The Dish

A trial balloon floats.

"Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’" – Gloria Steinem.

A lovely anecdote from Ross where an old but energetic aristocrat becomes

a flash of plummeting white flesh in the darkness.

A reader writes:

How awesome is it that the three main characters advocating for Clinton in the Jack Nicholson ad (The Joker (Batman), Jack Torrance (The Shining) and Col. Jessep (A Few Good Men) are all psychopaths?

Actually, misogynist psychoaths. Add her husband to that list.

A reader writes:

The conventional wisdom is that Rhode Island will be a clean sweep for Hillary. I tended to agree until yesterday.

My girlfriend and I took a spin down to Rhode Island College yesterday for the Barack Obama rally. Unfortunately, we were unable to get into the main rally inside the gymnasium (capacity: 5000), and were relegated to the overflow crowd. The overflow crowd also numbered around 5000, and we waited in the cold and rain for over 3 hours to see Obama. He spoke to us first, and gave a very abbreviated version of  his stump speech.

10,000 people came to his rally. In comparison, Hillary Clinton drew 2000 (This is the same venue where she invoked "celestial choirs" in order to mock Obama’s inspirational message). There are very few times that I have seen this many Rhode Islanders show up for something (the annual airshow and Waterfire being the only other events that come to mind). The crowd was very diverse, while in line I spoke to or observed a whole bunch of vastly different people: Black, White, Hispanic, Pakistani. Working class, Middle class and Upper class. Single, Married and parents toting children – young and old. I noted people sporting sweatshirts and jackets from Brown university, R.I. college and the local community college. Catholic (mostly) and protestant. Freemasons, Hippies, Punks, Yuppies, Soccer Moms and Anti-war activists. I even ran into some Ron Paul supporters, anti-illegal immigration activists and 911 truthers.

I noted many comments about how poorly Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been run.

The latest:

I stopped at the intersection of Lovers Lane and Greenville this afternoon, and immediately noticed people standing on each corner (and on a couple of the medians) holding Hillary Clinton signs. Another thing immediately apparent, especially because of the race and gender issues in this presidential election, was that each person holding a sign was black.

I rolled down the window to ask one of the men what group the sign-holders belonged to, and he told me Southern Fried Marketing. I asked if they supported Hillary Clinton for president, and he replied: "Paid for."

A reader points out that Harpers must have missed a line in scanning it. The final sentence has now been fixed – and makes more sense. Of course, it says something that when you don’t understand a piece of Buckley’s writing, you assume it was written opaquely in the first place.

The Clintons look as if they’ll win. Maybe if Obama had another week:

Obama tells African-American audiences to be better parents. You mean government can’t solve our problems? Money quote:

I spend my minute with Lois Roy, asking her what specifically she would like to see Barack Obama, if he is elected President, do for African-Americans.

‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘What needs doing, we got to do it ourselves. He just needs to be himself. Be a role model.’

To cite Reagan: We are the change.

Ambers unpacks his delegate math showing how very very difficult it will now be for the Clintons to claw back to victory.