Month: January 2008

He beat Clinton for a start, which is more than they have ever managed to do. A longtime Republican reader writes:

Barack Obama has achieved respect from Republicans across the board for one reason; he is on the cusp of a towering political achievement and has done what the Bush Familiy could never do-defeat the Clintons in open combat. Here is this talented young man, fresh from the Illinois State Senate, taking on the most feared politician in the United States-Hillary Rodham Clinton. Understand that she was feared by Republicans. Obama has made it look easy, and has brought and end to the Clinton/Bush era.

He understood what Bill and Hillary had not, and what all of Karl Rove’s polling had missed – there was a deep yearning for national unity and a restoration of what we had under Eisenhower and Kennedy – a sense of decency and purpose. The Netroots, of course, never got this, so obsessed were they with the Ahab’s Whale that is George W. Bush.

You’ll notice that in the runup to the 2006 midterms so dominated by the Democrats, Obama didn’t cater to their kind of politics.

Huckabee will, in all likelihood, not be our nominee. I suspect that as time goes on, McCain will grow stronger. A JMC/Obama campaign would be good for the country, one conducted between two men who respect each other and respect the opinions of the voters. Republicans would welcome such a campaign rich in ideas and poor in rancor. The two men respect each other.

Do not sell JMC short in such a campaign. He represents an integrity and heroism that simply cannot be denied.

Ambers reports:

Romney seems liberated on the trail — like a hose unbent. He is full of energy; his television ads are excellent; his debate performance last night was stellar…

A lot of voters in Concord this morning told me they were choosing between Romney and Huckabee — and this was at a McCain event.

And while there are many vestiges of the old McCain, he is more negative, has more baggage, is still unacceptable on immigration, and was on the air late.

More to the point:

The Neilsen folks are releasing daily updates of the total number of TV spots run by candidates in this race.

Number one, everywhere, is Mitt Romney, who has aired 4010 commercials in the Boston/WMUR designated market area (this includes Manchester), 2262 in the Burlington,VA and Plattsburgh, New York markets, and 1258 ads in the Portland-Auburn market, which covers Maine and parts of Northeastern New Hampshire.

If money can win an election, Romney has it.

I think it was another low-point in Clinton’s attempt to rescue her candidacy. Belittling the work of King and elevating the work of Johnson is not the best way to appeal to crucial African-American voters. Here is one blogger’s reaction:

That’s right. It wasn’t the courage of King and local Montgomery residents standing up to legalized white supremacy in their hometown that began to change America, it was the white man. It wasn’t Rosa Parks who had enough and refused to sit in the back of the bus that got things started, it was the white man. It wasn’t John Lewis and others facing down billy clubs and tear gas in Selma, it was the white man.

It wasn’t Fannie Lou Hamer telling the racist Democrats at the 1964 convention that black people were sick and tired of being sick and tired, it was the white man. Why credit the people who gave their lives for the struggle when all credit is due to the great white father, in his ultimate, eternal benevolence, for finally deciding to recognize black people as human beings? I wonder where he got that idea?

Johnson didn’t change America. Johnson reacted to the changes in America. For that he deserves some credit, but never mistake the man in the suit for the soldiers on the street. The difference is obvious: Johnson isn’t the one whose life was ended by a sniper’s bullet.

The Anchoress feels it:

I have a feeling 2008 is going to be as surprising, dramatic and disorienting as 1968. For those who feel the world has been upside down since then – well…who the hell knows? Maybe the world is “re-orienting.”

The crowd was wild. I had fun. I should add that I totally support the Writers’ Guild of America in their attempt to get paid for crucial Internet residuals. The show didn’t use any written material, and I never do in public speaking. I was asked to go on a national TV show to talk about the election, and promote my recent Atlantic cover-story. And I hope the WGA wins their battle.

But check it out tonight. Especially Colbert’s strike beard.

A reader writes:

You know what makes me sad? The fact that Obama’s mother is not here to see this. Imagine the racial difficulties she faced, in terms of a white woman having a "black" child in the Sixties. It was nothing like today. Nothing. Imagine her pride today. Her vindication even.

Chris Crain endorses Obama. The Human Rights Campaign – who represent the cautious, corporate, poll-driven, fear-obsessed, identity-politics, NARAL wing of the gay rights movement – naturally went with Clinton. (They’ll deny it but any group under the thumb of Ellen Malcolm is a Clinton contraption.)

I agree with Kevin Drum: about the worst phrase yet to come out of the desperate Clinton campaign.

Now she’s really pissed me off. Thatcher never used her husband to climb up the greasy pole. From very modest beginnings, she got a chemistry degree and a law degree at a time when most women were home-makers. She was never the party establishment – always the insurgent. She spent her career telling people to look after themselves, not that she would take care of them with coddling government help. And she was a real feminist, the kind of woman leader who would never deploy the gender card to get her elected. Compared to Thatcher, Clinton is a political footnote.