Category: The Dish

When you’re ahead, don’t stomp on the guy in second place. We’ve seen a few hints of the old Clinton mojo lately. We have the spiking of Josh Green’s piece on Hillary for GQ. We have the flash of the old, angry Bill with Anderson. And we now have Bill’s attempt to instruct Obama to wait his turn. But Gail Collins captured it best this morning, I think. She reported something I hadn’t heard, but it sums up the Clintons’ classic boomer narcissism and self-righteousness:

Earlier this year at a campaign rally, Bill Clinton said that when he was at Yale, he told Hillary: "I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you’re the best."

Gag me, dude. Everyone under 40 these days is voting for Obama.

"I know the smell of editorial cowardice," – Mickey Kaus.

Kassel, Germany, 7.23 am.

The inimitable Reihan Salam – a one-man brine tank of knowledge – is blogging for Ross while yet another Atlantic blogger goes and gets married. Check out his post on Brian De Palma.

One aspect of the vile junta in Burma that has not been covered enough is the campaign of ethnic cleansing and harassment of the ethnic minorities who live near the borders of Burma. The Karen people mainly in the East of Burma are persecuted brutally, murdered, hounded and hunted, day and night. Here’s a helpful YouTube outlining some of the horrors.

The pandering continues. Beliefnet just interviewed the senator:

Beliefnet: A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?

McCain: I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn’t say, “I only welcome Christians.” We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.

The Constitution established America as a Christian nation?

A black eye for the McCain campaign:

Seven on-duty Army personnel participated in a campaign event for Senator John McCain earlier this month in Londonderry, N.H., in an apparent violation of a Pentagon directive against partisan political activity, two military officials confirmed this week.

The Sept. 14 rally at an American Legion hall was part of McCain’s "No Surrender" tour of early-primary states, a martial pageant designed to draw attention to the Arizona Republican’s continued support for the war in Iraq …

A Department of Defense directive signed in August 2004 by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz prohibits on-duty members of the armed forces from "speak[ing] before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause." …

A Pentagon official did not dispute that the 2004 directive would apply in this instance.

The transgendered are excluded.

A reader recommends "Beyond Rangoon," a John Boorman movie about the original 1962 coup failed 1988 uprising in Burma.

And two perspectives. The first:

I have been a "Good Republican" all of my voting life.  The party no longer means anything to me.  It was about keeping the governments hands out of my pocket and out of my life.  Hopefully maintaining some sort of moral authority.. More and more I find myself, thinking of myself as a Libertarian, with a bit of a social concience.

I was once asked if I would ever vote for a Democrat.  My response was "only if I had a gun pointed at my head". This time I might pull the trigger for Obama, not necessarily for his potential policies, but rather that at least he appears to be a man of principle. It’s kind of sad that is the only reason to vote for someone. It used to be for someone who reflected my own beliefs and principles as closely as I could ascertain. Now I just want someone of character, any character at all.

The second:

You ask: Who Else Does This? Ah, the vaunted youth vote… The much-touted vote that somehow never materializes.

This is the political equivalent of a rock concert or a really fun "happening." There isn’t a shred of evidence that any of this is translating into significant support for Barack, at least in the polls.

The people who will decide the Democratic primary were not at Washington Square Park yesterday evening because (a) they do not live in NYC; (b) are well beyond college age and well beyond attending "happenings"; (c) are home with their kids; (d) are holding down two jobs with little time left over for a feel-good speech in a crowded park.

Right now,  (a) – (d) are firmly and unequivocally in Hillary’s camp.

Until there is some significant movement in Barack’s poll #s — and he has been static ALL YEAR — it is hard to see this as anything but ephemeral.

Crowley sees hope sinking. I think it’s too early to know.