The Dish

TNR takes on the Clintons over Michigan and Florida.

An American patriot refuses to be a party to the Bush-Cheney administration’s war on the English language. Money quote:

Pulling out my fingernails or even cutting off a finger would have been preferable. At least if someone had attacked my hands, I would have had to simply tolerate pain. But drowning is another matter.

My take on the person who has been at the center of this election season, even if he has scarcely been mentioned:

McCain’s brave criticism of Donald Rumsfeld and the occupation nonstrategy in 2004 led to the surge; and the surge’s surprising tactical success in bringing a raging civil war down to 2005 levels of murderousness has enabled him to gain just enough credibility to run a national security campaign against the Democrats.

And so he manages both to rebuke Bush while rescuing his most troubled legacy. I’m sceptical he can do it if he gets elected. But his is the only position on the war that both pleases the Republican base and retains even a semblance of credibility among the public at large. For good measure, he opposes the torture policy that many conservatives privately feel ashamed about.

Bush is the reason, in other words, that this unlikely maverick has become the Republican nominee. And Bush is also the reason, I would argue, that Hillary Clinton’s meticulously planned coronation as the next Democratic nominee came unstuck.

It came unstuck because the depth of the Democrats’ disgust with Bush required more than just partisan revenge. And in the glare of the campaign, the Clintons began to represent for many Democrats the kind of politics that Bush himself had mastered.

(Photo: Jim Watson/Getty.)

A positive review of the Gold Standard.

Reporterist is a new website trying to reinvent the submission process for journalists. Here’s their blog and here’s an interview with the founders:

Our larger vision is that it’s the next generation wire service, like an AP or a Reuters. The public wants high quality, relevant news. As the industry’s cutting back, a lot of regions are under-covered. Most of the editors we spoke to say they’re relying too much on AP or Reuters content. At Reporterist, they will be able to look at all these stories and sort them by region or topic. Our vision is to be a wire service for local, topical news.

Somali-born former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali poses as she meets journalists during a visit in Paris to seek European protection and possible French citizenship on February 10, 2008. ‘In terms of security, my personal situation has become more and more dangerous,’ said Hirsi Ali, who has been living under tight police protection since the murder of her associate, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, in 2004. By Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty.

Another reader writes:

I’m an American living in Niger (insert gratuitous yellowcake joke here). These days I’m constantly finding myself in discussions with friends and colleagues about the US presidential primaries. Some of these conversations have gone in a similar direction as reported by your reader.

The overwhelming majority, however, involve some form of me trying to disabuse them of the notion that "Americans will never elect a black president". This argument comes in several varieties, ranging from the smug dismissals offered by most of my European colleagues to genuine incredulity among my Nigerien friends that an African (his father’s from Kenya, to them that makes him African) could compete against a field of white candidates. Andrew, you don’t know how badly I want Obama to prove them all wrong.

There are many Dish readers across the world. The rest of us would be interested in your takes on similar conversations. Different? The same? What should Americans know about what foreigners are saying about this election? Let me know your actual experiences and I’ll post.

Hillary Clinton’s closest confidante. She’s been there for a very long time. Ambers has an inside look at the machinations that forced Patty Solis Doyle’s resignation:

Solis Doyle, whose serve to Clinton began in 1992, had survived three separate coup attempts, the latest one being shortly after Iowa, when Clinton considered asking Williams to assume the title of "campaign coordinator." Twice, advisers to Bill Clinton have tried to oust her — one in January, before the campaign officially began, and once in April, after Barack Obama raised more money than the vaunted Clinton machine.

They just didn’t see what was about to hit them. They still don’t. Ambers seems relatively bullish about the Clinton campaign. But then Maine took him by surprise too. They sure shouldn’t be under-estimated, but when a monarch’s coronation turns into a popular revolution, it’s really hard to put the crown back on straight.

Because of experiences like this one (and my email in-tray is now full of them):

I drove for two hours yesterday to Bangor with my sister and daughter to see Barack speak in Maine. I figured it would be interesting to see a candidate speak, when Maine is typically forgotten. We made the mistake of getting there about an hour before the doors opened to the Bangor Auditorium, as the population of the city had increased by a third for his speech. We waited in the longest line I had ever seen in my life for almost two hours. We met some wonderful people, many younger and surprisingly many quite a bit older. After all of that waiting, we were only a few hundred feet from the auditorium when we were told that the main room had filled to capacity as well as the overflow room. Just when we were ready to turn back, we were told that Barack would speak to us outside, and would do so FIRST. So imagine a scene like the stump speeches only read about in books, people jostling on snowbanks, climbing fences, trees, even each other in the calm cold that was Maine yesterday to hear and see Barack, for only a few minutes. And did he deliver.

There was excitement, there was hope, and there were specifics. Talk of new ways to use our old industrial centers, dead and forgotten by the establishment. Talk of help with college tuition. Talk of thinking about our children and grandchildren first. He then spent time talking to and shaking hands with the crowd before going in.

I could not believe this was happening. No crowd control, no checking of bags, Barack in a potentially dangerous setting with no way for Secret Service to cover him. And he did it without hesitation. Anyone who will do this in a state with a population likely to vote for Hillary, a tiny, white, poor, lost in the back woods near Canada population, and for those foolish enough to show up "late", is someone who clearly gives a damn. He was comfortable with a chaotic situation, worked it to his advantage on the fly, and did it with grace and aplomb. Hillary speaks of worries about Barack being a likable guy, same as George Bush. She’s right, and also dead wrong. Likable they both can be, yes. But George Bush is the man who drinks you under the table, then drives you all home and thusly off a cliff. Barack is the guy you follow into battle, ready to do what needs to be done to save a country in danger. This life-long Independent is ready to sign on to the Democratic party, participate in today’s caucus, and follow this leader all the way to November and beyond. I exhort everyone else here to consider the same.

A simple question I’ve been asking for a while now. Who else does this?

A classic passage from the WaPo:

Earlier, the Hillary Clinton "visibility rally" outside the Siegal Center [in Richmond, VA] got off to a bad start. A rental truck carrying the campaign signs struck a BMW driven by an Obama supporter, causing considerable damage.

"This just makes us even stronger Obama supporters," said Rich Garries of Hampton Roads, as he looked at his car.

Did it have to be a beemer?