Category: The Dish

Gian Gentile worries. Peter Mansoor dissents. The trouble is: it’s extremely hard to know exactly what the sequence of events was in the many sided Rubik’s cube of Iraq. But the two posts help flesh out the contours of the debate.

Does that help explain the Clintons’ shenanigans? Suzanne Garner:

This Clinton move should be familiar to any Democratic leaders who’ve been around awhile.  It’s the classic Clinton triangulation — and it’s a preview of what we’ll get if she is our President.  Her back is against the wall, so she takes a hard right and starts parroting a Republican viewpoint that goes against the Democratic platform (i.e., “tough” foreign policy) to try to drum up a little panic, and in the next breath talks about putting Obama on her ticket. She uses Republican talking points to smack the “liberal” wing of the Democratic party, polarizes the party into fierce factions, and then offers up the “compromise” — her on top of the ticket. 

And super-delegates feel like they might not like it, but it’s the best way to prevent the civil war that Clinton herself fomented.

That last sentence sums up most of their politics in the 1990s. Bush uses and foments polarization to dominate. The Clintons use and foment it to triangulate.

The glass house shatters a little:

In a May 2005 interview with the black weekly newspaper the New York Amsterdam News, the former president said that he supported the efforts of Louis Farrakhan and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to organize a Million More March in the nation’s capital that fall…

"Jesse [Jackson], and Mr. [Louis] Farrakhan and Rev. [Al] Sharpton probably have internal domestic political differences," Clinton is quoted as saying, "but they’ve agreed on this, and I think it’s a good thing." …

Post-White House Clinton found no fault with Farrakhan’s leadership. There was no mention of Farrakhan’s "malice and division" during the interview.

Really, Churchill was an appeaser, by comparison:

A vote for Obama is a vote against O’Reillyism.

"A few weeks ago, I started to feel sorry for her. Oh Christ, let her win already…Who cares…It’s not worth it. There’s not that much difference between them. She can have it. Anything to avoid watching her descend into madness. So I switched. I started rooting for her. It wasn’t that hard. Compromise comes easy to me. I was on board.

   And then I saw the ad.

I watched, transfixed, as she took the 3 a.m. call…and I was afraid…very afraid. Suddenly, I realized the last thing this country needs is that woman anywhere near a phone. I don’t care if it’s 3 a.m. or 10 p.m. or any other time. I don’t want her talking to Putin, I don’t want her talking to Kim Jong Il, I don’t want her talking to my nephew. She needs a long rest. She needs to put on a sarong and some sun block and get away from things for a while, a nice beach somewhere — somewhere far away, where there are…no phones," – Larry David, HuffPuff. His audio is great.

Auschwitz survivor Mr. Leon Greenman, prison number 98288, shows his prison number tattooed on his arm December 9, 2004 at the Jewish Museum in London, England. Mr. Greenman O.B.E age 93 and a British citizen, spent three years of his life in six different concentration camps during World War II and since 1946 he has tirelessly recounted his life through his personal exhibition at the museum where he conducts educational events to all age groups. Greenman died today at the age of 97. By Ian Waldie/Getty.

Was Samantha Power half-right?

A reader writes:

Even though I am an Obama supporter, I have always resented your remarks about Hillary and thought you were being unfair.  You were right, the woman is evil! 

The question is: does McCain share it?

Be careful when interpreting results:

Again, the 59-41 numbers you are seeing after 7 counties have reported are NOT the relevant numbers.  The relevant numbers are the number of delegates each county sends to the state convention. Right now Obama has 62.8% of the delegates apportioned to the state convention – not 59%… this is an important distinction that most seem to be missing…

The current vote tally is 58 percent to 41 percent with 91 percent of precincts reporting. and the voting is more like most primaries than most caucuses:

Instead of the traditional caucus format, most of Wyoming’s 23 counties held caucuses conducted by paper ballots, where participants simply placed a check mark next to the name of their chosen presidential candidate and put the slip into a ballot box.

Money quote:

“Wyomingites are pretty independent,” Mrs. Dunn said. “We like somebody who speaks like him.”

The West has its share of Obamacans.

(Photo: Obama in Wyoming by Emmanuel Dunand/Getty.)