Category: The Dish

Confirmed: She loaned herself $5 million last month. That’s a sign of a struggling campaign. And a reminder that, wherever the Clintons started out, they are now multi-millionaires.

Americans are doing less and less rambling and walking and camping in the wild:

Fishing peaked in 1981 and had declined 25 percent by 2005, the researchers found. Visits to national parks peaked in 1987 and dropped 23 percent by 2006, while hiking on the Appalachian Trial peaked in 2000 and was down 18 percent by 2005.

Blame it on Guitar Hero.
 

There are reasons for Obama to be optimistic. The next stretch could provide an opportunity for him to introduce himself to more voters. The more people see of him, the more they like him. The fact that he survived Super Tuesday – which benefits the huge brand-name of "Clinton" in a national primary – and actually won the delegate battle is impressive enough. But now, the retail politics and more and more media exposure and more and more money give him an edge. VandeHei and Allen:

Obama also runs tremendously well in states with large African-American populations, another promising sign since next Tuesday’s three primaries are in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia — all of which have significant percentages of black voters.

Then comes another caucus state, Hawaii, where Obama is viewed as a native son.

The bottom line is that it figures to be another month before Clinton hits a stretch of states — places like Ohio and Pennsylvania — where she will be strongly favored to win.

Patrick Hynes (a McCain guy):

Something very interesting is happening in America today. The story emerging from this race is that voters are thirsting for authenticity (and less political acrimony, but that’s a post for another day). But this is a story we cannot rely on the pundits to tell.

Not buying the Obama hype:

I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria. I can picture President Hillary in the White House dealing with a recalcitrant Republican faction; I can’t picture President Obama in the same role because his summons to history and call to hope seems to transcend legislative maneuvers and horse-trading; his charisma is on a more ethereal plane, and I don’t look to politics for transcendence and self-certification.

Yes, in some ways, she is the conservative option. The question is whether the challenges in front of us require something more.

Matt Yglesias is largely right about this:

One thing I can predict is that you’ll see a lot of handwringing about how this fight is dooming the Democratic Party. It’s all, as best I can tell, total nonsense. Disagreeing about which of two strong leaders should go try to implement a pretty widely agreed upon vision of national policy is a healthy thing to do.

That’s true, unless the divisions begin to fall more neatly around racial or gender lines. So far, there’s enough ambiguity around the edges for this not to balkanize. But the lop-sided victories for Obama among African-Americans and the big advantage Clinton has among white women and Latinos could reverberate in divisive ways of the campaigns don’t behave themselves.
 

Dick Polman thinks this could go on and on among the Dems, culminating in a final struggle in … Pennsylvania.

You can see the white flag popping up somewhere between the luxury cruise yacht and Tagg Romney’s pecs.

That poor woman (I’m sorry, I can’t help but pity her) generates over $100 million a year.

The ever reasonable John B. Judis blurts out the truth:

She is not his equal as a politician.