Jan 30^th

NYT

 Maureen Dowd: Seeing Red Over Hillary 

Barack, despite getting a recent boost is still “distressed” by Hillary Clinton. Obama’s supposed snub of Hillary is already famous. The moment overshadowed the speech. Hillary wore a defiant red suit, and therefore should have been easy for Obama to spot.

Obama denies intentionally snubbing Clinton, but he is obviously lying. Hillary brushed Obama off at the last SOTU. He’s tried to treat her nicely only to be burned repeatedly. Obama has had enough, and the nasty, dirty, South Carolina race was his breaking point. He took long enough to push back, and his reluctance to do so makes him look naïve. Barack has obviously been hurt by the rejection.

Hillary thought Barack had been rude, and lapsed into “dissed woman mode.”

NOW is angry at Ted Kennedy for endorsing Barack. Obama is more feminine (“emotionally delicate”), evidenced in part by his refusal to support a bad war.

“Alpha Hillary” made health care with her personality alone. She wanted to be tough, so she was hawkish. Obama should have been shaken Hillary’s hand, and must toughen up.

Can we go one week without Maureen Dowd projecting emotions onto politicians? Dowd sometimes embodies a sexist stereotype (frivolous school girl), and often uses one of the world’s most important forums for childish gossip. NOW should be furious at her, not Ted Kennedy. She delivers another feminized babe versus the ice queen narrative.

On Monday, we saw many Op Ed references to Clintonian SC primary deviousness. Dowd provides another. The idea that Hillary’s bitchy secretiveness killed healthcare is a little much. Dowd deigns not to focus on this literally life or death issue. Instead she uses the memory of the healthcare battle to bolster her assumptions regarding Hillary’s manly meanness. Likewise, with the reference to the Iraq War.  Obama’s refusal to support a horrible foreign policy decision is used to reinforce Dowd’s opinions on Barack’s womanliness. 

While soldiers and middle-class Americans die needlessly, Dowd is content to draw all the right conclusions. She says, “Gee, aren’t these set pieces in my imaginary presidential candidate soap opera?” Let them eat gossip, I guess.  

Jan 29, 2008 

 NYT

David Brooks

The Clintons tried to “ghettoize” Obama. The old Ted Kennedy boosted Obama’s youth brigade. To the youngsters, the Clinton’s represent something old and selfish. They crave the activism and togetherness of that bygone JFK era (Were the early sixties all that active? Am I missing something here?). Teddy represents such selflessness and service, so he is the proper vessel for that message.

 There is some gibberish in here about how September 11^th planted a yearning for public service among the youth. I’m wondering what evidence David has to support this assertion. I guess at some point Brooks realized he’d shot his cred to shit with the Iraq war predictions, and went about making sweeping, baseless, claims about societal shifts.

 Bob Herbert

Our infrastructure is crumbling. With the exception of Chris Dodd and Chuck Hagel (who introduced a bipartisan bill on the matter), this issue is getting ignored. We should learn the lessons of Katrina and the Minny bridge collapse.

 And that lesson Herbert doesn’t teach is that the free market will fix everything. I’m still waiting for that invisible hand to rebuild the crumblage. If you’re a creationist, you might be holding out for literal interpretation of that. Oh, and Mr. Herbert must have missed a memo. Talking about important stuff? This isn’t the BBC, son. Round hurr, we design fatuous narratives based on the most superficial of details. If ya have to, come up with some sort of crafty analogy uses the important crap while distracting us from it. Example: Like our country’s infrastructure, the Clinton campaign is rotting from within. We must tear down the imposing Clintastructure if we are ever to move forward. This can only happen if the Clintons stop being so damned crafty and conniving. 

Washington Post

George Will

Edwards received the support of white voters who recoiled from the nastiness of the Clintons. He mentions that Democrats ignored Clintonian mendacities due to his savior status (no mention on what mendacities were ignored). He says Carolinians recoiled from Clinton because they dishonesty portrayed Obama as one who embraced Republican rhetoric. Will refers to this as “Garden variety dishonesty.”

Will points out that McCain said comparably bad things about Romney. George shockingly asserts that McCain is the Republican version of Clinton. Romney is engaging in real debate about the economy, McCain is ducking him. GFW ends by claiming that Obama is fighting two Clintons (though Hillary is diminished by her overbearing spouse), and Romney is fighting one.

Wow, I guess GFW hasn’t forgiven John McCain for that 2001 tax cut vote. I thought the party had settled on McCain when Kristol wrote that recent slobber piece. Guess not. I’d come up with a creaky Will baseball analogy to explain all this but…Its like how Barry Bonds violated the Bay’s trust, but they gotta still embrace him because he’s the only player of any sort of fame or stature. 

Richard Cohen

Another Billary swipe. Cohen asserts that they made Obamman the black candidate “he never wanted to be.” Obama did well in a Southern state, but he shouldn’t exclude whitey. In New Hampshire, Obama screwed up by not turning off the eruption of racial feeling. Obama got less of the white vote in SC than he did in Iowa. If the Clintons use race to beat Obama, then it would a horrible irony.

Hmm, but somehow it is perfectly okay to criticize Obama for not toning done the blackitude when the situation calls for it. I can picture Rich Cohen right now, playing pick up with Obama. Barack dunks the ball and Cohen nods approvingly.  After the game, Barack shouts to a passing senator McCaskill, “Hey, wassup girl! How did you get all that amendment in that bill?”.  Cohen sternly wags his finger and sighs heavily. 

Ah, the soft bigotry of pundit condescension!

Eugene Robinson

Another swipe at how the Clinton’s have become a “they”. Clinton made that Jesse Jackson comment to devalue future Obama victories in the South. It pains Eugene that the campaign has become about both Clintons. It should really be about Hillary. The country has outpaced the kind of campaign the Clintons are running.

More Billary swipes. More universal condemnation of that horrid Clinton nastiness.

 E.J. Dionne Jr.

Another Billary condemnation piece. Hillary was on her way to victory. Bill Clinton screwed it up. Clinton loyalists turned on Bill when he mysteriously got involved in his wife’s campaign. People are excited about Bamman, and bored with the Clintons. Teddy K could get Latinos to like Obama perhaps. Dems worry that Hillary can’t escape the horror that is Bill Clinton.

 Um, how many Latinos in this country have any kind of connection to Ted Kennedy? Maybe I missed his Senate runs in my hometown of San Diego.

 So, in conclusion, Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton. Hey, here’s an idea: How about we talk about actual POLICY. These attacks on Bill’s meddling remind me of those old 90’s swipes at Hillary’s policy nosiness. Of course, if Bill weren’t out offending their delicate sensibilities, pundits would be fixating on the cold and dikey facets of Hillary’s personality. Did anything happen in politics yesterday? A FISA cloture vote, perhaps?