Category: The Dish

Fred Barnes outlines the Billary "buddy system" dynamic here. Here’s Obama’s attempt to respond while trying not to become the politician he doesn’t want to be:

Larison gets mean. Dreher piles on. I can’t imagine a post-campaign Romney taking on a big issue like global warming and changing the global dialogue. Gore is a blowhard and a little plastic. But he has convictions.

Pete Abel makes a good deal of sense to me:

1. McCain raises the ire of the contemporary Republican establishment because he rejects their meaner instincts. As I’ve written before, McCain decries torture while the Establishment excuses it. He fights pork-barrel spending while they enable it. He calls for policies to combat global warming while they deny it. He seeks reasonable compromises on immigration policy while they stoke fear and prejudice.

2. McCain represents for Republicans what Obama represents for Democrats: a meaningful step away from the last 15-plus years. I’m not saying either man will revolutionize partisan politics as we know it, but both promise (at a minimum) evolutionary progress toward a different America. And if we truly believe country is more important than party, then we owe it to ourselves to boost the two candidates who (among all their peers) represent the best hope for moving us in a post-partisan direction, regardless of our individual party loyalties.

Will this be Huckabee’s legacy in this campaign?

The Atlanta mayor takes on Bill Clinton.

Readers may have noticed that I have found myself slipping. I no longer refer to Clinton’s candidacy. I refer to the Clintons’ candidacy. This was always the case, of course. They have been professionally joined at the hip for their entire careers. Their marriage, among other things, is a power-move – for them both. But I never expected Bill to show his hand this crudely and this unpleasantly so soon. I’ll bet he didn’t either. But that’s how close Obama has come.

At least now we know what this race is about: Obama versus the Clintons. Both of them. Their dynasty. Their power. Their methods. Their character. And so the question becomes: does America really want a Restoration? And if Hillary is this beholden to Bill in the campaign, what will his role be in the White House? I’ve long hoped he’d be given a clear job, accountable to the president and the public. But that isn’t their style. When you re-elect royal families, you get their family dynamics as well. What we’re seeing now is a small glimpse of what we would be dealing with for at least four years.

They can still be stopped.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty.)

I’m going home. Bainbridge pulls a Cartman on the GOP race. Joyner demurs.

I’m with McWhorter. Yeah: the Clintons are back to Inevitable again. But that could be a good thing for Obama. In this fast-changing race, there’s plenty of time for another plot development. Especially when we all see where this is looking to end, and so few people actually enthusiastically, in their hearts, want that.

Some readers open their eyes:

Just a very short note from an ex-Clintonite  to say that I finally get what you’ve been trying to tell us about the Clintons.  I see what they’ve been doing to undermine the Obama campaign. It reeks of Rove and the worst kind of machine politics. I can’t face the prospect of another four (or eight) years of what Bill Clinton insists on referring to as "we". That "we" lets me know all I need to know.

Another:

I am a registered Latino Democrat and have been reading your blog for years.  I have never really understood your animosity towards the Clintons and dismissed it as part of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that is out there…to some degree.  After watching what is taking place with our former president and reading some of the accounts of what occurred in Nevada, I understand.  It is unfortunate that in a drive for power and power ( there is no other word for it) these people whom I used to think were the leaders of the modern democratic movement, have been exposed for what they really are.  The anger that I felt yesterday is palpable and real.  I really want Barrack to win, as I believe that he can take this country where it needs to go.  However, I am finding myself not being able to vote for Hillary in the General if she wins the nomination this way.  I would actually vote for McCain (oh, my God) or Bloomberg.

There does not seem to be any shame in the Clinton camp.  At any level.

There is nothing that they would not say or do to get the nomination.  That to me reminds me of Willard "Mitt" Romney and his ability to try and be everything to everybody.  But  I am struck by how betrayed(?) I feel and how let down I feel by some of the people that I thought could do no wrong.  How could I not have seen it more clearly before?  As far as the former president, I am ashamed of his behavior and if I had a chance to tell him, I would do so.  He has turned himself from a respected elder statesman to a rabid attack dog no better than any of the Rove minions willing to do or say anything to have the ends justify the means.  It is a very dark day for me and I know that I am not the only democrat/progressive that is out there that feels this way.

Not totally fair comparison but here’s a video of Obama in the pulpit yesterday and Clinton last year.