Even Saturday Night Live knows it's all over for Hillary Clinton: "Sore loser, racist supporters, no ethical standards -- qualities Senator Obama simply cannot match." I don't think she'll be referencing this one any time soon!
Tired of the never-ending Democratic Primary and annoyed that, in the end, your vote might not really count anyway if the Super Delegates opt to nominate the candidate not in the lead when all is said and done? As in many other aspects of life, poetry offers a much-needed alternative. Blogsboro.com is running an election for the Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere and Tony Brown, a good friend and worthy candidate, is currently leading the race by a narrow margin over someone named Rob McClennan whom, in the spirit of Presidential elections, I know nothing about and won't bother to…
…but I certainly feel like I’ve been buried alive lately!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdnljEV7MP4]Speaking, tangentially, of being careful what you wish for*, I’d totally understand if Obama was really close to just saying “screw y’all” and handing the nomination to Clinton. Hunter S. Thompson’s sentiment — paraprashing someone else, I believe — “In a democracy, people usually get the kind of government they deserve, and they deserve what they get.” has never felt truer than the past month or so. Thanks to the new job, I’ve successfully taken a break from the Democratic primary and avoided last night’s debate, but Andrew Sullivan’s on-the-fly take and IllDoctrine’s parody (above) confirmed that it was even worse than I expected it to be. Say what you want about Clinton’s “right” to continue her campaign, when your only hope is to carpet bomb your opponent and hope he doesn’t survive the assault, I’d say that’s akin to one’s First Amendment rights stopping at yelling “Fire!” in a movie theater.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y]
[from the Jed Report, via Ben Smith]
And for some background, the Washington Post‘s Mary Ann Akers dug up Sinbad, the comedian who accompanied Clinton on that harrowing peace-keeping mission to Bosnia in 1996, along with other noted crisis negotiators Sheryl Crow and a pre-teen Chelsea Clinton, for this enlightening flashback:
I really am trying to lower my political caloric intake right now — and, for the most part, have, thanks to a hectic few days of dealing with the adventures of buying a house — but the events of the past week have simply been unavoidable and difficult to let go unremarked upon. The posts I haven’t written this week would have reflected negatively on my chosen candidate, blistered your eyeballs and, in a few cases, possibly even ended casual friendships with a few Clinton supporters who are otherwise wonderful, rational people.
In a situation like this, you hope someone else will put what you’re thinking into more palatable words, and earlier this week, Keith Olbermann did exactly that. Today, it’s RJ Esko over at the Huffington Post, responding to Clinton supporters who send him hate mail “every time I criticize the Clinton campaign strategy.”
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=qXBXD2zizIY] "This is not a campaign strategy, this is a suicide pact." Amen.
I liked Eliot Spitzer, in theory, when he came roaring into Albany, taking over as our Governor from the lame George Pataki and, determined to break the stalemate between state Democrats and Republicans, promised to steamroll anyone who got in his way as he drove the unethical from the temple in one glorious sweep of righteous fury! His crash-and-burn first year was arguably predictable, but his apparent resignation today over a prostitution scandal — you have to figure there’s more to it because politicians have simply apologized for less and moved on with their careers — definitely came out of left field.
Live by the sword, die by the sword, I guess.
Interestingly, Spitzer’s seemingly aborted political career should serve as an object lesson for those who cast themselves as “fighters” in the political arena in such bi-partisan times. If you step into the ring with your dukes up, you’re guaranteed to get a fight and not much more than that. Spitzer fought hard as Governor, losing more than he won, not the least of which was the immense political capital he came into office with, some of which might have saved him today.