hillary clinton

I got a kick out of NYT Columnist, Gail Collins’, put down of McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin in her Op-Ed this morning, Baked Alaska. If old McCain thinks this selection will immediately scoop up a bunch of disenchanted Hillary supporters, he may be in for a surprise. Of course, the MSM will be sure to find such people and interview them, thus making sure the world gets the impression there are tons of these disgruntled people hanging around just waiting for their chance to vote McCain. The MSM’s still in love with the so-called maverick and will quickly (already have) label Palin as yet another lovable maverick. But Collins has some good arguments for why women in general might not be flocking to this new Republican ticket, and her closing line, referring to that famous put-down of Dan Quayle by Lloyd Benson, is a zinger:

Joe Biden may already be practicing his drop-dead line for the vice-presidential debate: “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine, and governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton.”

Here’s a 2-minute highlight from Barack Obama’s great speech last night. How about at best a 10% chance on change from John McCain? Possible, but unlikely and that’s bending over way backwards!

Eight years is ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH!!
Oh, and incidentally,
Gallup Daily: Obama Moves Ahead, 48% to 42% before the speech!
Here are the awesome sentences recapturing his 2004 theme:
“The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.”
No way. No how. No McCain. — Hillary Clinton

Down here in front of my computer I watched the entire debate last night at the U. of Texas between Hillary and Barack. Cynthia didn’t want to watch it on TV upstairs because she wouldn’t be able to stand it, she said. She’s strongly for Clinton. So she stayed upstairs and read.

I’m liking Obama more and more, not only because I think he has a better chance of beating McCain, but because he’s proving himself presidential more and more, like he did in the debate last night. Hillary did well in the debate, too, and her closing remarks were nothing short of magnificent. I’m not one of those who subscribes to Hillary’s public persona as rigid and fake. I’ve read that in private she’s likable and outgoing, and I believe she probably is.

But of course, she’s a politician, just like Obama. Politicians have to be actors on the public stage. And they get interpreted and stereotyped by the media and the talking heads. That’s why I turned the debate right off at the end rather than listen to the talking heads discuss it, but I did scan their opinions this morning.

Most say it was a draw and I agree. The negatives were the bit about plagiarism, which, with Obama, I agree is just silly, and the bit about the Obama speeches being Xerox copies, which is also ridiculous. The rest of the debate, the large majority of it in fact, was very civil and stuck to discussion of issues.

On the health care issues, although I see the point many make about mandates, Obama may be right in that mandates are not all they’re cracked up to be (witness Massachusetts) plus getting them through congress will be daunting even if a Democratic majority gets elected. Obama’s approach, being more flexible, might actually get something passed in the way of significant health care reform.

So, to conclude, I thought they were both great, that the debate was civil for the most part, and that it was probably a draw. Actually, Hillary may pick up a few points because of her Eureka moment at the end. We’ll see.

Here’s a wonderful article by Robin Morgan taking apart the hypocrisy of many in the MSM in regard to Hillary Clinton and women in general.

Stanley Fish, professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, has another excellent Think Again column with the title All You Need Is Hate in the New York Times Opinion section today. Here’s his opening paragraph:

I have been thinking about writing this column for some time, but I have hesitated because of a fear that it would advance the agenda that is its target. That is the agenda of Hillary Clinton-hating.

He then references an article by Jason Horowitz in the January issue of GQ, The Hillary Haters, which finds that the hostile characterizations of Clinton do not add up to a coherent account of her hatefulness:

She is vilified for being a feminist and for not being one, for being an extreme leftist and for being a “warmongering hawk,” for being godless and for being “frighteningly fundamentalist,” for being the victim of her husband’s peccadilloes and for enabling them.

As he points out, this is not to say that there are no rational, well-considered reasons for opposing Clinton’s candidacy. But these attacks by the hardcore crazies are just beyond the pale. And yet, a lot of this gets into the mainstream media (MSM). Check out the article. It gave me pause about the state of our culture and what’s tolerated.

A friend of Josh Marshall points out that another good moment for Hillary in the Saturday night pre-NH debate came when the moderator asked her about her likability, or lack of it. Josh suggests it was her best moment and Obama’s worst.

I agree it was a good moment for her. Obama’s “You’re likable enough.” response may have been just a tad condescending? Although maybe not?

Amazing how you have to have it all to win an election in this day and age of intrusive media.