable to him, it’s still entirely available.
The only bad thing that can happen to Obama on his way to the inauguration is if the Democratic Party ratfucks him at the convention. Otherwise, don’t look petty, don’t act like a Rovian or Clintonesque “politician”, demonstrate that there’s a new way to do business in DC, and it’s smooth sailing all the way in…
mikey
Couldn’t agree more. Except I don’t think that he really was in any position to do anything else. He wasn’t issued a sledgehammer. By the time the swiftboaters were trotted out, it would have come off like Thurston Howell III going off on Lovie because Gilligan fucked up again.
Obama, I think, is different. Or maybe it’s just the times. Or maybe it’s a little of both. Or maybe I’m just deluded, and under the spell of his mesmerizing smile and dulcet tones…
Another way of looking at this – Obama, despite claims that he is really just a cult leader, is really trying very hard to frame this as a movement. A movement fueled predominantly by anger is just a mob. Republicans, being populated in a large part by Authoritarians who are quite comfortable juss following zee orderz, are plenty copacetic with mobs – makes ’em feel nice and cozy.
Dems, though, I dunno. Hard to see a lasting Democratic movement fueled by anger.
Obama’s people are starting to get at Clinton on experience (Laura Bush has experience? — you won’t hear that from the campaign, but …), on openness and hypocrisy (about tax returns in particular), and on dirt as in slinging it. This is going to get very muddy, and they do not need to USE words like “monster” — they need to leave that impression so we can draw our own conclusions. That’s pretty clearly the strategy, and it makes sense.
Given that: Powers screwed up, she’s gone. Sorry, bub, necessary. Talk to you next year.
But Clinton can’t keep harping on her, the way Nixon harped on Thomas (nutcase) Eagleton, because it just brings back the monster charge … and she’s right.
I seriously doubt that.
Right there in the post – it says “I need a drink.”
Here, lemme emphasize the bit that illustrates my point:
“I need a drink.”
What the heck are you drinking, that one will do?
And where do you get it? I’m in Waltham, it can’t be that far.
By Monday this will be forgotten, and Power — who is a stunningly brilliant woman — will be back into the fold.
What I want to see is Obama wait until he takes WY and MS and start the PA election by wedding Hillary with McCain on every single point they have in common, from Iraq and Iran to Mark Penn (whose company employs one of McCain’s top aides). He can just point out how they represent the power that he is looking to overcome, which is why they’re both coming after him and why she has no problem bucking him up. It allows him to be tough, attack McCain, keep his main argument for CHANGE intact, and tars her all in one fell swoop.
And it HAS to be done.
(I’m 28, you know- git off my lawn!)
Nothing more hilarious than a snotnosed kid traipsing around pretending he’s all growed up.
Obama has shown that he can parry gracefully, and it is unthinkable that he won’t offer some pointed criticism of McCain. Of course he will.
That he isn’t willing to kneecap a fellow Democrat to prove that he has political chops is a big part of his appeal, so he’d best respond to this week’s sewage with something like
“the Clinton campaign is coming awfully close to engaging in the politics of personal destruction. In the heat of a campaign, it’s tempting to go there and show how illogical and inconsistent they’ve been, and I have a hard time believing she’s squeaky clean anyway. That’s for the press corps to balance out, if they must insist on putting the entertainment value of a political fight above the inconveniently complex policy details of our national problems. I’m not going to sink to that level. I’m not going to play dirty to prove that I can go toe to toe with McCain. McCain will get what’s coming soon enough when the American people realize how much he and George Bush have in common. In the meantime, I’m going to talk to the country about the economy…”
He has to refrain from getting into the gutter with Clinton; that’s what she wants, and it destroys the rationale for his candidacy. Powers can come back and be in his White House when the time comes.
When the GOP slugs come out to slime Obama, it will look like a desperate attempt to distract the voters from the shameful record of the Republicans over the past 6 years and it just won’t work with enough independents to claw out a victory. That is, unless Clinton can’t stop herself from legitimizing this BS. The blackface ad should disqualify her flat out. But the press are being themselves, alas.
I actually think the Clinton tactics will backfire if Obama doesn’t get sucked into it. Some superdelegates might be pressured or bought, but those with the party’s best interest at heart will not stomach her two faced bullshit until August.
Bad decision; good result. Anyone who uses the term “humanitarian intervention” without irony needs to be kept as far away as possible from potential US presidents.
Now can he sack Zbigniew Brzezinski?
I would have given her a raise. Clinton is a monster. Well when he gets elected, he can hire her back.
This recent morph to Karl Rovism by Clinton is breathtakingly dangerous. I think she is about to get slapped back hard by voters.
St. BBQ is going to be tough to beat.
A lot harder for Obama than for Hillary.
But I swear to God, it’s almost like the Democrats WANT to lose this election. The Republicans are so despised that the Dems were practically a shoe-in this year until they decided to give America a choice between its first African-American President and its first female President. Now it’s back to a toss-up.
Yes, I’m saying that the majority of Americans are so backward and unenlightened that they’d be reluctant to vote for either a woman or an African-American as their supreme leader. Anybody wanna argue the point?
Sure, I’ll argue.
To begin with, the last head-to-head polls have Obama winning nationally against McCain.
Second, none of the bland white men who have already dropped out could capture the peoples’ imagination. Do you notice that they lost against Clinton and Obama in the primaries?
Nice try, “Realist” but no, your “analysis” is on-par with Jonah’s “research” into Liberal Fascism.
I would note that the words “Hillary” and “Monster” have been all over the front of Google news today. And Obama rounds out the Friday night news cycle by doing the polite thing. I can’t imagine the Sunday shows leaving this alone just ’cause it’s two days old.
I mean, they get to say “Hillary” and “Monster.”
If I fucked up that well, I’d quit while I was ahead.
I mean, they get to say “Hillary” and “Monster.”
Hillary Clinton is not a monster, for Christ’s sake, and anyone who says so is a damned food. What insults do you reserve for Bush and McCain? How do you describe Hitler and Pol Pot? She’s a politician, better than some, worse than others. She’s run a very effective campaign despite disgustingly unfair media coverage and while she’s not my choice, Clinton would be better than what we’re had for eight frickin’ years.
Also, the interviewee doesn’t get to decide what’s off the record. That’s decided in advance by the journalist on the source. Any political advisor who doesn’t know that shouldn’t talk to the press.
Fool, not food. Unless you were eaten by a monster.
Thanks Sniper. I voted for Obama but I will vote happily for Clinton if she gets the nom. Normally it wouldn’t be much of a compliment to say, as you do, that she’s “better than what we’ve had for eight frickin’ years” … but considering what we’ve had, Hillary looks like frickin’ Eleanor Roosevelt to me.
nyone who says so is a damned food.
No, no, I LIKE this construction.
I mean, if you’re a fool, fine, tommorow the sun still comes up.
But if you’re a FOOD?
Bad Juju…
mikey
Soren Kierkegaard’s Millet
Ingredients:
1 gallon alpaca, roundly marinated
5 jars desperate millet
2 pints raisin, waifishly shredded
7 cups walrus foot
6 jars salt
1 pound butter
Pre-heat your George Foreman grill to 342 Kelvin. Startlingly grease a cookie sheet. Place the alpaca into a small skillet. Use a food processor to mix the raisin with the millet. Sprinkle resulting concoction over the alpaca. Ice – very murkily – the walrus foot, salt, and the butter. Encrust the latter combination on to the former. Bake for 136 hours. Serves 15.
Oh man, this one’s a natch for me. Almost everything I do I do VERY murkily.
Murky Icing should be no problem…
mikey
Is it weird that I find some of these recipes rather tantalizing?
The poor millet, though. I don’t know if I could eat desperate millet.
Apres mikey: McCain CAN’T win. This election is a referendum on bush/cheney, and as such will go quite convincingly to the dems, barring some major seismic shift.
Clinton is running a scorched earth “me or no other dem” campaign because she’s mathematically eliminated and the ONLY way she can win if she can convince the supers that she is electable and Obama isn’t.
Most people know that they’re gonna vote for the dem rather than more of the same anyway, so the supers don’t stand to be stampeded. Obama is not positioning simply for the general, which he stands to win handily, but to actually govern.
And won’t that be a nice change…
That’s exactly Goddamned right.
The only way we’ll lose this year is if Clinton does what Clintons always do and puts herself abover her party and her professed ideals (which she’s clearly going to) and, more importantly, she’s finagles the SDs into giving her something she couldn’t earn on her own.
I really don’t see that happening but if it does, we won’t win a national election for years because a group of people who’ve been rock solid for us for decades and another group who is lining up to become Democrats for the rest of their lives will walk away from us in anger and disgust.
And we’ll deserve every bit of it.
I just don’t see that happening.
Why can’t one come out tasty now and then?
Kevin Federline’s Willowy Hippopotamus Couscous
Ingredients:
3 sticks hippopotamus, sappily grilled
3 sticks slips of yew, staunchly braised
5 pounds tartar’s lips
3 jars mule mandible, diabolically crushed
2 pinches cilantro
1 gallon dill
Pre-heat your oven to 367 Farenheit. Pick over the ingredients factually and discard excess felt. Separate hippopotamus hoof from toe. Consume toe. Combine the slips of yew with the tartar’s lips over low heat in a pot. Pour resulting goo over the hippopotamus. Pepper – very blearily – the mule mandible, cilantro, and the dill. Smush everything together imperceptibly. Bake for 83 hours. Serves 5 brutal individuals with handsome stomachs.
Those recipes reminds me of John Barton Wolgamot
I no can speak english proparly sorry
Is it weird that I find some of these recipes rather tantalizing?
The poor millet, though. I don’t know if I could eat desperate millet.
If you eat desperate millet, you’re doing it a favor.
By the way, Tucker Carlson, that Epitome of Gravitas and Journalism Ethics, says “off the record” is something the source gets to decide. I can’t believe even a really shitty reporter would say such a thing, but there you go. Of course, I practiced journamalism in a country where the press does not have such a… hmmm… craven attitude towards the powerful. We were specifically taught that the only way a reporter should look at a politician is down.