The Dish

Some distancing.

"After 30 seconds you are yelling at it "Get to the F—–g Point!" It never does. It’s Barney the purple dinosaur’s speech at the next Bloomberg Nonpartisanship Symposium. Repeat playing would be an excellent enhanced interrogation technique," – Mickey, elaborating further on McCain’s ad, which I liked.

The merchandizing of thongs.

"I suspect the central question in Iraq now is not whether things will get better but whether the drive for a long-term, neocolonialist presence will make the situation irretrievably worse," – Joe Klein, in a very canny column on the Petraeus hearings.

Obama, Joe noticed, asked the sharpest questions, the kind I’d want a commander-in-chief to ask his generals and ambassadors.

She did speak:

There is more to this story, believe me. Amnesty does not equal absolution. Stay tuned–and do not just rely on the conflict-of-interest-addled Associated Press for the news.

Nothing since.

Nis, Serbia, 3.51pm.

An Althouse special.

Scott Horton calls it quits. Blogging is too time-consuming. I’m grateful to Scott for various pioneering efforts, but most especially on the question of torture. He has corralled and led and investigated and goaded and advised and cajoled on the question. And much of his work has been vindicated. More will be. Blogging is indeed a punishing profession – and this recent bout of ill-health on my part hasn’t been much fun. But it can make a difference. And Scott has.

Obama sits down with the Advocate, after some predictable tantrums from Clinton supporters in the gay press. Money quote:

I actually have been much more vocal on gay issues to general audiences than any other presidential candidate probably in history. What I probably haven’t done as much as the press would like is to put out as many specialized interviews. But that has more to do with our focus on general press than it does on … I promise you the African-American press says the same thing.

He’s right. On every gay issue he’s as good as, if not better than, Clinton. And he does not have her and her husband’s long record of betrayal either. This also means a lot:

An area that I’m very interested in is making sure that federal benefits are available to same-sex couples who have a civil union. I think as more states sign civil union bills into law the federal government should be helping to usher in a time when there’s full equality in terms of what that means for federal benefits.

The Clinton forces have been successful in using the McClurkin affair to sow doubt and fear of Obama among gays. And Clinton follows the classic identity politics playbook of target-niching each interest group. Obama has tried to get beyond it, which is a good thing. Raising gay issues in front of black audiences is further than any candidate has ever gone in defending gay equality in history. (Thank Jeremiah Wright’s influence). And if gay voters actually look at Obama’s record, they will be reassured.

More pertinent: look at his age. The sooner this country’s leadership shifts generations, the more equality gay and lesbian people will have.

Roughly my reaction to the plot as well:

(Hat tip: Dan Savage)